Gun violence in Riverdale

The peace and calm that sets Riverdale apart from so many neighborhoods in our metropolis was interrupted by a gunshot last week. It left Hwang Yang dead and it will change the life of his family forever. It will, no doubt, alter the way many of us think about safety near our homes for years to come.

It’s not every day that senseless gun violence comes home to roost in Riverdale. Riverdalians rarely worry about getting shot while walking home late at night and 26-year-old Mr. Yang was probably no different. 

But a single bullet ripped through his torso, puncturing both lungs and his heart as he made his way home from work shortly after midnight Thursday. 

Those who spoke out on behalf of his South Korean family struggled to understand not only what happened to their loved one, but also how such a vicious act was ever possible. 

“How they gonna get a gun?” asked family friend Ji Park. “Why they have a gun?”

What must it be like to live in areas where shots ring out regularly, where there is no tranquility to be pierced by the sound of gunfire? And what must we do to stop it?

For starters, we need to push back against recent efforts to impose “national reciprocity” for concealed carry permits, which would allow anyone to hide a loaded gun inside of a jacket or in the pocket of a pair of jeans — even in states that don’t allow them to tote a gun because of a prior police record. 

We need to join the call for information sharing among federal agencies to keep guns away from people who should not be able to attain a permit, and we need to close the gun show loopholes that allow people to buy guns without a background check. 

But most of all, we need to recognize that better gun policies are about our community as much as any. 

Stray bullets can whiz through here, too.