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Jittery Nerves in U.S. As Sniper Shoots 12th Victim

Toys and gym equipment are idle at this northwest D.C. Chevy Chase Recreation Center.

WASHINGTON, October 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A man was fighting for his life early Sunday, October 20, after he was shot outside a restaurant in the U.S. state of Virginia, sparking fears the elusive sniper who has been terrorizing the U.S. capital area for more than two weeks has struck again.

Police officials said it was too early to say whether the shooting in the town of Ashland, 90 miles (145 km) south of Washington, was connected to 11 previous attacks on people in the area but they did implement a plan drawn up for such a contingency.

The statement said that a 37-year-old man, who had just emerged from the Ponderosa restaurant with his wife, was shot in the abdomen at about 8:00 pm (midnight GMT) and taken to a hospital in Richmond, Virginia, where he underwent surgery.

If the Ashland shooting is linked with the sniper attacks, it would be the farthest yet from the U.S. capital.

Nine people have been confirmed killed and two wounded by the Washington area sniper.

The shootings have thrown Washington DC in a frenzy with people scared to leave their homes. According to a posting published in the BBC’s discussion forums a visitor felt that while the sniper didn’t frighten him as much when he was shooting in Maryland and the rural parts of Virginia, the last attack, which took place minutes away from his house made him feel less secure. "Although I realize that my chances of getting hit are incredibly slim, I still feel uneasy leaving the house and filling my tank," said James.

In another posting, Ivan, also from the U.S. said that the American capital suburbia is in fear. “Strip malls and gas stations are losing business. People are (finally) afraid to buy gas (I think something positive may come out of this ordeal). For decades Americans were trying to leave the inner cities and their crimes behind by moving out to the peripheries. Ironically, crime is catching up; from Littleton to Falls Church,” he said.

Others questioned the law enforcement saying that the sniper shootings showed its weakness. “Ordinary citizens cannot count on the government to protect them. The government can’t do it. It’s not possible,” said a BBC visitor.

One visitor said that the shootings highlight domestic violence. “This just goes to show the people here in the States that there is a great deal of domestic terrorism to deal with, let alone Saddam Hussein!” said Tim from Denver, Colorado.

“I’ve never, ever felt the kind of fear that I feel right now. I no longer walk my dogs, and I’m afraid to walk to my mailbox. My neighborhood’s trash pick-up wasn’t completed on Monday, because when the school shooting was announced, all the garbage trucks fled. I find myself memorizing the descriptions of every white truck I see, in case a shot is fired from it. This is a terrible, terrible way to live,” said Carleen from Maryland.

An American living in France, Judi, wondered about why the U.S. sniper story was getting extensive coverage in the French press. “I spent four months in Sarajevo after the war ended there. I remember looking at all the buildings on Sniper Alley and wondering why we didn’t try to stop the war earlier. Those stories didn’t receive half the news coverage in the U.S. that I now see about this story in France. I am American but sometimes I can’t help but wonder why we think we are so special when it comes to tragedy,” she said.

Another visitor said that the sniper made them feel of what it was like to live in the Middle East. “Hopefully some good can come out of these attacks, and we'll at least be more compassionate to others,” said Tiffany.

“I sympathize with people of the U.S. and hope they catch this monster, but please remember that an innocent Palestinian farmer cut down in his fields by violent settlers is no less a crime,” said a visitor, Stuart Robson, from the U.K.

Eric from Washington summed up the mode of life in the city as ‘panic’. “Washington is, indeed, in panic mode. Everyone is talking about the sniper and it's starting to have a negative impact on the way people live. It’s a dreadful way to live and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” he said.

An article in the New York Times said that people understand, intellectually, that they are unlikely to be killed while loading groceries or pumping gas. Yet they are terrified just the same, said the article.

However, the Times quoted a risk analysis expert at Harvard University, George M. Gray saying that risks that rivet attention and raise anxiety levels are the unfamiliar ones.

“Five Americans died in last year’s anthrax attacks, in which letters were sent containing the deadly germ. For months, people everywhere were afraid to open their mail. When a few shark attacks were in the news two summers ago, people shunned the ocean. And when, last summer, child abduction was in the headlines, parents refused to let their children go to the playground,” he said, according to the paper.

However, roughly 925 people are fatally electrocuted at home annually, but in 2001 there was no sudden rise in the number of those unwilling to plug in the toaster, the paper added.

The paper said that because of lack of evidence, people are grasping for patterns in the sniper’s previous actions — an abstract form of risk regulation.

“Trying to connect the dots in this fashion, to make sense of the senseless, is a human instinct, psychologists said. But crime experts say the comfort such predictions provide is, in this case, false,” the paper said.

The paper also reported that despite the killings, the head of the gun lobby dismissed talk of a ballistic fingerprinting system as a “technical fantasy” and predicted that Congress would enact no new legislation in response to the killings.

Wayne LaPierre, executive director of the National Rifle Association, said in an interview that he did not expect the sniper to alter the politics of gun control, reported the Times.

“With every tragedy that involves firearms, whether it’s a post office shooting or a school shooting, you have an opportunistic attempt by gun control groups and some politicians to never miss a chance to trade on a tragedy and politicize the debate,” LaPierre said. “But they’re trying to ride the same old tired horse. There’s nothing new in what they’re proposing, and it’s not resonating.”

Even gun control advocates do not expect any legislation to be enacted in response to the sniper, and few have much hope that they will prevail on the next milestone in the gun debate, which is to strengthen the ban on assault weapons when it comes up for renewal in September 2004, said the Times.

A visitor to IslamOnline’s discussion forums said that despite the frequency of sniper attacks the latest shootings have not sparked a gun-control debate in U.S.

“That’s in part, due to the ‘ingrained’ nature of the gun culture in America. With a pro-gun president, George W. Bush, in the White House, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) president recently said the organization has never had more friendly relations with a U.S. leader.

“How difficult is to own the high-powered .223- caliber rifle, the ‘Bushmaster’ (may be rightly named after Bush-family), - It used to sell for US$1,285, but since the latest shooting it is being sold for US$995, ‘special deal’, in a Washington DC shop with a sign: ‘Happy Hunting.’,” said the visitor.

David Ropeik, director of risk communication at Harvard Center for Risk Analysis wrote an article in the Washington Post saying that fear, born of that most ancient and genetically embedded imperative - survival - is real, and at times far overpowers reason and that the sniper situation is one of those times.

But the fear, the Post said, is, in and of itself, a risk. “Frightened people seeking a sense of safety can make dangerous choices: to drive extra miles to avoid a location they think is unsafe, to buy a gun they’re not trained to use, or to reduce their physical exercise by staying indoors or close to home. In fact, just the stress of fear is dangerous.

“It raises levels of certain hormones that suppress the immune system, thus increasing our susceptibility to infectious disease. We have to fear the sniper, but we also have to fear fear itself,” said the Post.