crime and punishment

Here Is David Berkowitz’s Unnecessary Contribution to the Gun-Control Debate

Police Headquarters, 1 Police Plaza. Police officials bring in handcuffed Son-of-Sam suspect David Berkowitz to side entrance of Police Headquarters.
Berkowitz. Photo: Al Aaronson/New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images

Today’s most disturbing gun-control debate contributor: David Berkowitz, a.k.a. Son of Sam, the serial killer who shot six people to death (and wounded seven) in New York in the late seventies. In a jail cell interview with the New York Daily News, Berkowitz — who is serving six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences — said, “Society has to take the glory out of guns.” He seemed less focused on the crimes that pushed the topic of firearms back into the news recently — the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, and at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin — and more interested in the “gangbanging teens and wanna-bes” he’s encountered during his time in prison. “My hope is just that young people would understand just how terrible this violence is. When they use a gun against someone else, they ruin their lives too,” he said. “It’s not worth it.” Neither, perhaps, is speaking to David Berkowitz about guns, but there you have it.

Son of Sam Weighs in on Gun Control