On Halloween night in Orinda (about 30 minutes away from Berkeley), five people were killed and at least four others were injured in a shooting. A woman from Lafayette rented an Airbnb (with a maximum occupancy of 13 people) for a Halloween party where over 100 people attended. Michael Wang, owner of the Airbnb, thought that she had only planned to have a family reunion for a dozen people. Wang had specifically banned parties in the guidelines and he called the police after seeing masses of people through security cameras. Police were already on their way to the house because of a noise complaint when the shooting started. Three were found dead at the scene due to gunshot wounds and the fourth person was pronounced dead at the hospital. The next day, a fifth victim died suffering from gunshot wounds. As of Friday, November 1, police chief, David Cook, said that no arrests have been made but it is unlikely that the people behind the shooting stayed in the area since the house was rented by people who weren't from Orinda. Airbnb has banned Wang as an owner on Airbnb and removed his property. The shooting shocked many because they aren't extremely common in this community. The lack of gun control laws have been a controversial topic for our country for many years now, especially since there have been so many shootings recently, yet Republicans don't see a need for any gun reform laws. The large amounts of citizens who have died from shooting or experienced the fear of being in one should be pushing the government to be taking some kind of action; but it isn't, and shootings are continuing to occur in our country.
1) What aspect of gun culture do you think contributed to this? Do you think as a nation we will ever see real change?
2) What do you propose Airbnb can do to help prevent people from breaking the guidelines (maximum occupancy or having parties)?
3) Do you think it was justified for Airbnb to ban Michael Wang as an owner on Airbnb and remove his property on the site?
In response to your second question, I believe that Airbnb should impose company wide guidelines regarding renters using their service including severe punishments if those guidelines aren't followed. Such punishments can include hefty fines which would discourage users from breaking the rules. If Airbnb imposed stricter guidelines earlier, who knows if this shooting would have broken out?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe that there needs to be stricter gun regulation and controls given that the devastating consequences of these accidents are irreversible along with its potential for so much damage. With so many schootings everywhere in the US, especially in the past few years, it is obvious there needs to be change, but it is difficult in that it has already been incorporated into society and change is a slow process. With regards to Airbnb, they can have random check-ins and harsher punishments perhaps to ensure that people follow the rules.
ReplyDeleteI believe the CEO of Airbnb has already announced a new policy of banning parties in rentals. Though I do not believe this shooting was particularly the fault of Wang or Airbnb, people are usually more likely to keep their wits about them when unhampered by alcohol and other people. I think banning Wang from the site was not necessarily justified, but it had to be done to save face for the company. I think if they didn't ban him, he would take his property off the site himself. Perhaps a simple background check would have prevented the loss, but I think knowing the killer's motives is important in order to find the best course of action.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that gun control is a very prevalent topic and has been for a while within our nation. I think Airbnb should take more security measures to ensure the safety of the renters as well as to maintain regulation in the area. With at least one security guard on the premises of the event taking place, it will significantly reduce the risk for such parties to take place that may get out of hand and result in violence. In terms of question 3, I do not think it was right for Wang to have been banned from Airbnb because he did take the measures as to ask the person renting out the area what they were going to be using it for. The fault does not lay in the hands of Wang because after seeing the masses of people, he did take action and call the police which demonstrates that he fulfilled his responsibilities to the best of his capability.
ReplyDeleteWe could attribute this shooting to the lack of gun control laws in our nation, as shootings have been common,especially recently. I would like to believe that we will see real change in gun control soon, but I wonder how many more shootings have to happen for change to occur. I do not believe that the blame should be put on Airbnb or the homeowner, as the renters are the ones who broke the rules. It would be difficult to implement new policies that ensure rules are being followed without infringing on the privacy of renters. I do not think Airbnb should have punished Wang in this situation because it is not his fault that he was deceived by the renters and trusted them to follow his rules and policies. I believe that Airbnb should create new policies that ensure the safety of both renters and homeowners in the future, but sometimes situations such as these are unavoidable.
ReplyDeleteI think eventually we will see real change with gun control laws because the amount of shootings has increased a lot in the past ten years and I don’t think the public will stand to let them continue happening for another ten years. I think that once the Democrats have a majority in the Senate and the president is a Democrat, then some sort of regulations will start passing because some of the possible laws have already passed the House, so it is now up to the Senate and President to make those into laws. As for Airbnb, I don’t think there is very much they can do to make people follow their guidelines, especially because the owner was following the rules, and it was the guests who weren’t. I think banning Wang as an owner on Airbnb and removing his property was more of a publicity stunt than Airbnb actually trying to fix things because 1)he wasn’t the one who violated Airbnb’s policy and 2)banning him from being an owner will not stop more shootings from happening, so I think Airbnb’s PR sector just thought that this would be the easiest way to show they are “taking care of things”.
ReplyDeleteGun violence is something that has recently grown in the past few years and continues to do so due to the lack of gun control laws. It had been directly stated that parties were banned in the guidelines so I don’t think that Aribnb’s decision to ban Wang seeing as it wasn’t all his fault. However, it is understandable that under these extreme circumstances, in regards to the seriousness of this situation, that Airbnb does everything they are able to do in order to ensure another situation like this does not reoccur. Moreover, in a way it acts as reassurance to the public letting them know that Airbnb is taking actions to further prevent these situations. Enforcing stricter consequences can possibly help stop people from breaking the rules and guidelines, or the company can supply more security than just cameras in the house.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the last question, air bnb DIDN'T ban him. They just removed his property from the website, understandably, because he probably doesn't want more parties like this at his house. Secondly, it is difficult to tell what part of gun culture influenced this specific incident from the article because there is no stated cause of the shooting, however, the lack of gun restrictions demonstrates obvious repercussions. Rules are to protect people when they can't protect themselves and if gun owners can't control the urge to openly fire at people at a party, there needs to be laws.
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