That too many people have died?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.”
– Bob Dylan, Blowin’ in the Wind
In “High Cost of Willfully Misinterpreting the 2nd Amendment” we touched upon the price the American people have paid in lives, injuries and grief, as measured against the extraordinary profits of U.S. small arms manufacturers whose domestic sales of increasingly sophisticated weapons, including the AR-15 and AK-47 styled assault rifles, similar to the one used in the mass shooting in Newton, CT last Friday, climbed to 14 million guns in 2009 alone — greater than the total number possessed by 21 of the world’s standing armies combined.
As the nation reels in the wake of the latest horror at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, it seems a worthwhile task to take a quick look at a partial history of mass shooting events in the U.S., starting with the 1966 University of Texas massacre so that we can take stock of what our nation’s strange fascination with guns and ammo has truly wrought — with increasing frequency since the Federal Assault Weapons Ban expired in 2004…
Aug. 1, 1966 Austin, TX. Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25 year-old engineering student and former Marine, killed 13 people and an unborn child, wounded 32 others from a barricaded vantage point atop a tower inside the University of Texas. He was armed with multiple weapons. It took 90 minutes for police to break through the barrier and gun Whitman down.
Nov. 18, 1966 18-year-old Robert Benjamin Smith, sporting a bag containing 200 ft of nylon cord, a package of big plastic sandwich bags, two hunting knives and a .22 cal revolver, entered the Rose-Mar College of Beauty in Mesa, AZ. His plan was to tie up the student beauticians, place the bags over their heads and watch them suffocate. After firing a round into a mirror, he herded the women into a backroom at gunpoint, where he used the nylon cord to bind them. To his dismay, the bags were too small to get over their heads, so he shot them in the head at point blank range. He murdered four women and a three-year-old daughter of one of the women.
Dec. 30, 1974 17-year old Anthony Barbaro, an honor student at Olean HS in Olean, NY, shot and killed three people and injured another using a Remington .30-30 rifle with a telescopic sight, a 12-guage shotgun and a smoke bomb. Barbaro hung himself in his prison cell on Nov. 1, 1975. Barbaro was a member of the school’s rifle team – something to think about when you hear NRA supporters advocating the arming of school administrators.
July 12, 1976 37-year old Edward Charles Allaway, a paranoid schizophrenic custodian at Cal State Univ. Fullerton, using a semi-automatic, .22 cal rifle, killed seven people and wounded two others.
Jan. 29, 1979 16-year old Brenda Ann Spencer, opened fire from the window of her home on students at the Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, CA using a Ruger 1/22 semi-automatic .22 cal. Rifle with a telescopic sight and part of the 500 rounds of ammo her father had given her for Christmas. She killed two people, including the school principal, and wounded eight children.
Aug. 9, 1983 Former postal worker Perry Smith, using a 12-guage shotgun, murdered the postmaster and wounded two employees in the Johnston, SC post office.
Dec. 2, 1983 53-year old postal worker James Brooks killed the postmaster of the Anniston, AL post office and wounded his supervisor with a .38 cal. pistol.
July 18, 1984 James Oliver Huberty, who told his wife he hated “children, Mexicans and the United States†opened fire inside the McDonald’s Restaurant in San Ysidro, CA using a Browning P-35 Hi-Power 9mm pistol, Winchester 1200 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, and an Israeli Military Industries 9mm Carbine (Uzi) – all legally acquired. He killed 21 and injured 19 before he was shot dead by police.
March 6, 1985 12-year postal worker, Steven Brownlee, killed a supervisor and a co-worker and wounded another inside an Atlanta, GA post office, using a .22 cal. pistol
Aug. 20, 1986 Patrick Henry “Crazy Pat” Sherrill, a disgruntled US Postal Service employee, sealed off exits of the Edmond, OK Post Office, then murdered 14 co-workers, including a supervisor who had disciplined him, and wounded six using two Remington M1911 .45 cal. semi-automatic pistols and a .22 cal. Ruger semi-automatic pistol. Sherrill then committed suicide.
Following that attack, a new phrase was coined: “going postal.”
Nov. 26, 1985 14-year old Heather Smith, after breaking up with her 14-year old boyfriend, returned to school with a .22 cal. Rifle to Spanaway Jr. HS in Spanaway, WA. She fatally shot her boyfriend and also shot his friend, who later died. When later confronted by police, she shot herself in the head.
Jan 17, 1989 Bearing a grudge against Asian immigrants, Patrick Edward Purdy opened fire inside the Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, CA using a legally acquired AK-47 assault rifle and two pistols. He fired a total of 106 rounds, killing eight and wounding 30 before he took his own life.
Aug. 11, 1989 John Merlin Taylor, a 52-year old, 27-year veteran of the postal service with no disciplinary record murdered his wife and drove to his place of work, the Orange Glen post office in Escondido, CA where he shot and killed two co-workers with whom he normally drank coffee in the mornings, before shooting himself in the head.
Sept 14, 1989 Using a Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifle, two MAC-11 assault pistols, .38 revolver, and a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol, all legally acquired, Joseph T. Wesbecker , a man with a history of mental illness, killed 8 people and wounded 12 inside the Standard Gravure Corp. printing plant in Louisville, KY before taking his own life.
June 18, 1990 James Edward Pough, upset that his Pontiac Grand Am had been repossessed, murdered nine and wounded four employees and customers of the General Motors Acceptance Corp. in Jacksonville, FL using a .30 cal M-1 carbine and a .38 revolver. He then killed himself.
Oct. 10, 1991 Former postal worker James Harris, after stockpiling automatic weapons, grenades and ninja swords, killed his former supervisor with a 3-foot samurai sword in her home, shot her fiancé, and then drove to the Montville, NJ post office where he shot and killed two postal workers.
Oct. 16, 1991 35-year old George Hennard, an unemployed merchant seaman, rammed his pickup truck into the Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, TX, and then murdered 28 people and wounded 20 others using a Glock 17 and a Ruger P89. After exchanging gunfire with the police, Hennard committed suicide.
July 1, 1993 Gian Luigi Ferri, a 55-year old failed entrepreneur, entered an office building at 101 California St. in San Francisco, sporting two Intratec TEC-DC9 semi-automatic handguns and a Norinco M1911 pistol. He took the elevator to the 34th Floor office of the law firm of Pettit & Martin, where he murdered eight people and wounded six before committing suicide.
Dec 7, 1993 Colin Ferguson, a native of Jamaica, opened fire on commuters inside a Long Island Railroad Train with a legally purchased Ruger P-89 9 mm pistol in Long Island, NY. Six people were killed; 19 wounded.
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, named after President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was almost killed during an assassination attempt on the President, went into effect on February 28, 1994 and provided for background checks before the purchase of some firearms sold by dealers (but not at gun shows). The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was signed into law later in the same year, on September 13, 1994.
Nov. 22, 1994 Armed with an illegally acquired Cobray M-11 assault pistol, Bennie Lee Lawson entered the homicide “cold case†office of the Metropolitan Police HQ in Washington DC, where he shot and killed two FBI agents and a police sergeant, while wounding another FBI agent before killing himself.
March 21, 1995 Christopher Green, a 29-year old former postal worker shot and killed two co-workers and two customers, leaving a third customer with a critical head wound inside the Montclair, NJ post office.
April 28, 1995 Armed with a Grizzly .50 cal. sniper rifle, SKS 7.62 assault rifle, .32 pistol and a 9mm pistol, Albert Petrosky murdered three people, including his estranged wife and a sheriff’s deputy, and wounded one inside the Albertson’s supermarket in Lakewood, CO.
Nov. 15, 1995 Angry over poor grades, 17-year old Jamie Rouse, using a .22 cal. rifle shot and killed a teacher and a student and wounded another teacher at Richland HS in Lynnville, TN.
Feb. 2, 1996 14-year old Barry Dale Loukatis at the Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, WA, using a .30-30 rifle, a .357 cal. Pistol and a .25 cal pistol, killed his algebra teacher and two stundents; then held his classmates hostage for ten minutes before he was subdued by his gym teacher. He reportedly told classmates: “This sure beats the hell out of algebra, doesn’t it?â€
Feb. 9, 1996 41-year old, African-American Clifton McRay former city beach worker in Ft Lauderdale who had been fired two years earlier, returned to the site of his former employment and gunned down five former co-workers with a glock 9mm Glock pistol. He said he intended “to punish some of the cowardly, racist devils.â€
Feb. 8, 1997 16-year old Evan Ramsey, using a 12 gauge shotgun killed two and wounded two at the Bethel Regional HS in Bethel, AK
Oct 1, 1997 After he murdered his mother with a kitchen knife, Luke Woodhan drove to Pearl HS in Pearl, MS where he shot his ex-girlfriend and then opened fire on other students with a legally acquired .30-30 rifle. Three dead; seven wounded.
Dec 1, 1997 High school student, Michael Carneal, opened fire on students holding a morning prayer circle at Heath HS in W. Paducah, KY using a Ruger .22 pistol. Three students were killed and two wounded. Carneal also had two rifles and two shotguns, but he did not use those.
Dec. 18, 1997 After being fired by Caltrans for alleged theft, Arturo Reyes Torres, an avid gun collector, returned to the Caltrans Maintenance Yard in Orange, CA where he opened fire with a legally acquired, Chinese-made 7.62mm AK-47 assault rifle. Firing 144 rounds in just over two minutes, he shot and killed four people and wounded two before he was shot and killed by police.
March 24, 1998 Using a false fire alarm, 14-year old middle school students, Mitchell Scott Johnson and Andrew Douglas Golden killed four female students and a teacher and wounded nine students and another teacher, using two semi-automatic rifles, a bolt-action rifle and four handguns which they’d stolen from Golden’s grandfather’s house. The attack took place at the Westside Middle School in Craighead County, AR.
May 21, 1998 Kip Kinkel, who had been suspended from Thurston HS in Springfield, OR after a loaded .32 pistol in his locker, allegedly murdered his parents then drove to the school where he opened fire inside a crowded cafeteria, killing two students and wounding 25. He was armed with a Glock 9mm and both Ruger .22 rifle and pistol, which were believed to be legally purchased by his father.
July 24, 1998 Russell Weston, Jr., using his father’s legally acquired Smith & Wesson .38 revolver, shot and killed two people and wounded two more before himself being wounded by police inside the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Weston had a history of serious mental illnesss and believed he was being pursued by government agents.
April 15, 1999 Sergei Babarin shot and killed two people and injured two more inside the LDS Church Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT, using a Ruger .22 pistol. Although he had a history of depression and dementia and was on probation for a prior misdemeanor weapons charge, the Ruger was legally acquired.
April 20, 1999 High school students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Kleebold, 17, opened fire at Columbine H.S. near Littleton, CO, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others. Their weapons included the Intratec TEC-DC9, a Hi-Point 995 Carbine, shotguns, explosives and knives.
July 29, 1999 Using a Glock 17 9mm pistol and a Colt 1911A1 .45 pistol, both legally purchased, 44-year old day trader murdered thirteen people, three at home (his wife and two children) and nine inside two brokerage houses in Atlanta, GA.
Aug. 10, 1999 White supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr., fired 70 rounds with an Uzi-type submachine-gun inside the lobby of the Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, CA wounding three children, a teenage counselor and an office worker. He then carjacked a woman’s Toyota at gunpoint, dumped it behind a motel and murdered US Postal Worker Joseph Santos with a Glock 9mm handgun.
Nov. 2, 1999 Armed with a Glock Model 17 9mm postol, Byran Ayesugi, an avid gun enthusiast, entered the Xerox building in Honolulu, HA where he murdered seven people. Police later discovered a collection of 11 handguns, five rifles and two shotguns at his home.
Dec. 30, 1999 43-year old Sylvio Isquierdo Leyva, a Cuban immigrant housekeeper at the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel in Tampa, FL opened fire inside the hotel, killing four co-workers and then shot and killed a woman while trying to take her car during his escape. He had been arrested two years earlier in AL for stabbing an acquaintance. Leyva obtained the gun used in the hotel rampage at a flea market gun shop. The two firearms dealers, charged with violating federal firearms record keeping regulations were acquitted.
March 20, 2000 Robert Wayne Harris, using a 9mm pistol, shot and killed five people at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving, TX after the manager refused to rehire him.
April 28, 2000 Immigration lawyer Richard Baumhammers, using a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver, went on a two-hour, 15 mile shooting spree in Pittsburgh, PA, killing five people.
Dec. 26, 2000 Michael “Mucko” McDermott, an application support employee at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, MA shot and killed seven co-workers using an AK-47 variant, 12-guage Winchester 1300 shotgun, and a .32 cal Retolaza pistol. He was later found guilty of seven counts of first degree murder and is serving life without the possibility of parole.
June 21, 2000 Armed with a Beretta 9mm pistol and Walther .389 pistol, Stuart Alexander shot and dilled three sanitation inspectors at the Santos Linguisa sausage factory in San Leandro, CA.
Feb. 5, 2001 William D. Baker, a former employee of Navistar International Corp. in Melrose Park, IL was scheduled to serve a five-month prison sentence of stealing truck engines. Instead, he forced his way inside the plant, killing five and injuring four, before committing suicide. He was armed with an SKS 1954R rifle, 12-guage shotgun, Winchester .30 cal rifle and a .38 revolver.
March 5, 2001 Charles ‘Andy’ Wiilliams, a 15-year old high school student fired 30 rounds from an eight-shot revolver, stopping to reload three times, killing two classmates and injuring 13 others inside Santana HS in Santee, CA
Sept. 24, 2003 15-year old John Sason McLaughlin, using a .22 cal pistol murdered two fellow students at Rocori HS in Cold Springs, MN.
The rest of these took place after the moderate 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban on the sale of some semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines was allowed to expire…
March 21, 2005 16-year old Jeffrey Weise, armed with a .40 Glock 23 pistol, Ruger .22 pistol and a Remington 870 shotgun, murdered his paternal grandfather, a Sergeant with the Red Lake, MN police department, and his grandfather’s girlfriend, drove to the Red Lake HS where he shot and killed seven people on campus and wounded five others. He then committed suicide.
Jan. 30, 2006 Former postal employee Jennifer San Marco, using an S&W Model 915 semi-automatic pistol, shot and killed a neighbor and then drove to the mail processing plant in Goleta, CA where she murdered six employees before taking her own life.
March 25, 2006 28-year old Kyle Aaron Huff, armed with a Winchester 1300 Defender shotgun and a Ruger P944 .40 cal handgun, opened fire on a rave afterparty in the southest part of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where he killed six people and wounded two. He killed himself when police arrived.
Oct. 2, 2006 Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year old milk truck driver, murdered five Amish girls and injured five others before killing himself at an Amish school in Lancaster County, PA. Roberts used a Springfield XD 9mm handgun, a Browning BPS 12 gauged shotgun and a Ruger M77 .30-30 bolt action rifle.
April 16, 2007 32 people died when undergraduate Seung-Huyi Cho went on a rampage at Virginia Tech with a Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. The mass shooting remains the nation’s worst to date, even after the shootings in CT on Friday.
Dec. 5, 2007 19-year old Robert A. Hawkins, using a Century WASR-10 (a semi-automatic variant of the deadly, fully automatic Kalashnikov assault rifle) murdered eight people and wounded four in six minutes inside the Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE before taking his own life. In that time he fired more than 30 rounds.
Dec. 9, 2007 After being refused admission to the Youth With a Mission Training Center in Arvada, CO, 24-year old Matthew J. Murray murdered two people and wounded two with a semi-automatic pistol. Later, the same day, Murray, then armed with a Bushmaster XM15 .223 cal. Rifle, a Baretta .40 cal. Handgun and a Springfield Armory pistol, murdered three people and injured three inside the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. before being shot and wounded by a former Minneapolis police officer, at which time he took his own life.
Feb. 14, 2008 Steven Kazmierczak, armed with three handguns, a shotgun and a knife, entered a lecture hall at No. IL Univ. where a lecture class attended by approx. 120 students was in progress. He murdered five, injured 21 and killed himself.
July 27, 2008 Former U.S. Army private, Jim David Atkinsson, who hated Democrats, liberals, African Americans and homosexuals, using a Remington Model 48 12-guage shotgun, murdered two people and injured seven others inside the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, TN.
March 10, 2009 Geneva County, AL: 28-year old Michael Kenneth McLendon, using a Soviet-made SKS, a Bushmaster AR-15 (made by the same company which manufactured the assault rifle used in the CT shootings), 12-guage shotgun and a .38 cal. handgun murdered 10 people, including two children, before engaging police in a shootout and then taking his own life.
April 3, 2009 Jiverly Antares Wong, a 41-year old, naturalized U.S. citizen, murdered eight people inside the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, NY using a 9mm Beretta 92 FS Vertex Inox semi-automatic pistol and Beretta Px4 Strom .45 cal. pistol.
August 4, 2009 48-year-old George Sodini, who was upset that women wouldn’t give him a second glance, entered an L.A. Fitness center in Collier Township near Pittsburgh, PA while a women’s aerobics class was in session. He opened fire with two 9mm semi-automatic handguns, a .32 cal semi-automatic handgun and a .45 cal revolver. He fired a total of 52 shots, killing three women, wounding nine and killing himself.
Nov. 5, 2009 Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army Major, who was serving as a psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 29 others inside Fort Hood, a military installation near Killeen, TX using an FN Five-Seven Pistol and a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver.
August 3, 2010 34-year old Omar Shariff Thornton murdered eight people inside a beer distribution warehouse in Manchester, CT before shooting himself in the head. He used two Ruger SR9s.
Jan. 8, 2011 22-year old Jarold Lee Laughner killed six people, including a judge and a nine-year old child, and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), using a 9mm Glock 19 pistol during a public meeting in a supermarket parking lot near Tuscon, AZ.
Oct. 12, 2011 41-year-old Scott Evans Dekraai, who had been engaged in a bitter custody dispute with his ex-wife, Michelle Fournier, an employee of the Salon Meritage hair salon in Seal Beach, CA murdered eight people (seven inside the salon and one man who was seated in a Land Rover outside the salon); injured one other. Dekraai used a 9 mm Springfield, a Heckler & Koch .45, and a Smith & Wesson .44 magnum.
Feb. 22, 2012 59-year old Jeong Soo Paek, using a legally purchased .45 cal pistol murdered four relatives inside the Su Jung Health Sauna in Norcross, GA.
Feb. 27, 2012 17-year old T.J. Lane killed three and wounded three others using a .22 pistol inside Chardon H.S. in Chardon, OH.
April 2, 2012 43-year old One L. Goh, armed with a semi-automatic handgun and 4 magazines of ammunition, killed 7 people and injured 3 at the Oikos University in Oakland, CA.
May 30, 2012 40-year old Ian L. Stawicki, using two legally purchased, .45 semi-automatic handguns, allegedly murdered four people inside a Univ. of WA-Seattle café, then shot another woman at a town hall and stole her SUV, which he abandoned when surrounded by police before fatally shooting himself in the head.
June 9, 2012 22-year old Desmonte D. Leonard, allegedly shot and killed three people, including two football players, and wounded three others, at Auburn University. Leonard, who was indicted by Lee County. AL after turning himself in was recently refused bail by the court.
July 20, 2012 James Eagan Holmes, a 24-year old graduate student, wearing body armor, entered the Century Theater in Aurora, CO, set off tear gas grenades before murdering 12 people and injuring 58 more using a variety of assault weapons, including two Glock 22 handguns, a tactical shotgun and a Smith & Wesson M&P rifle — that manufacturer’s version of the AR-15. He also used a 100-round capacity drum magazine.
Aug. 5, 2012 Wade Michael Page, a 40-year old white supremacist and U.S. Army veteran murdered six people and wounded four others inside a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI with a Springfield XD(M) semi-automatic pistol.
Sept. 27, 2012 After losing his job at Accent Signage in Minneapolis, MN, Andrew J. Engeldinger returned with a 9mm Glock handgun where he shot and killed five people and wounded three others, before taking his own life.
Dec. 11, 2012 22-year old Jacob Tyler Roberts, wearing a load-bearing vest, opened fire with a stolen AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle inside a Clackamas, OR shopping mall, killing two people and injuring one in a hail of bullets before he died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Dec. 14, 2012 20-year old Adam Lanza murdered 27 people, including 20 children, aged six and seven, inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT using a .223 Bushmaster AR-15 and two handguns, all said to have been legally purchased and registered by his mother, Nancy Lanza, whom he also murdered, before carrying out the carnage and taking his own life at the elementary school.
Dec. 21, 2012 44-year old Jeffrey Lee Michael shot and killed three people and wounded a state trooper, before he was killed by return fire, in rural PA.
Here’s a video of a .223 Bushmaster AR-15, similar to the one confirmed to have been used in the killing of 27 in CT last Friday, firing at 100 yards…
A question for U.S. arms manufacturers
This article began with Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind. It will now end by posing a question to the U.S. arms industry and their propaganda outlet, aka the National Rifle Association (NRA) from Bob Dylan’s Masters of War…
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.”
Wish this list were complete, but it’s not. July 27, 2008, 2 people were killed and 7 wounded in a church in Knoxville TN by Jim David Adkisson using a Remington Model 48 12-gauge shotgun. I fear there may be others that belong on the list, sadly.
What about all the mass shootings that happened during the ban? What about the government and independent studies that show little to no effect due to the ban? Are you just looking to cut down the casualties or are you trying to figure out the root cause?
http://dailyanarchist.com/2012/07/31/auditing-shooting-rampage-statistics/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban#Expiration_and_Effect_on_Crime
Didn’t seem like a big deal to America when Robert Bales did it. Then again, the t.v. wasn’t telling people to robotically “care”. In fact, people call Robert Bales a hero, and his wife is “resilient”. That’s the phony America for you.
The over the top media coverage is more to blame than the guns or mental illness. It’s like an advertisement to crazy people, “Hey pal, wanna be a star?”
More war mongering coverage, please.
Thanks for the information, Claire Favro. As I stated at the beginning of the article, this is a “partial history of mass shootings.”
I certainly did not, as suggested by FourToedJones @2, deliberately leave off massacres that occurred during the 10 year period of the Brady bill.
The July 27, 2008 fatal shooting was an important event, and I’ve inserted it into the body of the article.
While we’re on the subject of statistics, FourToed, here’s one I’d welcome your comment on.
The murder rate in London, where there is strict gun control, is 1.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. The murder rate in Chicago is 19.4 per 100,000 which is more than Moscow and Mexico City combined.
So FourToed, if it isn’t the guns, can you explain, scientifically, why the murder rate in Chicago is nearly eleven times higher than London?
Perhaps I’m missing something, Jesus @3. Perhaps you can show me where, in this article which focused on domestic, gun-related massacres, I provided so much as a hint that I was condoning massacres allegedly committed by members of the U.S. military abroad, which is what Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of committing.
FourToedJones probably shot the missing toe to smithereens.
Here’s an interesting map from MotherJones…
About 85% had mental health issues and few said unclear.
You’ve mentally unstable people with access to weapons. Not a good mix. The need for stiff gun laws and bring back the mental institutions so patients can be stabilized on medication before being allowed to go out in the public again. (This worked years ago)
The mother had all those guns because she was preparing for economy collapse. Maybe her elevator wasn’t going to the top either.
So very sad. Unfathomable, unbelievable, heartbreaking
I have no patience for pro-gun people anymore. GFY
Map: You can slide your cursor over the dots and see what happened in each place in the Un-United Sates.
http://a.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/tasneemraja.map-37egcsuk.html#4.00/31.88/-88.44
…
The capcha? is not there?
You also forgot this one, not to mention many that have happened at churches in the last decade or so. The 2007 Colorado YWAM and New Life shootings occurred December 9, 2007, when Matthew J. Murray attacked the Youth With A Mission training center in Arvada, Colorado, and New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 4 killed, 5 wounded.
Of the rouchly 70 Mass Murders that have taken place in the United States since 1966, look at at some facts. roughly 67 were Gun Related. Out of those 67 murderers, 52 held political affiliation… Democrat. Out of the remaining 15, 13 held no political affialation, 1 was independent and 1 was Republican. 66 out the 67 were either agnostic or athiest. 1 was Christian though he only attended Church 2 to 3 times a year. Seems to me we need to keep Guns out of the hands of Democrats and Athiests.
It seems to me that the same people that are killing us are the same people that are trying to take our guns away. Gun Control? I have an Idea….Take the Guns away from the Liberals and Athiests. Problem Solved.
# 12 Do you have a link for your source of such important information. Please share.
we need people to understand that some people are called criminals because they do not obey the law. people kill people! guns have been in america since its creation and yet these mass killing have been on the increase in the last 50 years. the reason has nothing to do with gun availability because most people were brought up around guns and thier parents taught them the importance of gun safety. it is my opinion that parents have strayed away from their primary job of teaching wrong from right. let me explain. the american family is under assult by a society that thinks it is now the job of our public officials teachers, police officers,judges,congressmen,senators etc,etc. big mistake!!! the family is the first line of defense when addressing these issues but the family means very little today. irresponsible parents often raise irresponsible children but it does not end there as parents our job is not to be your childs friend first and foremost. yes that is a part of it but not the number one duty. as parents we need to teach our children to be civil citizens in an uncivil scocity. my point is at home you do not punish all of your kids because of one doing wrong. you take that child sit him/her down explain what they did wrong and attach punishment fit for the crime. in school when one kid acts up the teacher usually takes everyones priiledges away. wrong answer because we all know that there are bad eggs so then why should the rest of them be good when they lose priiledge anyway. blameing a gun for murder is like blameing forks for fat people!!!! i know what i am fixing to say will be contraversial to some but i feel it is important to discuss. religion has been under attack in this country and the more it is erased the more cime replaces that void. the bible taught us to be good people. when the bibles teachings are taken away people lose faith in a higher power they feel no guilt to do these evil acts because they dont fear hell. the ten commandments all reflect our federal laws but federal laws are not reflectant in our personal lives like religion would be.
GWN, I doubt very much Thomas Ryband will provide a link because what he wrote was patently false.
A good number of those who carried out these crimes were too young to register to vote.
Among the many unsupported claims made by Thomas Ryband was that 52 of some 70 mass murderers were Democrats, 13 held no political affiliations, one was a registered Independent and one was a Republican. He also claimed that only one was a Christian.
Ryban fails to furnish a link with good reason. He made up these statistics from whole cloth.
While Ryban’s dissembling does not warrant an extensive rebuttal, here are just a few.
James Oliver Huberty did not exactly express Democratic or secular values when he told his wife he hated children, Mexicans and the U.S. before gunning down 40 people at the the San Ysidro, CA McDonald’s on July 18, 1984
He was previously enrolled in a Jesuit community college. His father had bought a farm in the Amish community and his mother did sidewalk preaching for a Southern Baptist organization.
Lest one conclude that Huberty be counted as Ryband’s one Christian mass murderer, consider:
Charles Whitman, who carried out the mass murder at the Univ. of Texas on Aug. 1, 1966 was raised a Roman Catholic.
Buford O. Furrow, Jr, opened up with an Uzi at a Jewish Community Center, was no Democrat. He described himself as a neo-Nazi.
The two books found in his abandoned van were written by a leader of the Christian Identity movement.
Like Furrow, Wade Michael Page, who carried out mass murder at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, WI, had ties to white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups.
Of course, when it comes to mass murder, there’s “Ted” Bundy, who confessed to committing 30 homicides in seven states between 1974 and 1978. Bundy served as a volunteer in the Seattle office of the presidential campaign of Republican Nelson Rockefeller. He attended the 1968 RNC as a Rockefeller delegate. He was highly regarded by the Chairman of the WA state Republican Party.
One suspects that whether we deal with these mass shootings or serial killers, party or religious affiliation is of little value, except when they are tied to extremist organizations.
Actually, Trent @ #14, you are woefully misinformed. The facts are inescapable:
more guns = more homicide
The Newtown, CT shooter, Adam Lanza, is now known to have been trained in gun safety by his mom, an avid gun collector.
Trent — why do you think some Americans care more about owning deadly weapons designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, than they care about the right of children to survive the day?
Why do you think the majority of mass killings are perpetrated by white men?
From what I’ve just read, most of these mass murders were committed using something other than assault rifles. So why does the anti-gun side always single out assault rifles specifically when talking about a ban.
What “Shakes” @18 describes as “the anti-gun side” is not a monolith with a single position.
There are those, like the author of this article, who believe that the only sane policy is the one that exists in the U.K. But, while that would be preferred, unlike the radical right, most progressive gun control advocates are not divorced from political reality, which, in the U.S. entails the absurd notion that it would be too great a damper on their perceived “freedom” to ask Americans to give up their possession of all of these deadly instruments in the name of public safety, or even the lives of 6 and 7 year old schoolchildren.
Since the NRA and the Libertarian, Koch-funded members of ALEC have not been able to come up with a rational justification, other than arms manufacturers’ profits, for the continued manufacture and sale of semi-automatic assault weapons and 100-round drum magazines, a renewed assault weapons ban, coupled with a limitation on the size of magazines, is within the realm of the politically possible, as are background checks and concealed weapons permits, which are favored by a super-majority of even the NRA’s rank and file.
Oh, fer fecks sake, Shakes @ #18, no one here is “anti-gun”. This massacre involved an assault rifle that was easily accessible to the shooter and used to murder the owner of the gun and 26 other people. You know this by now.
In this and other mass murders in the U.S., the shooters used assault weapons with high-capacity ammunition clips. They all used weaponry specifically designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
Perhaps you should ask yourself why pro-gun advocates prioritize owning multiple weapons that serve no other purpose than to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible above the right of children and other innocent folks to survive the day?
Just to add two high profile instances from towns where I have lived:
“On July 2, 1993, San Francisco — A gunman carrying hundreds of rounds of ammunition terrorized a high-rise office building in the financial district here late this afternoon, killing eight people and wounding six others with a hail of automatic and semiautomatic fire before shooting himself to death.”
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/12/san_francsico_1993_shooting_as.php
And one that featured the rare woman shooter, which of course made it no less creepy and deadly:
“Next, [Laurie] Dann drove to Hubbard Woods School in Winnetka, Ill., [Lake shore north of Chicago] armed with a .22 caliber Beretta pistol and a .357 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver. That’s where she did her most damage.”Â
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Remembering-The-Laurie-Dann-Spree183533341.html
Madness.
Thanks, John T @21. I’ve added the July 1, 1993 mass murder inside the SF law firm. I did not add Laurie Dann’s May 20, 1988 rampage because it did not meet the criteria of “mass murder.” That, in no way, entails a lack of appreciation for the one death that did occur.
I also did not include the infamous No. Hollywood shootout, where two bank robbers wearing body armor, who had loaded the trunk of their car with five rifles, including two fully automatic AKMs, an AR-15 and 3,300 rounds of ammunition. During a lengthy shootout with police, the two fired 1,100 rounds. However, as, miraculously, the only two fatalities were the perpetrators, this did not fit within the mass murder parameters of this article.
Frankly, the more I’ve researched and added to this article, the more I’ve felt overwhelmed by the level and frequency of the carnage. Just working on this piece has proved a major eye-opener.
Quick ban on knives “Villager slashes 22 kids with knife at elementary school gates in Chinaâ€
You’re kinda slow with your wingnut NRA propaganda, Chuck. That happened last Friday, the same day as the mass shooting in Newtown  and most of the NRA stooges and dupes like yourself have stopped citing that China story by now.
Why? Um, how many of those kids died in that attack in China, Chuck?
I find it interesting that so many people jump on the ban gun band wagon whenever a tragedy happens. Where are they before they take place? The president says we can no longer allow this to continue. Where have they been before this? The OR mall shooter was confronted with an armed civilian. More people like him and the women sheriff(off duty) in Texas that stopped a shooter are needed. Also, what constitutes “mass”? I know 27 people daily are killed by drunk drivers, where’s the outcry there to stop selling alcohol? Just wondering.
25 @ Jeff D “The OR mall shooter was confronted with an armed civilian.”
Wrong, that civilian, was the shooter himself who died of a self-inflicted gunshot.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/us/oregon-mall-shooting/index.html
It seems to me that most people here have no idea what an assualt rifle is not have they done much relevant research on laws surrounding various weapons. An assault riffle is a select-fire weapon that can be selected from semi auto to full auto. A machine gun is fully automatic weapon. The AR 15 is neither and will jam if too many rounds are fired too fast. The AR (AR stands for the designed of M-16’s, Armalite)15 is a semi auto weapon. The AR 15 is defined as an assault weapon but it is based purely on looks. Also, The OR shooter was in fact addressed by a civilian with a lawful conceal carry permit, who did not fire upon him. The shooter had a jammed weapon and retired to starewell where he ultimately took his own life. you are a victim of lackluster reporting.
In 2009, the Geneva County murder numbers is “only” 10, including 2 children. And the Binghamton murders were 13 plus gunman. Sadly, both of these received very little media coverage.
Also, the day after Binghamton, here in Pittsburgh, a man walked into an LA Fitness and killed 3 women, plus himself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Collier_Township_shooting
Communism is NOT the answer BRAD.
Your gun drivel makes as much sense as banning Suburu’s .
It’s the nut behind the wheel that’s the issue.
Mitch @27: I doubt that there are very many people in the U.S. willing to accept your narrow, NRA definition of an assault rifle being limited to weapons that offer a choice between fully automatic and semi-automatic.
The AR-15 is essentially the semi-automatic version of the M-16 which I used in Vietnam.
Even in combat, most of us did not use the M-16 in fully automatic mode because everything after the first shot strays off target. We found we had far more control and accuracy in the semi-automatic mode. Moreover, back then we were equipped for combat with a 20 round magazine, not 30 as this nut case used, and certainly not 100, which is what some manufacturers are now offering.
And rest assured, using the M-16 or the AR-15 in semi-automatic mode creates deadly force, with horrific exit wounds that are sickening to look at even in a war setting, let alone inside a classroom.
But let’s set aside your splitting hairs approach to the definition of an assault rifle. What possible valid civilian use is there for someone to possess an AR-15 with a 30 round magazine?
If you don’t have a valid answer to that question, then you don’t possess a valid reason why we should permit continued civilian sales of the AR-15 or any magazine that holds more than three bullets.
Are you kidding me, Miguel @30?
Gun control = communism? Really!
Sean, thanks for the info. I’ve made the correction and added the horrific event inside the LA Fitness center in the Collier Township to this already too lengthy list of appalling events.
@ Ernest 31. Thank you for your service as well as your comments. I believe you asked the question of what possible use does a civilian have for a AR-15 with a 30 round magazine? That is a clever straw man question of which no possible answer would suit. Americans have been guaranteed a right to bear arms. I am not opposed to control and like you I would not want people driving tanks, owning mortars,or other significant weapondry. Why a person may possess a certain rifle or handgun is not my business, but they have the right to possess it. If that means someone buys one to enjoy shooting at the range, fine. personal defense, fine. Hunt deer, fine (not my choice but hey it works), belief that tyranny will always cease to exist in this country as long as the people continue to bear arms, fine. Exercising a right to bear arms, fine. The question really should not be about why someone wants one but how do we spend the effort proving services for mental illness require proper safety training and security measures.
Mitch said @ 34:
But not to bear any arms. Feel free to show me where the Constitution says otherwise. We have, as I’m sure you know, outlawed automatic weapons, such as machine guns, since the 30s.
There are many other arms, some of which you cite (tanks, mortars), others you don’t (rocket launchers, bombs, nuclear weapons, plastic guns) which are also illegal to bear.
Where is the right to possess semi-automatic rifles in the Constitution? Or in case law? Where is the right to posses armor piercing bullets? 100-round magazines? Did I miss that somewhere? Please feel free to let me know.
1. More people are killed each year by drunk drivers. Are we taking away alcohol and cars? Nope.
2. There are those who work hard enough to shoot pump action, over unders, and side by side shotguns fast enough to kill a large amount of people in a short time. Same with revolvers. I suspect there are those who can shoot bolt action rifles the same. Are we going to remove all guns?
3. How about addressing why people are turning to “mass” killing instead of just the method.
Bloomberg, Feinstein. et al wish to impose their NYC and California gun laws on the rest of the nation. They are hypocrites in so far as they themselves depend on guns to protect themselves. I say fine, ban and buy back perceived “weapons of mid-destruction” but allow me to carry my “shall-issue” permitted revolver & two speed loaders anywhere in America that’s not “secure” IE metal-detector + guards (Reason: all the incidents you cite above) – Until then, don’t tell me we all just need to compromise, that is. I say thank you when you take away my right to self defense
The old but, but, but, drunk drivers/cars…
Well if you want to make that comparison it’s time to have to insure every gun isn’t.
If you are careless with your gun and it accidentally fires, harming someone or some thing, your insurance for it skyrockets.
If your gun kills someone you lose the privilege of ever owning another gun.
Seems fair right?
That response was for #36 … Jeff D
Edit: Well if you want to make that comparison it’s time to have to insure every gun isn’t it.
No way is this list complete because it leaves out a major theme connecting most of the recent ones – SSRI’s (prozac, zoloft, panel, etc.) It’s the mental triggers we need to be looking at, not the metal ones.
JEFF D @36 writes:
Has Jeff D cited accurate statistics? Nope!
In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.
While suicides account for 55.6% of the 31,224 firearm-related deaths in the U.S., that still leaves a total of 12,632 (40.5%) that were gun-related homicides — an amount which exceeds the total number of deaths due to drunk driving. 66.9% of all homicides in the U.S. were perpetrated with firearms in 2009.
Jeff D has raised a series of straw men, none of which provide an ounce of justification for permitting people access to semi-automatic assault weapons with magazines capable of expending as many as 100 rounds without having to reload.
First, how do vehicular-related deaths justify murder by gun?
Second, in many places in the US where public transportation is insufficient, autos are a necessity; assault weapons are not.
Third, we regulate the operation of an automobile, regulations that include a requirement that everyone who operates them obtain a valid driver’s license. Yet, we have no similar weapons licensing requirements. People are lawfully obtaining firearms without so much as a background check.
Law enforcement does not have to wait until a drunk driver kills someone before effectuating an arrest. If you’ve consumed alcohol in excess of the legal limit, you are subject to arrest the moment you get behind the wheel. (Don’t hear any alcoholics complaining that laws preventing drunk driving infringe upon their “freedom”).
In the case of the Aurora, CO massacre, James E. Holmes loaded his car with a Remington 8-gage shotgun, two 40-caliber Glock handguns, and an AR-15 assault rifle with a drum magazine capable of firing between 50-60 rounds/minute even in semi-automatic mode. He donned tactical gear, including a gas mask, an assault vest, body armor, magazine pouches and a knife.
All of these were legally acquired, and, under Colorado law, even if those deadly weapons were already loaded, his transport of those weapons inside his vehicle was perfectly legal.
Holmes was not subject to arrest until he stepped through the theater door and opened fire.
Got any other bright ideas, Jeff D?
Natano @40 wrote:
I’m beginning to think that gun nuts suffer from dyslexia.
The topic is “Guns and Mass Murder in the U.S. since 1966.” The article address a partial list of those events — nothing more, nothing less.
While there has been some valid criticism that the list was “not complete” in the sense that there are more gun-related, mass killings than I’ve listed, and where I’ve added events to the list in response to those valid criticism, there is absolutely no validity in Natano’s critique because it is outside the scope of what this article addressed.
However, if the purpose Natano’s critique was to suggest that we prevent people taking psychotropic medications from getting their hands on weapons, I’m all for that.
Somehow, I suspect that is not what he has in mind in raising this collateral issue.
Jeff D embarrassingly parroted NRA BS @ 36 with:
Ernest Canning and GWN already responded to you, so I needn’t go into detail, other than to say, no, nobody serious is suggesting “taking away” your gun, but your paranoid NRA con-man-approved rant is noted.
Further, yes, many are killed by drunk drivers and in other automobile related incidents. That’s why, unlike with guns, we have incredibly stringent safety requirements and oversight for the manufacturer, purchase and use of automobiles. Regulations require that proficiency tests be passed and that regular licensing occurs for their legal use. Also, we enforce strict regulations such as speed limits, stop lights, and the use of safety belts and require that everyone who operates a vehicle must have insurance to pay for the costs of damages to themselves and others. No such oversight or regulations are required during the manufacture, purchase and use of semi-automatic weapons, ammunition or high-capacity magazines. Not to mention that in the correct use of automobiles, nobody dies, as they are designed for transportation, not to kill people. In the correct use of a semi-automatic weapon hundreds can die in a matter of seconds.
Seriously, you need to learn to make arguments without including straw men within them. It just underscores the weakness of your arguments. We are “remov[ing]” no guns. Even during the ten years of the Reagan-supported Federal Assault Weapons Ban we “removed” no guns. We merely put (pathetic) restrictions on the sale of some new ones.
Why you oppose even things that the vast majority of both NRA-member and non NRA-member gun-owners all support by huge numbers is beside me, other than you have been played for a brain-dead chump by the propaganda of the con-men leadership of the NRA.
Wanna buy a nice bridge in Brooklyn, btw?
Okay, great! How about it? What’s your suggestion? Got anything beyond what the vast majority of NRA-members already support? Cause those ideas sound good to me. But if you have anything else, I’m sure you’ll let us know! I’d love to hear your suggestions!
Adam Henry said @ 37:
Like the one that was already in place across the entire nation from 1994 to 2004, supported by that radical lefty Ronald Reagan? Oh, right. He was from California too. That was probably why he supported that. Not because he almost died from an assassins bullet or saw members of his staff and gun-wielding secret service contingent critically and fatally wounded by the same gun.
Thanks for your opinion. Luckily, we don’t live in a Adam Henry Rules country. We live in a democracy, so we, the people, get to decide what our laws will and won’t be (in theory). Have you considered moving to Somalia? Sounds like their form of government might be more to your liking.
Nobody is telling you you “just need to compromise”. Hearing voices again? Moreover, nobody is taking away your “right to self defense”, sweetheart. You keep up that “brave” fight though!
First off, we do not live in Democracy, we live in a Constitutional Republic, which means that the people can’t just vote to take away any right, whether it is be “free speech” or “the right to bear arms.” Second, when you define mass murders here you are only talking about killings by private citizens which are in the hundreds and seem to be leaving out mass murder by governments, which historically are in the 10’s of millions. Like it or not, the second amendment is about keep a check on the government.
Nice try, with the right wing talking points, Tony @45.
Try reading James Madison’s Federalist Papers. “Republic” = “Representative Democracy.”
I’d also suggest you read “High Cost of Willfully Misinterpreting the 2nd Amendment.”
Even when it comes to the First Amendment, the right to free speech is not unlimited. You do not have a right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater, or to incite murder, or to conspire to commit a crime.
Just as there is no legitimate reason for permitting people to incite murder, there is no legitimate reason for permitting civilians to obtain, possess or use assault weapons with 100 round magazines capable of firing as many as 60 rounds/minute in semi-automatic mode.
There can be no individual liberty without a measure of social responsibility.
Sadly, December 14, 1993, Aurora, Colorado, Chuckee Cheese Pizza. 3 teens shot and killed plus the manager after closing. One of those killed was my cousin.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/auroras-massacre-victims-20-year-wait-justice/t/story?id=16847013