Thursday, January 17, 2013

Timeline of mass killings since Columbine. Enough is enough but it is time for what?




 










I was researching the subject of mass killings in the United States since Columbine,  I know it does not matter but I guess there is no consensus as to what is a mass killing. "11 mass shootings since Tucson" 70 says the Brady campaign" 37 mass shootings in Gun Free Zones" 60 mass killings, 61, what to do?

April 1999 - two teenage schoolboys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

July 1999 - a stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 12 people including his wife and two children before taking his own life.

September 1999 - a gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide.

October 2002 - a series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington DC, leaving 10 dead.

August 2003 - in Chicago, a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former workmates.

November 2004 - in Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them.

March 2005 - a man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people.

October 2006 - a truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life.

April 2007 - student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000.

August 2007 - Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed.

December 2007 - a 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping center in Omaha, Nebraska.
December 2007 -
a woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington.

February 2008 - a shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured.

February 2008 - a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering.

 
September 2008 - a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded.

December 2008 - a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house.

March 2009 - a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.

March 2009 - a heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.

March 2009 - six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.

April 2009 - a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.

July 2009 - Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston




April 2 - A gunman kills seven people and wounds three in a shooting rampage at a Christian college in Oakland.July 20 - A masked gunman kills 12 people and wounds 58 when he opens fire on moviegoers at a showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado.





 

It is high time we do something but what?You can be sure the wrong thing will be done because the issue is politicized and all sides want their so called solution to hold sway. It should be a combination of actions but I still do not see an end to it even if societies plight was remedied.
Regardless of the size of a clip or power of a weapon, regardless of the care of everyone with a so called mental problem, regardless of curing all societies ills and ensuring a so called "fantasy life" for everyone, the killing will go no.

 The genie has been let out of the bottle. The disenfranchised now know a sure fire way of getting attention as to their perceived plight.
The media wittingly or unwittingly has glorified mass killings as a way to serve justice in the perpetrators eyes. Because of our lack of action it has become acceptable to go out and kill people and be happy about it. Nothing is going to stop this now. It is too late to have a weapons ban of any kind. 
* The weapons are out there and IF YOU WANT GUNS YOU WILL GET THEM. The disenfranchised which number in the multiple millions are everywhere. Just what will set them off and when?  We are in for a rough ride. The only thing that will stop it is the all focusing advent of another world war and we can do without that.
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma

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