With the recent tragedy of the Newton 26, the ever present debate of gun control comes up. And as an American I believe in our second amendment rights, to bear arms.
Everyone has their own views on it...but I am going to state my case, by bringing up some of the nation's recent mass shootings, and the people who caused them...
Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.
And in all cases I mention what was "wrong" with the killers, leading them to these acts. None of them were sane people, that snapped. They all had issues, and guns or no guns, would've caused damage.
(In date order, from most recent)
---December 14, 2012 – Newtown, Connecticut – Sandy Hook Elementary
School Shooting – Twenty children and seven adults, including the gunman, are
dead after a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
SHOOTER – Adam Lanza – Shooter had a personality disorder,
and had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.
---December 11, 2012 – Portland, Oregon – Clackamas Mall
Shooting – A masked gunman opens fire in a crowded mall, killing two and
seriously injuring a third person before turning the gun on himself.
SHOOTER – Jacob Tyler Roberts – Wanted to be a Marine, but a
foot injury stopped that dream. Mother died of cancer when he was a child, no
father around.
---August 5, 2012 – Oak Creek, Wisconsin – Wisconsin Sikh
Temple Shooting – A white supremacist shoots six people and a responding policeman
at a Sikh temple before shooting himself in the head.
SHOOTER – Wade Michael Page – White supremacist.
---July 20, 2012 – Aurora, Colorado – Gunman kills 12 and
injures 58 at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises”.
SHOOTER – James Eagan Holmes – He had met with three mental
health professionals prior to the attack. Self-claimed to have “dysphoric mania”,
and in his words was “stay away, because I am bad news”.
---April 2, 2012 – Oakland, California – Oikos University
Shooting – A former student at a Christian college fatally shoots seven people
and injures three.
SHOOTER – One L. Goh – Being tracked by creditors (owed tens
of thousands of dollars). His brother had died in a car crash a year earlier,
and later in 2011 his mother died. He was upset at the school, which has expelled
him, for behavioral problems.
---August 7, 2011 – Copley Township,
Ohio – A man in a family dispute uses his handgun to shoot and kill his
girlfriend and six others.
SHOOTER – Michael Hance – First
killed his girlfriend, and then killed her brother, and the witnesses who saw
him commit these actions. The fight with the girlfriend started over a home
improvement project.
---March 10, 2009 – Geneva, Alabama –
Geneva County Massacre – Eleven victims, ages 18 months to 74 years old, are
killed by a lone gunman in a violent family feud.
SHOOTER – Michael Kenneth McLendon
– Shooter killed his mother, uncle, cousins, grandmother, and others, including
relatives of the county deputy sheriff. He also burned down the family home,
and had a hit list of others he was going to kill, all due to a legal issue
with his family.
---December 5, 2007 – Omaha, Nebraska – Westroads Mall Shooting
– A 19 year old man shoots nine people at a department store before cops kill
him.
SHOOTER – Robert A. Hawkins – Family history of psychiatric
problems, and he had previously threatened to kill his stepmother with an axe
(leading to him being hospitalized). He had ADD, mood disorder, oppositional defiant
disorder, among others. He left a suicide note, reportedly saying “I’m going
out in style”.
---April 16, 2007 – Blacksburg, Virginia – Virginia Tech
Massacre – A student at Virginia Tech kills 32 classmates and wounds 25 before committing
suicide.
SHOOTER – Seung-Hui Cho – The shooter has selective mutism
(a severe anxiety disorder), as well as a major depressive disorder.
---March 21, 2005 – Red Lake, Minnesota – Red Lake Massacre – A
16 year old boy kills 11 people, including his grandfather and his grandfather’s
girlfriend, on their Indian reservation.
SHOOTER – Jeffrey Weise – Personal stress and depression led
to the shooting. He had twice tried to commit suicide. His father also committed
suicide, and lost his mother at a young age, following a car accident.
---December 8, 2004 – Columbus, Ohio – A deranged fan shoots a
Pantera guitarist at a concert as he performs onstage, then fires at fans,
killing four people.
SHOOTER – Nathan Gale – Shooter was upset over the breakup
of the band, and also believed that the guitarist he shot had stolen a song he
had written. He also had paranoid schizophrenia, causing delusions that the
band was reading his mind, and stealing his thoughts.
---October 2002 – Washington D.C. area – Beltway Sniper Attacks
– Two snipers go on a three-week spree, killing 10 people around D.C. and
Virginia.
SHOOTERS – John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo – Muhammad
had been twice divorced, and had a restraining order from his second wife,
after threats to kill her, and reclaim the children. Malvo, who was a minor at
the time of the crimes, claims to have been sexually abused by Muhammad.
---April 20, 1999 – Littleton, Colorado – Columbine High School
– Two senior students invade Columbine High School, killing 12 students and one
teacher and injuring 21, before committing suicide.
SHOOTERS – Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold – The shooters
planned this for a year, with the intent of a “Grander end” and to “Terrorize
the entire nation by attacking American life”. Those they killed were referred
to as “Collateral Damage”.
They also planned a bombing, that would’ve killed 600+
people, had their timers not failed.
Klebold was depressive and suicidal.
Harris was cold, calculating and homicidal.
---October 16, 1991 – Killeen, Texas – Luby’s Massacre – An unemployed
man drives a truck through a packed cafeteria and fatally shoots 23 people and
injures 20 before killing himself.
SHOOTER – George Hennard – Described as unemployed, angry, withdrawn,
and a dislike of woman.
---June 18, 1990 – Jacksonville, Florida – GMAC Massacre – A man
angry over a reposed car storms into the agency and over two days shoots 11 of
its 86 employees before killing himself.
SHOOTER – James Edward Pough – The shooter was upset after
his car was repossessed, and killed nine people at the dealership. The day
before he committed a robbery of a convenience store, a hit-and-run and
murdered two others.
(credit to the New York Daily News for the list of shootings, and parts of the descriptions of the shootings.)
