52 Dead in Mass Shootings in the Last Month: What Has America Become?

[Liberal_in_LA]

52 Dead in Mass Shootings in the Last Month: What Has America Become?

http://snafu-ed.blogspot.com/2009/04/52-dead-in-mass-shootings-in-march-what.html

A report by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning, America Monday asked the following question: "What is going on with the gun rampages in America?"

As GMA noted, in the last month, seven mass shootings have resulted in the loss of 48 innocent lives (and 4 other lives, counting the gunmen). This is simply the count of highly publicized mass killings across the country; it wouldn't include killings on a singular scale (and you know there were plenty of those).

1. Early March: 10 killed in Samson, AL.
2. Two weeks ago last Saturday, 4 Oakland police officers killed; the gunman was killed as well.
3. Six people dead in a murder-suicide in an upscale Silicon Valley neighborhood.
4. Eight people killed in a nursing home
5. Thirteen killed in an immigrant center, before the gunman killed himself
6. Three police officers killed in Pittsburgh, PA
7. Five children shot by their father before he turned the gun on himself in Washington state.

Those last three incidents took place just last weekend.

[earcandle]

1. I shudder and think of the criminals who believe that if you see it, you believe it and you can be

encouraged to actually do it.

What is playing on free tv these days? 

[depakid]

2. The incidents that gobsmacked me happened on Jan. 25, 2009

2 dead, 7 injured -Portland, Oregon shooting;
2 dead, 7 injured -Witchita, Kansas shooting;
2 dead, 7 injured -Miami, Florida shooting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28844043/

[paparush]

30. How about all the gun owners move West of the Mississippi and all the non gun owners

move East of the Mississippi.

They'll have lots and lots of room to shoot and hunt (animals or each other, doesn't matter to me) and they can keep and bear all the arms they want.

[depakid]

39. Nah, east of the Mississippi, hunters tend to be what westerners call poachers

Baiting animals or doing canned hunts.

(Not everyone of course- but enough that they sell "wildlife corn" in minimarkets)....

[Bushknew]

3. This phenomena is the consequence of our government spending more money to...

improve our military rather than to improve our society i.e. health care, education & jobs.

[ddeclue]

10. It is because we allow people to have guns who look at them as a means of control

in their lives when they have obsessive need to control others to always feel like they control the world. These are usually 30 to 50 something white males with ego and control issues and when something in their life goes haywire (job, girlfriend/wife, investments, whatever) they go nuts and shoot a bunch of people and then their last measure of control is to kill themselves rather than let the cops do it or be put on trial for their crimes. It is about striking back for them and maintaining control at all costs. A bad economy exasperates the situation because it causes a lot of people to lose their jobs, their homes, etc. and tends to break up relationships too.

Doug D.

[earcandle]

37. You have a point. How can we make our middle aged men feel more secure?

[The Traveler]

4. Hysteria

It will get worse before it gets better.

Trav

[leftofthedial]

5. We have a hard debt to pay for our repuke/neocon/DLC legacy

[bottomtheweaver]

6. Let's see, who would want to destabilize the current political climate

and use the media to spread fear and terror? Hint: a certain family that always seems to profit from death and destruction, for example a certain drunken bum who won the presidency a year after Columbine.

[ddeclue]

7. This misses the Orlando area shoot out in Volusia county

where the gunman killed his wife's son, his wife, shot a cop and blinded him and then killed himself.

[bottomtheweaver]

8. Convenient how the shooters always off themselves

the ones that are actually at the scene and not a few dozen miles away, like Manson. Looks like the lone nut mass murderer is back in style. Hmmm..

[ddeclue]

11. It's all about "control" read my other post on this.

[bottomtheweaver]

12. Cho, Poplawski, Harris and Klebold weren't 50.

I'm pretty damn sure these guys aren't lone nuts any more than Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan were.

[ddeclue]

14. Actually my theory has nothing to do with them being "loners"

it has to do with their obsessive need for control. My theory says that they are mostly white and between 30 and 50 and male and that they feel entitled to be in charge of the world and are pissed off because in reality they are NOT in charge so they use guns as a means to try to "fix" that.

Their girlfriend or wife cheats or dumps them - they shoot her.

They get fired - they shoot up the office.

Then to have that last measure of control over their destiny they shoot themselves.

[bottomtheweaver]

16. I know, but I don't buy your theory.

Look I'm white and middle aged too but we've both been through enough by now to know that when mayhem happens a little too regularly or conveniently there's usually a hidden hand behind the Bush.

[ddeclue]

17. Not everybody is pre-disposed to act this way just because they are white and middle aged.

It's just a certain segment of the white male population that feels angry and self entitled and feels frustrated that their imagined self image doesn't line up with reality.

These are the same guys that beat wives and are bullies in bars, etc. You and I are not among them even though we generalyl fit the demographic. This isn't to say that the shooters can't be of other races but it seems that by and large they are white and male and middle aged - but we have seen exceptions to this.

Doug D.

[bottomtheweaver]

18. Well.. here's where I'm coming from:

I thought V Tech was a psy-op and the more I looked into it the more it seemed to be the case. I have yet to meet a person online or IRL who agrees with me, but that's what the facts strongly suggest. Now that makes me suspect all these shootings, and I looked into Columbine a little earlier today, and it reeks of CIA psy-op too in all the familiar ways.

So you probably think I'm nuts, but this shit has been happening regularly since 1963 and probably before and the more it happens the more familiar it gets. So was Poplawski mind controlled? As unlikely as it seems, I wouldn't rule it out. The Vietnamese guy in Buffalo? I'd say the odds are better than even.

[ddeclue]

19. Tin foil hattery...

:tinfoilhat:

Stop looking to blame the government in bizarre conspiracy theories.

Some people are just crazy bastards and shouldn't have access to pointy sharp things, clubs or guns.

:crazy:

As I've pointed out these people are usually white and male and typically 30 to 50. They've been indoctrinated to believe that they are supposed to be in charge of the world and can't face that they actually aren't. They resolve their conflict with guns.

It's pretty straight forward and it goes back a lot further than 1963. There have always been people who have used their guns to resovle their unresolved anger and entitlement issues. It's just better recognized now in a world with 24/7/365 world wide media.

Doug D.

[bottomtheweaver]

21. Could be, could be, but..

I doubt it. But hey, it's the internet, baby! :hi:

[virginia mountainman]

25. They used to BLOW UP schools....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster

[bottomtheweaver]

40. Wow. 1927. That's eye opening.

The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, USA, on May 18, 1927, which killed 45 people and injured 58. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7-12 years of age) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history.

The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his attack.

On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the school over the course of many months.

As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. During the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds (230 kg) of unexploded dynamite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school's south wing.
............................

Big hmmmm here. Three bombs? School board member plants hundreds of pounds of explosives in the basement, kills his wife, and then blows himself up? I don't think so. What's disturbing is that this was 20 years before the CIA even existed. Same familiar m.o. though -- somebody somewhere didn't like paying taxes to support that school, and while Mr Kehoe may have been persuaded or duped into playing some supporting role, I'd be very surprised if he masterminded, carried out, or even knew what the plan was.

[democracy1st]

24. thanks for the info here's the link to the Volusia shooting

http://www.wesh.com/news/19009783/detail.html

[bottomtheweaver]

9. Conspiracy theorist kills Pittsburgh cops,

and next week, the Supreme Court says Mumia's conviction stands. No connection I'm sure.

[countmyvote4real]

13. This is sick.

I've lost my job/income. Unemployment will not sustain me. Thankfully, it's just me. I don't have a family to support. As it is, I am just a failure to my parents and immediate family/siblings. I can only survive by raiding my 101k. I would be glad to be snuffed out in an instant if that is possible. Obviously, I don't have any health or life insurance, so my death won't create any "personal" gain. Still, I would like to cover the cost of my debts and burial. I have just had enough. I can't live like this anymore.

[bottomtheweaver]

15. Yes it is.

I wish I thought it was all a big accident but I don't. But try not to internalize it. There's always a silver lining. A better job in the future, or maybe just more time to waste on DU, lol!

:grouphug:

[TexasObserver]

20. 1400 other people were murdered in America in that same time frame

Why is a mass murdering any more horrific than any of those murders?

There's a tendency to obsess over the most egregious, but the reality is that 52 A DAY are murdered in America.

[Jamastiene]

22. I live about 30 miles from the nursing home gun rampage incident.

I friend of mine from high school took 27 bullets trying to defend the people in the nursing home before dying. That really hit close to home.

"This type of stuff just doesn't happen around here."

That was my first thought when I heard about it.

Now, I think, I guess that type of stuff does "happen around here." :(

[SPedigrees]

23. We will see more of this as the economy worsens

and unemployment rates rise. Less options = more violence.

[MadHound]

26. The United States has become one large behavioral sink

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink>
Too many people, in too small a space, under too much stress. As resources and our economy continue to decline, I imagine that matters will only get worse.

[KittyWampus]

35. you'd have to prove each individual involved was living in overcrowded conditions.

And further, there are much more crowded conditions in Chinese cities that don't have these rampages.

[MellowDem]

27. America hasn't "become" anything...

we've been this way for a while. For a very large country (one of the most populous in the world), and given our circumstances, it's not surprising or "new".

[Bandit]

28. Wow 52 in a month, scary but what about the thousand a day from tobacco related causes

Which are also totally preventable..

[Junkdrawer]

34. "I'm not as bad as Big Tobacco....I'm not as bad as Big Tobacco"

Wayne LaPierre's lullaby

[derby378]

29. This is still George W. Bush's America

This is the legacy that he's left behind for Obama to clean up - a benign neglect of the factors needed to maintain the well-being of our society.

[paparush]

31. Government leads and the people follow.

We've got one of the bloodiest, murderous governments on the globe.

Why are we shocked that the citizens of such a government behave any differently?

[harun]

32. Correct. Setting the example that problems can only be solved through violence.

[KittyWampus]

36. And we've got a population that LOVES violent video games and mass media

[sinkingfeeling]

33. America hasn't become anything. It's the way we've been for a hundred years. Enamored with

'fire power' and high on the Second Amendment, we are taught to believe in American exceptionalism. We don't have any time to 'negotiate', we're busy running the world. We can't be seen as 'girly men' or 'like old Europe', we take action. Shoot first and ask questions later. Invade a country, destroy it and its people and then say 'sorry, guess there really weren't any WMDs.' It's our legacy.

[Echo In Light]

38. Twas ever thus