Massacres

It happened again. Yet another slaughter by some well-armed member of a nowhere near "well regulated Militia".

Once again our leaders will ardently proclaim their lack of resolve.   "Thoughts and prayers" is the perennial, safe and impotent response.  "Now is not the time" is the politician's feckless dodge.

It has me thinking of the many, many now-is-not-the-time times, when fellow Americans suffered the trauma of some of the gun industry's greatest hits and the many ways our thought leaders should have fought the gun lobby's propaganda^[1].

Times like...

• May 14, 2022, when 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron stepped out of his car in the parking lot of a Tops Friendly Markets grocery store in Buffalo, NY, wearing tactical gear. Using a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle with an illegal high-capacity magazine, he shot four people, three of whom died. When he entered the store, security guard Aaron Salter - a retired police lieutenant - fired at him but Gendron's body armor shielded him from at least one bullet. Gendron shot and killed Salter, then shot eight more people, murdering six and wounding two. In addition to the Bushmaster, police later found a second rifle and a shotgun in Gendron's car.
  
  The Tops store is in a predominantly Black neighborhood of east Buffalo; 11 of the 13 victims were Black, four were store employees. Gendron had driven more than 200 miles from his hometown of Conklin, NY, and arrived the day before the attack to conduct "reconnaissance" on the grocery store.
  
  Using a GoPro camera attached to his military-style helmet, Gendron livestreamed the mass shooting, mimicking the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019. Before the attack Gendron had posted online a 180-page screed detailing his white supremacist ideology and his plan to target a Black community in New York. In his 'manifesto' he embraces the white supremacist conspiracy theory of "the great replacement" that claims that an elite cabal of Jews, corporate leaders and politicians are intentionally diluting the white population through permissive immigration and by promoting diversity.
  
  Gendron purchased the Bushmaster in 2022 at Vintage Firearms in Endicott, NY, in what the gun dealer there described as a "routine transaction". This after state police investigated Gendron in June 2021 for making a school shooting threat. The incident resulted in his spending a day and a half in a hospital undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
  
  Reaction: In the 48 hours after the killing...
  
  •      Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, promoter of the replacement theory that Gendron espoused in his screed, said, "What is hate speech? Well, it's speech that our leaders hate. So because a mentally ill teenager murdered strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud. That's what they're telling you."
  
  
  •      Republican Rep. Liz Cheney: "The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. GOP leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them."
  
  
  •      House Democrats said they were planning to vote on a bill to combat domestic terror, since any form of gun control is unlikely to pass a divided Senate.
  
  
  •      In Texas and other states, when addressing the subject of racism, teachers are required by law to teach multiple opposing perspectives on the racist conspiracy theory that motivated Gendron to murder Black people.
  
  This massacre, along with shootings in Wisconsin and California, happened a mere 26,913 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• April 15, 2021, when 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole drove into the parking lot of a FedEx Ground facility in Indianapolis, IN with two AR-15 style rifles and began shooting at employees in the lot, killing four. He then entered the facility and continued firing, killing four more, before turning one of the weapons on himself. In addition to the nine dead, seven more were wounded. Four of the victims were members of the Sikh community. About 90% of the workers at the facility are of Indian heritage.
  
  A year earlier, in March of 2020, Hole's mother had contacted the local authorities and warned them of her son's intent to commit "suicide by cop", and of his purchase of a shotgun the day before. Police responded to her call and before taking Hole to a hospital they impounded the shotgun and they found links to white supremacist websites on Hole's computer. Hole was placed in an "immediate detention mental health temporary hold" by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. In April 2020, the FBI questioned Hole about the websites. Eventually, the investigation was closed due to insufficient evidence of any criminal violation or that Hole held any racially motivated extremist ideology; however, the shotgun was not returned to him.
  
  Subsequently, Hole legally purchased the two AR-15 style rifles from a licensed gun store, one in July and one in September of 2020.
  
  Reaction: On April 16, President Joe Biden decried the recent string of mass shootings in the United States as a "national embarrassment" and called on Congress to ban military-style assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. On April 20, Governor Eric Holcomb announced his intention to restore full funding for mental health services and bolster it over the next two years.
  
  On April 18, Hole's family apologized to the victims' families for his actions. Since Hole was confirmed to have browsed white supremacist websites in the past, the Sikh Coalition, a Sikh-American advocacy group, called on authorities to investigate whether bias played a role in the shooting.
  
  This massacre happened a mere 26,519 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• March 22, 2021, when 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa entered the parking lot of a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, CO and, using a semi-automatic Ruger AR-556 "pistol" and a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, began to fire at people.
  
  The first victim was a repairman who was killed in a van parked next to the gunman's vehicle. Al-Issa then walked towards the store; along the way, he murdered another person in the parking lot who was trying to flee, shooting him multiple times. Next, he killed two more people while entering the store. A man waiting in line with his family for his COVID-19 vaccine at the store's pharmacy witnessed the gunman shoot a woman at the front of the line before he was able to find safety in a coat closet with his family.
  
  Al-Issa had legally purchased the Ruger AR-556 pistol six days previously at a local gun shop in Arvada that used Colorado's universal background check law, even though Al-Issa was previously convicted of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor with a sentencing maximum of 18 months in county jail. Federal firearms laws only prohibit weapons purchases for those convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor with a prison term of over 24 months.
  
  Reaction: President Joe Biden called for an immediate ban on assault weapons; other Democratic politicians echoed his sentiments, including U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, U.S. Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado, and former President Barack Obama. Biden also urged that loopholes be closed in the background check system. Vice President Kamala Harris responded to the mass shootings by discussing the need for gun reform legislation.
  
  Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri criticized the renewed push for gun control, saying that they believe gun control does not help lessen crime. In the Colorado General Assembly, which is fully controlled by Democrats, Republican lawmakers acknowledged the difficulties of preventing gun reform legislation and have declared their intent to focus on mental health legislation as a preventive measure.
  
  This massacre happened a mere 26,495 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• March 16, 2021, when Robert Aaron Long, age 21, legally purchased a 9mm semi-automatic pistol at Big Woods Goods, a firearms store and indoor gun range in Cherokee County, GA. Later that same day Long fatally shot four people in Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County and wounded one. He then proceded to Atlanta, where he murdered three women in Gold Massage Spa and another woman in Aromatherapy Spa. Six of the victims were women of Asian descent.
  
  Long was on his way to Florida when he was apprehended four hours after the last shooting. According to police, Long described his actions as being the result of a sex addiction that conflicted with his religious beliefs.
  
  Reaction: On April 14, following the shootings and the overall rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, the U.S. Senate voted 92–6 to advance the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would allow the U.S. Justice Department to review hate crimes related to COVID-19 and establish an online database.
  
  This massacre happened a mere 26,489 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• August 31, 2019, when 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator , using "an AR-type rifle", shot multiple people from a vehicle in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa. Eight people were killed, including Ator, and 25 people were injured, including three police officers. Ator had been fired from his job that morning.
  
  In January 2014, Ator failed a national criminal background check when he tried to purchase a gun; the system flagged him as ineligible because of a prior local court determination that he was mentally unfit. Ator subsequently bought the gun he used in the shooting through a private sale, without having to go through a background check.
  
  Reaction: Democrats generally urged more gun restriction laws, while Republicans offered thoughts and prayers, called for cultural changes, and pointed out mental illness issues.
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,926 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• August 3rd, 2019, when, at around 10:30 AM on Saturday August 3rd, 2019, Patrick Wood Crusius, age 21 from a Dallas, Texas suburb 650 miles from El Paso, walked into an El Paso Walmart Supercenter and using a WASR-10 rifle (an AK-47-like assault weapon) with large-capacity magazine, murdered 23 people and wounded 24 more. The victims included three Mexican citizens killed and seven others wounded. Crusius told investigators afterward that he set out to kill as many Mexicans as he could.
  
  Less than 14 hours later, 24-year-old Connor Betts murdered nine, including his sister, and injured 27 in a nightclub district of downtown Dayton, Ohio. Betts used an assault-style weapon—a .223 caliber "pistol"—with a 100-round drum magazine. Police responded quickly, and Betts was shot within a minute after he began firing, which means he was able to hit a fresh human target every second or so that he was shooting.
  
  It's quite possible that both these massacres were inspired by a similar shooting the weekend before. 19-year-old Santino William Legan snuck into the Gilroy, California, Garlic Festival and used a WASR-10 rifle with a 75-round drum magazine and five 40-round magazines to murder three, including 6-year-old Stephen Romero, and wound 15 others.
  
  A year later, Adria Renee Gonzales, survivor of the El Paso shooting who led many people in the store to safety, reflected on how the horror affected her and her community.
  
  Reaction: President Trump: “We have to get it stopped. This has been going on for years." and "We've done actually a lot, but perhaps more has to be done." House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, cited the influence of social media and video games or mentioned mental health problems. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.): “A lot of folks say that prayers don’t matter. Well, I will disagree with them vehemently."
  
  Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.): “Why run for Congress if you aren’t prepared to pass laws that make people safer? These shooters, contemplating mass slaughter, take note of their government’s inaction, and they infer this silence as endorsement.”
  
  Jeff Tiedrich tweeted: "#BREAKING: Well-regulated Militia Opens Fire in Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas; Cheap Thoughts and Useless Prayers Now Being Rushed to the Scene ... more on this soon-to-be-forgotten-and-then-repeated story as it develops ..."
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,898 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• October 28, 2018, when, at around 9:50 on the morning of Shabbat, Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  With an AR-15 assault rifle and three Glock .357 handguns he murdered eleven congregants ranging in age from 54 to 97. In addition, six people were wounded including four police officers. This was the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the United States.
  
  An ATF investigation found that Bowers owned 10 guns in total, all purchased and possessed legally: the four found at the synagogue; three handguns and two rifles recovered from his residence; and a shotgun recovered from his car outside the synagogue.
  
  On the day before the shooting, Bowers posted a link to a page from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a Jewish nonprofit that aids refugees. The HIAS link listed congregations across the country that held Shabbat services this month for refugees — including several synagogues in Pittsburgh. "Why hello there HIAS! You like to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us? We appreciate the list of friends you have provided," Bowers wrote.
  
  In a post about two hours before the shooting, he wrote: "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."
  
  To gain perspective of one aspect of a massacre, here is a 13-minute video titled "The Last Doctors".
  
  Reaction: President Trump said he believed the nation’s gun laws had “little to do” with the shooting in Pittsburgh and suggested that placing armed guards inside the synagogue might have prevented the massacre. Vice President Mike Pence wrote, "Praying for the fallen, the injured, all the families impacted, and our courageous first responders. God bless them all." Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania wrote, "The horrific events that transpired at Tree of Life Synagogue are heartbreaking. I'm monitoring the situation. My prayers are w/ the victims, their families, & friends."
  
  Nancy Pelosi wrote, "Congress must finally act on commonsense gun violence prevention legislation."
  
  Bette Midler wrote, "This horror is escalating day by day. If only we had LEADERSHIP that would actually take steps to stop it."
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,619 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• May 18, 2018, when, in southeastern Texas, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student at Santa Fe High School, walked into an arts class and started firing. Over the course of the next 25 minutes, using a pump-action Remington Model 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver, Pagourtzis murdered eight students and two teachers, and injured 13 others. Both weapons appear to have been legally owned by his father. Various types of explosive devices were found at the school and off campus, as well as a Molotov cocktail.
  
  In related news, on the following Monday there were five arrests in the Greater Houston area for bringing weapons to school or making threats in the Friendswood, Huffman, Cleveland, Clear Creek, and Texas City Independent School Districts.
  
  Reaction: President Donald Trump expressed his condolences in a press conference shortly following the shootings, and said his "administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students".
  
  Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said, "Our schools must be safe and nurturing environments for learning. No student should have to experience the trauma suffered by so many today and in similar events prior. We simply cannot allow this trend to continue.”
  
  Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for all Texans to hold a moment of silence in honor of the victims, their families and first responders. (Also, he called off the raffle of a "Texas-made" shotgun that was to be a campaign publicity stunt.)
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,456 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• February 14, 2018, when, just before dismissal, as gates were unlocked at the end of the school day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz  entered Building 12 and began firing an AR-15 into four classrooms on the first floor.
  
  This is what it was like inside one of the classrooms. Cruz murdered 17 people including 14 students and three adults who worked at the school, and he wounded 15 others.
  From all indications Cruz was a very disturbed and violent young man and his actions were predictable and preventable.
  
  Reaction: In a tweet President Donald Trump wrote, "My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school". But in his comments about the shooting, not once did he mention the word "gun".
  
  Florida Governor Rick Scott said the shooting was "absolutely pure evil". He also said, "There's a time to continue to have these conversations..." about making sure "people are safe."
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,363 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• November 5, 2017, when Devin Patrick Kelley (age 26) fired his Ruger AR-556 in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, murdering 26 people and wounding about 20 more. Fourteen of the dead were children, some of whom were members of a family that saw three generations—eight members of their extended family, plus an unborn child—all killed within minutes. Other than the fetus, the youngest victim was 18 months and the oldest was 77 years old.

  
  Reaction: In typical politician speak, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said, "We don't need politics right now," and President Donald Trump said, "This isn't a guns situation."^[2] 
  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,262 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• October 1, 2017, when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock murdered 59 people and injured more than 500 at The Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. In his hotel room he had at least 23 weapons including four DDM4V7 rifles (voted 2017 Gun of the Year by Friends of NRA), three FN-15 rifles, an AR-15 rifle, an AR-10 battle rifle, an AK-47, and at least one made-to-order LMT rifle. Twelve of the weapons were fitted with still-legal bump fire stocks. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that all firearms found in his hotel room, along with 24 more guns found in his homes, are legal and had been legally purchased in the states of Nevada, California, Texas and Utah. In the month preceding the shooting, Paddock had attempted to purchase a large quantity of tracer ammunition, but the gun dealer he approached did not stock that item. (Question: Why would any civilian need tracers? And why didn't that gun dealer report Paddock to law enforcement?)

  
  Reaction: President Donald Trump tweeted, "My warmest condolences to the victims and families..." At a press conference on October 3, he said, "... we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by." Trump was asked whether the shooting was an act of domestic terrorism; he declined to answer. On October 4, in Las Vegas, Trump was again asked about possible legislative action on guns. "We're not going to talk about that today," he responded. "We won't talk about that."

  
  This massacre happened a mere 25,227 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• October 1, 2016, when Chris Harper-Mercer (age 26), a student enrolled at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon, fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in a classroom. Eight others were injured. The killer brought with him to the campus a Smith & Wesson M99, a Smith & Wesson M642-2, a Taurus PT24/7, a Hi-Point CF-380, a Glock 19, and a Del-Ton DTI-15 5.56x45mm semi-automatic rifle (which he didn't use). Harper-Mercer gave a survivor numerous writings showing he had studied mass killings, including the 2014 killing spree at Isla Vista, California. The writings expressed his sexual frustration as a virgin, his animosity toward black men, and a sense of a lack of fulfillment in his isolated life. In them he said, "Other people think I'm crazy, but I'm not. I'm the sane one," and he stated that he would be "welcomed in Hell and embraced by the devil." He also reportedly admired the perpetrator of the WDBJ shooting for the fame the killer received, and wrote that: "A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day."

  
  Reaction: In a statement President Barack Obama said that "thoughts and prayers [do] not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel, and it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted some place else in America next week or a couple months from now."

  
  This massacre happened a mere 24,862 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• June 12, 2016, when Omar Saddiqui Mateen (age 29), an American Muslim born in New Hyde Park, New York, entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. A former coworker said Mateen "had talked about killing people", used slurs and "had a lot of hatred for people. Black people, women, he did not like Jews, he did not like Hispanics, nor did he like gay or lesbian people." The killer used a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol to murder 49 people and injure 58.

  
  Reaction: "We pray for those brutally attacked in Orlando... the victims & families will not be forgotten." -- House Speaker Paul Ryan (who, I'm betting, has forgotten the names of the 107 victims.)

  
  This massacre happened a mere 24,751 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• December 2, 2015, when Syed Rizwan Farook (28) and Tashfeen Malik (29) showed up at a holiday party attended by 75-80 invitees at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center. The couple wore ski masks and black tactical gear (including load-bearing vests holding magazines and ammunition) and carried a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle, a DPMS A-15 rifle, a Savage Arms 64F rifle, a Llama 9mm pistol, and a Springfield Armory 9mm pistol. The entire shooting took two or three minutes during which the shooters fired more than 100 bullets, murdering 14 people and injuring 24.

  
  Reaction: "Good luck to law enforcement and God bless." -- Candidate Donald J. Trump

  
  This massacre happened a mere 24,558 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• June 17, 2015, when domestic terrorist and white supremacist Dylann Storm Roof (21) entered the basement of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina and, firing a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun, murdered nine people (including the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney) during a prayer service. Three other victims survived. According to the FBI, a competent background check would have prevented Roof from buying the gun. The morning after the attack, police arrested Roof in Shelby, North Carolina. Roof confessed to committing the shooting in the hope of igniting a race war. The shooting targeted one of the United States' oldest black churches, which has long been a site for community organization around civil rights.
  
  Reaction: Roof was sentenced to death. Democratic presidential candidates focused on the need for gun legislation, while Republicans called for the removal of Confederate flags and decried the fact that the killing took place in a church.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 24,400 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• May 23, 2014, when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), before committing suicide.
  
  The attack began when Rodger stabbed three men to death in his apartment, apparently one by one on their arrival. Approximately three hours later, he drove to a sorority house but failed to gain access. He then shot three women outside, two of whom died. He next drove past a nearby deli and shot to death a male student who was inside. He then began to drive through Isla Vista, shooting and wounding several pedestrians from his car and striking several others with his car. Rodger exchanged gunfire with police twice during the attack.
  
  Later police found him dead in his car with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. In the car were a Glock 34 pistol and two SIG Sauer P226 pistols (all of which he had bought legally), the knives used to kill the three men at the apartment, six empty ten-round magazines and 548 rounds of unspent ammunition, all found in ten-round magazines or ammunition boxes.
  
  Before the massacre Rodger had written a 107,000-word manifesto titled My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger. He also published a YouTube video titled "Elliot Rodger's Retribution" in which he complained of being rejected by women while envying sexually active men, and described details of his upcoming attack, laying out his motives and plans. In the wake of the killings, the video was deleted from Rodger's account but copies have been repeatedly re-posted by other users.
  
  Reaction: On September 30, 2014, in the wake of the incident, California legislators passed a "red flag law" to enable a person to ask a judge to have guns seized from a family member who they feel is a danger to themselves or to others. The gun owner will have an opportunity to contest the seizure. Gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, opposed the legislation. The law went into effect in 2016.
  
  In 2018 the BBC News published an article titled Elliot Rodger: How misogynist killer became 'incel hero'.
  
  
  This massacre happened a mere 24,000 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
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• December 14, 2012, when Adam Lanza (20) entered Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered twenty tiny innocents ages 6 and 7, and six adults, and wounded two.
  
  Lanza used a Bushmaster XM15-E2S, a Sig Sauer P226 and a Glock 20SF.

  
  Reaction: A week later, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre said gun-free school zones attract killers and that a gun ban would not protect Americans. He called on Congress to appropriate funds to hire armed police officers for every American school. In related news, ten states passed laws that relaxed gun restrictions.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 23,475 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• July 20, 2012, when James Eagan Holmes (24) entered a Century movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and murdered twelve people and wounded 58 (one of the wounded was Joshua Nowlan). Holmes used two tear gas grenades, a Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport rifle with a 100-round drum magazine, a Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun, and a Glock 22 pistol. He fired 76 shots in the theater: six from the shotgun, 65 from the semi-automatic rifle (which then jammed), and five from the .40-caliber handgun.

  
  Reaction: Colorado gun sales spiked after the shooting, with the number of background checks for people seeking to purchase a firearm in the state increasing to 2,887, up 43% from the previous week. Gun sales in Washington, Florida, California, and Georgia also increased. The shooting reignited the political debate on gun control, with one issue being the "easy access" Holmes had to semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, which were banned federally from 1994 to 2004. The results of a survey released on July 30, 2012 by the Pew Research Center suggested the incident did not change Americans' views on the issue.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 23,328 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho (23) killed two students in a dorm at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and later in the day murdered 32 students and faculty in the campus' engineering science building. The killer used a Walther P22 pistol he purchased online from an out-of-state dealer, and a 9mm Glock pistol with 50 rounds of ammunition. Fifteen months earlier the killer had been ordered by a judge to seek outpatient care after making suicidal remarks to his roommates. He was evaluated at Carilion-St. Alban's mental health facility. He purchased both weapons after that evaluation.

  
  Reaction: Over the next three terms, then-Representative Ron Paul introduced bills H.R. 2424 (May 22 2007), H.R. 3021 (June 24 2009), and H.R. 2613 (July 21 2011), all similar in that they would repeal the Federal Gun-Free School Zones Act. No form of the bill ever passed committee.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 21,406 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• April 20, 1999, when Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17) entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado and placed two 20-pound propane bombs in the cafeteria intending to kill hundreds of students, faculty and staff. When the bombs failed to explode the two began shooting, eventually murdering 12 students and a teacher, and wounding more than 20 others before taking their own lives. The killers had an Intratec TEC-DC9 pistol, a Hi-Point 995 carbine, a Springfield/Savage 67H pump-action shotgun, a Stevens 311D double barreled sawed-off shotgun, along with 99 explosives and four knives.

  
  Reaction: "It strikes me that an extremely small number of young people today have gotten on a very destructive path. They have headed down the road of anger and violence. They have not been acculturated with the kind of gentlemanliness and gentlewomanliness, not inculcated with religious faith and discipline, maybe a lack of values or whatever ― somehow it did not take. Maybe their parents tried. Maybe they did not.” -- Then-Senator, subsequently Attorney General, Jeff Sessions

  
  This massacre happened a mere 18,488 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

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• October 16, 1991, when George Hennard (35) drove his pickup truck through the plate-glass front window of a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. He yelled, "All women of Killeen and Belton are vipers! This is what you've done to me and my family! This is what Bell County did to me... this is payback day!" He then opened fire on the patrons and staff with both a 9mm Glock 17 pistol and a 9mm Ruger P89 pistol. He stalked, shot, and murdered 23 people, ten of them with single shots to the head, and wounded another 27. Approximately 140 people were in the restaurant at the time.

  
  Reaction: In 1995 the Texas Legislature passed a so-called "shall issue" gun law. This law required that all qualifying applicants shall be issued a "Concealed Handgun License" provided they passed the criteria detailed within the law. A Concealed Handgun License is mandatory in Texas for anybody desiring to carry a concealed firearm, but this law removed any discretion on the part of the issuing authority. Provided an applicant met the criteria, it was now a requirement that the applicant automatically be issued a license to carry.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 15,745 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

☠
• August 20, 1986, when Patrick Henry Sherrill (44) entered the Edmond, Oklahoma, Post Office and killed Richard Esser, Jr., one of two supervisors who had verbally disciplined him the previous day. Sherrill then sought out Bill Bland, another supervisor who had reprimanded him. Not finding Bland, Sherrill then killed Paul Michael "Mike" Rockne (grandson of University of Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne). 100 workers occupied the small facility at the time of the attack. Fourteen people died at the scene, and six others received wounds requiring hospitalization; Sherrill shot himself in the forehead. The killer used two M1911 semi-automatic pistols and a Ruger semi-automatic pistol.

  
  Reaction: Congress passed the Firearm Owners Protection Act ("FOPA") which revised and partially repealed the Gun Control Act of 1968, prohibited the sale to civilians of automatic firearms manufactured after the date of the law's passage, and required ATF approval of transfers of automatic firearms.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 15,688 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

☠
• July 18, 1984, when James Huberty (41) walked into a McDonald's in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego with a 9mm Browning HP semi-automatic pistol, a 9mm Uzi carbine, a Winchester 12 gauge pump-action shotgun, and a cloth bag filled with hundreds of rounds of ammunition for each weapon. Over the course of an hour and a quarter he methodically murdered 21 people and wounded 19 others. He was fatally shot by a SWAT team member. Three days previously Huberty had told his wife he suspected he had a mental problem. He attempted to make an appointment with a mental health clinic but a series of mishaps caused a breakdown in communication.

  
  Reaction: A video titled 77 Minutes was made in the aftermath of the shooting. For business reasons McDonald's Corporation decided not to reopen the San Ysidro Boulevard restaurant; they moved the franchise to another part of town.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 13,099 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

☠
• August 1, 1966, when Charles Joseph Whitman (25) climbed to the top of the tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, with a Remington 700 ADL, a Universal M1 carbine, a Remington Model 141, a Sears model 60 Semi-automatic shotgun, a S&W Model 19, a Luger P08, a Galesi-Brescia, and a knife. Over a period of 96 minutes he murdered 13 people and injured over 30 before he was killed by Austin police. During the previous year, Whitman had begun to complain of headaches, a severe, persistent pain that he later described as “tremendous.” He wrote increasingly troubled journal entries detailing his mental state: “Recently (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.” He had gone to the campus mental health center complaining of violent impulses. He left a suicide note requesting an autopsy to examine his brain, because he was convinced it would show some “visible physical disorder.” Autopsy revealed that Whitman had a brain tumor situated between his thalamus, hypothalamus and amygdala which had developed to the size of a pecan.

  
  Reaction: The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 prohibited interstate trade in handguns, increased the minimum age for buying handguns to 21. The Gun Control Act of 1968  ("GCA") focuses primarily on regulating interstate commerce in firearms by generally prohibiting interstate firearms transfers except among licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers.

  
  This massacre happened a mere 6,538 days after the 1948 massacre in Camden* so, clearly, we needed more time before we could talk about gun violence prevention and the unalienable rights of unarmed citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

☠
• September 6, 1948, when Howard Unruh (28) took what became known as “The Walk of Death” in Camden, New Jersey. Leaving his and his mother’s apartment with a German Luger P08 (a 9mm pistol) with two full magazines and 33 loose rounds, he proceeded out onto the street.
  
  In less than 20 minutes Unruh murdered 13 people and wounded three more. He killed a cobbler in a shoe store, a 6-year-old boy and his barber in a barber shop, an insurance salesman, three members of a Jewish family in their apartment, four people in cars on River Avenue, a tailor, and a 2-year-old boy.
  
  For a couple of years previous, Unruh had contemplated killing several of his neighbors over petty squabbles and perceived slights stemming from his homosexuality, which was illegal in those years.
  
  On Oct. 20, 1949, a Camden County judge signed a final order of commitment based on a diagnosis of “dementia praecox, mixed type, with pronounced catatonic and paranoid coloring.” In common parlance, Unruh was declared a paranoid schizophrenic. He was considered too mentally ill to stand trial, although his murder indictment remained if ever he were “cured.”
  
  Unruh has been called “the father of mass murder” because, despite a fusillade of gunfire by Camden police, he survived and was captured. Previously, mass murderers typically died by suicide or at the hands of law enforcement. Unruh was legend because during the remainder of his life—60 years in mental institutions—his psyche, motive and behavior were studied by psychiatrists and other pathology experts.

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^[1]   In Canada, on April 18–19, 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the RCMP. Wortman used two rifles, a Colt Law Enforcement Carbine and a Ruger Mini-14, and two pistols, a .40-caliber Glock 23 and a 9mm Ruger P89.

In stark contrast to the ineffectiveness of US politicians, eleven days after the Wortman killings Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the sale, transportation, importation, or use of "assault-style" firearms in Canada was banned effective immediately. Via Order in Council, the government re-classified these weapons as "Prohibited" under the Firearms Act, with a two-year amnesty period to allow current owners to dispose, export, register, or sell them under a buy-back program.

The prohibition applies to at least 1,500 models and variants, largely semi-automatic firearms (fully automatic and certain specifically chosen firearms were already classified as "Prohibited"), including the AR-15 and guns that had been used in other notable mass shootings in Canada, such as the Ruger Mini-14, the Beretta Cx4 Storm, and the CSA vz. 58.

Two days later Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced plans to expand Canada's red flag law to include family members and others.

On March 13, 1996, gunman Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, killing 16 children and a teacher. The British government responded by enacting tight gun control legislation. In the 26+ years since, there have been no school shootings in all of the UK.

It can be done.  It has been done.  Just not here.

^[2]   As with so many things Donald Trump said as president, he could not have been more wrong here. The Sutherland Springs massacre was all about guns. In fact, if you scan this page, the account of every massacre on it is about guns, mostly.

It may appear that I'm glorifying guns and gun enthusiasts by detailing all the weapons used. I assure you the antithesis is true—see my webpages Why I Don't Own a Gun... and Guns and Violence.  Let me point out a few things about the above accounts:

• Note how many killers are teen or twenty-something males, and how many of those had mental/emotional problems that often others knew about.  And note the number and variety of weapons they brought to the kill zone.
• I've tried to create a linked reference to every gun used in every massacre listed. A few of those links are to manufacturers' video advertisements showing enthusiasts firing the weaponry. Note how often the advertisers use heavy techno music to match the euphoria of the shooters and their adrenalin rush from shooting.  Imagine a similarly pumped shooter, but one suffering from mental illness, and imagine him shooting in a crowded church or theater or restaurant or school or grocery store, with that same techno music running in his head.
• The NRA's response after every massacre has been to call for more guns in the hands of more people—"good guys".  How would that have worked in Buffalo, Las Vegas, Orlando, San Bernardino, or any of these situations?  Imagine yourself in any one of them, with and then without a weapon.  Would it make any difference?  Or do we need something else, something smarter, something more humane, something less profitable?