It is an illustration not only of just how common these shootings are, but also of the trend of usually young white males who seem to dress up as if preparing for war, and then to launch an attack in a public place, often randomly. Perhaps it is some weird form of protest, or, cliche as it may sound, a very sick cry for help.
Whatever we can label these episodes as, they nonetheless seem to spring up together. This may account for the trend of copycat incidents. That is what we need to worry about now, in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings last Friday.
You will note, perhaps, that Columbine is still labelled as the deadliest school shooting in American history, which it is not anymore, although the shock value of that particular shooting cannot be understated.
This list also shows that shootings are certainly not restricted to the United States, although the US has seen far more shootings, and often far deadlier ones, than any other places.
In examining this list, I was struck by just how long this list was; rather overwhelmed at the sheet number of such (usually) random shootings, and wondered what, if anything, we can learn from such a list? One thing that no one can doubt, is that these seem to be occurring with alarming regularity.
Perhaps one clue about what we can learn from all of these is how other countries responded, which is a subject that I elaborated on
Also, I figured I would add Wikepedia's page on a history of school shootings, which give details about school shootings going back to early in the twentieth century. I had no idea the history went back so far! It seems a pretty thorough and extensive list of school shootings (remember, it does not include other mass shootings, only those that occurred in school). Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
Time Line of Worldwide School and Mass Shootings
The
following table lists the worldwide mass and school shootings from 1996 to the
present. Find the date, location, and a short description of each incident.
Feb. 2, 1996
|
Two students and one teacher
killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his
algebra class.
|
March 13, 1996
|
16 children and one teacher
killed at
|
Feb. 19, 1997
|
Principal and one student
killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16.
|
March 1997
|
Eight people (six students and
two others) at two schools killed by Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri.
|
Oct. 1, 1997
|
Two students killed and seven
wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He
and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan.
|
Dec. 1, 1997
|
Three students killed, five
wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at
|
Dec. 15, 1997
Stamps, |
Two students wounded. Colt
Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in
the parking lot.
|
March 24, 1998
|
Four students and one teacher
killed, ten others wounded outside as
|
April 24, 1998
|
One teacher, John Gillette,
killed, two students wounded at a dance at
|
May 19, 1998
|
One student killed in the
parking lot at
|
May 21, 1998
|
Two students killed, 22 others
wounded in the cafeteria at
|
June 15, 1998
|
One teacher and one guidance
counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway.
|
April 20, 1999
|
14 students (including
killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at
|
April 28, 1999
|
One student killed, one
wounded at
|
May 20, 1999
|
Six students injured at
|
Nov. 19, 1999
|
Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot
and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of
|
Dec. 6, 1999
|
Four students wounded as Seth
Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at
|
Dec. 7, 1999
|
One teacher and three students
wounded by a 17-year-old student.
|
Feb. 29, 2000
Mount Morris Township, |
Six-year-old Kayla Rolland
shot dead at
|
March 2000
|
One teacher killed by a
15-year-old student, who then shot himself. The shooter has been in a coma
ever since.
|
March 10, 2000
|
Two students killed by Darrell
Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by
|
May 26, 2000
|
One teacher, Barry Grunow,
shot and killed at
|
Sept. 26, 2000
|
Two students wounded with the
same gun during a fight at
|
Jan. 17, 2001
|
One student shot and killed in
front of
|
Jan. 18, 2001
Jan, |
One student killed by two
boys, ages 17 and 19.
|
March 5, 2001
|
Two killed and 13 wounded by
Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at
|
March 7, 2001
|
Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14,
wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of
|
March 22, 2001
|
One teacher and three students
wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at
|
March 30, 2001
|
One student killed by Donald
R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from
|
Nov. 12, 2001
|
Chris Buschbacher, 17, took
two hostages at the
|
Jan. 15, 2002
|
A teenager wounded two
students at
|
Feb. 19, 2002
Freising, |
Two killed in Eching by a man
at the factory from which he had been fired; he then traveled to Freising and
killed the headmaster of the technical school from which he had been
expelled. He also wounded another teacher before killing himself.
|
April 26, 2002
|
13 teachers, two students, and
one policeman killed, ten wounded by Robert Steinhaeuser, 19, at the Johann
Gutenberg secondary school. Steinhaeuser then killed himself.
|
April 29, 2002
|
One teacher killed, one
wounded by Dragoslav Petkovic, 17, who then killed himself.
|
October 28, 2002
|
Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a
student at the nursing school at the
|
April 14, 2003
|
One 15-year-old killed, and
three students wounded at
|
April 24, 2003
Red Lion, |
James Sheets, 14, killed
principal Eugene Segro of
|
Sept. 24, 2003
|
Two students are killed at
|
Sept. 28, 2004
Carmen |
Three students killed and 6
wounded by a 15-year-old Argentininan student in a town 620 miles south of
|
March 21, 2005
|
Jeff Weise, 16, killed
grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher,
a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10
dead.
|
Nov. 8, 2005
|
One 15-year-old shot and
killed an assistant principal at
|
Aug. 24, 2006
|
Christopher Williams, 27,
looking for his ex-girlfriend at
|
Sept. 13, 2006
|
Kimveer Gill, 25, opened fire
with a semiautomatic weapon at
|
Sept. 27, 2006
|
Adult male held six students
hostage at
|
Sept. 29, 2006
|
A 15-year-old student shot and
killed
|
Oct. 3, 2006
Nickel Mines, |
32-year-old Carl Charles
Roberts IV entered the one-room
|
Jan. 3, 2007
|
Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot
fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of
|
April 16, 2007
|
A 23-year-old Virginia Tech
student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours
later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33,
making the shooting rampage the most deadly in
|
Sept. 21, 2007
|
A Delaware State Univesity
Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other Freshman students on
the University campus.
|
Oct. 10, 2007
|
A 14-year-old student at a
|
Nov. 7, 2007
|
An 18-year-old student in
southern
|
Feb. 8, 2008
|
A nursing student shot and
killed two women and then herself in a classroom at
|
Feb. 11, 2008
|
A 17-year-old student at
|
Feb. 12, 2008
|
A 14-year-old boy shot a
student at
|
Feb. 14, 2008
|
Gunman killed five students
and then himself, and wounded 17 more when he opened fire on a classroom at
|
Sept. 23, 2008
|
A 20-year-old male student
shot and killed at least nine students and himself at a vocational college in
Kauhajok, 330km (205 miles) north of the capital,
|
Nov. 12, 2008
|
A 15-year-old female student
was shot and killed by a classmate at
|
March 11, 2009
|
Fifteen people were shot and
killed at
|
April 30, 2009
|
A Georgian citizen of
Azerbaijani descent killed 12 students and staff at
|
Feb. 5, 2010
|
At
|
Feb. 12, 2010
|
During a meeting on campus,
Amy Bishop, a biology professor, began shot her colleagues, killing three and
wounding three others. A year earlier, Bishop had been denied tenure.
|
March 9, 2010
|
A man opens fire at
|
Jan. 5, 2011
|
Two people were killed and two
more injured in a shooting at
|
Jan. 8, 2011
|
Arizona Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords was shot in an assassination attempt. At least 17 others are shot by
a gunman, identified as Jared Lee Loughner, who opened fire on the
congresswoman's constituent meeting outside a local grocery store. Six people
are fatally wounded, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, and a
young girl.
|
Jan. 5, 2011
|
Two people opened fire during
a
|
April 7, 2011
|
A 23-year-old former student
returned to his public elementary school in
|
May 10, 2011
|
Three people were killed in a
parking garage at
|
July 22, 2011
Tyrifjorden, |
A gunman disguised as a
policeman opened fire at a camp for young political activists on the
|
Dec. 8, 2011
|
A Virginia Tech police officer
was shot and killed by a 22-year old student of
|
Feb. 10, 2012
|
A 14-year-old student shot
himself in front of 70 fellow students.
|
Feb. 27, 2012
|
At
|
March 6, 2012
|
Shane Schumerth, a 28-year-old
teacher at Episcopal High School, returned to the campus after being fired
and shot and killed the headmistress, Dale Regan, with an assault rifle.
|
March 19, 2012
|
Mohammed Merah, a French man
of Algerian descent, shot and killed a rabbi, two of his children, and
another child at a Jewish school. Police believe he had earlier shot and
killed three paratroopers. Merah said he was a member of Al Qaeda and that he
was seeking revenge for the killing of Palestinian children.
|
April 2, 2012
|
One Goh, a 43-year-old former
student at
|
July 20, 2012
|
During a midnight screening of
the film The Dark Knight
Rises, a gunman opens fire on the crowded theater. At least 12 people are
killed and 38 others are wounded. The suspect, James Holmes, set off a smoke
device in the front of the theater before opening fire. Directly after the
incident, Holmes, age 24, was arrested in a parking lot behind the theater.
|
August 5, 2012
|
A gunman opens fire at a Sikh
temple, killing six people and wounding three. Police shot and killed the
suspect, Wade Michael Page, after the attack. Page, a neo-Nazi, served in the
U.S. Army from 1992 to 1998.
|
December 11, 2012
|
Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22,
opened fire in the
|
December 14, 2012
|
Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20
children and six others at the
|
Sources: Newspaper reports.
Information Please® Database,
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment