10 Minutes

“Today let us decide that there will be no more Newtowns,” is what Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said ahead of the vote to beef up gun control in the US.   Shortly after, the Senate voted 68-31 to approve the procedural motion that would enable further discussion on the bill.  The bill would expand background checks on gun owners, and even beef up security in schools.

I personally applaud our legislators' efforts to counter the events that have taken place; in fact it's about time, considering 5 of the 12 deadliest massacres have taken place under Obama's administration.  However, I don't think it will be of much use.

Here is a list of most (if not all) of the shootings that have taken place in the US since Columbine:

December 14, 2012. In Newtown, Connecticut, Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people.  He is considered mentally unstable.  He committed suicide.

 December 11, 2012.  In Clackamas Town Center, Oregon, Jacob Tyler killed two people with a stolen rifle.  He committed suicide.

September 27, 2012. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Andrew Engeldinger killed five people and wounded three.  He committed suicide.

August 5, 2012. In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, six Sikh Temple members were killed by Wade Michael Page.  Four were injured.  He committed suicide.

July 20, 2012. In Aurora, Colorado, James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded a total of 58 during the midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises.  He was arrested outside of the theater.  His attorneys claim that he is mentally ill.

May 29, 2012. In Seattle, Washington, Ian Stawicki killed five people at a coffee shop.  He committed suicide.

April 6, 2012. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jake England and Alvin Watts killed three black men and wounded two.  This was a racially motivated spree.  Both were arrested.

April 2, 2012. In Oakland California, One Goh, a former student, killed seven people at his former college.  He was arrested.  Psychiatrists ruled that he was unfit to stand trial and was sent to a mental hospital.

February 27, 2012. In Chardon, Ohio, 3 students were killed by Thomas “TJ” Lane at the high school.  He was later arrested.  He had been bullied and raised by an abusive father.  Some considered him mentally unstable; he was described as incredibly apathetic.

October 14, 2011. In Seal Beach, California, Scott Evans killed 8 people including his wife at her hair salon.  Evans was arrested.  In 2008, he had been diagnosed with PSD.

September 6, 2011. In Carson City, Nevada, Eduardo Sencion entered an IHOP restaurant and killed five people and wounded 7 others.  He was mentally unstable, diagnosed with schizophrenia.  He committed suicide.

January 8, 2011. In Tucson, Arizona, Jared Loughner opened fire at Former Representative Gabby Giffords.  He killed 6 people, and a total of 19 were shot.  He was arrested.  He was also diagnosed with schizophrenia, and his motives were possibly political.

August 3, 2010. In Manchester, Connecticut, Omar Thornton gunned down Hartford Beer Distributor after being caught stealing alcohol.  9 were killed and 2 were injured.  He committed suicide.

November 5, 2009. In Fort Hood, Texas, Nidal Hasan killed 13 and wounded 29 at the Army base. He was disabled and arrested.  Some claim that this was an act of terrorism and possibly religiously motivated.

April 3, 2009. In Binghamton, New York, Jiverly Wong opened fire at an immigration center.  He killed 13 and wounded 4.  He committed suicide.

March 29, 2009. In Carthage, North Carolina, Robert Stewart killed 8 people at his wife’s nursing home.  He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

February 14, 2008. In DeKalb, Illinois, Steven Kazmierczak killed six people and injured 21 at Northern Illinois University.  He committed suicide.

February 7, 2008. In Kirkwood, Missouri, Charles Thornton killed six people and injured two at the City Hall.  Thornton was killed by police.

December 5, 2007. In Omaha, Nevada, Robert Hawkins shot up a department store at the Westroads Mall.  He killed 9 people and wounded 4.  He had stolen the rifle used.  He committed suicide.

April 16, 2007. In Blacksburg, Virginia, Seung-Hui Choi gunned down 56 people and killed a total of 32 at Virginia Tech.  He committed suicide.

February 12, 2007. In Salt Lake City, Utah, Sulejman Tolovic shot to death 5 people and injured 4.  Tolovic was gunned down by law enforcement.

October 2, 2006. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Charles Roberts shot up an Amish schoolhouse.  He killed 5 young girls and injured 6.  He committed suicide.

March 25, 2006. In Seattle, Washington, Kyle Huff killed seven and injured 2.  He was arrested.

March 21, 2005. In Red Lake, Minnesota, Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend before continuing his spree at the high school.  He killed 9 people and injured 5.  He committed suicide.

March 12, 2005. In Brookfield, Wisconsin, Terry Ratzmann killed 9 of his fellow parishoners at a Living Church of at a Sheraton hotel.  4 others were wounded.  He committed suicide.

July 8, 2003. In Meridan, Mississippi, Doug Williams went on a rampage at his Lockheed Martin plant.  He shot 14 people and killed 7.  This was deemed a racially-motivated spree.  He committed suicide.

December 26, 2000. In Wakeland, Massachusetts, Michael McDermott shot and killed 7 of his coworkers.  He claimed he was sent back in time to kill Hitler and the last 6 Nazis.  The actual motivations were discovered as financial.

September 15, 1999. In Fort Worth, Texas, Larry Ashbrook killed 7 teenagers and wounded 7 more at a teen prayer rally.  He committed suicide.

July 29, 1999. In Atlanta, Georgia, Mark Barton murdered his wife and two children with a hammer.  He then killed 12 people and injured 13 before committing suicide.

April 20, 1999. In Littletown, Colorado, Eric Harris and Dylan Kiebold killed 13 students and wounded 21 others at Columbine High School.  They committed suicide.

The numbers go as follows: 20 out of 30 of those resulted with the killer being killed.   18 of those times it was a suicide, and 2 times the killers were killed by law enforcement.  1 time, in which the killer lived, it was racially-motivated.  5 of those times, the killer was suffering from some sort of mental issue.  1 time, it was a politically motivated spree.  Out of the 30 listed shootings, then, only three lacked these things: 1) The killer took his own life, 2) The killer was mentally unstable, and 3) The killer had extreme motivation such as political anger or racism.

One of the reasons we have punishments is to act as a deterrent to law-abiding citizens.  If you break the law, you will be punished; it's as simple as that.  Doesn't it defeat the purpose of having these deterrents if the criminal will simply kill himself before facing trial?

Adam Lankford wrote an article about a comparison between suicide bombers and killers.  He deemed that they're incredibly similar because 1) They have no desire to live, usually because of mental health problems, 2) They usually have a deep sense of victimization, and 3) They usually want fame and glory through killing.

The government can't cure all the mental issues and they certainly haven't stopped others from victimizing people.  Bullying and mistreatment will always take place.  With the way our media works and the accessibility of internet, the desire to be famous has never before been easily won and sought out.

Lankford writes, "If they had been born in Gaza or the West Bank, shaped by terrorist organizations’ hateful propaganda, would they have strapped bombs around their waists and blown themselves up? I’m afraid the answer is yes."

I agree, to an extent, that there's not a whole lot we can do to prevent these people from committing these crimes.  Limiting gun laws won't do it; one of the listed murderers killed two people with a hammer.  And his name wasn't Thor.  A few of those instances, the criminal stole the firearms and were too underage to purchase anything legally in the first place.

Laws won't stop the mental or heavily motivated individuals from doing what the aim to do, and aiming at innocent people that the government wishes to disarm for their safety.

So, while it's wonderful for the Senate and Obama to be discussing these new gun laws and changes to prevent these massacres from happening, I think a best defense is the one embedded in America itself; the 2nd Amendment guarantee that we can all own guns, and it SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED upon.

I think the best defense is convincing the sane that they might as well be mental if they're going to walk into a store and shoot everything up, and suffer facing armed civilians.  I think the best defense is an armed civilian everywhere you go to stop the people who are insane before they can harm any more.

The average police response time is, what, like 10 minutes?  Someone can empty a 30-round mag for a semi-automatic rifle in less than 6 seconds.  You do the math.

If you look at the stories of the people who committed these crimes, you'll see that they have issues and you'll find, not logic, but reasoning behind their actions and, no, not justification, but I suppose... it just makes sense.  You look at them and you don't think, "Wow, they really did that?!  That's so off-color."  Most of those individuals fit the crime they committed.  In fact, I suppose I could say that we're all capable of such things...

Regardless, they were not only capable, but properly motivated or had the right experiences and mental state to actually do it.

And what stopped them?  Gun laws?  Law enforcement's 10 minutes of response time?  Unarmed civilians?  It's happened 30 times.  And it will happen 30 more times.  And more after that.  I say it will go on regardless of the government's laws.  I say future occurrences will be limited or completely prevented by armed civilians.

According to the NYT's article in today's paper (4/12/13), increasing the number of law enforcement officers at schools hasn't really decreased the number of shootings.  There's really no statistic or data that suggests it's impacted anything.  It's only impact has been a huge increase in the number of arrests misdemeanor charges on minors.

This bill wants to increase the police activity at schools as a deterrent.  So, what are we going to do, beyond that?  Post guards at movie theaters?  So, the shooters decide to go to Wal-Mart.  Then we post officers there, as well.  And then they go to the next place that lacks guards or law enforcement.  And keep in mind, the entire time we're simply reacting to where people decide to go on their sprees.

Most will agree that our police force, unfortunately, is more of a reactive force instead of a proactive.

Remember, the people who committed these crimes cared very little about the law.  They avoided the punishments, 2 out of 3 times, by killing themselves or being killed.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this; I apologize for a very scattered and disorganized post.  I hope I sparked some thoughts, and I welcome your input.