Never Let The Facts Interfere With Political Agendas

Never Let The Facts Interfere With Political Agendas

(Special Attention, NYC Mayor Bloomberg!)

On the following pages, there are some of the past mass shootings I could easily find on the Internet. These shootings involve people using various weapons to kill family members, fellow employees, random people in public, school students/teachers, restaurant patrons, and those in other places where groups of people may be found.

With the most recent murders in Aurora Colorado, a renewed effort is being made to ban certain firearms, or firearm related accessories. There are many people who will buy into such bans, based far more on emotions than fact, or even the Bill of Rights.

I have reviewed and provided summaries of the entries I found on the Internet. The cases listed below, WILL show the uses of so-called “assault weapons” and some uses of high capacity magazines/clips. But it also will show the uses of explosive devices, shotguns, revolvers, lever action rifles, hunting type bolt action rifles, sawed off 12 gauge shotgun, home-made bombs, hatchets, knives, and even a rope. More people have been killed by the use of NON-Assault type weapons. (On the other hand, ANY weapon used to kill another, IS an "assault" weapon!)

My point in this exercise, is to demonstrate that EVIL people, bent on murder, WILL use most anything to kill others, and other than an ILLEGAL alteration, or owned by a restricted person, ALL weapons used have been otherwise legal to own.

I would also add, that there an estimated 40 million so-called assault rifles owned by law abiding citizens (estimated from national sales). Of those lawfully owned, how many ever get used in a crime? That number is so small, it hardly measures up to the overall number. But to suggest banning something, that 99.9% of the owners/users do NOT un-lawfully use, is nothing more than “control” of people, not crime. (The failure to sufficently control evil people, is leading some to try to control ALL people.)

US Mass Shooting events since 1900

James Egan Holmes, on July 20, 2012, killed 12 theater patrons, and wounded 58 others, before being captured by the Police. Holmes used an AR-15 .223 cal. Semi-auto rifle., with a 100 round magazine (that jammed); a 12 gauge shotgun; 2 - .40 cal Glock pistols. Holmes also rigged explosive booby-traps in his apartment, in an apparent attempt to kill or maim additional people.

*No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
Holmes was captured by Police outside the theater, and is pending trial.

March 10, 2009 - Michael Kenneth McLendon  murdered 11 people, and wounded 6, in at

least two counties, in Alabama. McLendon used a SKS semi-auto rifle; a Bushmaster AR-15 rifle; a 12 gauge shotgun; and a .38 cal. Revolver.
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
(McLendon killed himself, during the shootout with the Police.)

April 16, 2007 - Seung-Hui Cho  murdered 31 people, and wounded 17 other students and employees at Virginia Tech. Cho used two handguns, a .22 cal and a 9 mm. Cho used extra 10 round clips, and the shootings occurred over a 2-1/2 hr span!
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

November 5, 2009 - Nidal Malik Hasan, an active duty U.S. Army Major at Fort Hood, serving as a psychiatrist, opened fire and murdered 13 people and wounded 29 others, using 2-Glock .40 cal. pistols, with extra and extended clips.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
Hasan was confronted at the scene by Law Enforcement Officers, and after being wounded in an exchange of gunfire, was taken into custody, and is pending trial.

March 21, 2005 - Jeffrey James "Jeff" Weise murdered 9 people and wounded 5 others in a shooting spree in the Red Lake Indian Reservation located in northwest Minnesota. Weise first murdered his grandfather and grandfather's girlfriend at his trailer home in Red Lake, an unarmed security guard, a teacher and five students at Red Lake Senior High School. The shooting ended when Weise committed suicide. He used a Glock .40 cal; a Ruger .22 pistol; and a Remington 12 gauge pump shotgun.
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

April 20, 1999 - Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold committed the Columbine High School massacre, killing 13 people and injured 24 others. The two then committed suicide in the library, where they had killed 10 of their victims. They were armed with 2 propane bombs (no chance to use them); a sawed off double barrel shotgun; and 2 - 9mm semi-auto firearms.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

July 29, 1999 - Mark Orrin Barton shot and killed 9 people and injured 13 more, in a workplace shooting spree. He had also killed at least 3 others, his second wife, Leigh Ann Vandiver Barton, and two children, Matthew David Barton (12) and Mychelle Elizabeth Barton (10), had been murdered by hammer blows before the shooting spree. Prior to the massacre, Barton had been a suspect in the 1993 beating deaths of his first wife, Debra Spivey, and her mother, Eloise Spivey, in Cherokee County, Alabama. Although he was never charged in either of the crimes - and though the note he left with the bodies of his children and his second wife denied any involvement in the 1993 murders - he is still considered a suspect in those murders by authorities. Weapons used: Hammer; Colt .45 Auto; Glock 9mm pistol; H&R .22 revolver; and a Raven .25 Auto pistol.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
Barton committed suicide before he could be arrested.

Oct. 16, 1991 - George Hennard killed 23 people, and wounded another 20 on, at a Killeen Texas Luby’s restaurant. Hennard committed suicide afterward.  He used 2 - semi-auto pistols.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

June 18, 1990 - James Edward "Pop" Pough killed 9 people and wounded 4 others in a General Motors Acceptance Corporation car loan office in Jacksonville, Florida, before committing suicide. The day before he had already killed a prostitute and her pimp, wounded two teenagers and robbed a convenience store. He was armed with a M1 Carbine and a .38 revolver.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

December 22, 1987 - Ronald Gene Simmons, Sr. killed 16 people over a week long period during that week, with 14 of the victims being members of his family, including a daughter he had sexually abused and the child he had fathered with her. He also wounded 4 others. He used a hammer; a crowbar; a rope; a H&R .22 revolver; and a Ruger .22 revolver.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

August 20, 1986 - Patrick "Crazy Pat" Henry Sherrill was a United States Postal Service employee who, in Edmond, Oklahoma, killed 14 employees , and wounded 6 others, with two .45 caliber pistols, at his workplace before turning one of the guns on himself and committing suicide.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

Feb. 1985 - Daniel Remeta, along with James Hunter, Mark Walter, and Lisa Dunn, went on a multi-state killing spree, murdering 5 and wounding 6, before being caught after a shootout with Law Enforcement in Atwood Kansas. Remeta was later tried and executed in  Florida. Remeta used a .22 revolver., and a .357 magnum revolver. (one of the Kansas victims, had been at my wedding with his parents, in 1971.)
Other than during the final shootout with Law Enforcement, No other victims had been armed and able to defend themselves.

July 18, 1984 - James Oliver Huberty committed the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre, which resulted in 21 people killed and 19 others injured. Huberty used a 9 mm Uzi semi-automatic (the primary weapon fired in the massacre), a Winchester pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9 mm Browning HP.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
He was killed by Police in a shoot-out.

March 30, 1975 - James Urban Ruppert is responsible for the deadliest shooting inside a private residence in American history. On that Easter Sunday, Ruppert murdered 11 family members in his mother's house at 635 Minor Avenue in Hamilton, Ohio in what is referred to as the Easter Sunday Massacre. He used 1 .357 magnum revolver; 2 - .22 revolvers; and a hunting rifle. The shootings only took 5 minutes!
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

December 31, 1972 and January 7, 1973 - Mark James Robert Essex killed 9 people, including 5 police officers who were targeted, and wounded 13 others in New Orleans. He used a Ruger .44 cal. Carbine; and a .38 cal. Colt revolver.

* Other than the ambushed Police Officers, No other Victims were armed and able to return fire!

August 1, 1966 - Charles Joseph Whitman killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the University of Texas campus. Whitman killed 3 of his victims by stabbing and beating; 3 with a shotgun; and the rest from his sniper perch, using a M1 .30 cal. Carbine, a Remington bolt action hunting rifle, and a Remington Pump action hunting rifle.
* Other than the Law Enforcement Officers, None of his victims leading up to the sniping of other victims, were armed and able to return fire!

December 1957 to January 1958 - Charles Raymond Starkweather, along with girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, had murdered 11 people in Nebraska and Wyoming during a two-month road trip. They were captured, and Starkweather was executed seventeen months later, while Fugate served 17 years in prison.
They used a .22 rifle; a .410 shotgun; a revolver; and a knife.
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

September 6, 1949 - Howard Barton Unruh  killed 13 people in Camden, New Jersey. Unruh is considered the first single-episode mass murderer in U.S. history. Unruh used a Luger 9mm pistol.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!
(He was captured by the Police after a standoff. Later to be found mentally incompetent to stand trial.)

August 22, 1928 - Leung Ying, aka Loy Yeung, murdered  11 people and wounded another 4 on a farm near Fairfield, California on, before escaping the scene. He was arrested by police the next day and sentenced to death on August 31, 2928 (Talk about a Speedy trial!!!).  Ying committed suicide in his prison cell on October 22, about two weeks before his set execution date. Ying used a .25-30 Lever action rifle, and a hatchet.

* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

May 18, 1927 - Andrew Kehoe, in Bath Township, Michigan, killed 45 people (including Kehoe) and injured at least 58 others. 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. He used 3 homemade bombs to kill his victims.
* No victims or by-standers were armed and able to return fire!

Important Note about the cases shown, and about the murder suspects ~
In MOST ALL such cases, the Murderer EXPECTS his potential victims to be UNARMED. Most people DO NOT carry concealed firearms, and bad-guys know it. Most of them are basically cowards, because they do not expect a gun-fight, but rather innocent and unarmed victims. They EXPECT to be able to shoot “fish in a barrel”.

POINT ~ MOST murderers, mass and otherwise, commit their crimes against UN-ARMED and DEFENSELESS people. Laws, signs, company/school rules, that command GUN FREE zones, provide bad guys with defenseless victims. Bad guys don't care about laws to begin with! (There's your DUH moment!)

My Summary ~
About 60-70 MILLION Americans lawfully own firearms of all sizes and styles. Combined, there are an estimated 200 MILLION plus firearms owned by those LAW ABIDING citizens. Firearm sales have increased every year, yet violent crime has been going down (per FBI data).
(In today’s news (7/24/2012), just after the Aurora Colorado murders, gun sales went up 40%!)

From the day of the Minuteman and the muzzle-loading rifles, to the taming of the West with Six Guns and Repeating Rifles, on to the modern semi-auto rifles of today, America has been and IS a gun society.

I would also add, that there an estimated 40 million so-called assault rifles owned by law abiding citizens. Of those lawfully owned, how many ever get used in a crime? That fraction is extremely low. To suggest banning something, that 99.99% of the owners/users do NOT un-lawfully use, is nothing more than attempting to “control” people, not crime.

As for Mayor Bloomberg - The REAL facts about firearms, DO NOT support your gun ban agenda. And as for suggesting that Police Officers go on strike until more gun laws are passed - BULL SHIT. How completely ludicrous for you to even suggest such a thing. Besides, as a former Law Enforcement Officer, I don't know any Cops, outside a very few in Admin positions, who support ADDITIONAL laws. What they want, is ENFORCEMENT of all those we already have.

 

FBI Homicide data summary from 2010:

Total murders – 12,996

Total Murders by Firearm – 8,775
Used Handguns – 6,009 (68%)
Used Rifles (All) – 358 (4%)
  (Even if you took the total number of “Other Firearms”, and added that 2,035, you would still only
   get 2,393 – 27%)
Used Shotguns – 373
Used Knives of other cutting object – 1,704
Used Hands, Fists, etc – 745
Other objects – 1,772
Other Firearms – 2,035
  The above totals include ~
    Justifiable Homicide by Law Enforcement – 385
    Justifiable Homicide by Citizens – 278