Tag: gun-reform

On March 15, 2020, a mass shooting occurred in Springfield, Missouri. After firing indiscriminately from his vehicle at passersby, the 31-year-old perpetrator shot and killed four people at a convenience store before fatally turning his weapon on himself. The victims inside the store were identified as 57-year-old employee Troy Rapp, 46-year-old waste management contractor Shannon Perkins, and 22-year-old customer Matthew Hicks-Morris. A police officer killed outside the store was 32-year-old Christopher Walsh. Employee Jayne Gilson was shot five times but survived. Police officer Josiah Overton suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The perpetrator’s weapons included a 7.62×39mm SKS semi-automatic rifle and a 9×19mm Glock semi-automatic pistol. In a search of the perpetrator’s residence, police recovered accessories, including ammunition and magazines, for the SKS rifle and Glock pistol used in the attack.

On February 26, 2020, a mass shooting occurred at the Molson Coors Beverage Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The perpetrator shot and killed five coworkers before fatally turning the gun on himself. His weapons were a .45-caliber Springfield XD(M) semi-automatic pistol equipped with a Dead Air Armament Ghost suppressor and a .40-caliber Walther P99C semi-automatic pistol.

• Jesus Valle Jr. (33)
• Gennady Levshetz (61)
• Trevor Wetselaar (33)
• Dana Walk (57)
• Dale Hudson (60)

An antisemitic terrorist attack took place at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2019. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services. The perpetrator was armed with a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and three Glock .357 SIG semi-automatic pistols. According to authorities, all four weapons were fired, killing eleven people and wounding six, including several Holocaust survivors.

Those killed were:

• Joyce Fienberg (75)
• Richard Gottfired (65)
• Rose Mallinger (97)
• Jerry Rabinowitz (66)
• Cecil Rosenthal (59)
• David Rosenthal (54)
• Bernice Simon (84)
• Sylvan Simon (86)
• Daniel Stein (71)
• Melvin Wax (88)
• Irving Younger (69)

Seven others injured in the incident included three other congregants and four Pittsburgh officers (two patrol officers and two SWAT officers; three by ricocheted gunfire and another by glass fragments).

On October 31, the perpetrator was indicted on 44 counts by a federal grand jury. The charges carry a maximum penalty of death or 535 years in federal prison. The counts included hate crimes, 11 counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death, 11 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence, four counts of obstruction of exercise of religious beliefs resulting in bodily injury to a public safety officer, and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

On January 29, 2019, the grand jury indicted the shooter on an additional 19 counts, 13 of which were for hate crimes. Federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

By October 2020, the perpetrator was seeking a plea deal. In January 2022, he sought a change of venue.

In June 2022, a U.S. District Judge said he anticipated the perpetrator’s trial would take place in 2023, most likely between April and June.

The perpetrator was also charged with 36 state criminal counts, including 11 counts of criminal homicide, six counts of aggravated assault, six counts of attempted criminal homicide, and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation. The state charges are held in abeyance pending the federal trial.

On May 31, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The gunman, a disgruntled city employee, fatally shot 12 people and wounded four others. His weapons were a Glock 21 .45-caliber pistol and a H&K USP Compact Tactical .45-caliber pistol equipped with a suppressor. He shot two people outside the building, and then shot people on three floors of the building, seeming to fire without particular targets. He was finally shot dead in a gunfight with responding police officers.

Eleven of the dead were employees; the twelfth was a contractor who was in the building to get a permit. The dead are:

• LaQuita Chenoah Brown (39)
• Ryan Keith Cox (50)
• Tara Welch Gallagher (39)
• Mary Louise Crutsinger Gayle (65)
• Alexander Mikhail Gusev (35)
• Joshua Orion Hardy (52)
• Michelle Marie “Missy” Langer (60)
• Richard H. Nettleton (65)
• Katherine Anne Marie Lusich-Nixon (42)
• Christopher Kelly Rapp (54)
• Herbert Ray “Bert” Snelling (57)
• Robert Thomas “Bobby” Williams Sr. (72)

On February 15, 2019, a mass shooting took place at Henry Pratt Company in Aurora, Illinois, by a former employee using a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol with a green laser sight. Six people died, including the perpetrator, who was shot and killed by responding police officers.

The dead were:

• Russell Beyer (47)
• Clayton Parks (32)
• Vicente Juarez (54)
• Josh Pinkard (37)
• Trevor Wehner (21)

A sixth employee was shot and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and five police officers also sustained non-life-threatening injuries: four with gunshot wounds, one by shrapnel, and one non-gunshot injury.

At approximately 5 pm on September 12, 2018, a man forced his ex-wife, apparently at gunpoint, to go with him to T&T Trucking Inc., in Bakersfield, California, where he shot and killed a male employee with a .50 caliber handgun and then killed his own wife. The perpetrator then targeted another employee who ran away, but he tracked him down and shot him in his car as he was trying to escape.

The perpetrator then traveled to the home of a reported friend and shot both the friend and the friend’s daughter. He then carjacked a vehicle containing a woman and her child, who escaped unharmed. The vehicle was later spotted by a a sheriff’s deputy. When approached by the deputy, the perpetrator fatally shot himself in the stomach.

The victims were:

• Petra Maribel Bolanos de Casarez (45 years old)
• Eliseo Garcia Cazares (57)
• Manuel Contreras (50)
• Laura Garcia (31)
• Antonio Valadez (50)

On June 28, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at the offices of The Capital Gazette, an Annapolis, Maryland, newspaper. The gunman killed five employees with a 12-gauge Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun and injured two others as they tried to escape. The gunman had a contentious history with the paper and had previously sued them.

The dead were:

• Gerald Fischman (61 years old)
• Rob Hiaasen (59)
• John McNamara (56)
• Rebecca Smith (34)
• Wendi Winters (65)

I can’t get this quote out of my head:

“This is the second time in eight months that we’ve gone through tragedy,” Rep. Randy Weber, the area’s Republican congressman, said at a news conference, noting Hurricane Harvey’s assault on the area last summer.

I would let my house be flooded 10 more times if it would bring back these ten murdered students and teachers. I know that people lost loved ones in the floods, and my heart aches for them. But a hurricane didn’t “assault” us. It dumped trillions of gallons of water on us.

Not comparable to human slaughter caused by a teenager with guns.

May 18, 2018, school shooting, Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas

Cynthia Tisdale, 63 (teacher)
Glenda Ann Perkins, 64 (teacher)
Jared Conard Black, 17
Shana Fisher, 16
Christian Riley Garcia, 15
Aaron Kyle McLeod, 15
Angelique Ramirez, 15
Sabika Sheikh, 17 (an exchange student from Pakistan)
Christopher Stone, 17
Kimberly Vaughan, 14