Tag: gun-reform

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

When I was in high school, the parking lot was full of pickup trucks driven by students. Many of them had gun racks, and often there were guns in those racks. It was the South. The students were hunters, and depending on the time of year and the athletic event schedule, hunting could happen early mornings or maybe on a Friday night.

Nobody ever took a shotgun or a deer rifle and turned it on their classmates on either of the high school campuses (very open, no security guards, no metal detectors) where I went to school. Such different times. I only ever heard of one student who was caught with a handgun in her bag, and we understood and were probably mostly compassionate about the reason she carried it. It sure wasn’t to use on her fellow students.

I’ve long-understood the perspective of hunters and gun enthusiasts who like to target shoot. I even understand a person’s desire to keep a gun for self-defense (like the girl in my first high school). But from the time I was a sophomore in college and researched and wrote my first paper on gun control (and did this with lots of discussions and consensus with my gun-owning, hunting boyfriend and friends), my belief has not wavered that there is something fundamentally wrong with our need to stockpile weapons that are meant for the sole purpose of killing humans. The second amendment allows: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

We have a well-regulated militia. It’s called the National Guard. Even they make fatal mistakes (Kent State, 1970). Still, as mentioned in the amendment, I don’t call for the “people” to give up their hunting guns, their self-protection, or even their hobby. But there is nothing in that amendment that says there should be no limits to what you own or its deadliness, or its ability to wreak mass carnage in a short amount of time. There is nothing that says you shouldn’t be a certain age, or be expected to be educated in gun safety, or be licensed, or be a registered gun owner. Your vehicle is documented. Your right to drive your vehicle is documented. Your voting right is documented. Your educational achievements are documented. You can’t drive or vote or get certain jobs without that documentation. And there you are, driving, voting, and working.

Stop crying like little babies when you’re expected to follow some regulations to possess guns. Babies shouldn’t have guns. Act like an adult.

And “leaders,” stop being held hostage by a group that has lots of money but not nearly the power you ascribe to it. You work FOR US. Year after year, in poll after poll, a significant number of your constituents have expressed their belief that we need to do something about the gun problem in our nation.

I never thought I’d live in a country that other countries have on their travel advisory because of our gun violence. That I’d read how people all over the world feel sorry for Americans because of the society we live in. We are SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS. Our children and students and fellow citizens deserve that we adults behave as our best selves.