Between 1979 and 2010, more than 100,000 children and teens died as a result of gun violence. It’s much higher now. In 2010 alone, 31,672 died In Chicago, 10,000-12,000 children are shot dead every year.
April 1999: Two teenage boys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. before taking their own lives.
July 1999: A stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Ga. killed 12 people including his wife and children, then committed suicide.
September 1999: A gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people, then himself.
October 2002: A series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington D.C., leaving 10 dead.
August 2003: In Chicago a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former co-workers.
November 2004: In Birchwood, Wis., a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument.
March 2005: A man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wis., killing seven people.
October 2006: A truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others at a school in Nickel Mines, Pa., before killing himself.
April 2007: Student Seung Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va,, before shooting himself.
December 2007 — A 20-year-old man killed nine and wounded five other people in a shopping center in Omaha, Neb.
December 2007: A woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Wash.
February 2008: A shooter tied up and shot six women at a clothing store in Chicago.
February 2008: A man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, Ill., killing five students and wounding 15 others before surrendering.
September 2008: A mentally ill man, who was released from jail one month earlier, shot eight people in Alger, Wash., leaving six dead and two wounded.
December 2008: A man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, Calif., then set fire to the house and killed himself. Nine people died in the house.
March 2009: A 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.
March 2009: A heavily armed gunman shot eight people dead, many sick and elderly, in a nursing home in North Carolina.
March 2009: Six people were shot dead in an upscale apartment building in Santa Clara, Calif.
April 2009: A man shot and killed 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, N.Y.
July, 2009: Six people including a student were shot in a drive by shooting at Texas Southern University, Houston.
January 2011: A gunman in Tucson, Ariz., killed six people at a rally, and one was only 9 years old. He wounded 12 others including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head.
July 2011: A masked gunman opened fire at a midnight cinema screening of a new Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, in Aurora, Colo., killing 12 and injuring 58. Suspect James Holmes was arrested.
August 2011: White Supremacist Wade Michael Page reportedly shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin before police shot him dead.
September 2011: A disgruntled former employee killed five people, then killed himself in a shooting rampage at a Minneapolis sign company from which he had been fired.
December 2011: Adam Lanza, reportedly mentally ill, fatally shot 20 children and six adults and wounded four others, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., before shooting himself in the head.
Sept. 16, 2013: Twelve people were murdered and at least eight wounded at the Washington DC Naval Shipyard, near our capital. The shooter was
Aaron Alexis a former employee at the shipyard, who had previously been arrested on firearm related charges. He was shot and killed by police. Alexis shot several carrying guns, took their weapons and continued on.
This mayhem must end.
But Congress will do nothing. The NRA, which owns the GOP, lock, stock, and barrel, thinks the only thing that would make America safer is more guns; guns in schools, guns in churches, guns at the movies, guns here, guns there, guns everywhere. That will reduce gun violence, they say.
They’re crazy!
Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains ... who are we kidding? Whether it’s the great planes of Nebraska or the mountains of Colorado, from sea to shining sea, America is stained red with the blood of gun violence victims.
It’s not beautiful.
Glen McAdoo, a Churchill County resident, can be contacted at glynn@phonewave.net.