Cierra Frye Frye 1 Professor Moore English 101 October, 2015 Mass Shootings According to WWW. NATIONOFCHANGE. ORG, a mass shooting is defined as an incident involving multiple victims of gun violence. In most mass shooting cases, the gunmen often have similar personality traits that go unnoticed before the actual incodent occurs. In other cases, these traits were detected by others but no effort was made to get the murderer the help that they needed before they took the lives of innocent people.
WWW. JAAPL.ORG states a list of characteristics that are very common among these murderers. Some of these traits include: men in their 20’s or 30’s, single or divorced, often tortured animals as children, extremley high IQ, suffered through childhood abuse, and have attempted suicide. WWW. MOTHERJONE. COM claims that since 1982, there has been at least 61 mass shootings across the United States. A frightning fact is that the gun is obtained legally in most cases. Another frightning fact is that the United States has the highest rate of mass shootings in developed countries.
Due to having a family full of gun owners, I know that extensive background checks are done before you can legally purchase a gun. They should consider adding an extensive mental stability check into the process of buying a gun. People are so fast to blame the shooters mental state when these mass shootings occur, so there is no reason why a mental check should’nt be done! Some of the most well known mass shootings in America include: the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, and most recently, the shooting at Umpqua Community College.
All three of these shootings were 100% preventable. Unfortanetley, we live in a society where these shootings are known as the “new normal. ” The shooting at Sandy Hook was the deadliest mass shooting in grade school or high school in American history. WWW. NYTIMES. COM states that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementry School happened on December 14, 2012 between 9:35 AM and 9:40 AM. The perpetrator was 20 year old Adam Peter Lanza and his target was his mother named Nancy Lanza, the staff members at the school where she worked, and the students that attended the school at the time.
Sometime before 9:30 AM, Adam had shot and killed his mother with a . 22-caliber action riffle at their home in Newtown, Connecticut. He then took his mothers Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and drove to Sandy Hook wearing all black clothing, yellow earplugs, and sun glasses. When Lanza arrived at the school, he shot through the glass windows located next to the the front doors that were locked at the time of his arrival. The first three people that seen Lanza were shot. Two of the three were killed.
Lanza then walked into the front office and walked back out, not noticing all of the office staff hiding under their desks. 911 was called as soon as he left the room. Lanza’s next stop was a first grade classroom where he shot and killed 1 staff member and 15 students. The rest of the students were hiding in a bathroom when he entered the classroom. He continued to make his way around the school, killing them as he went. The last shot was heard by the police at around 9:40 AM and was believed to be Lanza shooting himself in the head. The final death count was 28 including Lanza.
While investigating, the police found a 10mm Glock 20SF handgun, a 9mm SIG Sauer P226, and an Izhmash Saiga-12 shotgun, all were believed to be used during the shooting. Investigators later determined that Lanza had excessivly researched some of the biggest mass shootings and even researched how to properly commit suicide with the use of a gun. The signs of something bad happening with Lanza were definetley there, but nobody caught onto them before it was too late. Another major was shooting was done at a midnight premire of The Dark Knight Rises. According to WWW. WEB. B. EBSCOHOST.
COM, on the night of July 20, 2012, between 12:38 AM and 12:45 AM James Eagan Holmes entered Centrury 16 movie theater and began shooting. Holmes entered the room and sat in the front row for about 20 minutes. He then got up and went through an emergency exit where his car was parked. When he returned, he was dressed in a gas mask, a load-bearded vest, a helmit, bullet proof leggings, and gloves. Holmes threw two cans of tear gas causing the audience to have itchy skin and throats. He began shooting his 12-gauge Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun, a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle, and a Glock 22. 0-caliber handgun. 12 people were killed and 70 people were injured. The first call to 911 was at 12:39 AM and the police were there within 90 seconds. Holmes was arrested at 12:45 AM without a fight. He even admitted to the police that his apartment was booby-trapped. Holmes’ apartment contained over 30 hommade gernades that were connected to a control in the kitchen, and 30 gallons of gasoline. On August 26, 2015, Holmes was sentenced to 3,318 years in prison. This man was a genious and obviously put an extreme anount of effort into this mass shooting.
This shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. One of the most recent mass shooting occured at Umpqua Community College. WWW. NYTIMES. COM claims that the shooting at Umpqua Community College happened on October 1, 2015, between 10:38 AM and 10:48 AM. Christopher Harper-Mercer was a student who entered classroom 15 and shot the professor from behind. He was armed with 5 handguns and ordered all of the students to line up in the center of the classroom. HarperMercer then asked every person in line what religion they were.
If they responded and said they were christian, he told them that was good because they were going to be with god in just a second and shot each of them. The students could have easily lied about their religion after seeing the first person being shot for admitting to being a christian, but according to WWW. BIBLEHUB. COM, Matthew 10:33 says “But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. ” Not lying about their religion was such a brave thing for all of these student to do. The police arrived 6 minutes after the first 911 call was made.
Harper-Mercer then went on to get into a shoot off with the officers. He fired two shots and they fired three shots back, one of which hit him in the size. After 2 minutes of shooting, Harper-Mercer shot and killed himself. A total of 10 people, including Harper-Mercer were killed. HarperMercer had joined the Army in 2008 but was released five weeks later due to attempting suicide. He then went on to graduate from Switzer learning center for emotional issues. Investigations showed that he had looked up mass shootings such as the Sandy Hook shooting.
He also gave someone a letter expressing his sexual frustrations, hate for black men, and a list of all the mass killings he had researched. The letter also stated that he would be “welcomed in hell and embraced by the devil. ” This man obviously had issues and should’nt have had access to a gun. This was just another case that proved that a change is needed in the steps to process a gun. One of this countries biggest problem is how easy it is for someone to get a gun. Many of people fail to realize that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.
A lot of these perpertrators are young men who havent had the chance to get something on their record yet. Obviously only doing a background check isn’t working anymore. I feel that some sort of mental wellness check needs to be added to the process. Young teens could plan a mass shooting and get a gun when they turn 18. They’re not old enough to have a record so backround checks are obviously an unreliable method. With mass shootings happening as often as they are in todays society, there is no reason why a mental wellness check should’nt be done before allowing someone to purchase a gun. Its time for a big change.
