More "Light Reading"...

Those who regularly read this irregularly updated blog will recall I recently posted about my opinions on gun bans and media attention directed at mass-murderers.  It's here if you haven't seen it.

Anyway, I have taken notice of the recent gun legislation being proposed by our Liberal Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is attempting to federalize the equivalent of our California state laws regarding "assault weapons".  This spurred me to do a little research based upon the cases I mentioned in the previous post, and see what were the weapons / means used in each incident.

The question I ask is, were "assault weapons" used in a majority of these incidents, and were they responsible for the majority of fatalities?  Well, let's check it out...

This is the exact list from the previous post, with one addition and one deletion.  I have included the North Hollywood shootout since AK type rifles were used by the suspects.  I removed the Ward Parkway incident since little is known about the incident and the dead were either killed away from the mall or in the parking lot during a confrontation with the police.  Each of the incidents is listed in the following format (Commonly used name, Location, Date, Method, Fatalities / Injuries).  All weapons subject to the proposed ban are in ALL CAPS ITALICS.

Brown's Chicken, Palatine, Illinois, January 1993, .38 revolver, 7 Dead

Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April 1995, Truck Bomb, 168 Dead / 680+ Injured

Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta, Georgia, July 1996, Pipe Bomb, 2 Dead (1 from a heart attack while rushing to the scene) / 111 Injured


North Hollywood shootout, Los Angeles, California, February 1997, AKM and AR-15 STYLE RIFLES (these weapons were illegally modified to fire fully automatic and were already illegal under state and federal law), 2 Dead (both suspects, one suicide by .45ACP pistol, one shot by police) / 18 Injured



Heath High School, West Paducah, Kentucky, December 1997, .22LR Pistol (also possessed a 12GA shotgun and a .22LR rifle, but not used), 3 Dead / 5 Injured

Westside Middle School, Jonesboro, Arkansas, March 1998, .30-06 bolt-action rifle / .30 Carbine semi-automatic rifle / two .38 revolvers / .22LR two-shot Derringer / .38 two-shot Derringer / two .380 semi-automatic pistols / .357 revolver (all stolen weapons), 5 Dead / 10 Injured

Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, April 1999, TEC-DC9 9mm PISTOL (illegally purchased) / HI-POINT 995 9mm CARBINE (illegally purchased) / two 12GA shotguns (illegally purchased and illegally shortened) / Pipe Bombs / Propane Bombs (failed), 15 Dead (two suspects by suicide) / 21 Injured

Red Lake Indian Reservation High School, Red Lake, Minnesota, March 2005, .40 semi-automatic pistol / .22LR pistol / 12GA shotgun (all stolen when the suspect killed his grandfather), 10 Dead (including suspect) / 5 Injured

Tacoma Mall, Tacoma Washington, November 2005, MAK-90 SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLE / semi-automatic pistol, 6 Injured

Capitol Hill Rave, Seattle, Washington, March 2006, 12GA shotgun / .40 cal semi-automatic pistol, 7 Dead (including suspect) / 2 Injured

Amish School-house, Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, October 2006, 9mm semi-automatic pistol / 12GA shotgun / .30-06 bolt-action rifle, 6 Dead (including suspect) / 5 Injured

Trolley Square Mall, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 2007, shotgun / .38 revolver, 6 Dead (including suspect) / 4 Injured

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, April 2007, 9mm semi-automatic pistol / .22LR pistol, 33 Dead (including suspect) / 23 Injured (17 by gunfire)

Westroads Mall, Omaha, Nebraska, December 2007, AKM STYLE SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLE (stolen), 9 Dead (including suspect) / 6 Injured (4 by gunfire)

Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois, February 2008, 12GA shotgun / two 9mm semi-automatic pistols / .380 semi-automatic pistol, 6 Dead (including the suspect by suicide) / 21 Injured (17 by gunfire)

Fort Hood, Texas, November 2009, 5.7mm semi-automatic pistol / .357 revolver (not used), 13 Dead / 30 Injured (including suspect)

Internal Revenue Service Office, Austin Texas, February 2010, Light Aircraft, 2 Dead (including suspect) / 13 Injured

Hartford Distributors, Manchester, Connecticut, August 2010 , two 9mm semi-automatic pistols, 9 Dead (including suspect / suicide) / 2 Injured

Casa Adobes Safeway, Tucson, Arizona, January 2011, 9mm semi-automatic pistol, 6 Dead / 14 Injured (13 by gunfire)

Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio, February 2012, .22LR semi-automatic pistol, 3 Dead / 3 Injured

Oikos University, Oakland, California, April 2012, .45 semi-automatic pistol, 7 Dead / 3 Injured

Century 16 Movie Theater, Aurora, Colorado, July 2012, Tear gas grenade / AR-15 STYLE RIFLE (less than 30 rounds fired) / 12GA shotgun / two .40 semi-automatic pistols, 12 Dead / 58 Injured

Sikh Temple, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, August 2012, 9mm semi-automatic pistol, 7 Dead (including suspect / suicide) / 4 Injured (including responding police officer)

Clackamas Town Center Mall, Portland Oregon, December 2012, AR-15 STYLE RIFLE (stolen), 3 Dead (including suspect / suicide) / 1 Injured

And most recently, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, December 2012, AR-15 STYLE RIFLE (stolen) / semi-automatic pistol, 27 Dead (including suspect / suicide) / 2 Injured

As I said in the previously mentioned post, this is by no means a complete, or even comprehensive, list of school, mall and workplace shootings or other mass murders.  It is only what I could readily come up with after a few minutes' internet search.

Based on the above list only, a total of 422 people died (including suspects) and 1047 were injured.  Of those, 170 (approximately 40%) of the fatalities and 791 (approximately 75%) of injuries were caused by explosive devices alone.

64 (about 15%) of fatalities and 112 (about 10%) of injuries were from incidents INVOLVING weapons subject to the proposed bans (I have not done the dead suspects the favor of including them in these numbers).  Not all of the deaths and injuries were caused by these weapons.  More people at Columbine were shot with the shotguns than with the rifle and pistol.  The shooter in Aurora fired fewer than thirty rounds with his Bushmaster before the weapon (or shooter, depending on how you look at it) malfunctioned.  Most of the dead and injured there were shot with a shotgun and pistols.

The vast majority of these injuries and fatalities not caused by explosives were caused by stolen or otherwise illegally obtained or modified weapons, or by weapons that are not even considered for bans.  Many were caused by non semi-automatic weapons or weapons with less than a ten round capacity.  Semi-automatic rifles and magazines with more than a ten round capacity are targeted in the gun bans.

The bottom line is this.  If these people are willing to use stolen, illegally purchased or illegally modified weapons to commit mass murder, how is making these weapons illegal to purchase supposed to deter future shooters?

The weapons were already illegal for these criminals to possess.  It did nothing to stop any of these people from committing their crimes.

So, please, tell me again, why should we disarm the general law-abiding population?

Is it to protect them from those who would attempt to kill them with illegal weapons that they will get anyway, as has already been proven?

I fail to understand the "logic"...