In 1966 a former U.S. Marine, Charles Whitman, killed his mother and his wife in the morning. He then packed some guns, made his way to the University of Texas, took a position high up in The Tower, the main building on the college campus, and proceeded to shoot at people below. He killed 16, injured 49.
In 1979 a 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, opened fire on the elementary school across the street from her San Diego home.
She killed two people—the school’s custodian and principal—and injured one police officer and eight children.
Five years later in San Ysidro, Calif., husband and father of two James Huberty made his way to a McDonald’s and began shooting at people inside and outside of the fast-food restaurant.
Before he was finally and fatally shot by police Huberty killed 21 people and injured 19.
The ‘84 shooting occurred three years after one man, John Hinckley, nearly killed Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States.
In 1991, a Texas man drove a vehicle into a restaurant and started picking off people with a couple of pistols. Witness and news accounts suggest his main targets were women but in the end George Jo Hennard killed 23 people, injuring 27 others.
Eight years after that two students at a Colorado high school methodically assaulted their classmates and the faculty at Columbine High School. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold succeeded in shooting to death 13 people and injuring 24 others before killing themselves.
In 2011 an Arizona congresswoman, Gabrielle Gifford, was shot in the head at a community meet-and-greet in Casas Adobes, Ariz.
Gifford survived the shooting but six other people did not, while almost 20 others were injured.
In 2007 a Virginia Tech student, Seung-Hui Cho, shot 32 people on the Virginia university’s campus. Seventeen others were wounded.
Five years after that, in Newton, Conn., Adam Lanza shot his mother to death then made his way to Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot and killed 27 victims, including children between the ages of 6- and 7-years old.
Last weekend Omar Mateen went to a Florida nightclub and shot to death 50 people.
Over the decades we have watched individuals use guns to kill people on a mass scale. We have seen men, women, teenagers and tiny children hunted, aimed at and gunned down for no other reason than waking up and going about their routine.
Even lawmakers, including a congresswoman and this country’s Commander-in-Chief have been shot at and nearly killed.
And still, nothing has changed.
It’s as if we have accepted that mass shootings are a way of life in this country. So the question is not if one will happen again but when? Or where?
Why?
