worst mass shooting in us history

worst mass shooting in us history

An In-depth Analysis of the Worst Mass Shooting in US History

1. Introduction to the Tragic Event

The event, along with its short buildup and a brief, specific and intense damage, matches the contemporary definition of active shoot without the use of guns. Nonetheless, due to its early time, it was overlooked in the recent literature. For that reason, and because it is another clear example of a social and societal problem that only recently has become a worldwide public security concern, in this article, we decide to analyze in depth the facts and the causes of the massacre occurred in Bath.

Introduction On January 8, 1930, at approximately 2:45 p.m., Andrew Kehoe—a disgruntled school board member of the Bath Consolidated School in Bath, Michigan—intentionally set off 500 pounds of dynamite and pyrotol (an explosive similar to dynamite) via a timing device. The explosion killed at least 44 people, and the number could have been as high as 59, depending on sources. This mass murder was the most violent and horrendous terrorist act of such a nature in the history of the United States. The massacre was premeditated and planned for months, if not years. Inspired by the opportunity to claim insurance money and fueled by hatred of the authorities, Kehoe declared war on the people he despised.

2. Historical Context and Background Information

2.1 The First Massacre The earliest school shooting in the United States occurred on September 6, 1867, when a young man fired directly on the teacher in the Robards School in Rockford, Illinois, for scolding his brother. The first victim was Lucy M. Wynn, Corey’s co-teacher, who was killed by a bullet in her back while trying to escape through a window with some of the children. This event took place approximately 100 years after the North American War of Independence, a fragmented historical context in which the United States was just rebuilding itself from the Civil War crisis.

The tragic mass shooting that took place at Virginia Tech will be analyzed through two different contexts—the first being historical. On the morning of April 16, 2007, the security at the Virginia Tech campus was compromised when a 23-year-old student at the university killed 32 students and faculty members. Over many years prior to this massacre, many tragic killings had already taken place in the United States, forcing the government, private sector, and academic institutions to address the issue from varied perspectives. However, none of these approaches has resulted in the desired social effect, which is reducing the number of incidents where someone massacres, indiscriminately, other human beings.

3. Detailed Account of the Mass Shooting Incident

In Holder’s Line workplace attack typology, the shooter remains focused on one target for as long as feasible. In the case of the Las Vegas Event, the multimodal strategy, which led to shooting at mass targets while they were trapped and vulnerable, would be classified as a pseudo-mass killing, due to the fact that mass-casualty shootings are the predecessors of mass killings. With a high amount of available ammunition, he was able to replace loaded magazines to fire in successive waves of fire at the concertgoers. Videos of the incident reveal that as the sound of rapid rounds diminished, heroes outside of the line of fire immediately emerged from the spaces concealed behind vendor/product tents and open spaces. These individuals made their way to the more critically injured and began to provide first aid to the wounded, often making use of items from vendor booths, such as table covers and t-shirt fabric, to create tourniquets.

Country singer Jason Aldean was performing on stage to a crowd of over 22,000 individuals in Las Vegas, Nevada, when he and his fans became the target of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada, converted his sniper nest hotel suite in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino into a marksmanship lair from which he fired thousands of high-velocity bullets on the concert goers opposite him during the weekend of October 1st. The attacker had previously broken out two windows to set his shooting pace, and as terrified festival attendees were fleeing to escape danger, the attack left 58 people dead, which included the 64-year-old Paddock. Additionally, over 500 people were reported to have been injured in the tragic incident. In essence, the location of the scenario, with such a high number of potential targets packed shoulder to shoulder, created the ideal storm for the ruthless killing of an unprecedented number of people.

4. Impact on Society and Gun Control Debates

“I don’t think it’s about gun control. This man was a lunatic,” said Trump earlier in the day. As both supporters and foes of stricter gun controls take to social media to debate recent tragedies, Las Vegas has seen an outpouring of support. Over 500 people have lined up outside United Blood Services to donate blood for the victims. The line, which stretched around the block, can be seen in a photo posted to Facebook by reporter Dan Ball. Numerous vigils are planned throughout the city and also across the country. Meanwhile, many of those injured continue to fight for their lives in hospital. More than 100 people were injured and transported to area hospitals for the worst shooting in modern U.S. history. “There’s no time for sorrow. Our community is hurting, but we are a community of survivors,” said Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman via Twitter.

5. Lessons Learned and Future Implications

Fourth, shame – respect for norms of conflict – may be lacking among population groups, or in male culture more generally. We observed that every respondent immediately checked for the gender of the shooter. Like a normatively forgiving fraternity guest list, public mass shooting in educational settings was familiar and expected. In general, whereas the public instinctively turns to law enforcement and leadership for help, an educational institution is primarily concerned with reputation, the avoidance of embarrassment, and perhaps legal liability. Fifth, coercive control measures were in extremely limited evidence at Virginia Tech. In a shooting that flooded three buildings, police knew the identity of the shooter almost immediately. Non-peaceful acts were in readiness, but none – either preparations for a response, or for proaction, or for prevention – were present. In similar fashion, the community expected to hear timely advice and information from the authorities but received no public warnings. Even after the initial morning murders and shootings, suspicion and fear that the killer was on the loose had begun to form, but in public statements, Chief Flinchum assured the public that a single event had occurred and the public was not at risk other than on the campus. Thus, there was no internal or external demand for police proactivity because the community and law enforcement shared a similar cognitive disability; uncertainty was a sufficient condition to lead both into a posture of waiting. Not until the second round of violence was the siege broken. Many still died, but rather than a fully established condition of safety, a herald of the eventual arrest – frequent high velocity information delivered in person by Undergraduate Renu Virk – appeared. Public relief was palpably and audibly communicated – among the few, and within an institution that neither was nor appeared to be in control. The subsequent storm of their private behavior combined with the awareness of students that the supposedly impenetrable columns could be penetrated if the barrier was consumed suggested a profound contradiction. The collision of need, authority, and control was perceived to be temporary because students, as agents of vigilance over institutional security, were needed primarily to safeguard an educational institution from liability and embarrassment, rather than the safety of students from dangerous agents. Even after students lay dead, this contradiction persisted until red tapes were shattered by firing bullets that adhered less stringently to the expectations of a peaceful day than they did.

The massacre at Virginia Tech afforded a number of lessons about the nature of mass shootings. First, mass shootings cannot be considered merely as an extension of common individual-level violence. The mass production of violence distinguishes a number of common situations from extraordinary occurrences. In the case of this particular incident, the calculations, preparations, and, we might add, mental state of the shooter make this an event quite different from the sudden combustion of rage that cultivates no future moments. Second, the ability of the killer to deliver repetitive violence on a scale historically associated with war indicates that the duty of leadership in public security is not only the prevention of crime, but the protection of society from the exceptional disorders that are unique to crime.