HOW HIGH MUST THE BODY-COUNT GO?

[troglodyte]

A quick search brought this up (Charles beat me to the nitty-gritty). I deleted anything outside the USA. All others were left in entirity. A couple of the entries may not be directly school related but happened on or around school grounds. I felt they should remain listed.

I did a quick, and sobering, count. 99 dead, 159 wounded...not counting the shooters themselves...in 12 years.

A Time Line of Recent Worldwide School Shootings http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

Feb. 2, 1996 Moses Lake, Wash.
Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class.

Feb. 19, 1997 Bethel, Alaska
Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16.

Oct. 1, 1997 Pearl, Miss.
Two students killed and seven wounded by Luke Woodham, 16, who was also accused of killing his mother. He and his friends were said to be outcasts who worshiped Satan.

Dec. 1, 1997 West Paducah, Ky.
Three students killed, five wounded by Michael Carneal, 14, as they participated in a prayer circle at Heath High School.

Dec. 15, 1997 Stamps, Ark.
Two students wounded. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot.

March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Ark.
Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods.

April 24, 1998 Edinboro, Pa.
One teacher, John Gillette, killed, two students wounded at a dance at James W. Parker Middle School. Andrew Wurst, 14, was charged.

May 19, 1998 Fayetteville, Tenn.
One student killed in the parking lot at Lincoln County High School three days before he was to graduate. The victim was dating the ex-girlfriend of his killer, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis.

May 21, 1998 Springfield, Ore.
Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. Kinkel had been arrested and released a day earlier for bringing a gun to school. His parents were later found dead at home.

June 15, 1998 Richmond, Va.
One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway.

April 20, 1999 Littleton, Colo.
14 students (including killers) and one teacher killed, 23 others wounded at Columbine High School in the nation's deadliest school shooting. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. At the end of their hour-long rampage, they turned their guns on themselves.

May 20, 1999 Conyers, Ga.
Six students injured at Heritage High School by Thomas Solomon, 15, who was reportedly depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend.

Nov. 19, 1999 Deming, N.M.
Victor Cordova Jr., 12, shot and killed Araceli Tena, 13, in the lobby of Deming Middle School.

Dec. 6, 1999 Fort Gibson, Okla.
Four students wounded as Seth Trickey, 13, opened fire with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun at Fort Gibson Middle School.

Feb. 29, 2000 Mount Morris Township, Mich.
Six-year-old Kayla Rolland shot dead at Buell Elementary School near Flint, Mich. The assailant was identified as a six-year-old boy with a .32-caliber handgun.

March 10, 2000 Savannah, Ga.
Two students killed by Darrell Ingram, 19, while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.

May 26, 2000 Lake Worth, Fla.
One teacher, Barry Grunow, shot and killed at Lake Worth Middle School by Nate Brazill, 13, with .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol on the last day of classes.

Sept. 26, 2000 New Orleans, La.
Two students wounded with the same gun during a fight at Woodson Middle School.

Jan. 17, 2001 Baltimore, Md.
One student shot and killed in front of Lake Clifton Eastern High School.

March 5, 2001 Santee, Calif.
Two killed and 13 wounded by Charles Andrew Williams, 15, firing from a bathroom at Santana High School.

March 7, 2001 Williamsport, Pa.
Elizabeth Catherine Bush, 14, wounded student Kimberly Marchese in the cafeteria of Bishop Neumann High School; she was depressed and frequently teased.

March 22, 2001 Granite Hills, Calif.
One teacher and three students wounded by Jason Hoffman, 18, at Granite Hills High School. A policeman shot and wounded Hoffman.

March 30, 2001 Gary, Ind.
One student killed by Donald R. Burt, Jr., a 17-year-old student who had been expelled from Lew Wallace High School.

Nov. 12, 2001 Caro, Mich.
Chris Buschbacher, 17, took two hostages at the Caro Learning Center before killing himself.

Jan. 15, 2002 New York, N.Y.
A teenager wounded two students at Martin Luther King Jr. High School.

October 28, 2002 Tucson, Ariz.
Robert S. Flores Jr., 41, a student at the nursing school at the University of Arizona, shot and killed three female professors and then himself.

April 14, 2003 New Orleans, La.
One 15-year-old killed, and three students wounded at John McDonogh High School by gunfire from four teenagers (none were students at the school). The motive was gang-related.

April 24, 2003 Red Lion, Pa.
James Sheets, 14, killed principal Eugene Segro of Red Lion Area Junior High School before killing himself.

Sept. 24, 2003 Cold Spring, Minn.
Two students are killed at Rocori High School by John Jason McLaughlin, 15.

March 21, 2005 Red Lake, Minn.
Jeff Weise, 16, killed grandfather and companion, then arrived at school where he killed a teacher, a security guard, 5 students, and finally himself, leaving a total of 10 dead.

Nov. 8, 2005 Jacksboro, Tenn.
One 15-year-old shot and killed an assistant principal at Campbell County High School and seriously wounded two other administrators.

Aug. 24, 2006 Essex, Vt.
Christopher Williams, 27, looking for his ex-girlfriend at Essex Elementary School, shot two teachers, killing one and wounding another. Before going to the school, he had killed the ex-girlfriend's mother.

Sept. 26, 2006 Bailey, Colo.
Adult male held six students hostage at Platte Canyon High School and then shot and killed Emily Keyes, 16, and himself.

Sept. 29, 2006 Cazenovia, Wis.
A 15-year-old student shot and killed Weston School principal John Klang.

Oct. 3, 2006 Nickel Mines, Pa.
32-year-old Carl Charles Roberts IV entered the one-room West Nickel Mines Amish School and shot 10 schoolgirls, ranging in age from 6 to 13 years old, and then himself. Five of the girls and Roberts died.

Jan. 3, 2007 Tacoma, Wash.
Douglas Chanthabouly, 18, shot fellow student Samnang Kok, 17, in the hallway of Henry Foss High School.

April 16, 2007 Blacksburg, Va.
A 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Cho Seung-Hui, killed two in a dorm, then killed 30 more 2 hours later in a classroom building. His suicide brought the death toll to 33, making the shooting rampage the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others were wounded.

Sept. 21, 2007 Dover, Del.
A Delaware State Univesity Freshman, Loyer D. Brandon, shot and wounded two other Freshman students on the University campus. Brandon is being charged with attempted murder, assault, reckless engagement, as well as a gun charge.

Oct. 10, 2007 Cleveland, Ohio A 14-year-old student at a Cleveland high school, Asa H. Coon, shot and injured two students and two teachers before he shot and killed himself. The victims' injuries were not life-threatening.

Feb. 8, 2008 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
A nursing student shot and killed two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge.

Feb. 14, 2008 DeKalb, Illinois
Gunman kills seven students and then himself, and wounds 15 more when he opens fire on a classroom at Northern Illinois University. The gunman, Stephen P. Kazmierczak, was identified as a former graduate student at the university in 2007.

[shootthesheet]

[KC5AV]

One thing I see that you might want to correct.

Although the media tried to skew public opinion concerning Ms. Murray by referring to her as a former police officer, she had not worn a badge in over ten years

Should be Ms. Assam.

An excellent piece. Thanks for all that you do.

[stevie_d_64]

I sense discussions like this prove one thing...

Those of us who take the issue seriously enough to study, train and equip ourselves with the ability to take a life in the defence of life, value life more than those who would take the means away from us...

I wonder if the same thoughts and discussions are being considered in the Heller case that idealy should give pause to those that would like to completely take away our ability to defend ourselves, regardless of the place, time and threats against us...

I have always believed we take the responsibility, and are accountable for our actions...

I wish we could somehow put the same kind of burn (and liability) on those who do not trust us to do so...

[stroo]

Excellent piece Charles!!!

You might consider submitting it to newspapers like the New York Post or the Washington Times and web sites like the Town Hall Blog, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt. At least then it would get wider posting in conservative circles that are not narrowly focused on 2nd Amendment rights.

Do you have any issues with my cutting and pasting it to a couple other gun forums that I am a member of with attribution to you of course?

[Charles L. Cotton]

One thing I see that you might want to correct.

Although the media tried to skew public opinion concerning Ms. Murray by referring to her as a former police officer, she had not worn a badge in over ten years

Should be Ms. Assam.

An excellent piece. Thanks for all that you do.

Wow, that was quite a mistake! Thanks for catching it. My apologies to the brave lady!
Chas.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Excellent piece Charles!!!

You might consider submitting it to newspapers like the New York Post or the Washington Times and web sites like the Town Hall Blog, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt. At least then it would get wider posting in conservative circles that are not narrowly focused on 2nd Amendment rights.

Do you have any issues with my cutting and pasting it to a couple other gun forums that I am a member of with attribution to you of course?

I don't mind you posting it on other boards, either in whole or excerpts, but thanks for asking.

I'm going to call NRA HQ Monday and see if there is any objection to me submitting the article with a short bio identifying myself as an NRA Board member. I can do it without mentioning the NRA, but let's face it, that might help get some papers to print it as a contributed Op Ed article. I think it's too long for a letter to the editor and I don't want any creative editing done to make it an appropriate length.

Chas.

[anygunanywhere]

Excellent piece Charles!!!

You might consider submitting it to newspapers like the New York Post or the Washington Times and web sites like the Town Hall Blog, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt. At least then it would get wider posting in conservative circles that are not narrowly focused on 2nd Amendment rights.

Do you have any issues with my cutting and pasting it to a couple other gun forums that I am a member of with attribution to you of course?

I don't mind you posting it on other boards, either in whole or excerpts, but thanks for asking.

I'm going to call NRA HQ Monday and see if there is any objection to me submitting the article with a short bio identifying myself as an NRA Board member. I can do it without mentioning the NRA, but let's face it, that might help get some papers to print it as a contributed Op Ed article. I think it's too long for a letter to the editor and I don't want any creative editing done to make it an appropriate length.

Chas.

Charles,

Wonderful piece of work.

Anygunanywhere

[casingpoint]

Charles,

If you are going to submit your essay for publication elsewhere, you should correct your opening sentence to read, "There are many issues on which reasonable minds may differ." Or some other grammatical construction. Otherwise, an excellent piece. I suggest you offer it first to the Houston Chronicle as a guest editorial and counterweight to the anti gun diatribe of Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenburg.

[seamusTX]

If you want to be picky, the phrase there are can always be eliminated: Reasonable minds may differ on many issues.

- Jim

[twomarks]

Excellent!!!

If you want to get really picky (in light of submission to other places) - the second paragraph, second to last sentance, first word - I believe it should be "That's" or "That is" rather than "That" - but I'm not an English major.

Thanks again for a great piece - this will give me something to discuss with my friends!

twomarks

[tornado]

it’s time to say lives are just as valuable on university campuses as they are off campus.

While I can understand the need to pitch it this way for public consumption at first, I've yet to talk to anyone (though I've not talked to any hard-core anti's) who can tell me how my son's classmates would be less safe if I were carrying on the elementary school campus.

Anywhere a LEO can carry.

[casingpoint]

Charles can rewrite the opening sentence any way he wants, but my point is only that it must be grammatically correct or a busy editor may not get past it. Charles may indeed be correct, however, if the first sentence is simply over my head. That wouldn't take much.

[frankie_the_yankee]

I think the 1st sentence is fine as far as grammar goes. We could quibble about style forever I suppose, but I think it's OK as is.

The second to last sentence of the second paragraph should indeed start with "That's". Looks like a typo.

I think it would be great if you could get it published as an Op Ed column. And citing your position as an NRA Board member would increase the chances of it getting published, IMO.

To see how far we've come, think of where we were 10 or 20 years ago. Essays like Chas' or the Newsweek article were unheard of in the MSM back then. When a mass shooting would occur, the media would make the psycho a household name and beat the drum for more restrictions of gun rights. From there we progressed to shall issue CHL, with certain areas declared off limits. (Usually this was part of the compromise needed to get shall issue passed.) Today, we are finally having the debate as to the rational basis for these gun free zones. (Last night, O'Reilly had two college professors debate the subject on his TV show.)

And this debate is, predictably, leading to the conclusion that there is no rational basis by which large, unsecured areas can simply be "declared" off limits with any expectation that such a declaration would have the desired effect (of making it a "safe" place).

When I got my first pistol permit in RI in 1992, I had been a gun rights activist for several years prior. Since my intent was to raise people's consciousness and proseltyze, I told friends, family, and acquaintances that I had obtained a permit whenever the opportunity presented itself. I figured that it would make people think about the fact that someone like me, a (more or less!) normal, law-abiding, professional, family man would, and could, actually legally carry a gun.

Most often, the reaction I got is that people looked at me like I had two heads. "You have a WHAT? Why would you do that?"

Shortly after that, Clinton got the Brady Act and the AWB passed.

Today, national magazines and news networks are debating whether to allow concealed carry on campus.

It's kind of a different world today, hey?

[Charles L. Cotton]

it’s time to say lives are just as valuable on university campuses as they are off campus.

While I can understand the need to pitch it this way for public consumption at first, I've yet to talk to anyone (though I've not talked to any hard-core anti's) who can tell me how my son's classmates would be less safe if I were carrying on the elementary school campus.

Anywhere a LEO can carry.

The article is actually for a target audience, but the legislation I propose is not limited to universities. The Governor called for CHLs everywhere and I agree.

Chas.