Facts You Can Use

Opponents of gun control, including the National Rifle Association, argue that the person who owns a gun is safer. Here’s some information you might find useful if someone tells you that. Most of the information here comes from the Wikipedia web site. If you don’t have time to read through all the material below, go straight to the statistics at the end. They come from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta.

The Disease
School shooting is a term popularized in the United States media to describe gun violence at educational institutions, especially the mass murder or spree killing of people connected with an institution. A school shooting can be perpetrated by one or more students, expelled students, alumni, or outsiders. Unlike acts of revenge against specific people, school shootings usually involve multiple intended or actual victims, often randomly targeted. To date, over 9000 people have been killed in direct relation to a school shooting event,

American Incidents
August 1, 1966 Austin, Texas, USA Charles Whitman pointed a rifle from the observation deck of the University of Texas at Austin’s Tower and began shooting in a homicidal rampage that went on for 96 minutes. Sixteen people were killed, 31 wounded.

December 30, 1974 Olean, New York, USA 18-year-old honor student Anthony Barbaro blockaded himself into a third story classroom at his high school and opened fire on those below, killing three people and wounding eleven. He later hanged himself while awaiting trial.

January 29, 1979 San Diego, California, USA Armed with a .22 rifle she had been given for Christmas, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire at Cleveland Elementary School. She wounded eight children and one police officer and killed two adults.

April 5, 1982 Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA Kelvin Love, a student at Garland County Community College, killed an instructor and another student.

December 17, 1983 Ithaca, New York, USA Non-student Su Yong Kim enters the Low Rise 7 dormitory and kills Cornell University freshmen Young Hee Suh and Erin Nieswand with a rifle. [16]

January 20, 1983 St. Louis, Missouri, USA During a study hall period at Parkway South Junior High school, eighth grader David F. Lawler used two pistols to kill a fifteen-year-old classmate and severely wound another before turning the guns on himself. [15]

January 21, 1985 Kansas, USA Armed with an M-1A Semi-Automatic Rifle and a .357 Pistol, 14 year old James Kearbey fatally shot his principal and wounded 3 other teachers and a student at Goddard Junior High School.

March 2, 1987 Missouri, USA After constant teasing and humiliation about his weight, Nathan Ferris armed himself with a pistol and killed a fellow student after he bullied him in class. He then turned the gun on himself.

May 20, 1988 Winnetka, Illinois, USA 30-year-old Laurie Dann walked into a second grade classroom at Hubbard Woods Elementary School carrying three pistols and began shooting children, killing eight-year-old Nicholas Corwin and wounding five others before fleeing. She entered a nearby house where she shot and wounded a 20-year-old man before killing herself.

September 26, 1988 Greenwood, South Carolina, USA 19 year old James Wilson opened fire at Oakland Elementary School, killing two eight year old girls and wounding nine others, seven of whom were children.

November 1, 1991 Iowa City, Iowa, USA After his dissertation did not win a certain academic award, Ph.D. physics student Gang Lu shot six people before committing suicide. Five were killed, including three professors. A student employee was paralyzed.

May 1, 1992 Olivehurst, California, USA Armed with a pistol, 20-year-old Eric Houston took hostages at his former high school, killing four people and wounding 10. His motive was his inability to find a good job due to the fact that he had failed a grade at school.

December 14, 1992 Great Barrington, Massachusetts, USA Armed with a SKS carbine, 18-year-old Simon’s Rock College of Bard student Wayne Lo killed a professor and a student and wounded several others.

January 18, 1993 Grayson, Kentucky, USA 17-year-old East Carter High School student Scott Pennington fatally shot his English teacher and a school janitor with a pistol.

November 15, 1995 Lynnville, Tennessee, USA The Richland High School shooting occurred when 17-year-old Jamie Rouse walked into the Richland School and shot two teachers in the head, killing one, armed with a .22 Remington Viper. He then fired at the football coach, but hit a 14-year-old freshman in the neck, wounding her.

February 2, 1996 Moses Lake, Washington, USA Armed with a high-powered hunting rifle and two handguns, 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis killed his algebra teacher and two students before taking hostages. He also shot a girl in the arm, who he released during the hostage situation.

September 17, 1996 University Park, Pennsylvania, USA In the Hetzel Union Building shooting at The Pennsylvania State University, 19 year old Jillian Robbins opened fire on students walking to classes, killing one student and wounding another.

October 16, 1996 West Lafayette, Indiana, USA On October 15, 1996 Jay Severson, 27 a Wiley Hall counselor at Purdue University caught Jarrod Allen Eskew, 19 of Crawfordsville, Indiana cutting cocaine in his dorm room. Severson called the Purdue Police Department but when they arrived Eskew had fled. Eskew returned the next day at 2:50 pm with a sawed off 12-gauge shotgun while under the influence of both marijuana and cocaine. Eskew went to Severson’s Wiley Hall dorm room and fatally shot Severson in the head. He then barricaded himself in his third floor dorm room. A janitor found the body a short time later. SWAT and police took up positions around Wiley Hall. Police evacuated Wiley Hall, attempted to negotiate, fired tear gas, and stormed the room to find Eskew had taken his own life with the shotgun. [14][15]

February 19, 1997 Bethel, Alaska, USA Armed with a pump-action 12 gauge shotgun, Evan Ramsey killed a student and the principal of Bethel High School, and wounded two others.

October 1, 1997 Pearl, Mississippi, USA 16-year-old Luke Woodham stabbed and beat his mother to death, then took a lever-action rifle to Pearl High School where he shot into a crowd of students, killing his ex-girlfriend Christina Menefee and her friend Lydia Kay Dew and wounded seven other students.

December 2, 1997 West Paducah, Kentucky, USA A 14-year old high school freshman opened fire on a prayer circle at his school killing three students and injuring five.[1]

March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden set off the fire alarm in their Jonesboro school and then, from the woods, open fire on classmates and teachers as they flee the building. Four female students and a teacher are killed, with nine other students and a teacher being wounded in the Jonesboro massacre.

April 24, 1998 Edinboro, Pennsylvania, USA 14-year-old Andrew J. Wurst went to the school graduation dance where he shot and killed a popular science teacher. He subsequently opened fire on more students, wounding another teacher and two classmates before he ran out of ammunition.

May 21, 1998 Springfield, Oregon, USA Kip Kinkel opened fire with a .22 rifle at Thurston Senior High School, killing 2 students and wounding 25 before being tackled by a wounded student. His parents were later found at home, murdered by Kinkel.

April 20, 1999 Littleton, Colorado, USA Columbine High School Massacre. Two teenage students, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold, carried out a shooting rampage, killing 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 24 others, before committing suicide.

March 5, 2001 Santee, California, USA Armed with .22 revolver, 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams opened fire in a boy’s bathroom at Santana High School, killing two students. He then exited the bathroom and shot at nearby students, wounding 13. Shortly afterwards he retreated back into the toilets where he surrendered to police.

January 16, 2002 Grundy, Virginia, USA Appalachian School of Law shooting. 43-year-old Appalachian School of Law student Peter Odighizuwa shot and killed the Law School Dean, Contracts Professor and another student; three others were wounded .

October 28, 2002 Tucson, Arizona, USA Three nursing professors are shot dead at the University of Arizona by a student failing the nursing program. Robert J. Flores, Jr., 41, shot and killed Robin Rogers, 50, Barbara Monroe, 45, and Cheryl McGaffic, 44 before turning the gun on himself. Two of the teachers were shot in a classroom and the gunman allowed the students to leave before killing himself.

April 14, 2003 New Orleans, Louisiana, USA At 10:30 AM, several men armed with an AK-47 entered the school gymnasium of John McDonogh High School and executed Jonathan “Caveman” Williams, a football player. The killers fired at least 18 times, shattering Williams’ face and injuring three neighboring girls.

April 24, 2003 Red Lion, Pennsylvania, USA Red Lion Area Junior High School Murder/Suicide. 14-year-old James Sheets fatally shot his school principal in the cafeteria of his middle school before committing suicide.

May 9, 2003 Cleveland, Ohio, USA Biswanath Halder, a 62-year-old man, opened fire with an automatic weapon on his former school, Case Western Reserve University. He killed one student, seriously wounded two others, and kept over 90 people hiding for their lives for seven hours.

September 24, 2003 Cold Spring, Minnesota, USA Rocori High School shooting. 15-year-old Jason McLaughlin shot Aaron Rollins and Seth Bartell at Rocori High School with a .22 pistol. Rollins died the same day; Bartell died October 10 of injuries sustained in the attack.[6]

February 2, 2004 Washington, D.C., USA 19 year old Thomas J. Boykin fatally shot 17 year old James Richardson at Ballou Senior High School. Boykin was later acquitted on the charge of murder.[7]

March 21, 2005 Red Lake, Minnesota, USA Red Lake High School massacre. Jeffrey Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Beltrami County, Minnesota, killed seven people including a teacher and a security guard.

November 8, 2005 Jacksboro, Tennessee, USA After reports that a freshman had a handgun, the principal and two assistant principals confronted student Kenneth Bartley Jr., who opened fire on them, killing one of the assistant principals and wounding the two others.

September 3, 2006 Shepherdstown, West Virginia, USA Douglas W. Pennington, 49, killed his sons Logan P. Pennington, 26, and Benjamin M. Pennington, 24, during a visit to the campus at Shepherd University before shooting and killing himself.

September 27, 2006 Bailey, Colorado, USA A gunman, later identified as 53-year-old Duane Morrison of Denver, took six female students hostage at Platte Canyon High School. After sexually assaulting some of them, he released four of the hostages. When 16-year-old Emily Keyes tried to run away, Morrison shot her in the back of the head before killing himself. Keyes was flown to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver, where she died a short time later. [9][10]

October 2, 2006 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States A 32-year-old milk-tank truck driver, took hostages and eventually killed five girls (aged 7–13) and then killed himself at West Nickel Mines School, a one-room Amish schoolhouse.

January 26, 2007 Los Angeles County, California USA Gang members entered Drew Middle School and opened fire. A 23-year old visitor named Demetrius Perry died.[11]

March 7, 2007 Midland, Michigan, USA 17-year old David Turner shot 17-year old Jessica Forsyth four times outside Dow High School before killing himself in the parking lot. [12]

April 16, 2007 Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
The Virginia Tech massacre was the single most deadly civilian gunfire incident in American higher education history. It occurred at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Thirty-three people were killed including the gunman (Cho Seung-hui) in two separate locations: the West Ambler Johnston Hall where two were shot dead and Norris Hall where the remaining 31, including the gunman, were shot. Over 20 others were injured in the violence that spanned 2 hours.

Incident in England
On August 19, 1987, in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, a 27-year-old unemployed local labourer, Michael Robert Ryan, armed with several weapons including an AK-47 rifle and a Beretta pistol, shot and killed sixteen people including his mother, and wounded fifteen others, then fatally shot himself.

Result
The massacre led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988[1], which banned the ownership of semi-automatic centre-fire rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than two rounds. The Hungerford Report had demonstrated that Ryan’s collection of weapons was legally licensed.

Incident in Scotland
In 1996, unemployed former shopkeeper and Scout leader Thomas Hamilton walked into the school in Dunblane, Scotland, armed with two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith and Wesson .357 revolvers. After gaining entry to the school, Hamilton made his way to the gymnasium and opened fire on a class of five- and six-year-olds, killing or wounding all but one person. Sixteen children and a teacher, Gwen Mayor, died at the scene.

Result
Following the 1997 General Election, the Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, banning the remaining .22 cartridge handguns, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. “Long-Arms”) that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a “Handgun” due to their dimensions.

Who is safer?
Rate of shooting deaths per 100,000 of population for selected countries.
* U.S.A. 14.24
* Northern Ireland 6.63
* Canada 4.31
* Scotland 0.54
* England and Wales 0.41
* Japan 0.05