There is a list, an unfortunate, devastating and quickly growing list: the list of mass shootings in the United States of America. Mass shootings, most commonly defined as four or more people being killed during a single event, have become increasingly common in the U.S. The frequency and deadliness of mass shootings has escalated rapidly over the past decade.
The most recent addition to the list comes from a country musical festival in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 1, 2017. The Vegas shooting is the most deadly mass shooting in American history; it sent shockwaves through the nation and holds a strange parallel to the first mass shooting of the modern era.
On August 1, 1966 a man stood on the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower and gunned down unsuspecting victims below. Twenty-five year old ex-Marine Charles Whitman shot from over 300 feet above and wounded more than 30 people. He murdered between 17 to 18 people and was later killed by police.
Fifty-one years later, another shooter rained bullets down on innocent people on a much larger scale. In the years that separated these two massacres, the U.S. saw more devastating mass shootings, and the rate of these senseless tragedies rose significantly.
According to a study done by the British Broadcasting Company, there were eight mass shootings in the 1980s in the US. The worst of these took place at a crowded McDonald’s in San Ysidro, California in 1984. The gunman shot and killed 21 people and injured at least 20 more. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
The 1990s saw a large increase in mass shootings; from 8 in the 80s to 23. In Killeen, Texas at Luby’s Cafeteria, 23 people were shot to death in 1991 making it the deadliest mass shooting of the decade.
Eight years later, the Columbine High School massacre caused a striking realization that even schools were not safe from mass shootings. Two students killed 13 people at the high school in Littleton, Colorado in 1999. It became one of the most well known mass shootings in American history.
The 2000s saw even more lives shattered due to distressing mass shootings. A new shooting rose to top of the deadliest mass shootings list. On April 16, 2007 a 23 year old student at Virginia Tech shot and killed total of 32 students and teachers. The Virginia Tech shooting is the third deadliest American shooting in terms of death toll. Once again, a school was unsafe and people mourned and hoped something of this magnitude would never occur again.
Unfortunately, multiple events of that magnitude did happen again in a decade riddled with mass shootings before its conclusion. Since 2010, there have been 40 mass shootings as of press time, double the number from 2000-2009, and the decade has yet to end.
One of these 40 shootings happened at Sandy Hook Elementary school in 2012, leaving 20 six and seven-year-olds dead. Six adults were also shot, in addition to the shooter’s mother, bringing the death total to 27, making Sandy Hook the fourth deadliest mass shooting in US history.
Other notable shootings since 2010 took place in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the Washington Navy yard, a church in Charleston, South Carolina, a regional center in San Bernardino, California, a nightclub in Orlando and a music festival in Las Vegas.
The Orlando shooting took place at a gay nightclub called Pulse. On June 12, 2016, a 29 year-old gunman opened fire on Pulse killing 49 people. It became the deadliest mass shooting in US history, but it only held that position for about 16 months.
On October 1, 2017, the shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada became the worst American shooting of all time with 58 lives lost. The victims were attending Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three day country music concert. On the last day of the concert, around 10 pm, country artist Jason Aldean was performing the closing act for approximately 22,000 concert goers.
At that time, Stephen Paddock, a 64 year old retired accountant, was in his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Paddock shot down at the concert viewing area from 1000 feet away. Chaos ensued as concert-goers fled and shots rained down from above. A Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team was able to use explosives to gain entry to Paddock’s room, where they found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Paddock had 23 semi automatic rifles in his hotel room. The rifles were legally modified to fire like automatic weapons using an alteration known as bump fire stock. Using these weapons, Paddock also injured over 500 people. The police are still working to uncover Paddock’s motives, as he had no history of mental illness and no religious or political affiliations.
The horrific massacre in Vegas adds itself to the seemingly perpetual list of mass shootings. As the list of mass shootings gets longer, the amount of human suffering increases. The number of mass shootings is not just a number. It stands for the lives lost and those who lost family members, friends and other loved ones. It symbolizes those who fought or are fighting to overcome the injuries they sustained. It represents the communities forever impacted by these acts of violence.
