Guns and Shootings: Mass Killings Without the use of Guns

When searching for solutions to mass violence, the guns are only one factor in the overall picture. There have been several cases of mass murder that did not involve firearms at all. What follows are some of those incidents, which had many of the same hallmarks as a school shooting without the guns.

Some feel these incidents are proof that gun control will not stop mass killings, which is sadly true. Some people are broken beyond what society can ever really understand. In places where guns are difficult to access, people have found other weapons sometimes to even more deadly effect.

Deadliest by far has been fire, which is why all public buildings are required to have sufficient fire safety measures in place. Overhead sprinklers, multiple exits, posted exit plans, fire safety drills. These are all in place to prevent further mass fire casualties.

Bladed weapons are the most often used in mass attacks, especially in places with strict gun control. Rarely do mass stabbings end with as many fatalities as mass shootings but it has happened when victims were unable to escape.Overall a knife is a close range weapon, and wounds are much easier to survive.

The worst school tragedy though was done by a farmer with a grudge and some fertilizer...

(Michigan 1927) EXPLOSIVES - What remains the worst school tragedy in US history happened in 1927 when school board member, Andrew Kehoe was responsible for a bizarre series of explosions that ripped through Bath. Destroyed were his farmhouse and the local school building. A total of 38 children, and 7 adults were killed, and 61 injured. Had officials not discovered the remaining explosives in time the death toll could have been in the hundreds.

(West Germany 1964) HOMEMADE FLAMETHROWER - Walter Seifert converted a garden sprayer into a flamethrower and filled it with an easily flammable mixture that could deliver a six-meter flame. He took his new flamethrower, a lance that was 1.5 meters long and a homemade iron centrifuge to the Catholic elementary school at Cologne, Volkhoven where he killed 8 students, 2 teachers, and wounded 22 others. After fleeing police, he poisoned himself and later died at the hospital.

(San Juan, Puerto Rico 1986) ARSON - A fire set by 3 disgruntled employees of the Dupont Hotel Plaza killed 98 people and injured 140.

(Brooklyn, NY 1990) ARSON - After arguing with his girlfriend at the Happy Land Nightclub Julio Gonzalez left the club she worked at and went to the gas station to purchase $1 of gas. He returned to the club and used the gas to ignite a fire in the stairwell and only exit. There were 87 killed, and 6 injured.

(Sweden 1998) ARSON - Shoresh Kaveh was disappointed that his reputation alone did not get him admitted to a dance without paying the cover charge. He and his friends blocked the exits and set fire to the building, 63 were killed and another 200 were injured.

(Japan 2001) KITCHEN KNIFE - Mamoru Takuma was armed with a 6-inch kitchen knife, when he wounded 13 first- and second-graders and two teachers. He killed seven girls, ranging in age from seven- to eight-years-old, and one six-year-old boy. He plead guilty and was sentenced to death... at his execution he stated : "I should have used gasoline, so I could have killed more than I did."

(China 2014) KNIVES - On the evening of March 1, 2014 8 attackers dressed in black entered the railway station and began stabbing people leaving 31 dead and 143 injured. The attack lasted just over 10 minutes before police arrived and shot the perpetrators.