Echoes of Columbine

There is only one single ingredient that every mass shooting has had in common, the gun. This is also the one topic guaranteed to bring out the highest emotions. Mass shootings are not uniquely American, but 31% of the worlds mass shootings take place in America, while accounting for only 5% of the worlds population. America is a gun culture, there is no debating that fact. 320 million Americans own around 350 million guns. The United States can now arm nearly every man, woman and child from shore to shore and still have guns left over. With numbers like that it might seem that every American owns a gun, but only about 40% of the population owns guns. while 3% of the country owns one half of all of the guns. By far the most common guns used in massacres are those that can do the most damage in the least amount of time. Semi-automatic handguns are the chosen weapon in over 70% of mass shootings. Semi-automatic rifles are a second choice, followed by shotguns and then revolvers. ...

School children being treated for injuries after 29 were wounded and 6 were killed in Stockton, CA. 1989 AP Photo/Stockton Record, File Date: January 17 Year: 1989 School: Cleveland Elementary School Location: Stockton State: California Wounded: 29 Fatalities: 6 Shots Fired: 106 Time lapsed: 3 minutes Police response time: N/A How ended: Suicide (before police arrived) Civilians involved: Shooter died before police were on the scene. Perpetrator:  Patrick Purdy Age:  24 Family history: Father was in the military, mother and father divorced when Purdy was a toddler after father threatened mother with weapon. Mother remarried, and neighbors report obvious signs of abuse and neglect through his and his siblings childhoods. It was said the children would be locked out of the house with no coats on, no supervision or guidance. He They moved frequently, and Purdy developed a reputation with the law at a very young age. Child p...