I awoke this morning, like so many others, to hear of another mass shooting here in the United States. Twelve victims, including a sheriff’s sergeant, are dead. The shooter is also dead. The details are sketchy, but here’s what I’ve been able to decipher about this most recent event:
- When – Wednesday evening, November 7, 2018
- Where – Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, CA (The establishment is a country music bar. At the time of the shooting, the bar was hosting “college night” for local students.)
- Time – Around 11:30 p.m. PST
- Shooter – Ian David Long, 28, a former Marine, of Newberry Park, CA
- Motive – ??? Unknown at this time.
Witnesses indicate that the shooter simply walked into the bar and started firing. As a reminder, a mass shooting is an incident involving multiple victims of firearms-related violence. While definitions vary, the United States’ Congressional Research Service, defines a “public mass shooting” as one in which four or more people selected indiscriminately, not including the perpetrator, are killed.
We will all know more about the shooter and his victims in the days to come. I’m still feeling uneasy about the mass shooting that occurred at the Jewish Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. A gunman opened fire in the synagogue where Sabbath services were taking place on the morning of October 27, 2018 killing 11 people and wounding several police officers before he was taken into custody. Regrettably, I missed most of the details of another recent shooting at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, FL on November 2, 2018 – two dead and four others wounded.
To the readers of this blog and the rest of America, I am asking this question: Is this the norm?
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Updates 11.08.2018 – 11:30 a.m. EST: Post revised to reflect increase for 11 to 12 dead
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