The
story of the recent tragedy in Orlando was still unfolding when I
started to hear the usual comments. “It could only come out of
Florida,” or “More senseless violence by the Muslims,” or
“Trump was right; we need to keep these people out of our country.”
At first glance, these statements seem to be reasonable but looking
deeper into the issue, we see a very different pattern emerging.
In order
to discuss this it is first necessary to look at this crime. We
label this a “mass shooting” and while it is the largest ever to
take place in our country, it is not the first. Over the past 50
years there have been 14 such shootings with 12 or more victims.
Until this incident the most lives lost in a single mass shooting had
been the Virginia Tech Massacre where 32 people were killed. After
that it was Sandy Hook with 27, Luby's Cafeteria with 23, and
McDonald's of San Ysidro with 21. The remainder of the shootings had
under 20 killed in each incident. This does not make them any less
tragic. I just don't want to list each one here.
In all
14 shootings a total of 274 lives were lost at the hands of 18
killers. (There were two people involved in the San Bernardino
shooting, two at Colombine and three at Wah Mee in Seattle). 76 of
these (or 28%) lost their lives at the hands of Muslims. 102 of them
(37%) were killed by Christians. It is entirely possible that this
number is actually higher. I can only include those who I know were
Christians, not those who I suspect were probably Christians. George
Hennard, for example, was the perpetrator of the killing spree at
Luby's Cafeteria in Texas but I have not been able to ascertain a
religious affiliation for him. As such, I can't just assume he was
Christian and include him. If he was a Christian, that would
increase the number to 125 or 46%. James Huberty was the killer at
the McDonald's in San Ysidro, CA where 21 people lost their lives.
He might have been Christian as well. Patrick Sherrill in Edmond, OK
killed 14 people at a Post Office and Aaron Alexis killed 12 at the
DC Naval Yard. These men might also have been Christians. If these
are added in, the total comes to 172 or 63%. But even without these
victims in the tally, Christians have killed more people in mass
shootings in this country than Muslims have.
Looking
at it from a racial perspective, only four of the killers were Middle
Eastern. Five were Asian. One was African-American. Eight were
Caucasian. In every case of the Caucasians, they were all born in
this country, as was the African-American. None of them were
immigrants. Two of the Middle Eastern killers were also born in this
country. They were U.S. Citizens as well.
While
Florida is very sadly the scene of the deadliest of these shootings,
until this happened, Florida was not even on the list. Two shootings
were in each of four states; California, Texas, Virginia and
Colorado. The others were in New York, Connecticut, Oklahoma,
Washington (state) and Washington, D.C. There is no set pattern for
where these types of crimes will occur.
And
while Omar Mateen (of the Orlando shootings) and Tashfeen Malik (of
San Bernardino) made claims to being supportive of ISIS, those claims
appear to be mere lip-service. There has not been any firm evidence
found that directly links either of these people to this hateful
organization. Even assuming that such is the case, then 63 of the
victims would be killed with allegiance to ISIS as the motive. That
would be 23% of the total victims. The other most probable motive is
mental illness, which accounts for 170 of the crimes. 62% of the
victims lost their lives because the killers were mentally ill. If
it is found that Omar Mateen also had this condition, that would
raise it to 80%.
This
number does not include the shootings at the Edmond, Oklahoma Post
Office, as I have not been able to find evidence that Patrick
Sherrill was mentally ill. It also does not include the Fort Hood
killings or San Bernardino, as neither has been directly attributed
to mental illness. The Wah Mee Massacre was a robbery and therefore
also does not fall under this category.
What
this tells us is that mental illness is the most common cause of this
type of violence. But certainly not all people with mental illness
are killers. Most live out very normal, peaceful lives. Many are
under medical care and some are taking medications to control their
disability. The problem stems from those who do not receive the care
they need. I would also venture a guess that these particular people
(those who perpetrated these crimes) probably had a tendency toward
violence in their lifetimes. Omar Mateen and James Huberty both had
histories of domestic violence. Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook murderer
had a long history of obsession with violent video games. Adding a
violent nature on top of mental illness is a very deadly combination.
Finally,
pour into the mix the availability of guns in our country. The radio
program “Market Place” did a study after the Sandy Hook killings
and found that there are more places to buy guns in the United States
than there are Starbucks locations throughout the entire world. They
did the same study after the Orlando shootings and found the same
results.
If we
wish to end these killings, we don't need to point our fingers at
Muslims or Christians or any other religion. We don't need to look
at the nationality of anyone or do any racial profiling. What we
need to be concerned with is mental illness left unchecked and
untreated, particularly in individuals who tend toward violence. And
if such is the case, we need to restrict the weapons these
individuals would have access to. These are the steps that must be
taken because we must do all we can to not let this happen again.
