We’ve Had Two “Deadliest Mass Shootings in U.S. History” in the Last Two Years

By Eric McAdams  |  October 2, 2017 | 11:30am
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty
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We’ve Had Two “Deadliest Mass Shootings in U.S. History” in the Last Two Years
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On Sunday night, a 64-year-old white domestic terrorist named named Stephen Paddock opened fire on 22,000 concertgoers, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 200. It was the deadliest mass shooting in United States history.

The thing is, it’s the second shooting to break that record in the past two years. Worse still, Slate reports that this particular record is getting broken faster and faster. Since 1949, the biggest gap between the deadliest shooting had been seven years. It has been less than 16 months since a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., killing 49 people and injuring 58 more. From Slate:

32 killed and 23 injured at Virginia Tech in April 2007.

23 killed and 27 injured at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, in October 1991.

21 killed and 19 injured at a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, California, in 1984.

16 killed and 31 injured at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas, in 1966.

13 killed in the streets of Camden, New Jersey, in 1949.

As the article notes, this is becoming more and more of a regular occurrence—it usually took more than a decade before a domestic terrorist killed more people in a shooting than ever before.

Of course, don’t expect any action from our duly elected representatives, who have been paid off by the National Rifle Association. The NRA advocates doing nothing at all about mass shootings, because mass shootings are good for the gun-making industry: After the Las Vegas shooting, gun-maker stocks went up over two percent. Mass shootings allow the NRA to stoke fears of regulation and coax twitchy gun owners into buying more guns before the liberals take them away.

Meanwhile, what’s actually happening is GOP congressmen are pushing forward a law to make it easier to buy silencers, despite that law being opposed even by police organizations. These congressmen will try to pass this law to make it easier to kill people silently, but will turn around and tell you that there’s nothing that can be done on their end to stop shootings like this.

Find out how to help the Las Vegas shooting victims here.

 
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