Six students were killed when a former student opened fire on a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. The shooter then fatally shot himself.
Five women were murdered by a gunman at a suburban Chicago Lane Bryant store on February 2, 2008. A suspect has just been arrested in the case.
Another gunman killed five people at the Kirkwood City Town Hall on February 7, 2008, including a member of the city council. The town's mayor was critically wounded.
And in a most heartbreaking case, police in Oxnard, California will charge a 14-year-old boy with first degree murder, with a hate-crime enhancement, after he shot a fellow student in the head during class at E.O. Green Junior High School in the Los Angeles suburb.
Oxnard police have not specified a motive but said there appeared to be a personal dispute between the two. Several classmates have said the victim, Lawrence King, would act a bit feminine and had told classmates he might be gay.
King is currently on a respirator while family members decide whether to harvest his organs. But once off the ventilator, the suspect will be officially charged as an adult.
For the record, the Second Amendment of the Constitution states, in its entirety:
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.Neither the gunman in DeKalb, nor the shooter in Tinley Park, nor the 15-year-old kid in Oxnard were maintaining a regulated militia. With the exception of on-duty police officers and members of the military actively engaged in conflict, the Constitution is pretty clear cut: Guns should be illegal.
The reality of it is in nations where guns are banned, the violence and murder rates are extremely low. But Americans would rather have their semi-automatics because they feel it is their God-given right to shoot innocent students, women, and junior high school kids.
Give me a fuckin' break!
