School Shootings: Mourning Responses to Violence

(1) Article 1: 5 stages of mourning: Click Here (full article)

Stages Outlined:

The first stage is group preservation. This is when those affected seek shelter and information to protect themselves while they are still under threat. In Parkland, we witnessed this in real time in the heartbreaking messages students who were trapped in the school posted to social media. In these messages and videos, we saw the students seek shelter in place, and ask about the safety of others, as they waited for rescue.

The second stage is population preservation. This begins when word of an in-progress traumatic event spreads to the broader community, and the community responds. Parents seek the whereabouts of their children, first responders rush toward the danger to mitigate further harm, and public figures in politics and media make their initial comments on the unfolding events.

Once the immediate physical danger has passed—the shooter subdued, the crime scene secured—the third stage, internalization, begins. Internalization is the long work of collectively processing our emotional response to the event. This stage touches not just the community directly affected by the trauma, but the observers around the country and the world who mourn with each new massacre. We grieve for the loss of life, for the pain endured by the injured and the families of the victims, and for our own shattered sense of normalcy. This process often involves creating memorials for the dead, and working through the narrative of what happened, to trace the magnitude of our loss, and understand how it came to be.

This leads to stage four, the externalizing stage, where we assign blame for the tragedy, and identify the outside causes that have enabled a pattern of mass shootings in the U.S. As we process the aftermath of a mass shooting, we begin to see the institutional failures that made it possible. When it comes to gun violence, this means our country’s lack of commonsense gun safety laws, and the entrenched opposition of the National Rifle Association and Republican lawmakers to even incremental reform.

This awareness should lead to stage five, renormalization, where we correct the underlying issues that lay the groundwork for shootings. This is, after all, what we do after nearly every other mass trauma, aiming to make a healthier world. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, for example, the U.S. embraced fire prevention, which has significantly reduced the number of fire deaths over the last century. However, fire never had a powerful organization like the NRA to lobby Congress on its behalf. Guns do.

So, unlike tragedies of the past, the gun violence epidemic has not led to reforms that create a healthier, safer world—we are not at stage five. Instead, we face a world where we accept the regular slaughter of innocents as the price we pay for the right to own assault rifles and bring them wherever we want, no matter how troubled we may be. We remain frozen at stage four, able to see clearly the cause of this sordid status quo—the proliferation of guns in our society. As long as we are unable to muster an effective, humane response at the legislative level, we will never get to stage five. And the killing will continue.

Full Article, Read This

STATISTICS
DITTO

	Incident	Year	Deaths	Type of weapon(s) used	Reference(s)
1	Las Vegas shooting	2017	59 (including the perpetrator)	Semi-automatic rifles	[42][43]
2	Orlando nightclub shooting	2016	50 (including the perpetrator)	Semi-automatic rifle	[42][43]
3	Virginia Tech shooting	2007	33 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[42]
4	Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting	2012	28 (including the perpetrator)	Semi-automatic rifle and bolt-action rifle	[42]
5	Sutherland Springs church shooting	2017	27 (including the perpetrator)	Semi-automatic rifle	[44][43]
6	Luby's shooting	1991	24 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[42]
7	San Ysidro McDonald's massacre	1984	22 (including the perpetrator)	Multiple weapons	[42]
8	University of Texas tower shooting	1966	18 (including the perpetrator)	Multiple weapons	[42]
9	Stoneman Douglas High School shooting	2018	17	Semi-automatic rifle	[45]
10	San Bernardino attack	2015	16 (including both perpetrators)	Semi-automatic rifles	[42][43]
11	Edmond post office shooting	1986	15 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[42]
	Columbine High School massacre	1999	15 (including both perpetrators)	Multiple weapons	[46]
13	Binghamton shootings	2009	14 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[46]
14	Camden shootings	1949	13	Handgun	[46]
	Wilkes-Barre shootings	1982	13	Semi-automatic rifle	[46]
	Fort Hood shooting	2009	13	Handguns	[46]
	Washington Navy Yard shooting	2013	13 (including the perpetrator)	Shotgun and handgun	[46]
18	Aurora shooting	2012	12	Multiple weapons	[46][43]
19	Geneva County massacre	2009	11 (including the perpetrator)	Multiple weapons	[46]
20	GMAC shootings	1990	10 (including the perpetrator)	Semi-automatic rifle	[42]
	Atlanta shootings	1999	10 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[42]
	Red Lake shootings	2005	10 (including the perpetrator)	Multiple weapons	[46]
	Umpqua Community College shooting	2015	10 (including the perpetrator)	Handguns	[46]

Name	Date	Location	State	Deaths	Notes
Guadalupe Canyon massacre	1881 Aug 13	Guadalupe Mountains, Arizona Territory	Arizona	5	1 wounded; cowboys ambushed while sleeping. Perpetrators disputed.[1]
Chinese massacre	1871 Oct 24	Los Angeles, California	California	>18	Killed by hanging and unknown injured in ethnic white mob violence against people and property in Chinatown.[2][3]
Golden Dragon massacre	1977 Sep 4	San Francisco	California	5	11 injured.[4]
Bloody Island massacre	1850 May 15	Clear Lake	California	60–100	Retaliation by a Cavalry Regiment of the US Army for the murder of Frontiersman Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone.
Ludlow Massacre	1914 Apr 20	Ludlow	Colorado	19	Killed by Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families, many of whom were immigrants or minorities.[5]
Columbine Mine massacre	1927 Nov 21	Serene	Colorado	6	Miners killed with machine guns during coal mine strike.[6]
Ocoee massacre	1920 Nov 2	Ocoee	Florida	56~	Black population of Ocoee, a town near Orlando, was nearly obliterated during the 1920 election season.[7]
Rosewood massacre	1923 Jan	Rosewood	Florida	8	The entire population of African-Americans in and near Rosewood, about 350, were forced from their homes and never returned.[8]
Hanapepe massacre	1924 Sep 9	Hanapepe	Hawaii	20	101 arrested.[9]
Haymarket affair	1886 May 4	Chicago	Illinois	11	More than 130 injured by dynamite bomb and crossfire of bullets.[10]
Herrin massacre	1922 Jun 21	Herrin	Illinois	23	Strikebreakers and union guards at coal mine.[11]
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre	1929 Feb 14	Chicago	Illinois	7	Prohibition gang killing.[12]
Brown's Chicken massacre	1993 Jan 8	Palatine	Illinois	7	Store robbery with murder.
Spirit Lake Massacre	1857 March 5–12	West Okoboji	Iowa	35–40	A band of Dakota people led by Inkpaduta conducted a series of raids on white settlers.
Villisca massacre	1912 Jun 10	Villisca	Iowa	8	Unsolved axe murders of members of 2 families.[13][14][15]
Pottawatomie massacre	1856 May 24–25	Franklin County	Kansas	5	John Brown and followers killed 5 pro-slavery Kansans.[16][17]
Marais des Cygnes massacre	1858 May 19	Linn County	Kansas	5	Last major outbreak of violence in Bleeding Kansas.[18]
Lawrence massacre	1863 Aug 21	Douglas County	Kansas	185–200	Pro-Confederate Guerrillas killed civilians and burned a quarter of the town.[19]
Wichita Massacre	2000 Dec 8–14	Wichita	Kansas	5	Two black males, brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, committed multiple acts of assault, robbery, rape and murder of several people, all white, over the course of a week.[20]
Bloody Monday	1855 Aug 6	Louisville	Kentucky	>22	Scores injured in religious mob violence and arson.[21]
Colfax massacre	1873 Apr 13	Colfax	Louisiana	83–153	Blacks killed at courthouse and as prisoners afterwards.[22]
Coushatta massacre	1874 Aug	Coushatta	Louisiana	11–26	Six whites, remainder black killed as political intimidation.[23][24]
Thibodaux massacre	1887 Nov 22	Thibodaux	Louisiana	>35	Perhaps as many as 300 killed, 5+ injuries to striking black sugar-cane workers.[25][26]
Opelousas Massacre	1868 Sept 28	Opelousas, Louisiana	Louisiana	300+	Democrats resisted the joining of Opelousas African Americans into the political party and went on a hunt for African Americans, killing at least 200-300 African Americans and 30-50 Democrats.[27]
Boston Massacre	1770 Mar 5	Boston	Massachusetts	5	11 civilians injured by British Army soldiers.[28]
Haun's Mill massacre	1838 Oct 30	Fairview Township	Missouri	19	Mob/militia attacked Mormons.[29]
Kansas City massacre	1933 Jun 17	Kansas City	Missouri	5	The dead include law enforcement officers and a criminal fugitive shot by members of a gang.[30]
Sacking of Osceola	1861 Sep 23	Osceola	Missouri	9	Tried by drumhead court martial and executed, town of 3,000 sacked and burned in a raid by Jim Lane's Kansas Brigade.[31][better source needed]
Centralia massacre	1864 Sep 27	Centralia	Missouri	24	Unarmed U.S. soldiers murdered by their Confederate captors including Jesse James. 123 killed in ensuing Battle of Centralia.[32]
Baylor Massacre	1778 Sep 27	River Vale	New Jersey	15	54 captured or wounded by British.[33]
Greensboro massacre	1979 Nov 3	Greensboro, North Carolina	North Carolina	5	Violent clash between Ku Klux Klan and Communist Workers' Party demonstration.
Shelton Laurel massacre	1863 Jan 18	Madison County	North Carolina	13	Unarmed Unionists, including three boys, were shot by Confederates after capture.[34]
Greenwood massacre	1921 May 31 and Jun 1	City of Tulsa,	Oklahoma	39–300	≥ 800 wounded. One of the nation's worst incidents of racial violence.
Goingsnake massacre	1872 Apr 15	Tahlequah, Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma)	Oklahoma	11	Died in a shoot out in a crowded courtroom, the dead included 8 Deputy US Marshals and 3 Cherokee citizens. Six Cherokee were wounded including the defendant and the judge.[35]
Chinese Massacre Cove	1887 May	Wallowa County	Oregon	10–34	Chinese gold miners ambushed and murdered by a gang of horse thieves.
Paoli massacre	1777 Sep 20	near Paoli	Pennsylvania	61	Patriots under command of General Anthony Wayne killed by British Soldiers under command of General Charles Grey.
Lattimer massacre	1897 Sep 10	near Hazleton	Pennsylvania	19	Coal miners killed by sheriff's posse.
Ponce massacre	1937 Mar 21	Ponce	Puerto Rico	19	protestors killed by police
Hamburg massacre	1876 Jul 4	Hamburg	South Carolina	7	Town looted in a racially motivated incident during Reconstruction.
Waxhaw massacre	1780 May 29	Lancaster	South Carolina	118	150 wounded, 53 captured by British against American Revolutionary soldiers.
Fort Pillow massacre	1864 Apr 12	Henning	Tennessee	277-297	Federal (and mostly black) troops were killed by Confederate soldiers while trying to surrender.
Nueces massacre	1862 Aug 10	Kinney County	Texas	34	German Texans killed by Confederate soldiers.
Mountain Meadows Massacre	1857 Sep 7–11	Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory	Utah	100–140	Emigrant wagon train annihilated by the Mormon Utah Territorial Militia.
Pinhook massacre	1881 June 1	Southeastern Utah	Utah	13	Started when Ute Indians allegedly killed ranchers and stole horses in Colorado. As the Ute moved into the southeastern Utah, a battle between the Indians and a band of ranchers and cowboys who blamed Utes for the loss of their livestock was fought, resulting in the death of 13 cowboys in the gunfight.[36]
Midnight Massacre	1945 Jul 7–8	Salina, Utah	Utah	9	German POWs killed by an American guard
Saltville massacre	1864 Oct 2–3	Saltville	Virginia	45–50	Wounded/captured Federal black troops by Confederate soldiers and guerrillas.[37]
Everett massacre	1916 Nov 5	Everett	Washington	5	27 injured and scores of labor unionists arrested by police and vigilantes.
Centralia massacre	1919 Nov 11	Centralia	Washington	6	Many injured in a street conflict between American Legion and Industrial Workers of the World members.
Wah Mee massacre	1983 Feb 18	Seattle	Washington	13	1 injured by 3 perpetrators during an armed robbery.
Bay View massacre	1886 May 5	Bay View	Wisconsin	7	Labor protesters killed by National Guardsmen.
Matewan massacre	1920 May 19	Matewan	West Virginia	11	The confrontation resulted in the deaths of Matewan Mayor Cabell Testerman, two striking coal miners, seven men from the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, and an unarmed bystander.
Rock Springs massacre	1885 Sep 2	Rock Springs	Wyoming	28	15 injured in a racial dispute between white and Chinese miners.

THE VICTIMS:
How Should a victim behave? 

What does too early to talk about it mean?

What does it mean to politicize death?

How do we understand mass killings in American Culture?

• causes (cultural) ?
• causes (psychological)?
• causes (social)?
• causes (supernatural)?
• causes (Biological)?

How does this MARK these deaths?