It seems like the United States of America currently is experiencing a “shooting of the day,” or close to it. Just in the past seven days there have been shootings in Portland, Oregon; Newtown, Connecticut; and, today, San Antonio, Texas.
The Top 12 shooting massacres by number of deaths are these:
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April 16, 2007 — Virginia Tech University — 33 dead including the murderer
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December 14, 2012 — Newtown, Connecticut — 27 dead including the murderer
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October 16, 1991 — Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas — 24 dead including the murderer
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July 18, 1984 — Mc Donald’s in San Ysidro, California (a suburb of San Diego) — 22 dead including the murderer
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August 1, 1966 — University of Texas at Austin — 17 dead including the murderer
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August 20, 1986 — Post office in Edmond, Oklahoma — 15 dead including the murderer
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April 20, 1999 — Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado — 15 dead including the two murderers
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April 3, 2009 — Immigration Services Center in Binghamton, New York — 14 dead including the murderer
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September 6, 1949 — Camden, New Jersey — 13 dead
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November 5, 2009 — Fort Hood, Texas — 13 dead
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July 20, 2012 — Movie theater in Aurora, Colorado — 12 dead
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March 10, 2009 — Geneva County, Alabama — 11 dead including the murderer
What is not shown in that list is the very first K-12 school shooting in the United States. It occurred right here in San Diego on January 20, 1979, just a couple of miles north of where I currently live. Brenda Ann Spencer, 16 years old at the time, lived across from Grover Cleveland Elementary School. That morning she started firing at the schoolground across the street, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for what she had done and simply explained it by saying, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”
Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats wrote “I Don’t Like Mondays” and performed it less than 30 days after the shooting. The song was released as a single and went to #1 in the UK but only #73 on the Billboard U.S. chart. It remains a staple of radio airplay to this day, although San Diego stations refused to play the song for many years after the shooting.
Tori Amos included a cover of the song on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls. G4 included it on their 2003 album Act Three. Bon Jovi performed the song in 1995 at Wembley Stadium, and it is included on the albums One Wild Night Live 1985-2001 and These Days.
VH1 ranked the song #67 on its list of top 100 one hit wonders of the ’80s. Interesting since the song was released in July 1979 and the Boomtown Rats had several other hits in Great Britain and Ireland.
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Fascinating piece of history. I hadn’t heard about the San Antonio shooting. I looked it up and found an internet news item on it which ended with the following ” The American gun market is estimated at $2 billion to $3 billion a year and 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the United States.” The figures astound me.
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Lives were changed forever…thank you for your excellent post…
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I had no idea there had been so many shootings.😦
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Interesting facts, Russel. And tragic…
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I wasn’t sure I wanted to like this post. It is eye opening and heart wrenching.
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Keep the guns but outlaw the bullets and we will not have shootings happen every day. All in the list are senseless killings! So tragic….
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I like that solution.
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Great post, though a very sad and troubling subject. I truly hope we can move into a more peaceful time in America.
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I find it so hard to understand the mentality or whatever it is that has one of the greatest countries in the world hobbled by guns and mass shootings. I’m speaking as a Canadian and am glad we have gun controls.
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Devasting. When do we start loving our neighbors? You don’t have to be religious to know that this is all just so wrong. Informative post. Thanks.
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Although I clicked “like” for this post, that is not to imply I like the facts. There has got to be a better way to “spice up a Monday”.
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Such a sad list, but an interesting post. Alway liked that song.
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Had no idea about the song…
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It is one of the times one doesn’t like the facts; but they are there. We cannot runaway from them. I like that you brought me information I did not know. Thank you!!
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Really informative post.
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The Tori amos and Boomtown Rats versions are both very cool in their own right.
I did know the song’s history, but your list is chilling to read.
Thanks for posting it though; lest we forget, isn’t it.
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