Monday

                             Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“The metric system did not catch on in the United States except for the increasing popularity of the 9 millimeter bullet.”

                                          Dave Barry

Due to recent mass murder events I researched past deadly mass murders in the US beginning with the 2^nd worst after 9/11.

Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were the perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing using mixture of fertilizer and diesel fuel because they were incensed over the Waco massacre described below. 168 killed and 680 wounded. Both men were US citizens and military veterans. McVeigh was executed and Nichols is doing life without parole. Their religions are unknown.

Vernon Howell changed his name to David Koresh and ultimately organized the Branch Davidian religious sect. Their compound was near Waco, Texas. It was discovered that the compound had grenades and automatic weapons the ATF was notified. A search found that Koresh had a license to have those type weapons so they attacked via another route. They accused Koresh of having sex with underage children in the compound but child protection is not the business of the ATF so the FBI was notified. The FBI began an attack on the compound after negotiations failed. Several agents were killed and wounded with no apparent effect to the compound so a siege was initiated. They cut off the power and water but Koresh had a generator and plenty of fuel, water and food. 51 days later Attorney General Janet Reno allowed the use of a tank to break down one of the walls. Somehow a fire started probably by a tear gas canister and the compound burned to the ground killing 80, including Koresh and 22 children under the age of 13. No one in the Federal Government has yet satisfactorily answered all the questions about why all this happened the way it did. Koresh and Janet Reno were American citizens. Janet Reno's religion is unknown.

Dylann Klebold and Eric Harris were students in Columbine High School in Colorado and in 1999 decided to bomb and shoot and many students as they could. 13 dead and 21 wounded. They used propane tanks as bombs and 2 semi-automatic rifles, a pump shotgun and a sawed off double barreled shotgun. Both men/boys were US citizens, religions unknown.

In July of 2012 James Holmes went into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, a pump shotgun, and Glock. There were 12 killed and 70 wounded. James Holmes is a US citizen, religion is unknown.

In December of 2012 Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle. 27 killed, including the shooter who committed suicide, and 22 wounded. Lanza was a US citizen, religion unknown.

In April of 2007 Seung-Hui Cho a junior at Virginia Tech University went on a killing spree resulting in 32 killed and 17 wounded. Cho was using a semi-automatic weapon. He was born in South Korea but was in the US on a permanent visa while in school, religion unknown.

On June 17, 2015 21 year old Dylann Roof walked into the Mother Emanuel Methodist Church in Charleston, SC and killed 9 members of the congregation with .41 caliber Glock semi-automatic hand gun. He was captured the next day at a traffic stop near Shelby, NC. Roof was born in Columbia, SC and at the time of the shooting he was living in Eastover, SC primarily a black community. He said he did it to start a race war. He is an American citizen, religion unknown.

This is not all of the mass murders by American citizens by any means but I think y'all get the idea.

Here is some thoughts about all of this. It is clear that all of these perpetrators were not of a rational mind and trying to prevent them from buying an “assault weapon” by background checks is ludicrous. There a hundreds if not thousands of undocumented Chinese made AK-47 type rifles out there meaning there is no evidence that they even exist. Anyone can go to Craig's list, classified ads in publications, gun shows, word of mouth and even steal to get nearly anything you want. For an attack in close quarters a 12 gauge shotgun with 0 or 00 shells will get the job done quit well.

Also passing a law eliminating the 2^nd Amendment is not the answer. I can assure you that if law enforcement sent out a notice in cities and towns like Cullman, Al., Eagle, Ak., Jackson Hole, Wy., Green Bay, Wi., Lakeland, Fl., and Greenville, SC saying that everyone must surrender their firearms the response would be predictable. Remember that the Battle of Bunker Hill happened because the ruling authority (Great Britain) came to disarm the American colonists in that area of Massachusetts.

What is an “assault weapon” anyway? It apparently is any weapon that can shoot more than once with each pull of the trigger. My 20 gauge, Remington 1100 shotgun qualifies as an “assault weapon” because it is semi-automatic and can hold 5 shells in the magazine.

I read that people including law enforcement say that the driver is at fault in wrecks caused by a drunk drivers but if it is a shooting it is the fault of the weapon.

             This Date in History  June 20

1947 Benjamin Siegel was raised in the manner of most crime figures in Brooklyn, New York, when a teenager he and his friend Meyer Lansky initiated a protection racket on the local businesses that eventually blossomed into bootlegging and extortion. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel rose in power in organized crime and in the late 1930’s he was selected to open operations in Los Angeles and was given $500,000 start-up money. Bugsy jumped into the Hollywood scene and became well known to powerful people and movie stars for his all night parties at his mansion. Then WWII started and the attention of the American people focused on the war and not what Bugsy was selling. Bugsy instead chose to go to Italy and try to sell Mussolini explosives. The explosives did not perform and Bugsy came home empty handed. Then he had a brilliant idea. He noticed that every train coming to the west coast was full of soldiers and the trains all made a rest stop in the sleepy town of Las Vegas, Nevada where the local government turned a blind eye to petty crime and gambling was legal. Bugsy decided to open a gambling casino and borrowed $6,000,000 from New York organized crime headed by Lucky Luciano and opened the very first in the Flamingo. At first the Flamingo was not profitable and Lucky called in the $6,000,000 loan to Bugsy. Bugsy and Lucky argued bitterly and on this date, Bugsy was sitting on the couch in his girlfriend’s (Virginia Hill) apartment in Beverly Hills when two shots from a 30.06 came through a front window striking Bugsy in the head killing him instantly. This was the end of Benjamin Siegel. Almost at the same time, some of Luciano’s men walked into the Flamingo and announced that they were now in charge. Even Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano could never have imagined what this town became.

1905 On this date Lillian Hellman is born in New Orleans. Her family shuttled between New York and New Orleans and she attended New York University and Columbia but received a degree from neither. It became obvious that she was a gifted writer, especially screenplays. In 1925 she married screenwriter Albert Kober but divorced him a few years later. Then she chose to go to Russia and civil-war-era Spain supporting leftist causes. She eventually returned to the good ole USA and struck up tumultuous relationship with hard-assed detective novelist Dashiell Hammett. “Dash” was a very successful writer giving us the immortal “Maltese Falcon” that was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart. The arguments between these two were legendary but there was no question they were in love. Then an egotistical horse’s ass showed up in Congress named Joe McCarthy. This jackass was a junior representative from Wisconsin and he decided that everybody in federal government and each and everyone in the movie business were card carrying Communists. He became the chairman of the Un-American Activities Committee and ordered a series of hearings too root out all of those Commies. They really were not hearings, they were inquisitions where you came in guilty and had to prove your innocence and endure McCarthy’s demeaning questioning. As a result of these hearings, Dash went to jail and Lillian lost everything she had. After Dash’s release from prison he fell ill and Lillian cared for him until his death in 1961. Lillian began a teaching career that included Harvard, MIT and USC Berkeley. She died of a heart attack in Martha’s Vineyard in 1989. What talented person.

By the way, actor Joseph Cotten was called before the McCarthy Committee and asked if he or any member of his family had ever advocated the overthrow of the United States government.  Cotten responded that one of his family did indeed advocate the overthrow of the US government.  McCarthy bristled and asked who it was.  Cotten answered that his grandfather as a captain in Stonewall Jackson's cavalry. 

                Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow