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Mass Murder is Nothing New

“Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.” Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) was tried for killing her father and stepmother with an axe on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. While she was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested for the murders.

Andrew Borden was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room, struck ten or eleven times with a hatchet-like weapon. Later, Abby Borden was discovered in the upstairs guest bedroom, her skull crushed by nineteen blows similar to those that had killed Lizzie’s father. Another axe murder had taken place before the trial.

There are stories like the brutal murders of the Bordens throughout history. The deaths of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman by — many believe — O.J. Simpson, immediately come to mind. In both cases, guns were not used. Axes and knives are still legal. So are fuel oil and fertilizer, the materials that were used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing where 168 people were killed at the hands of Timothy McVeigh. Let’s not forget the thousands of people who have been killed by terrorists using explosives. Jim Jones in 1978 killed 909 — including over 200 children — using potassium cyanide, which I understand is not illegal.

One can make the case that governments are the most notorious killers. I can think of how the government killed Randy Weaver’s wife and son at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Sammy was shot in the back and his mother was shot in the head while she was holding her infant daughter. We mustn’t forget Waco. In addition, millions have been killed in wars and because of the legalization of the killing of pre-born babies.

“Since 1975, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research has collected more than 9,000 reports of union violence.” There’s a long history of violence among union members and companies: The point is, when people want to harm or kill other people, the law and choice of weapons won’t stop them.

There’s even a long history of the type of killings that James Holmes perpetrated on innocent people in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater. The following examples are from Mitch Smith of the American Thinker:

July 26, 1764 — near what is now Greencastle, PA. Four Lenape Indians killed a schoolmaster and nine or 10 children.

December 22, 1868 — Chattanooga, TN. Three dead following a shooting by a disgruntled student.

April 13, 1873 — Colefax, LA. Following a disputed election, white Democrats killed an estimated 60 to 100 mainly black citizens in a disputed Democratic/Republican gubernatorial race.

December 11, 1875 — Bremerhaven, Germany. Alexander Keith, Jr., in a plot to bomb ships and collect insurance money, had his bomb, sitting on the dock, accidentally go off, killing 80 and injuring about 200 more. He committed suicide shortly afterwards.

May 25, 1893 — Osaka, Japan. Kumataro Kido and Yagoro Tani killed 11 including an infant. Kido had lost his common law wife to another man, so they killed him, his former wife and other family members. The two committed suicide afterwards.

March 14, 1912 — Carroll Co. VA. Floyd Allen started a gun battle at the court house after he was convicted of taking his two nephews from the custody of the sheriff’s deputies. Five were killed and seven wounded.

September 4, 1913 — Degerloch, Germany. Ernst August Wagner killed his wife, four children and shot 20 more, with nine dying. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

March 6, 1915 — Brunswick, GA. Monroe Phillips killed seven and wounded 32 in a shooting rampage. He was depressed because his life wasn’t going well.

May 18, 1927 — Bath, MI. Andrew Kehoe killed 45 and wounded 58 when he set off bombs at the local school. He was upset over a property tax for the school.

August 22, 1928 — Fairfield, CA. Leung Ying, a Chinese immigrant, killed 11 and injured four on a farm after being fired for assaulting the farm owner’s daughter.

May 21, 1938 — Kaio, Japan. Mutsuo Toi killed 30 people with a shotgun, sword and axe and injured three others in a small village. This was almost half the population of the town.

September 6, 1949 — Camden, NJ. Howard Barton Unruh randomly killed 13 people in retaliation for the theft of the newly built front gate to his yard.

August 21, 1952 — Saxtorp, Sweden. After Tore Hedin was dumped by his girlfriend, he killed his parents, his girlfriend and six others. 10 to 20 were also injured in a fire he set at the nursing home where his girlfriend worked and was murdered.

1954 — Belgian Congo. William Unek killed 21 people with an axe before escaping. Three years later, on February 11, 1957, he went on another killing spree with a stolen police rifle and killed 36 more in Mwanza.

May 4, 1956 — Prince George’s Co., MD. A student killed his teacher and injured two others after being reprimanded.

June 11, 1964 — Cologne, Germany. Walter Seifert killed 11 children and teachers and wounded 22 more, using a home-made flame thrower at a school.

August 1, 1966 — Austin, TX. In the infamous “Clock Tower Shootings,” Charles Whitman killed 18 and injured 31, shooting from the University of Texas clock tower.

None of this is to minimize what took place in Aurora, Columbine, or Luby’s Restaurant. It’s simply a reminder to the media and politicians that there’s such as thing as evil in the world.

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