The Washington Post article “In Virginia, high-yield clip seizures rise,” David S. Fallis and James V. Grimaldi, January 23, 2011; A01) is more notable for the information not given than presented. For example, the article briefly describes 11 cases of mass murder (see link), but doesn’t mention any foreign cases leaving the impression that these events occur only in the USA. Their 11 cases appear selected to convey other false impressions about mass killings. This message is to give a few cases to correct overall impressions. For example, we do not hear from the Post about how Campo Elías Delgado killed his mother, six neighbors, and 21 more at a restaurant on December 4, 1986 in Bogotá, Bolivia using a .32 caliber revolver and a knife. The killings only stopped when police confronted and shot Delgado dead (although some of those killed at the restaurant may have been shot by police in the cross-fire). Nor does the Post discuss how Matti Juhani Saari killed 10 people and himself at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality in Kauhajoki, Finland on September 23, 2008 using a .22 semi-auto pistol with 10-round magazines. And we are not told by the Post that this shooter had a permit for the pistol he used. We are not told of the mass murder by Pekka-Eric Auvinen of 8 and himself on November 7, 2007 at Jokela High School in Jokela, Finland also using a .22 semi-auto pistol for which Auvinen had a permit with 10-round magazines. We are not told of the 87 murders by Julio González on March 25, 1990 in New York City using gasoline. We are not told of the 9 murders by Wu Huanming in Hanzhong, China on April, 12 2010 using a meat cleaver. We are not told of the school shootings on Oct. 1, 1997 at Pearl, Mississippi or on January 16, 2002 at The Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. The reason that these cases don't appear in the Post article is they give the lie to the premise underlying the article that mass killings require semi-auto firearms with “high-yield clips” or that the killings could be mitigated if they were not used. Delgado used a six-shot .32 caliber revolver and a knife, Saari and Auvinen used 10-round magazines that were not “high-yield clips”. They even used the smallest caliber pistol – chambered for .22 long rifle. González and Huanming didn’t even use firearms for their murders. The Pearl and Grundy shootings don’t fit the Post word view because both were stopped by armed private citizens. The Post must believe by limiting information to only killings where large magazines were used, they can create public support for a limit to the size of magazines. But the 11 cases presented by the Post do not support their rant against large magazines if you examine case details not presented, but that is a story for another day. Phil Lee
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
