A lot of horrific events have occurred since I moved to the United States 12 years ago. The following events are the ones that have affected me the most. They are the ones that I will always remember, including where I was when I found out about them.
As the years go by, I am getting more and more nervous about raising my children in a world where innocent people (and children) are killed just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I know the Lord loveth his children; nevertheless I do not know the meaning of all things." 1 Nephi 11:17. My heart aches for those who lost a child, a parent, a brother, a sister. But I refuse to live in a world of fear. It's important for me to remember that there is still good out there. And we have a choice to be the good we want to see around us.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/moments-that-restored-our-faith-in-humanity-this-y
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting (December 14, 2012)
On December 14, 2012, a gunman killed twenty children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the Sandy Hook village of Newtown, Connecticut. Identified by authorities as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, he killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their nearby Newtown home before driving to the school. After shooting the students and employees, he committed suicide.
The total death toll was 28, including the perpetrator. Two adults were treated for injuries.
Some time before 9:30 a.m. on December 14, 2012, Adam Peter Lanza is believed to have fatally shot his mother Nancy Lanza, aged 52, in the face and head at their Newtown home. Investigators later found her body in her bed, wearing pajamas, with four gunshots to her head. Lanza then drove his mother's black Honda Civic to the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
At about 9:35 a.m. Lanza shot his way in through a locked glass door at the front of the school. Principal Dawn Hochsprung and school psychologist Mary Sherlach were in a meeting with several other faculty members when they heard gunshots outside the room. Hochsprung and Sherlach immediately left the room and rushed to the source of the sounds to encounter Lanza, who shot both women dead as they confronted him. Diane Day, a school therapist who was at the faculty meeting as well, reported hearing screaming, followed by more gunshots. Natalie Hammond, vice principal and lead teacher in the meeting room, pressed her body against the door to keep it closed. Lanza shot Hammond through the door in the leg and arm, for which she was later treated at Danbury Hospital.
Teacher Victoria Soto attempted to hide several children in a closet and cupboards. As Lanza entered her classroom, Soto told him that the children were in the auditorium. Several of the children then came out of their hiding place and tried to run for safety and were shot dead. Soto put herself between the shooter and her students, and he fatally shot her. Six surviving children from Soto's class crawled out of the cupboards and fled the school, taking refuge at the nearby home of a retired psychologist. Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher since October, was shot in the face and killed. Teacher Anne Marie Murphy was found dead in her classroom, her body shielding her students.
Elsewhere in the building, a custodian ran through hallways, alerting classrooms. First grade teacher Kaitlyn Roig, age 29, hid 14 students in a bathroom and barricaded the door, telling them to be completely quiet to remain safe. Maryann Jacob, the library clerk for the school, first hid 18 children in a part of the library the school used for lockdown in practice drills, but on discovering that one of the doors would not lock, had the children crawl into a storage room as she barricaded the door with a filing cabinet. Laura Feinstein, a reading specialist at the school, gathered two students from outside her classroom and hid with them under desks after they heard gunshots. Feinstein made two calls, one to the school office and the other, unsuccessfully, to 9-1-1. After hiding with the children for approximately 40 minutes, law enforcement finally came to lead them out of the room.
The shooting stopped between 9:46 a.m. and 9:53 a.m., after approximately 50 to 100 rounds had been fired. Lanza shot all victims multiple times, and he shot at least one victim 11 times. Most of the shooting took place in two first-grade classrooms, with fourteen deaths in one room and six in the other. The student victims were eight boys and twelve girls between six and seven years of age, and the six adults were all women who worked at the school. Lanza shot himself in the head as first responders arrived. A 6-year-old girl was the sole survivor of her class of 15 first-graders. Her teacher was also killed. Her family pastor told media that the child survived the mass shooting by playing dead.
(All throughtout the day, I watched the CNN reporters get chocked up as they were telling the age of the innocent children who were killed. That night I watched the President of the United States make an annoucement that really touched me. For the first time since he became President, I saw him as a father, and I appreciate that. It breaks my heart that these innocent children were robbed of their future. I can't believe that someone would do such a horrible thing. I appreciate the courage that the teachers at the school demonstrated. There are good people in the world, and I am grateful for them.)
"The Dark Knight Rises" Premiere shooting (July 20, 2012) On Friday, July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside of a Century Movie Theatre in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screeningof the film The Dark Knight Rises. A gunman, dressed in tactical clothing, set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others. The sole suspect is James Eagan Holmes, who was arrested outside the cinema minutes later. Police said the shooter bought a ticket, entered the theater, and sat in the front row; about 20 minutes into the film, he left the building through an emergency exit door, which he propped open.
It is alleged that he then went to his car, which was parked near the exit door, changed into protective clothing, and retrieved his guns. About 30 minutes into the film, police say, around 12:38 a.m., he re-entered the theater through the exit door. He was dressed in black and wore a gas mask, a load-bearing vest, a ballistic helmet, bullet-resistant leggings, a throat protector, a groin protector and tactical gloves. Initially, few in the audience considered the masked figure a threat. He appeared to be wearing a costume, like other audience members who had dressed up for the screening. Some believed that the gunman was playing a prank, while others thought that he was part of a special effects installation set up for the film's premiere as a publicity stunt by the studio or theater management.
It is also alleged that the gunman threw a canister emitting a gas or smoke, partially obscuring the audience members' vision, making their throats and skin itch, and causing eye irritation. He shot first to the back of the room, and then toward people in the aisles. Some bullets passed through the wall and hit people in the adjacent theater 8, which was screening the same film. Witnesses said the multiplex's fire alarm system began sounding soon after the attack began and staff told people in theater 8 to evacuate.
The first phone calls to emergency services via 9-1-1 were made at 12:39 a.m. Police arrived within 90 seconds and found at least three .40-caliber magazines, a shotgun and a large drum magazine on the floor of the theater. Some people reported the shooting via tweets or text messaging rather than calling the police. Some of the first police on the scene decided not to wait for ambulances and took victims to hospitals in their squad cars.
About 12:45 a.m., police apprehended Holmes behind the cinema, next to his car, without resistance. The police interviewed more than 200 witnesses. Investigators say that the shooter acted alone and was not part of a larger group or terrorist organization.
Seventy one people were shot or otherwise wounded, reported by mainstream news as the most victims of any mass shooting in United States history. It is also the deadliest shooting in Colorado since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Ten people died at the scene and two died in local hospitals. The youngest shooting victim was three months old.
Virginia Tech Massacre (April 16, 2007) The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, before committing suicide (another 6 people were injured escaping from classroom windows). The massacre is the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history.
Cho, a senior English major at Virginia Tech, had previously been diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. During much of his middle school and high school years, he received therapy and special education support. After graduating from high school, Cho enrolled at Virginia Tech. Because of federal privacy laws, Virginia Tech was unaware of Cho's previous diagnosis or the accommodations he had been granted at school. In 2005, Cho was accused of stalking two female students. After an investigation, a Virginia special justice declared Cho mentally ill and ordered him to attend treatment. Lucinda Roy, a professor and former chairwoman of the English department, had asked Cho to seek counseling. Cho's mother turned to her church for help.
The attacks sparked intense debate about gun violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, the perpetrator's state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, journalism ethics, and other issues. It also led to passage of the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years. The law strengthening the NICS was signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.
Cho was seen near the entrance to West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed residence hall that houses 894 students, at about 6:45 am. The hall was normally only accessible to its residents via magnetic key card before 10 am. Cho's student mailbox was in the lobby of the building, so he had a pass card access after 7:30 am, but it is unclear how he gained earlier entrance to the building.
Cho shot his first victims around 7:15 am in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Cho then left the scene and returned to his dorm room. While police and emergency medical services units were responding to the shootings in the dorm next door, Cho changed out of his bloodstained clothes, logged on to his computer to delete his e-mail, and then removed the hard drive. About an hour after the attack, Cho is believed to have been seen near the campus duck pond. Although authorities suspected Cho had thrown his hard drive and mobile phone into the water, a search was unsuccessful.
Almost two hours after the first killings, Cho appeared at a nearby post office and mailed a package of writings and video recordings to NBC News; the package was postmarked 9:01 am. He then walked to Norris Hall. In a backpack, he carried several chains, locks, a hammer, a knife, two handguns with nineteen 10 and 15 round magazines, and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition.
About two hours after the initial shootings, Cho entered Norris Hall, and chained the three main entrance doors shut. He placed a note on at least one of the chained doors, claiming that attempts to open the door would cause a bomb to explode. Shortly before the shooting began, a faculty member found the note and took it to the building's third floor to notify the school's administration. At about the same time, Cho had begun to shoot students and faculty on the second floor; the bomb threat was never called in. Within one or two minutes of the first shots, the first call to 9-1-1 was received.
According to several students, before the shooting began Cho looked into several classrooms. He then entered the classrooms and shot professors and students. Upon hearing gunshots, Cho was prevented from entering several classrooms, due to barricades erected by instructors and students. In one classroom, the professor forcibly prevented Cho from entering the room. The professor was able to hold the door closed until most of his students escaped through the windows, but he died after being shot multiple times through the door. One student in his classroom was killed. Another instructor and an student were killed in a different classroom as they attempted to barricade the door. And in yet another classroom, eleven students died; the six students who survived all suffered gunshot wounds. Cho reloaded and revisited several of the classrooms.
Approximately 10–12 minutes after the second attack began, Cho shot himself in the head. During this second assault, he had fired at least 174 rounds, killing 30 people and wounding 17 more. All of the victims were shot at least three times each; of the 30 killed, 28 were shot in the head. During the investigation, State Police Superintendent William Flaherty told a state panel that police found 203 live rounds in Norris Hall. "He was well prepared to continue...," Flaherty testified.
During the two attacks, Cho killed five faculty members and 27 students before committing suicide. The Virginia Tech Review Panel reported that Cho's gunshots wounded 17 other people; six more were injured when they jumped from second-story windows to escape.
September 11 attacks (September 11, 2001)
The September 11 attacks were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally flew two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Debris from the collapsing towers fell onto or initiated fires in several surrounding buildings leading to the partial or complete collapse of all the other buildings in the complex. Debris also caused major damage to ten other large structures in the immediate area. The hijackers also intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and intended to pilot the fourth hijacked jet, United Airlines Flight 93, into the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.; however, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers attempted to take control of the jet from the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including all 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes.
Suspicion quickly fell on al-Qaeda, and in 2004, the group's leader, Osama bin Laden, who had initially denied involvement, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives for the attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored al-Qaeda. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. In May 2011, after years at large, bin Laden was located and killed.
