Commentary On Mass Shootings

Here is a commentary on two mass shootings, one recently and the other fifty years ago.

THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING

There is something about the recent horrible school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that the media doesn't seem to have caught. It is about how history repeats itself. Crimes like this are an area where history is especially repetitive.

The modern era of senseless mass shootings is generally considered to have begun with the shooting from the tower of the University of Texas, in 1966. Charles Whitman, who looks like the last person who would do something like this, first killed his wife and his mother. Then he climbed to the top of the tower, barricaded himself, and then began shooting at people below. The siege lasted about 90 minutes until the shooter was shot and killed.

The Uvalde School Shooting was a virtual reenactment of the University of Texas shooting, except that it was done in an elementary school and there was no tower. But both shootings took place in a school.

Charles Whitman first killed his wife and mother and then proceeded to the shooting site. The Uvalde school shooter first shot his grandmother and then proceeded to the shooting site.

Both shooters barricaded themselves in the school, Charles Whitman barricaded the entrance to the tower and the Uvalde school shooter barricaded himself in a classroom and in a closet in the classroom.

The layout of both shootings is similar, law enforcement eventually getting through the barricade and killing the shooter. In the case of the Uvalde shooting it was getting the classroom door unlocked. Both shooting scenarios lasted roughly the same amount of time, about 90 minutes.

Another interesting fact about reenactments is that just before the Uvalde School Shooting was the Alabama Prison Escape, of a female deputy with a male prisoner. The two were eventually caught, in Indiana, when police and Marshals managed to force their car into a ditch. When the Uvalde school shooter drove to the site of the shooting he also drove his vehicle into a ditch. The two ditches were very similar, except that the one in Texas was lined with concrete.

THE LOD AIRPORT MASSACRE OF 1972

We have just passed the fiftieth anniversary at what was then-called Lod Airport, at Tel Aviv in Israel. The shooting massacre was planned by the PFLP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The attack was actually carried out by three members of the Japanese Red Army, who carried their weapons in musical instrument cases.

The airport, now named for Israel's founding father and first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, is the busiest airport in Israel. Five years before Israel had captured the Old City of Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six-Day War, and pilgrims were arriving from all over the world to visit the holy sites.

Israel's security forces were naturally watching for Arabs who might launch an attack. The use of Japanese attackers not only caught the Israelis off guard but also meant that, from that point on, they had to greatly increase security measures to check every visitor, from all countries. This was done to provoke a more hostile atmosphere for pilgrims, and dissuade people from visiting.

Most of the victims of the attack were not Israelis but foreign visitors, including seventeen pilgrims from Puerto Rico. This was also done purposely, to scare people away from visiting Israel.

Why did the attack happen when it did, in May 1972? The Olympics were soon to be held, in Munich, and another organization, Black September, was going to attack there. The two attacks go together, although I am not sure how much coordination there might have been between the two groups.

Israeli athletes were massacred at the Munich Olympics. The message was clear, and it complemented the message of the airport attack. Any country that was hosting Israelis, such as an Olympic team, was making itself a target.

We can see the same kind of objective in the attacks of 9/11. The hijackers were from countries that were traditionally considered as allies of America. Fifteen of the nineteen were Saudis. The other four were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and, Lebanon, and investigators had no great difficulty determining their identities.

This was done purposely, the objective being to turn Americans against their allies in the Middle East. It would also produce a backlash against those Moslems who would go to live in the west. It would help to shut globalization down, by making people afraid to fly, and might get America to throw it's democratic principles away. Most importantly, it would serve as a great recruiting tool to bring about further attacks in pursuit of the same purpose.

For those who read, "The Real Story Of The Alabama Prison Escape" May 2022, more has been added to it.