Worst Mass Shooting of 2012

Who would have thought that a well-to-do town of Newton in Connecticut, which was considered as one of the most attractive places in U.S to raise a family will experience a horrible and one of the worst case of mass killing. With only one reported violent crime in 2010, Newton seems to be a safe place to live in. But a 20-year-old boy just murdered 26 people, 20 of them are children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, making it among the world’s worst mass shooting. The gunman allegedly shoot his mother and took his own life after the said tragic event. Mass shooting is not new anymore as some would say that it is even trending in numbers and the call for an intensive Gun Law is just everywhere. Here’s a devastating list of the top 5 worst mass shooting for 2012 and perhaps an eye opener for lawmakers to create a more rigid law on gun ownership and acquisition.

December 14, 2012 Adam Lanza, 20-year-old, took 26 lives including 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman reportedly killed his mother in their house and drove off to the school with high caliber guns registered under his mother’s name. He got passed the school’s security and from there he began his shooting spree. After shooting innocent children and school staff, he then shot his self. This incident has become the 2^nd deadliest shooting in U.S history.

December 11, 2012 Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, killed 2 people and seriously injured another at shopping mall in Portland, Oregon. Roberts entered the shopping mall in a white mask and began shouting “I am the shooter”. Over 10,000 shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center panicked as people began hearing gunfire from a semi-automatic rifle. Like Lanza, he also took his life after the horrible incident.

August 5, 2012 Wade Michael Page, an army veteran in his 40’s, killed 6 people and critically wounded 3, including a police officer which was shot 10 times at a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee. The gunman was heavily tattooed wearing white t-shirt and a black military BDU pants when he entered the temple’s kitchen. A witness testified that the gunman didn’t speak and just began shooting using his 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. He was then confronted and killed by another officer outside the temple.

July 20, 2012 James Holmes, 24, a former Ph.D student at the University of Colorado and an honors graduate in Neuroscience from University of California played the role “the Joker” as he dyed his hair red and killed 12 people and injured 58 during the premier night of the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight Rises” in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The gunman walked in casually inside the theater and released two devices down the theater aisles which emitted smoke or sort of irritant according to police. He then announced to some sort of “I am the Joker” and as people began to rise from their seats, he began his shooting spree. Holmes was detained by the police after he was caught in the parking lot standing by his white Hyundai. The gunman was found in possession of AR-15 assault rifle, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun and a .40 caliber Glock handgun in his car.

March 11, 2012 U.S Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 39, was said to be the gunman in a drunken rampage in Afghanistan killing 16 Afghan villagers, 9 of them children, in a rural area of southern Afghanistan. The soldier walked off more than a mile from his base and opened fire on Afghan civilians on their homes in at least two villages. He tried door after door and eventually broke into three separate houses to kill innocent lives. The said shooting in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province marked the worst civilian slaughter by U.S forces since the Vietnam War.