At long last, our society seems to be realizing the urgent need for stricter gun-safety laws and stringent enforcement.
Shannon Gooden, the man who murdered three public servants in Burnsville on Feb. 18, did the killings with guns he shouldn’t have had.
There were seven children in the home at the time of the murders after which Gooden committed suicide.
Shot dead with military assault-style weapons were three public servants responding to a domestic crisis – two police officers and a firefighter/paramedic.
Gooden’s live-in partner, Ashley Dyrdahl, has been charged with buying those weapons for him, even though she knew he’d been barred from possessing weapons due to an assault conviction.
In 2020, Gooden petitioned the court for restoration of his gun rights. In his support, Dyrdahl submitted an affidavit, part of which stated, “Family is everything to him, and that is why these (gun) rights are so important to him.”
After the killings, the Dakota County Attorney said it best by pointing to a bleak irony: “In retrospect, it was the seven children in his home that needed protection from him.”
Thankfully, those children weren’t injured – not physically. But just imagine the mental-emotional scars they must bear.
The following are just two other examples of gun-crazy bloodbaths:
Sandy Hook
On Dec. 14, Adam Lanza, 20, first killed his mother, Nancy, at home, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. There, he shot to death 20 children and six staff members before committing suicide.
To see online photos of the smiling, sweet faces of those children after knowing what happened to them is enough to break anybody’s heart.
Lanza’s mother knew for years her son was suffering from a tangled web of worsening mental problems and had developed a fixation on mass murders, especially the one at Columbine High School in Colorado. Despite those warning signs, his mother, who was a gun enthusiast, would take him to gun-range shooting practice quite often. She had told some people that she introduced Adam to guns to teach him responsibility and that he was so careful in handling guns.
For his killings, he used a Bushmaster rifle belonging to his mother. What a chilling irony that she was the first that morning to be murdered by her own weapon, by her own son.
Oxford High School
On Nov. 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley, 15, used a SIG Sauer semi-automatic handgun to kill four students (two boys, two girls) and injure seven other people at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Earlier that morning, Ethan was discovered in school doodling on paper – making crudely drawn pictures of people bleeding, next to the words, “Blood everywhere” and “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
His parents were called to the school. They were told to get counseling for Ethan within 48 hours or the school would seek protective services. Instead of taking Ethan home that morning, the parents walked out, leaving him there just minutes before the mayhem began.
Like Nancy Lanza, Ethan’s parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, had been aware of their son’s deteriorating mental state and his obsession with violence.
Ethan was sentenced to life in prison. Just recently, his parents were convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter and face up to 15 years in prison.
The gun Ethan used to kill had been purchased just four days earlier by his father at a local shop while Ethan was with him. They’d joked the gun was Ethan’s Christmas present.
Days before the murders, Ethan was discovered online at school seeking ways to get ammunition. His mother, who was notified, emailed to Ethan, “LOL. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
That irresponsible message – that nearly criminal enablement – says it all. It’s why we desperately need comprehensive iron-clad gun-safety laws, including the banning of military-style assault weapons.
Make no mistake: Guns do kill people, especially in the hands of gun-crazed shooters.
