On July 20, just after James Holmes wounded 58 and killed 12 people at the opening of the latest Batman film at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, The Telegraph published a \u201chistory of mass shootings in the US since Columbine\u201d\u2014a list of nearly 30 shooting sprees with lethal results. Ne\u2019er-do-wells who merely wounded didn\u2019t make the cut. Thus, not included on the list was a shooting spree in an Alabama bar with a multiple arson warm-up just two days earlier. There, enraged after having been fired from his job\u2014only the latest in a string of personal and financial calamities\u2014Nathan Van Wilkins fired into a bar from across the street, wounding or otherwise injuring 17 people but not killing anyone.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the non-fatal, apparently gang-related shootings of four girls in a Chicago park on July 11 was omitted. The shooter or shooters there have not been apprehended, but Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel offered a warning that, as I will discuss shortly, hardly helps matters for those of us who are concerned about what seems to be a growing tide of mass violence. \u201cTake your stuff to the alley,\u201d Emanuel was quoted as saying. \u201cDon\u2019t touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don\u2019t get near them.\u201d<\/p>\n