ANOTHER mass shooting in America, less than a week after the mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Colorado Springs, CO. This one is especially heinous as three murderers chose a community center that service developmentally disabled people in San Bernardino, CA. We are a sick society that tolerates this violence, and no amount of public weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth and prayers for the dead and wounded and their families will atone for unwillingness of our nation to take the necessary steps to help prevent the slaughter of our own. I get so disgusted when I hear the very politicians and community leaders who block reasonable, sane, workable gun control express their "deepest sorrow" and offer "thoughts and prayers" for the victims and their families. LIARS! Their hypocrisy make me sick, as does the ignorance of the American people for keeping these people in positions of power. Why does this keep happening in America? Look in a mirror and ask that question. Here is the latest from +NPR and +Washington Post and it will be updated as more information is available.....
At least 14 people were killed and more than a dozen others
wounded when up to three suspects armed with long guns entered a
facility in San Bernardino, Calif., and began shooting, authorities said
Wednesday.
Hours after the shooting, which began at 11 a.m. local time, TV images showed a bullet-riddled, dark colored SUV surrounded by police in what appeared to be a residential neighborhood. San Bernardino Police Sargent Vicki Cervantes says that police officers traded fire during what she described as an "active situation."
"I believe there may be a suspect down," she said, but she warned that she did not know if that situation was connected to the earlier shootings.
At an earlier press conference, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the suspects opened fire at the Inland Regional Center, which is part of the California Department of Developmental Services and serves people with developmental disabilities.
Asked about the number of suspects, the police chief said, "I have repeatedly been told the number is three," though he cautioned that the information was coming from witnesses at the scene. Burguan said the attackers fled in what was potentially a dark SUV. He did not provide a description of the suspects or discuss a possible motive.
"These are people that came prepared," the chief said. "They were dressed and equipped in a way to indicate that they were prepared and they were armed with long guns not handguns."
The assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, David Bowdich, said at the news conference, "Is this a terrorist incident? We do not know."
Burguan also said that several hundred people who were in the
building were taken to a safe location and that buildings in the
surrounding area had been locked down.
Roads near the scene have been shut down and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was warning people to avoid the area.
Terry Petit said his daughter works at the Inland Regional Center
and that she said she was inside when the sound of gunfire erupted.
He choked back tears as he read her texts to ABC 7 Eyewitness News: "People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office."
San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis said in a statement that the community "experienced severe loss and severe shock" Wednesday.
"It is critical in moments like these, our City unites in
supporting the victims, their families, and the effort against crime in
our City. We will continue to utilize all safety resources available to
the San Bernardino community to deal with this tragedy," he said.
A White House official said that President Obama was briefed by his homeland security adviser on the San Bernardino shooting.
"We don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are, but what we do know is there are steps we can take to make Americans safer and that we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these rare as opposed to normal," Obama told CBS News Wednesday. "We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."
This is a developing story. Some things that get reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from police officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
The preliminary death toll in San Bernardino is already the 6th highest in modern U.S. history, along with a 1986 shooting in Edmond, Oklahoma, in which a man opened fire at a Post Office. The list of the deadliest shootings on record are shown in the chart below. Many of those with the most severe death tolls have happened in the past decade.
The 12th deadliest shooting occurred in 2013, when a gunman opened fire inside the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C, killing 12 people. Two separate shootings—one in Binghamton, New York, another in Fort Hood, Texas, both in 2009—each claimed the lives of 13 people, sharing the title of eighth most deadly. The country endured its deadliest shooting in history in 2007, when a senior at Virginia Tech killed 32 people and wounded 17 others.
(It's possible that there were other mass shootings further back in history not captured in these statistics.)
Hours after the shooting, which began at 11 a.m. local time, TV images showed a bullet-riddled, dark colored SUV surrounded by police in what appeared to be a residential neighborhood. San Bernardino Police Sargent Vicki Cervantes says that police officers traded fire during what she described as an "active situation."
"I believe there may be a suspect down," she said, but she warned that she did not know if that situation was connected to the earlier shootings.
At an earlier press conference, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the suspects opened fire at the Inland Regional Center, which is part of the California Department of Developmental Services and serves people with developmental disabilities.
Asked about the number of suspects, the police chief said, "I have repeatedly been told the number is three," though he cautioned that the information was coming from witnesses at the scene. Burguan said the attackers fled in what was potentially a dark SUV. He did not provide a description of the suspects or discuss a possible motive.
"These are people that came prepared," the chief said. "They were dressed and equipped in a way to indicate that they were prepared and they were armed with long guns not handguns."
The assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, David Bowdich, said at the news conference, "Is this a terrorist incident? We do not know."
.@SanBernardinoPD has confirmed an active shooter in the area of Orange Show Rd/ Waterman Ave near Park center. #SBCSD assisting.— SB County Sheriff (@sbcountysheriff) December 2, 2015
Roads near the scene have been shut down and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department was warning people to avoid the area.
Father reads text from daughter: "Shooting at my work. People shot...Pray for us." https://t.co/Hv8FNXsc3X https://t.co/vEnH2FNdBe— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 2, 2015
He choked back tears as he read her texts to ABC 7 Eyewitness News: "People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office."
San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis said in a statement that the community "experienced severe loss and severe shock" Wednesday.
A satellite view of the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif.
Google
A White House official said that President Obama was briefed by his homeland security adviser on the San Bernardino shooting.
"We don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are, but what we do know is there are steps we can take to make Americans safer and that we should come together in a bipartisan basis at every level of government to make these rare as opposed to normal," Obama told CBS News Wednesday. "We should never think that this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events, because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."
This is a developing story. Some things that get reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from police officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
The shooting in San Bernardino is already among the deadliest in U.S. history
At least 14 people are dead and another 14 are injured after gunmen opened fire on a center for people with developmental disabilities in San Bernardino, Calif., on Wednesday. The shooting is the deadliest since 2012, when 20 children and 6 adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut.
The preliminary death toll in San Bernardino is already the 6th highest in modern U.S. history, along with a 1986 shooting in Edmond, Oklahoma, in which a man opened fire at a Post Office. The list of the deadliest shootings on record are shown in the chart below. Many of those with the most severe death tolls have happened in the past decade.
The 12th deadliest shooting occurred in 2013, when a gunman opened fire inside the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C, killing 12 people. Two separate shootings—one in Binghamton, New York, another in Fort Hood, Texas, both in 2009—each claimed the lives of 13 people, sharing the title of eighth most deadly. The country endured its deadliest shooting in history in 2007, when a senior at Virginia Tech killed 32 people and wounded 17 others.
(It's possible that there were other mass shootings further back in history not captured in these statistics.)
That
incident marked the beginning of a new era of more frequent and more
lethal mass shootings. Of the 12 deadliest shootings in U.S.
history, five occurred after the massacre at Virginia Tech.
Public health researchers at Harvard University and Northwestern University have confirmed that mass shootings are becoming more frequent, and the San Bernardino shooting is the latest. There have now been 355 this year alone, including all incidents in which at least four people, including the gunman, are wounded by gunfire.
Roberto
A. Ferdman is a reporter for Wonkblog covering food, economics, and
other things. He was previously a staff writer at Quartz.
Max Ehrenfreund writes for Wonkblog and compiles Wonkbook, a daily policy newsletter. You can subscribe here. Before joining The Washington Post, Ehrenfreund wrote for the Washington Monthly and The Sacramento Bee.
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