It was another couple of dark days in the United States over the weekend. On Saturday, a gunman killed 11 people at a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, California during Lunar New Year celebrations. He also reportedly tried to target a second dance hall but failed.
Early yesterday (Sunday) morning, there was another mass shooting at a nightclub in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in which a dozen people were injured. As I’m writing this, one of the victims is in critical condition.
There were two more shootings on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana and Robinsonville, Mississippi. Both of these added another dozen to the list of those injured from mass shootings.
Mass shootings in America have become so routine that their shock values continue to decrease exponentially. That’s a scary thing to contemplate but it seems we may be becoming numb to these tragedies.
According to the website, Gun Violence Archive (https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/), there have been 36 mass shootings and 5 mass murders resulting in more than 1,140 deaths this year alone. And we're only three weeks into the year!
Twenty-one of the dead are children under the age of twelve and 95 of them are teenagers. More than 250 in these age groups have been injured, many of them maimed for life.
That's as unbelievable as it is disheartening.
The shooting in Monterey Park and the resulting manhunt for the shooter sent a big shockwave of fear through Asian American communities in the Los Angeles area. The incident also cast a dark shadow over Chinese New Year festivities around the country, so much so that other cities sent extra officers to watch over their celebrations.
Due to an uptick in hate crimes against Asian minorities since the pandemic, and the fact that this latest incident targeted a dance studio filled with people celebrating the Lunar New Year, one’s immediate thought would be that this is another Asian hate incident.
But is it?
The suspect, later identified as a 72-year-old adult Asian man was found dead with self-inflicted gun wounds the following morning less than 30 miles away in Torrance, California. He was driving a van that matched eyewitness descriptions and shot himself when the vehicle was stopped and before police officers could approach.
Many are wondering why an Asian man would target other Asians in a community filled with Asian Americans. Did he have a mental illness? Could this be linked to some kind of domestic abuse? Your guess is as good as mine as authorities continue to look into positive motives.
Two law enforcement sources said the suspect recently showed up at a police station saying his family was trying to poison him. So, this could easily be a family dispute gone awry. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, however, what this proves to me is the depravity of the human mind.
We usually think of hatred in situations where there are obvious differences between perpetrators and victims. But sometimes, the reasons may not be that deep. After all, some have killed their own family members or other loved ones in sudden moments of uncontrollable anger, and that may be the situation here.
They may not have meant to, but they did. And that's a cautionary tale for you and me. If we have the tendency to get angry easily and we don’t have the impulse control skills to reign in the anger or channel it appropriately, the consequences can be disastrous.
You may say that’s not you. You could be thinking that even though you have anger problems, you would never resort to such a level of violence. Well, I doubt if any of those who have succumbed to their fits of anger thought a particular situation would turn them into murderers.
And yet, here we are.
So, are you easily angered or annoyed? Do you tend to take out your frustrations on others? If that’s you, I think you should consider working with a professional to find safe outlets for your anger and frustrations. Please do it before it’s too late.
You could be saving lives in the process.