Mass murder

A mass murder (massacre) involves the murder of large numbers of people either by a state or an individual. This should not be confused with serial killers, who usually tend to kill one person (or perhaps two) at a time.

The largest mass killings in history have been attempts to exterminate ethnic and other groups; for more about this subject see genocide. This article refers to non-genocidal mass killings.

Although "genocide" does not necessarily require actual killing, only acting on a plan to exterminate an ethnic group, mass murder by definition involves killing a large number of people.

Mass murder by the state

R. J. Rummel, a political scientist, coined the word democide to cover mass murder by a state. Some killings commonly viewed as genocide are actually democide or mass murder because they involve killing for political or cultural reasons.

Examples include:

• Killings in Cambodia of the intellectual and cultural elite.
• Killings in Stalinist Russia of Kulaks, alleged Trotskyists and other alleged enemies of the regime, most of whom were ethnic Russians.
• Civilian populations buried alive with bulldozers by the Japanese in China.
• The massacre of Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
• The slaughter of the civilian population of Avaricum by the Roman army under Julius Caesar.

Some people also regard the bombing of urban areas during wartime to constitute mass murder by the state.

Mass murder by terrorists

In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass murder as acts of intimidation, and to draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass murder include:

• September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in New York- 3,000 deaths
• Omagh Bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland- 29 deaths
• the Oklahoma City Bombing- 168 deaths
• Beslan hostage crisis- ~350 deaths
• Bali Bombings- 202 deaths
• Madrid Train Terrorist Attacks- 191 deaths
• Russian airplane bombings of August 24, 2004 - 89 deaths

It should be noted that many of these are very much American examples; in fact, the USA is relatively untouched by mass terrorist killings (when compared to Northern Ireland, the Basque region of Spain, Chechnya, Indonesia and the like).

Mass murder by individuals

Outside of a political context, the term "mass murder" refers to the killing of several people at the same time. Examples would include shooting several people in the course of a robbery, or setting a crowded nightclub on fire. This is an ambiguous term, similar to serial killing and spree killing. The USA Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a mass murder as: "[involving] the murder of four or more victims at one location, within one event." Most mass murderrers fall into one of three categories: family annihilators, firearms enthusiasts or disgruntled workers.

Mass Murderers

• Howard Unruh (Camden, New Jersey, 1949)
• Jack Gilbert Graham (Denver, Colorado, 1955)
• Charles Whitman (University of Texas Shootings, Austin, Texas, 1 Aug 1966)
• Harry Roberts (police killer, London, 1966)
• John List (Westfield, New Jersey, 1971)
• Denis Lortie (National Assembly of Quebec, May 8, 1984)
• James Oliver Huberty (McDonald's Shootings, San Ysidro, California, 18 Jul 1984)
• Jeremy Bamber (farmhouse family murders, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, England, 1985)
• David Burke, (PSA Flight 1771, San Luis Obispo, California, 1987)
• Patrick Edward Purdy (Cleveland Elementary School Shootings, Stockton, California, 17 Jan 1989)
• Marc Lépine (École Polytechnique Massacre, Montreal, Quebec, 1989)
• Kenneth French, Jr. (North Carolina, USA - 1993)
• Colin Ferguson (LIRR Massacre; USA, 1994)
• Baruch Goldstein (Hebron, 1994)
• Thomas Hamilton (Dunblane massacre, Dunblane, Scotland, 1996)
• Martin Bryant (Port Arthur Massacre, Australia, 1996)
• Mohammad Ahman al-Naziri (Sanaa massacre, Sanaa, Yemen, 1997)
• Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden (Jonesboro massacre, Jonesboro, Arkansas, 1998)
• Larry Gene Ashbrook (Wedgwood Baptist Church, USA, 1999)
• Susan Eubanks (Vista, California, 1999)
• Buford O. Furrow, Jr. (Los Angeles, California, 1999)
• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine High School Massacre, Littleton, Colorado), 1999)
• Mamoru Takuma (Osaka school massacre, Osaka, Osaka, Japan, 2001)
• Robert Steinhäuser (Erfurt massacre, Erfurt, Germany, 2002)
• Hanadi Jaradat (Haifa, 2003)

In addition, Brenda Ann Spencer attempted a mass murder at an elementary school in San Diego, California, 1979. She only killed two people guarding the students that she targeted. Eight students and a police officer were injured.

Mass murder in warfare

The wrongful killing of large numbers of civilians or prisoners during war is called a war crime although it may also be genocide if the proper ethnic motivation is present as in the killings which occurred in the breakaway republics of the former Yugoslavia or in the killing of the Pequot in colonial America.

See also

atrocities - genocide - going postal - list of massacres - murder - serial killer - spree killer - state terrorism - war crime