Another tragic case of mass shooting has occurred in the city of El Paso, Texas. A 21 years old murderer named Patrick Wood Crusius decided to walk into a Walmart store and start shooting at innocent civilians. The reason behind this horrible attack is believed to be racism. At the time of writing, the number of people that were killed by this gunman is 24 and dozens more people were injured.
How can anyone think that killing innocent people is a good or just action is beyond me. I don’t care if you disagree with someone or don’t like the color of their skin – resorting to violence is a cowardly and immoral act.
The Victims of The El Paso Mass Shooting
One of the most heartbreaking stories is that of the Anchondo family. Jordan was shot to dead while shielding her 2-month old son that somehow has managed to survive thanks to his parents’ efforts to protect him. He broke some of his bones – probably because his mother fell on him in an effort to save his life. The father, Andre Anchondo, also lost his life in his incident.
You can learn more about the Anchondo family in this article of The Guardian: Parents killed in El Paso shooting while protecting their baby from gunfire.
It’s very hard for me to read and describe the horrors that happened in the El Paso mass shooting. So, I’m just going to list the names of the innocent people that lost their lives in this shooting:
- Jordan Anchondo – 25 year-old mother of 3. She died while protecting her 2 month old son.
- Andre Anchondo – Jordan’s husband and the father of the 2 month old baby. The father died at age 23.
- Arturo Benavides – 67 years old bus driver and army veteran.
- Angie Englisbee – This grandmother died at the age 86 after having a phone conversation with her son.
- Leonard Cipeda Campos – 41 years old. He lost his life with his wife Maribel.
- Maribel Hernandez – The wife of Leonard.
- Javier Amir Rodriguez – a 15 years old kid that lost his life due to bigotry.
- Ivan Manzano – 46 year-old and a father of two.
- David Johnson – 63 years old grandfather.
- Maria Flores – 77 years old U.S. citizen.
- Raul Flores – 77 years old U.S. citizen.
- Jorge Calvillo Garcia – 61 year-old Mexican national from Coahuila.
- Alexander Gerhard Hoffman – 66 years old German citizen.
- Luis Alfonzo Juarez – 90 years old! He is the oldest victim in this shooting.
- Maria Eugenia Legarrega Rothe – Died at age 58. She is a Mexican citizen from Chihuahua.
- Elsa Libera Marquez – 57 years old U.S. citizen.
- Maribel Loya – 56 years old U.S. citizen.
- Gloria Irma Marquez – 61 year-old Mexican citizen from Ciudad Juárez.
- Margie Reckard – 63 years old U.S. citizen.
- Sarah Esther Regaldo Moriel – 66 years old Mexican citizen from Ciudad Juárez.
- Adolfo Cerros Hernandez – 68 years old Mexican citizen from Aguascalientes. He is Sarah’s husband.
- Teresa Sanchez – 82 years old Mexican citizen.
- Angelina Sliva-Elisbee – 86 years old U.S. citizen.
- Juan Velazquez – 77 years old U.S. citizen.
May these innocent victims rest in peace. We should pray for their families and for the recovery of the dozens more people that were injured.
You can find more information about the victims in this article of the Time.
Can We Stop This Violence?
We all know that this is probably not the last incident. Is there anything we can do to stop the next mass shooting?
It’s hard to deny that there is a lot of violence in our culture. Many of us just love watching television shows and movies that contain violence. Violence is also abundant in video games and can easily be found all over the internet.
Does our culture promote brutality and cause our society to be more violent? Maybe the problem is not our culture – is it possible that our culture just reflects what is going on in society? There are a lot of opinions on this topic. For example, this YouTube video suggests that advertising is responsible for cultural violence (I have to admit that I’ve never thought of that point of view).
Many people are offering ideas and possible solutions to this problem – but it’s unclear what’s the best way to tackle this issue.
Even the proponents of tougher punishment can agree that many cases of violence can’t be prevented by making punishments tougher. A lone man that decides to engage in mass killings already knows that he is probably going to die sooner or later or spend the rest of his life in jail. The focus needs to be on prevention. But how can we prevent it?
We can use technology and other measures to look for individuals that are likely to launch a violent attack against innocent people (the gunman in the El Paso shooting posted a hate manifesto shortly before launching his attack). Other people talk about tougher gun controls, anti-violence campaigns, improving the education system and many other ways.
The right way may very well be some kind of combination of the approaches mentioned above. What do you think?