today’s mass shooting in binghamton, new york is just the latest in an unsettling trend of high-profile april massacres over the last 20 years. 14 people were killed today, april 3 when a lone gunman entered an immigrations services center and opened fire. they join the 33 victims of the virginia tech shooting two years ago on april 16; and the 12 students and 1 teacher that lost their lives when students dylan klebold & eric harris opened fire inside columbine high school 10 years ago on april 20.
14 years ago, on april 19 1995, timothy mcveigh parked a moving van full of explosives in front of the alfred p. murrah federal building in oklahoma city. when it detonated, half of the building crumbled and 168 people perished. it was the deadliest day in american history until 9.11.01. timothy mcveigh’s massacre was timed to coincide with the 2 year anniversary of the government’s raid on a compound in waco, texas. the inferno at the branch davidian cult of leader david koresh claimed 76 lives on april 19, 1993.
additionally, april has seen several high profile assassinations of public figures, most notably, martin luther king jr., on april 4 1968 and president abraham lincoln on april 15 1865. also, on april 3 1996, commerce secretary ron brown was killed along with 34 others when an air force airplane they were traveling in crashed in croatia.
the largest april death toll appears to have been on april 14 1912 when titanic sank after hitting an iceberg in the north atlantic ocean. 1,517 perished on that day.
so what’s the deal with april? it’s one of my favorite months and is supposed to represent new beginnings & spring; the end of long, harsh winter. trees & flowers bloom, replacing the brown barrenness of winter with lovely reds, greens & golds. to be sure, april is also a month of extremes here in the northeast: i recall snowstorms followed astoundlingly soon after with record 90 degree temps in recent years past. there’s also (usually) easter, (formerly) the start of daylight savings time, spring break, and of course: birthdays! two of the most celebrated in my family bookend the month: my late grandmother was born on april 2 and my middle daughter actually arrived at sunrise on her due date of april 26 1999.
so unfortunate the death toll in april throughout the years. we’ll no doubt be hearing more about this unsettling connection between april & dramatic loss of life as the month progresses and details emerge from the binghamton shooting while we mark the anniversaries of virginia tech, oklahoma city & columbine.
*update: just one day after i published this, two additional multi-victim shootings occured. on april 4 in pittsburgh, 3 police officers were shot to death responding to a domestic disturbance call. hours later, in the state of washington, a father shot his 5 children to death before killing himself after learning that his wife was leaving him for another man.
