"The Protected Mass Shooting" (Penembakan Masal yang Dilindungi)

THE "PROTECTED" MASS SHOOTING

Heru Susetyo

hsusetyo@ui.ac.id

 

Assistant Professor at Faculty of Law Universitas Indonesia/ Studied International Human Rights Law at Northwestern University, Chicago

           

While in Indonesia,  public is shocked by a student who unintentionally killed his teacher in Sampang, Madura on 1 February 2018 and  a school principal who was heavily injured by a student's parent in Lolak, Bolaang Mongondow, North Sulawesi on 13 February 2018.  What had happened in US, violence at academic institution is much more dangerous.

Mass shooting took place again in USA on 14 February 2018.    Nikolas Cruz, 19,  brutally shot  students and teachers at his former school in Florida, Marjory  Stoneman Douglas High School,  in Parkland, Florida, resulted in 17 casualties.Cruz was subsequently apprehended and placed in custody.   The police later found that Cruz was previously expelled from that school due to unspecified disciplinary reasons.

The massive shooting in schools, universities, and other public premises have frequently taken place in the US. By definition,  according to US Congress,  mass killing is defined as three or more homicides in a single incident, while Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an event where at least four people are injured or killed in a single incident, at the same general time and location, not including the shooter (www.politifact.com/ 14/02/2018).  Under this definition,  there are 146 incidents of mass shooting from 1967 to 2017.  

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Funduses a straightforward, fair, and comprehensive definition for a school shooting: any time a firearm discharges a live round inside or into a school building or on or onto a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials.  By this definition,  since 2013, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America --- an average of about one a week (www.everytownresearch.org/ 15/02/2018).

            Prior to Florida incident,  the latest mass shootings were  in Las Vegas on October 1st 2017 and in Sutherland Springs, Texas on 5 November 2017.  In Las Vegas,  a 64 year old Stephen Paddock rained gunfire on a crowd of 22.000  music festival from the 32nd floor the Mandalay Bay and Resort Casino. Killing 58 people and injuring almost 500; and  in Sutherland Springs, Devin Patrick Kelley brutally shot the worshippers  of the church.  26 people were killed and 20 seriously injured.