We support federal charges against Santa Fe shooter/bomber. Here's why:
On 4/20/99 two homegrown terrorists unleashed their fury on Columbine High School. Their kamikaze attack on unsuspecting victims was well-planned, initially intended to be a mass bombing. When two of their 99 homemade bombs did not detonate in the cafeteria, they moved into active shooter mode throwing pipe bombs as they terrorized students and staff.
Evidence photo: One of the Columbine killers bombs.
In 1998, three years before the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01, one Columbine killer wrote about hijacking a plane and ramming it into a New York City skyscraper. These two domestic terrorists are who many school & workplace killers researched and even revered in the years since 4/20/99.
Thirteen innocents were murdered by the two cold blooded killers, aged 17 and 18 respectively, both of whom were enrolled as seniors at CHS on the day of the massacre.
The modern American active school shooter/bomber era was established that horrible day in Littleton, Colorado.
13 innocents slaughtered at Columbine High School.
Senior Isiah Shoals murdered at CHS 4/20/99 at his wake.
Two Decades of Continued Attacks Post Columbine.
Over the years, there have been multiple attacks on our schools and other workplaces influenced by Columbine.
Each episode - from the vicious kamikaze hit on Virginia Tech University to the barbaric massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School - was an attack on a governmental building with civil servants injured or killed as well as students.
Thus, these assaults should not be regarded as standalone events. They are continuing attacks on our American way of life by predators who seek to instill terror in the hearts and minds of parents, grandparents and other Americans with beloved children enrolled in our public elementary, middle and high schools, and our public colleges and universities.
Over the past 20 years, unfortunately none of the perpetrators who survived were ever brought up on federal charges.
Not one.
And now:
Family members and survivors of the massacre at Santa Fe High School, in the quintessential American town of Santa Fe, Texas want to change this.
They want the individual responsible for the bloodshed that took the lives of eight beloved students and two much-loved teachers and wounded 13 other innocents on 5/18/18 to be brought up on federal charges - not just under state law.
The WVPI supports this effort for three reasons:
First, to achieve justice for the victims who were taken from their families and our country. Jared, Shana, Riley, Aaron, Ms. Perkins, Angelique, Sabika, Chris, Ms. Tisdale and Kimberly's lives mattered. Their lips are sealed forever in death because of a malicious mass murderer's actions on 5/18/18. Like the Columbine killers, he brought homemade bombs with him and wore a black trench coat/duster. We should all be horrified by the way he murdered and wounded his victims. We must demand justice in their names now.
Second, to deter future predators from continuing this vicious trend of attacking our schools - places that should be safe for students to learn and teachers to work. We have withstood these planned acts of terrorism for 20 years. We cannot permit them to go on any longer.
Third, to finally and forever hold up these killers for what they are: Homegrown domestic terrorists.
Just like the one who attacked the Murrow Building in Oklahoma City on 4/19/95:
Another savage American terrorist who the Columbine murderers admired and to some extent modeled their own actions of 4/20/99 after.
CCD image from Stoneman Douglas High School, 2/14/18. Three faculty members and 14 students were murdered, 17 others wounded on that day in Parkland, Florida. A safety committee established to review the events of 2/14/18 reported he researched Columbine prior to his attack on Stoneman Douglas HS.
Section 802 of the Patriot Act, defining Domestic Terrorism.
Sources:
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/12/05/columbine.diary/
http://tech.mit.edu/V119/N22/littleton.22w.html
https://www.thespec.com/news-story/4236140-sandy-hook-massacre-shooter-obsessed-with-columbine/
https://www.denverpost.com/2007/04/18/cho-idolized-columbine-killers/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/school-shootings-columbine.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cruz-researched-columbine-massacre-parkland-shooting-article-1.3953545
https://abc7chicago.com/no-federal-charges-for-santa-fe-high-shooting-suspect/5211138/