#vegas shooting
The shooting in Las Vegas was terrible, but it was by no means the largest mass shooting in US history. The Mandalay Bay loses no significance by not being the largest mass shooting in the US. However, the actual largest mass shooting in the US DOES stand a lot to lose by being forgotten, and the two events go hand in hand.
In 1890 more than 200 unarmed women and children and dozens of unarmed men were slaughtered at Wounded Knee.
US soldiers surrounded a Lakota village and demanded the men with firearms hand them in. One man, Black Elk, was deaf and didn’t understand what was being asked of him. The US soldiers tried to take his gun by force and in the scuffle it was accidentally discharged. The US soldiers then began to shoot the Lakota men at point blank range. The Lakota men who still retained their firearms returned fire and tried to take shelter. The rest of the village FLED.
That’s when the commanding US officer lost control of his troops. The began to chase down and slaughter the fleeing Lakota without instruction to do so. No military order was given. Hundreds were murdered.
Does that sound like a battle to you? When we hear the word ‘battle’ we tend to think of two opposing military forces, both armed and prepared for combat. Calling this event ‘the battle of wounded knee’ and not remembering it as a mass shooting erases the vile acts of the US soldiers. The fact that they happened to be in the military means nothing. In fact, some of these monsters received a medal of honor for the massacre (which, to my knowledge, have yet to be revoked despite urging from Native communities).
What’s the connection between this and Vegas? The US soldiers are the people held up as shining examples to Americans, particularly white American males. While ‘Wounded Knee Massacre’ paints them in a negative light, ‘The Battle of Wounded Knee’ paints them as heroes. Even more recently military men who have expressed delight in killing get movies made about them. White men killing people with guns is PRAISED here. So take a white male, give him these men to look up to, and give him easy access to guns. Those things might not create a murderer, but they sure as fuck don’t help.
So remember the Mandalay Bay shooting, the second largest recorded mass shooting in US history, borne of the same issues that caused the first.
