On Jan. 17, 1989, a lone gunman who thought Asians were taking jobs away from "native-born Americans" started firing at a school playground in Stockton, Calif. Five kids died, and 29 more and a teacher were wounded. This convicted felon used an AK-47 he bought legally at a gun store.
Patrick Edward Purdy had a troubled childhood that included drug and alcohol addiction, stints in foster care, and homelessness. He spent time in prison for armed robbery, selling weapons, and several drug crimes. He also apparently became a devotee of white supremacists; during one arrest, he was carrying a book about the Aryan Nation and told the county sheriff that it was “his duty to help the suppressed and overthrow the oppressor.” After the shooting, his co-workers said he had a special hatred for Asians, saying they had taken jobs from “native-born Americans.”
On the morning of Jan. 17, Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton received a phone call with an anonymous death threat. At about noon, Purdy drove to the school and parked his van, which was filled with fireworks, behind the school. He then set it on fire with a Molotov cocktail. He started shooting randomly into the playground from behind a portable building. In three minutes, Purdy fired 106 rounds from his AK-47, killing the five children and wounding the others. He then shot himself in the head with a pistol. He had attended Cleveland Elementary 16 years earlier.
Purdy wore a flak jacket that bore the words “PLO,” “Libya,” and “death to the Great Satin” [sic]. Purdy also had carved the words “freedom,” “victory,” “Earthman,” and “Hezbollah” on his rifle. He obviously couldn't decide whose side he was on.
The five children who lost their lives were Ram Chum, Thuy Tran, Rathanan Or, Sokhim An, and Oeun Lim. They ranged from 6 to 9 years old. All of the fatally shot victims and most of the wounded were Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. Some 71 percent of the school’s population was made up of war refugees.
The Stockton shooting became the impetus to pass a state ban on assault weapons in 1989 in California and a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994. That ban was in effect for 10 years but expired in 2004 when Congress failed to extend it. A 2004 Justice Dept. study found that “the use of assault weapons in crime declined by more than two-thirds by about nine years after 1994 Assault Weapons Ban took effect.”
Since the expiration of the Assault Weapons Ban 10 years ago, both sides of the gun law debate have used statistics to bolster their arguments on the effectiveness of the law. Every time one of these events occurs, I think, as I did after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, "this'll be it; this is what it will take to act." But it never is. And a dead schoolchild is the best argument for at least some common-sense gun solutions.
This information is also on my own blog, politicalmurder.com, as my "political murder of the day." But it's basically a reiteration of this narrative.