Thirteen Dead in Binghamton Massacre
A lone gunman entered an immigrant services center in downtown Binghamton, New York, on Friday and killed 13 people. Four others were wounded in the massacre that began around 10:30 in the morning and ended three minutes later when the shooter took his own life.
Police sources say the shooter was Jiverly Voong, a 41-year-old resident of the nearby town of Johnson City who had been in the United States for 28 years and was a citizen. He reportedly had been taking language classes at the center. Authorities are saying that name may be an alias. Police refuse to officially name their suspect because of the possibility that the ID found on the body may have been false or stolen.
Voong also recently lost his job at IBM. His motive is unknown at the moment.
It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that, after yet another senseless tragedy involving a disturbed individual who lashes back at a world that he believes has injured him by committing mass slaughter of the innocent, we are gradually becoming inured to this kind of violence.
We are shocked — but not quite as shocked as we were when we heard the news about Columbine. We are horrified — but not quite as horrified as we were when we first tuned in to the Virginia Tech shootings. We are saddened for the victims and their families — but perhaps the feelings of pity and concern are now being replaced by an overweening sense of helplessness in the face of mindless mayhem committed for reasons only the killer believes are just.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a broken record of commentary and punditry that you can simply go to your Tivo and rerack coverage of any similar outrage to get the gist of their talking points. The talking heads always politicize the tragedy, as partisans seek advantage in pushing their pet issues, piggybacking their arguments on the backs of the slaughtered. And now we have the extra added attraction for the commentators of an economy in the tank and America more afraid, more stressed, and more depressed than in any other economic downturn since the depression.
Did Voong go on his rampage because he lost his job? It is true that crime goes up during hard times. But no one has ever found a correlation between mass murder and the economy. Experts say that these tragedies are the result of the shooter feeling personally injured in some way — real or imagined.
The president issued a statement from Europe, where he is attending ceremonies connected to the 60th anniversary of NATO:
Michelle and I were shocked and deeply saddened to learn about the act of senseless violence in Binghamton, N.Y., today. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and the people of Binghamton.
A press conference on the massacre in Binghamton was surreal. After Mayor Ryan made some opening remarks, Governor Paterson shouldered his way to the microphone to get a little national TV face time. He was followed quickly by Representative Maurice Hinchey (D). A written statement from both those gentlemen would have sufficed. Instead, we were treated to the spectacle of local and state pols sticking their faces in front of the cameras, using a tragedy for self-aggrandizing purposes.
Is this kind of violence — and the fact that it occurs with alarming regularity — simply a reflection of American society and culture? The fact that the probable shooter is a naturalized citizen raises questions as to whether that notion can be applied in this case. Some blame the “gun culture” for this fascination with violence, but there are millions of Americans who are part of that “culture” who will never commit mass murder.
While there is no “explanation” for the violence, the mental health of the killer is usually called into question, especially in cases where the massacre ends in suicide. Could it be that in a nation of 300 million people the number of people afflicted with this kind of suicidal rage is greater than it is elsewhere and therefore these mass murders a more common occurrence as a result? It is an unknown that will haunt us until the next tragedy dominates the news cycle and tests our ability to continue to be shocked and saddened by the madness.
It’s a horrible thing that when something this terrible happens, the first thing on many peoples minds is: “How can I turn this to my advantage?”.
I think it is a reflection of our society. Each movie must be more violent or profane than the last. Each TV reality show more ridiculous. Each court ruling endorsing the latest perversion.
When these events happen we really don’t have time for grief because the talking heads must scream their agenda louder than the last as the society as whole becomes more and more deaf to what they know in their hearts is wrong with our culture but not allowed to say.
It still shocks me, I still get sad. I am sad.
I believe that if the victims were armed to protect themselves many would have survived. If one of the victims would have been armed and trained he/she could have saved many people from the killer today.
I am so sorry for the victims and their families.
At first I had visions of people screaming “racism” because the shooting occured at an immigrant center…. then I read who the shooter was and thought “never mind”
There’d probably be fewer of these murder-suicides if the killer’s identity wasn’t publicized and they knew it wouldn’t be publicized.
It would also be extremely helpful if the system did not show mercy toward the insane. I can think of few more deserving of being terminated with extreme prejudice by the courts than the homicidally insane. They are no more “victims of their illness” in a sense that should warrant keeping them around than a rabid dog. If you are judged fundamentally insane (the clinical term for just plain evil in many cases) and you have killed someone, the only–only–location you go next should be the gallows.
Leigh,
You’re too late, it’s already happening.
On another thread here (Andrew Klavan), we have one troll claiming this shooting as “right wing hate”. He bases this, apparently, on the sole fact it happened at an immigrant services center. The lack of any definitive facts in any direction seemed to be no obstacle to his forming an opinion.
My prayers go out to the families of the victims. Such meaningless murder of innocent people makes me sad in my heart.
WHY? Well, there is no reason or answer for insanity and evil. EVER. No matter how much we’d like to wrap our minds around some sort of ‘reason’ there is NONE.
Patrick1
Right on the money. The violence on TV and movies is appalling. It is like a boomerang. Some people call it Karma.
But the tension has been exacerbated by the recession, the lost of jobs, and the political tugging. When people lose faith in the future, a stressful situation can cause them to snap.
Now, it is almost a daily phenomenon. Sometimes it is what law enforcement calls “suicide by cop”.
Check out this guy’s video and his weird pro-gun, anti-immigrant diatribe getting ripped apart:
http://tr.im/ieiM
#3, Tonya, has it exactly right. If even one of the law-abiding victims was allowed to carry a concealed weapon, many lives would have been saved.
Also, this must be kept in context. In a country of 305 million people, this tragedy [which could have largely been avoided, as Tonya explains] is thirteen people out of literally hundreds of millions of people.
Are people so frightened of reality that they are now willing to give up their basic freedoms in return for… for what, exactly? So that only criminals like this guy have access to defensive weapons?
A concealed-carry law would have averted most, if not all of this tragedy.
Liberals will scream “Ban guns!” but, honestly, this stuff’s happening people have had too much “change” these days. It’d happen if only knives, gasoline and sharp sticks were available, but we’ll still have Democrats wanting restrictions on guns because they feel like it and won’t waste a good crisis. Change means more to them then people.
The problem with today’s society is that there is no punishment to fit the crime. We slap people on the wrist. Turn rapists loose. Send child molesters back into society. All because we think we can “help” them, or “change” them. The word justice is hollow. It has no meaning. Justice used to bring a punishment to deter future criminals. How is labeling someone insane and handling them with kid gloves helping society? We’re so worried about the criminals rights we’ve forgotten about the victims.
The criminals should remain nameless, thus denying them the glory of seeing their name in the press and then punishment should be just…………..and swift.
*Sigh*
I know the gun control cries have already started. They always do. Even though most of the time these rules wouldn’t help any. I’m much happier with those who just say no civilian should own a gun, at least they’re honest!
One of the more gross but interesting things I do in my job is watch the censored videos of these things. Different styles require gore effects to styled differently so I have to go frame by frame and take reference of real life violent crimes and gore and how it acts before I can change it to the style.
Jeff Wiemer:
When the VA Tech shooting occurred, I recall there were actually gleeful comments by a few moonbats on leftwing blogs who were delighted that “red-staters” had been murdered. Because, of course, every person who got killed at VA Tech was a wingnut who deserved a taste of his/her own medicine.
Well, they can’t say that about a shooting in NY state now, can they? Nor can they blame this one on a white man. But of course, Steven P. just knows that the shooter had to be a conservative, because leftists are just too gosh-darn nice and compassionate to kill anybody. (Steven P., may I remind you, is on recond as saying the USSR never persecuted Jews. Poor old Uncle Joe was just misunderstood, I guess.)
My guess is that the shooting had nothing to do with politics at all, that this was just a crazy person.
Patrick 1.
Add to this the violent video games that to some become reality. Then we have a government that wants to make us dependant on ‘big brother’ for all our needs and wants so we can no longer think or act on our own. We want instant fixes for everything. When stress comes in our lives we want someone else to take care of it for us.
It’s a pity that those who voted for ‘change’ didn’t realize it had a price tag. Our freedom.
Don’t forget about the constant encouragement for everyone to feel like a victim, whatever is going on in their lives. We’ve been told for decades to get our feelings out there, that not acting on them is bad for us, bottling or supressing them is wrong and distructive to the self.
I betting it will come out that this perp showed plenty of clues to those around him, yet no one feels anymore that they can take any action before these nutjobs act out.
Back in the day, Village Elders or the Law would take action before things went this far. I’ve heard some stories…
16. Donna V.:
That’s alright, I demolished Steve P a while ago on another thread: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama-turns-on-americas-veterans/#comments. He didn’t respond to my rebuttal (he left that to others like “one of our own” – I cleaned his clock, too). I don’t expect him to in Klavan’ thread either, that’s not his style.
These guys prove Reagan’s old adage:
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.”
And THAT is so true of his opinion on the Binghamton shooting.
we have lost the plot. there is no longer a differentiation between good and evil. instead, some sort of peculiar attitude in the air toward words of hatred and acts of terror. this makes it possible for people who are deranged to think murder, hostage taking, terror, is acceptable. this is the accepted response to what they madly perceive as any injustice.
and why shouldn’t they perceive it that way, in this twisted, bloody, murderous, criminal zeitgeist.
we have a president who refuses to stand up for good and oppose evil, slinking silently into the shadows as if evil doesn’t exist, and as if there is any doubt as to who the offenders are. in what seems like excruciating stupidity or naivete he seeks out an endearing connection with the most hateful and insane. indeed, for those who commit the most heinous crimes, the terrorists, there’s very little in the way of consequences. it is unacceptable to refer to them as “terrorists”, “enemies”, “evil”, “bad”, “fifth column” or “filth” (their real moniker). rather than keeping them imprisoned and offend their sensibilities, this president turns them loose. on us.
the thousands of murdered innocent souls of 9-11 have been forgotten. the suicide bombers have been forgotten as are their victims. our college campuses are cesspools of venemous hatred.and mr. obama visits england in a jaunty fashion, despite the fact that this is a nation whose culture has drowned in islam, while mrs. obama forces herself upon the queen, the monarchy being the only remaining vestige of western civilization england can claim.
expect more murderous rampages. in fact, expect everything.
Oh crap. This is nothing new. A guy climbed a tower in Austin, Texas with a high powered rifle decades ago. Some scumbag bombed a little schoolhouse killing dozens of kids a century ago. A pied piper stole off with a whole town full of kids hundreds of years ago … or so the story goes. There is no percentage in trying to make sense of pure evil. Its just too bad we’ve lost the extended family and real community so these pieces of human offal can’t bee weeded out beforehand. Time and time again we find out after the fact that ‘so and so’ was known to many as a complete whack job and would probably ‘go postal’ one day. But nobody listened and nobody will. It’s not politically correct.
This is another terrible happening, and no amount of explination will help the victims. Still, I would like to shine some light on the problem.
If people were answerable to an authority, perhaps they would tend to behave better. But if we are all just whatever evolved, and when we die it is all over, what difference does it make whether we go vent our rage on some people at random? Would it make any difference if we laid down our life trying to stop the guy? None of the authorities of this earth have any power over him.
If it’s truly all over, he has gotten off scot free. But if there is a person who created this world, there just might be a day of reconing. Perhaps justice will be done. If that person said this is right or that is wrong, then we wouldn’t have to decide.
It will probably come out that the shooter was on medication.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t New York State have some of the strictist gun control laws in the United States?
If so, this certainly counts as a failure of gun control.
What I find fascinating- and faintly irritating- is that everyone is busy speculating on the perpetrator’s motives, citing his loss of a job, etc., while overlooking one small but highly important fact;
He Has Not Been Positively Identified Yet.
The police in Binghamton clearly stated that “The ID we found on him may not have been his”, “The name on it is a known alias”, etc. Translation; We Don’t know Who This Guy Is, Yet.
Until the police can say with certainty, from fingerprints, DNA, etc., exactly who the “suspected” (note that word) perpetrator is, speculation as to motive, etc., is both useless and frankly a pain in the backside to the investigators.
I’d like to remind both politicians and the news media that this isn’t an episode of a TV show. And unlike “Criminal Minds” or “CSI”, we don’t always know all the salient facts before the first commercial break.
So, to the politicians, and the media, and especially the commentariat, do the police a favor;
Zip it until they know more.
clear ether
eon
I’m with Tonya. The geenie is out of the bottle, the only question now is whether you want to be a victim or a survivor.
26. Don’t you listen to MSM? We’re all victims. My age, weight, wealth, (or lack of), the old car I drive, the small house I own and my health is all someone else’s fault. Oh, great glorious, PresBO, help me. I can’t do for myself anymore.
We need to teach people that if you are going to shoot a bunch of people and then shoot yourself, START WITH YOURSELF FIRST. Problem solved.
Yes, NY has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. But the answer to any failure of law is more laws, because that is what lawyers (and our legislators are lawyers) do.
Of course, had the government not mucked up our economy and created incentives for IBM to move jobs overseas, then the killer wouldn’t have lost his job, and quite likely this massacre wouldn’t have happened.
It’s interesting that the police took over an hour to enter the building. That old saying about when you need a cop now one is only minutes away was an exaggeration. I write this not to denigrate the police, but to note that nobody can ensure your safety at all times but you.
Haven’t a lot of the recent irrational shootings involved oriental shooters?
Move this event to El Paso, TX.
Good chance 1 or more of the people in the building are armed (concealed carry). Now the potential killer is at a statistical disadvantage and only 1-3 people die as the concealed carry people get in a gunfight as others get a chance to run as the killer is pinned down.
New York’s gun laws are at least partially responsible for the number of dead.
You have a MORAL DUTY to not only protect yourself but protect your neighbor, and if that means carrying a firearm and being trained in its use, so be it.
Luke 22:36: “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
Could be that what we’re seeing here is an effect of letting aliens become naturalized citizens without having mastered the language skills to fully compete and be assimilated into American society. If so, we’re going to see this again.
In spite of being here 25(?) years, Wong/Voong was still frustrated and felt he was being held back by his lack of language skills. Language classes apparently weren’t helping much. Some people have difficulty learning a new language. Are we really doing these people a favor by letting them become citizens without having mastered the basic language skills needed to survive here?
Brave cops, BTW. Some victims could’ve died from lack of medical attention while the officers took an hour to determine whether it was safe. Yet another reason not to depend on them.
I’m in NY and have a permit to carry. But I HATE to carry. For one thing, the responsibilities involved are huge. But worse than that, it’s harder to keep your pants up.
It may be time for a shoulder rig.
Lets imagine that the killers name was John Smith and he was a white American laid off from IBM.
Can you IMAGINE the MSM response?
But, the guy turns out to be another Asian lunatic. Ho, hum.
I was in Fla. last month.
Some 30 year old pos cut off an older man at an intersection while i was standing there.
The younger guy got halfway out of his car as his voice became louder and more threatening. I felt certain that an altercation was about to ensue.
At that point the older guy yells out to the pos “If you come near me Im going to blow your f**king head off”.
The pos git right back in his car.
Seemed quite reasonable to me. Thank God the older guy had a gun and had the decency to warn the pos.
When I am in Fla. I am always very polite.
Every time there is yet another horrific tragedy as this further groping for reasons why spring forth from all quarters. Yet the backgrounds, circumstances and supposed motives vary as much as the individuals involved and no firm conclusions are reached. The need for more comprehensive mental health screening is touted as the answer. But a major common thread is continually glossed over by the main stream media: the majority of the perpetrators have been found to be under the influence of some sort of antidepressant, antipsychotic or psychotropic drug cocktail. Are these rampages as unexplainable and senseless as portrayed? Just maybe these drugs which render billions in profits to the pharmaceutical companies are the finger on the trigger.
First I don’t think he worked at IBM. Secondly
this displays the problem of bringing in
people that don’t have language or job skills
into the country.
The problem is exacerbated when immigrants
become cocooned into ethnic pockets where
they do not need to use english and therefore
never improve their english language skills.
They also maintain their cultural prejudices
in that setting. Lefties aside, face the facts,
the vast majority of non-western cultures are
highly intolerant.
Promoting multiculturalism simply makes the
problem worse. Unfortunately for the MSM
the problem is the angry non-white male.
I would just like to point out that in nearly every case like this, the shooter kills himself either before or just after the police show up.
It simply boggles the mind that people can be so abysmally stupid to keep refusing to recognize that it is largely the monopoly of lethal force by the defectoid that contributes to such crimes, and certainly a direct cause of what makes the body count so high.
Once the mass-murderer no longer has the absolute power of life and death, he self-gakks, since he is NOT interested in a shootout.
This is the mark of a coward.
The three hours the cops spent waiting before entering makes you wonder about the need for cops. Those that survived needed rescue . The poor receptionist whowas shot on the phone with 911 for 3 hours was unneccessary endangerment to her. She may have bled out waiting for the cowardly cops.
The cops did not save anyone just investigate the crime. The EMT’s may have saved more lives if they wer allowed in earlier.
Stop thinking cops will save you , they won’t they just write up the report. Save yousrself do not wait for a cop and arm yourself. The cops only want to save themselves and wait out these situations.
VT the shooter had killed himself. This shooting the same thing. The Colorado church the woman stopped the shooter with her gun and then he shot himself. The cops are useless. People are capable of defending themselves if they had the arms and spirit to do it. Even her at a work place and CCW holder could have stoppped the shooter. But NY does not allow that.
Other places it does work. The was a case with the daughter of the owner of a company came in with a bow and arrow and shot the workers and when she tried to shoot two more workers they pulled our guns and shot her. She then held up in a room and the police came in and shot and killed her.
That was in TX no problem and only one worker hurt because the workers were armed even against the owner’s daughter.
Three police officers killed.
If the shooter had been a Muslim would we have heard about it at all?
Of course no one remembers Jeannie Assam, the woman with a carry permit who stopped the shooting at New Life Church.
There was a recent shooting by a 22 year old man in Pittsburgh. He killed three cops, thought the government was going to take his guns away, decided to do something about it.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, its directly related to the tripe being fed out by many people on this blog. Sedition, armed rebellion, war on other Americans is being doled out here on a regular basis. Watch out for what you espouse, you can easily get your wish. This is just a sample of the results. Three dead cops because some crackpot acted on what was being shoveled out, three families without fathers, three families in grief.
The truth is that the Obama administration is no friend to gun owners. Stuff like this doesn’t help our cause of keeping our guns. If you want to fight the storm of gun regulations coming, support the NRA, fight in the courts, have demonstrations, and vote for our friends.
Don’t espouse the rhetoric of “they’ll have to pry the gun out of my cold dead hands”. Don’t espouse sedition or civil disobedience. For God sakes don’t run around like paranoid nuts. Keep your heads and watch what you say. The wrong person may be listening and he’ll act on your rhetoric.
Delia
I don’t think these nuts get it.
Everyone on TV is screaming about reinstating the assault weapons ban because of this and similar rampages recently, yet almost all of these rampages were committed with Handguns, Shotguns and/or Sporting rifles. One MAY have used a rifle that could be classified as “assault” (Michael McLendon in Alabama)
So if the assault weapons ban had been enacted right when Obama was sworn in, it wouldn’t have prevented any of this
Here’s a dangerous combination: guns, feeble minds, altered minds, drugs (legal and not).
Would this had happened with knives, 4×4′s, other close-range weapons? Probably, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to shoot at a distance. Feeble minds know that.
#45: Frank: Bingo! The dangerous part of the assault weapon ban is that if it is enacted, then what will stop these bleeding heart libs from declaring that ALL guns (including shotguns and handguns) are assault weapons, therefore giving them the power to essentially revoke the 2nd Amendment?
Also, as I post this on Sunday night, there have now been two more incidents of mass killing – the three cops gunned down in Pittsburgh (plus another one injured) and the kook in Washington state who murdered his five children because he thought his wife was about to leave him. Add to that the massacre at the Nebraska nursing home earlier in the week, that makes four such tragedies in six days.
What is this country coming to? As the article points out, these incidents of mass killings are starting to become more and more frequent, at an alarming rate.
John R Parker
I’ve never seen anything like this before. Its symptomatic of people who want to die. Unfortunately they’re killing others before dying. They will be the undoing of private gun ownership in this country.
This is one of the reasons I don’t like incendiary blogging like what I’ve seen on some of PJM’s blogs. People blogging were running out and buying assault weapons and thousands of rounds of ammo. Talk of rebellion is also adding fuel to the fire.
TO: All
RE: Too Late the Hero
So, according to today’s report, the [To Serve and To Protect] police of Binghamton served themselves and protected their own a–, having arrived at the scene of the on-going massacre THREE minutes AFTER the 911 call was received. And then WAITED for 43 MINUTES before entering the ‘fray’.
The result being 13 dead.
Thanks a LOT a–holes!
On the other hand, the North Carolina nursing home incident some days before had a courageous officer who recognized his duty and his oath and engaged as reported here.
Only 8 dead there.
Admittedly the circumstances were different, but I see it as a key indicator of a correlation between the difference in dedication and the body-counts.
Maybe its just me. Maybe its because my church lost friends in the Columbine fiasco, which resembled what happened in Binghamton. But in my honestly held and professional military opinion, the police at Columbine and Binghamton were too much concerned about their own a– than about the lives of the people they were sworn ‘To Serve and To Protect’.
What were they afraid of anyway? Losing their life? Or losing their honor?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Where there is fear, there is no religion. -- Mohandas Gandhi]
TO: vivo
RE: The Problem Then Becomes….
….that after all the ‘law abiding’ sheep give up their weapons, the not-so-feeble minds who retained theirs can prey upon the unarmed at will.
See what’s happening in England of late?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Stupid people never plan farther ahead than their limited imagination will allow.]
P.S. And that is usually until they reach some silly point in their reasoning that looks good to them…..
Oh. Yeah….
….here’s a ‘killer’ quote about what vivo proposes….
TO: All
RE: Additionally
HERE is some additional insight into the results of the Binghamton police department’s slow response.
I find the report of the ‘medical examiner’ rather interesting.
I have to wonder….
….were all the fatalities head-shots or one-through-the-heart?
I wonder how good a shot the perp was in the first place. And I wonder if we’ll see the autopsies of the victims to know if he was THAT good a shot. Especially as the latter victims would have been running around in panic, i.e., moving targets.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Once the shooting starts, you're either a combatant or a pop-up target.]
GUNS FOR EVERYBODY . . . I’m so saddened and shocked . . . WHY DO YOU THINK WE’RE BUYING UP ALL THE AMMO, LIBTARD? . . . . My hearts and prayers are with the families . . . IF YOU THINK WE’RE JUST GOING TO SIT AROUND AND TAKE THIS, YOU’RE CRAZY . . . It’s a tragedy when some lone nut job goes off on his own like this . . . THE TIME FOR REVOLUTION IS NOW . . . Just think of the children left behind . . . I PREFER WADCUTTERS TO FULL METAL JACKS CUZ THEY’RE CHEAPER AND THEY STILL KILL . . . If only all the victims would have had guns, then nobody would have died . . . I’LL BE PACKIN AT THE TEA PARTY, HOW BOUT YOU?
Now, put down the facts, and step away from the responsibility. That’s right. Nice and easy. I’d hate to see you or your partners there have to deal with reality instead of these Palladin fantasies and GI Joe circle jerks that take up so much of your time. That’s right, just walk away quiet like. Don’t make me put one of these hot-load thoughts in your head.
19. Jeff Weimer: . . . 16. Donna V.: . . . That’s alright, I demolished Steve P a while ago on another thread: He didn’t respond to my rebuttal (he left that to others like “one of our own” – I cleaned his clock, too.
Odd, Senor Weiner, but I don’t remember that. Refresh my feeble ticker, will you? Perhaps “the cleaner” was one of your tepid anachronisms from the soon-to-be-risen Republican Messiah, Emmanuel Reagan. Or maybe one of Newt’s 7,500 lists to Restore America that he’s offered over the past 11 days. Honestly, my clock is as dirty as ever. I’m afraid you’re mistaking me with donttreadonme . . . or is it the other way around?
Knock, knock . . .
TO: All
RE: Wishful Thinking, Anyone?
“Don’t make me put one of these hot-load thoughts in your head.” — one on her own
I think that statement would qualify.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out....]