Assigned Blog #3 (Kent State University Shooting)
Nearly 43 years ago, there was a school shooting at Kent State University, in Kent, Ohio. This shooting took place on May 4th, 1970. Nine students were injured and four were killed. The surprising thing was that the shooters were members of the National Guard!
This all started when students decided to hold rallies on the campus during the weekend of May 1st through May 4th, 1970. On the 1st, students decided to burn down a building on campus. When firefighters arrived to put out the fire, students then cut holes in the hoses. They also began to throw rocks at the firefighters. When the mayor of Kent found out about this, petitioned the governor for the use of the National Guard. This was mainly to begin to add structure to the lives of the students after the burning of the building, but that didn’t turn out well.
On May 4th, students were outside either at a protesting against the Vietnam War, or going from class to class. When the Guardsmen arrived, students tried to move them off the area where the rally was being held. When the students began doing that, tear gas was used. The tear gas canisters were thrown back to the Guardsmen. I think that what happened next is very shocking.
One of the Guardsmen misunderstood a signal from a sniper to fire. If this person would have been more cautious, I doubt any of this would have happened. Sixteen men fired their M-16 rifles into the crowd. The shooting of the guns lasted only thirteen seconds. During this time, four were killed. Another nine were injured. What doesn’t make sense is two very innocent people were killed. These two were just going to class; they were not involved in the rallies.
The four victims were; Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer, and William Schroeder. Allison Krause and Jeffrey Miller were part of the anti-Vietnam War protests. Sandra Scheuer was shot in the throat and William Knox was shot in his left shoulder-the bullet exited through his chest. Sandra Scheuer and Jeffrey Miller were the two that were just going to class and had no part in the protest.
To read more about the shooting victims, click here.
Sources:
Pollick, Michael, and Niki Foster. "What Happened at Kent State?" WiseGeek. Conjecture, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-happened-at-kent-state.htm>;.
"Find A Grave." N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=pr>;.
Comments
Good summary but be sure to include personal thoughts!