1989 — Jan 17, School Shooting, Cleveland Elementary School, Stockton, CA — 5-6[1]

–6-7  Miles, Kathleen. “Gun Control California: Stockton School Shooting…” 12-18-2012.[2]

–5-6  New York Times.  “Ban on Assault Rifles Takes Effect in Los Angeles.” 3-3-1989.

–5-6  NY Times. “Five Children Killed as Gunman Attacks a California School.” 1-18-1989.

–5-6  Reinhold, Robert. “After Shooting, Horror but Few Answers. NYT. 1-19-1989.

–5-6  Reinhold, Robert. “Killer Depicted as Loner Full of Hate.” NYT, 1-20-1989.

–5-6  Roth/Koper. “Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96.” NIJ, Dept. Justice.

–5-6  Time Magazine. “Slaughter in A School Yard.” 6-24-2001.

—   5  OJP, DOJ.  Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: 2nd Ed. (Appendix D).

—   5  Gross, Jane. “Stockton Journal; Where 5 Died, a Monk Gives Solace.” NYT, 5-11-1989.

—   5  Reinhold, Robert. “Effort to Ban Assault Rifles Gains Momentum.” NYT, 1-28-1989.

 

Narrative Information

 

Miles:  “Could the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School be the catalyst needed to enact stricter gun control laws? If the 1989 elementary school shooting in Stockton, Calif., is any indication, yes.

 

“In January 1989, Patrick Purdy, 26, stepped onto the grounds of Cleveland Elementary School and raked the school yard with at least 106 bullets from an AK-47 rifle. He killed five children, ages 6 to 9, and one teacher and injured 29 other students, before fatally shooting himself.

 

“Less than a year later, California enacted one of the first bans on assault weapons. “[The Stockton shooting] was so shocking, California had to take action,” said Griffin Dix, former president of the California chapters of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.”  (Miles, Kathleen. “Gun Control California: Stockton School Shooting in 1989 Was Catalyst For Stricter Gun Control.” Huffington Post, Los Angeles, 12-18-2012.)

 

OJP: “Four Cambodians and one Vietnamese [girls]. Twenty-nine other students and a teacher were wounded, 15 seriously. The gunman killed himself.”  (Office of Justice Programs, US Dept. of Justice. Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: 2nd Ed. (Appendix D).)

 

Roth and Koper: “On January 17, 1989, Patrick Edward Purdy, armed with an AKS rifle – a semiautomatic variant of the military AK–47 — returned to his childhood elementary school in Stockton, California, and opened fire, killing 5 children and wounding 30 others. Purdy, a drifter,

squeezed off more than 100 rounds in 1 minute before turning the weapon on himself.

 

“During the 1980s and early 1990s, this tragedy and other similar acts of seemingly senseless violence, coupled with escalating turf and drug wars waged by urban gangs, sparked a national debate over whether legislation was needed to end, or at least restrict, the market for imported and domestic “assault weapons.” Beginning in 1989, a few States enacted their own assault weapons bans, but it was not until 1994 that a Federal law was enacted.

 

“On September 13, 1994, Title XI of the Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 — known as the Crime Control Act of 1994 — took effect. Subtitle A (the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act) of the act banned the manufacture, transfer, and possession of certain semiautomatic firearms designated as assault weapons and “large capacity” ammunition magazines. The legislation required the Attorney General to deliver to Congress within 30 months an evaluation of the effects of the ban. To meet this requirement, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded research from October 1995 to December 1996 to evaluate the impact of Subtitle A. This Research in Brief summarizes the results of that evaluation.

 

“A number of factors — including the fact that the banned weapons and magazines were rarely used to commit murders in this country, the limited availability of data on the weapons, other components of the Crime Control Act of 1994, and State and local initiatives implemented at the

same time — posed challenges in discerning the effects of the ban. The ban appears to have had clear short-term effects on the gun market, some of which were unintended consequences: production of the banned weapons increased before the law took effect, and prices fell afterward.

This suggests that the weapons became more available generally, but they must have become less accessible to criminals because there was at least a short-term decrease in criminal use of the banned weapons…. [p. 1.]

 

“Evidence suggests that the ban may have contributed to a reduction in the gun murder rate and

murders of police officers by criminals armed with assault weapons.

 

“The ban has failed to reduce the average number of victims per gun murder incident or multiple

gunshot wound victims….” (Roth, Jeffrey A. and Christopher S. Koper. “Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96.” National Institute of Justice Research in Brief, March 1999, p. 1-2.)

 

Time: “The gunman drove his Chevrolet station wagon to the rear of Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif. He stepped out, carrying a Chinese-made semiautomatic AK-47 rifle loaded with 75 bullets. Carved into the AK-47’s stock were disconnected words: “freedom,” “victory,” “Hezbollah.” He wore a flak jacket under a camouflage shirt jacket that bore other words, one misspelled: “PLO,” “Libya,” “death to the Great Satin.” He had placed plugs in his ears to dull the sounds of what he was about to do. Patrick Purdy, 26, a drifter with guerrilla-warfare fantasies, had returned to the school he attended 16 years earlier for a final, cowardly assault.

“Purdy set his station wagon afire with a gasoline-filled beer bottle. Then the man described in a 1987 police report as suffering from “mild mental retardation” walked toward the school yard. At least 300 pupils, mostly kindergartners through third-graders, were enjoying their lunchtime recess. Impassively, Purdy squeezed the trigger of his rifle, then reloaded, raking the yard with at least 106 bullets. As children screamed in pain and fear, Purdy placed a 9-mm pistol to his head and killed himself.  When the four-minute assault was over, five children, ages 6 to 9, were dead. One teacher and 29 pupils were wounded. Those killed were all Southeast Asians, from war-refugee groups that make up 71% of the school’s enrollment.

“Why did Purdy gun down a yard full of children? “He just hated everybody,” said Stockton Police Captain Dennis Perry. The more significant question: Why could Purdy, an alcoholic who had been arrested for such offenses as selling weapons and attempted robbery, walk into a gun shop in Sandy, Ore., and leave with an AK-47 under his arm? The easy availability of weapons like this, which have no purpose other than killing human beings, can all too readily turn the delusions of sick gunmen into tragic nightmares.” (Time Magazine. “Slaughter in A School Yard.” 6-24-2001.)

 

Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: “Among other things, California:

 

Requires all gun sales to be processed through a licensed dealer, requiring a background check;

Requires gun dealers to obtain a state license;

Bans most assault weapons and 50 caliber rifles, and prohibits the sale or transfer of large capacity ammunition magazines;

Requires handgun purchasers to obtain a license, after passing a written test;

Regulates gun shows;

Limits handgun purchases to one per person per month;

Prohibits the sale of “unsafe handguns” not on the roster of approved handguns;

Imposes a ten-day waiting period prior to the sale or transfer of a firearm;

Maintains permanent records of firearm sales;

Gives local law enforcement discretion to deny a license to carry a concealed weapon;

and

Gives local governments authority to regulate firearms and ammunition, although the state legislature has expressly removed this authority in certain areas.”

 

(Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “California State Law Summary.” 2-24-2012.)

 

Contemporary Newspapers:

 

Jan 18: “By the Associated Press.  A young drifter dressed in military fatigues opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at children playing outside and others inside an elementary school today. Five children between 6 and 9 years old, all of them refugees from Southeast Asia, were killed and more than 30 people were wounded, about half of them critically, before the gunman shot himself to death.  ‘He was just standing there with a gun, making wide sweeps,’ said Lori Mackey, who teaches deaf children at the Cleveland Elementary School.  She said she ran to her classroom window when she heard what she thought were firecrackers, and saw a man standing in the schoolyard, spraying gunfire from what turned out to be a Russian-designed AK-47 rifle. There were 400 to 500 pupils from the first to third grades playing at the noontime recess.

 

“She said that when she realized what was happening, she took her 10 pupils into a rear room where they could not be seen. ‘’He was not talking, he was not yelling, he was very straight-faced,’’ she said of the gunman…” (New York Times. “Five Children Killed as Gunman Attacks a California School.” 1-18-1989.)

 

March 3:  “AP. Military-style assault rifles and short-barrel shotguns have become illegal here [Los Angeles] under a law that critics say has turned thousands of citizens into lawbreakers.  The ban, on which opinion is strongly divided, became effective Wednesday in the nation’s second-largest city, prompted by public outrage over street gang warfare waged with military arms and by the Jan. 17 slaying of five schoolchildren in Stockton, Calif.  The killer in the Stockton case, Patrick Purdy, shot the children with an AKM-47 assault rifle, a semiautomatic version of the gun used by the military in Soviet bloc. He then killed himself with another weapon….

 

“The Los Angeles measure, which was approved by the City Council in February, makes it a misdemeanor to sell or to own a semiautomatic weapon within the city limits.

 

“The legislation bans semiautomatic rifles and carbines with a capacity of 20 bullets or more and short-barrel shotguns that hold six or more shells. Rifles banned by name are the Uzi, AK-47, AKM-47, AR-15, Ingram MAC-10 and MAC-11.

 

“The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 on Tuesday not to ban semiautomatic weapons within the county’s unincorporated areas. But the board voted to support a statewide ban of such weapons, and measures to that effect are advancing in the State Legislature….

 

“Gun shop owners, supported by the National Rifle Association, are challenging the gun law here and a similar one in Stockton….” (New York Times. “Ban on Assault Rifles Takes Effect in Los Angeles.” 3-3-1989.)

 

May 11, Gross: “….Patrick Purdy sprayed the schoolyard with gunfire, killing four Cambodian children and one Vietnamese.” (Gross, Jane. “Stockton Journal; Where 5 Died, a Monk Gives Solace.” New York Times, 5-11-1989.)

 

Sources

 

Gross, Jane. “Stockton Journal; Where 5 Died, a Monk Gives Solace.” New York Times, 5-11-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/11/us/stockton-journal-where-5-died-a-monk-gives-solace.html

 

Miles, Kathleen. “Gun Control California: Stockton School Shooting in 1989 Was Catalyst For Stricter Gun Control.” Huffington Post, Los Angeles, 12-18-2012. Accessed 1-15-2013 at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/gun-control-california-stockton-school-shooting_n_2316666.html

 

New York Times. “Ban on Assault Rifles Takes Effect in Los Angeles.” 3-3-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/03/us/ban-on-assault-rifles-takes-effect-in-los-angeles.html

 

New York Times. “Five Children Killed as Gunman Attacks a California School.” 1-18-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: At: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/18/us/five-children-killed-as-gunman-attacks-a-california-school.html

 

Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice. Community Crisis Response Team Training Manual: Second Edition (Appendix D: Catastrophes Used as Reference Points in Training Curricula). Washington, DC: OJP, U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed at:  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/crt/pdftxt/appendd.txt

 

Reinhold, Robert. “After Shooting, Horror but Few Answers. New York Times. 1-19-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/19/us/after-shooting-horror-but-few-answers.html

 

Reinhold, Robert. “Effort to Ban Assault Rifles Gains Momentum.” New York Times, 1-28-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/28/us/effort-to-ban-assault-rifles-gains-momentum.html

 

Reinhold, Robert. “Killer Depicted as Loner Full of Hate.” New York Times, 1-20-1989. Accessed 1-15-2013: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/20/us/killer-depicted-as-loner-full-of-hate.html

 

Roth, Jeffrey A. and Christopher S. Koper. “Impacts of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: 1994-96.” National Institute of Justice Research in Brief, March 1999. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice, 12 pages. Accessed 7-4-2016 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/173405.pdf

 

Time Magazine. “Slaughter in A School Yard.” 6-24-2001. Accessed 1-15-2013 at: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,151105,00.html

 

 

 

 

[1] Five children, ages 6-9, before gunman killed himself. The question for some is does one count the murderer as a victim of this tragedy as well? The one person range in the sources below reflect this question, with the exception of a source which incorrectly notes the death of one teacher (one teacher was injured.)

[2] Incorrect range – five children were killed before gunman killed himself – for a total of six deaths.