Three workplace shootings in three different states in a 24-hour period are putting American workers on edge. It seems it can happen anywhere these days and it does.
On Wednesday morning, a 43-year-old man showed up at the software company where he works outside Madison, Wisconsin, and opened fire. Four people at WTS Paradigm were injured, three seriously. The gunman was shot by police and later died at a hospital.
Later Wednesday, outside a busy courthouse near Pittsburgh, a gunman opened fire, shooting four people before a police officer shot and killed him. The shooting happened outside a courtroom at the Masontown Borough Municipal Center, where the suspect was scheduled for a hearing in a domestic violence case.
Then Thursday morning, in Aberdeen, Maryland, outside Baltimore a 26-year-old woman attacked co-workers at a Rite Aid distribution center, killing three people before turning the gun on herself. She later died at a hospital. Three others were injured in the rampage.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, of Arizona, is all too familiar with the horrors of public shooting rampages. Giffords was shot and almost killed by a gunman who showed up at a constituent event she was attending in Tucson in 2011. When the barrage of bullets ended, Giffords and 18 others had been shot. Six people died in the attack.
After making a recovery, the former congresswoman started the gun violence prevention organization Courage to Fight Gun Violence.
"Three workplace active shooting attacks in just the last 24 hours should spark outrage in every American," she said in a statement Thursday.
“No matter where you work, learn, play, or live – you have a right to feel safe, and I’m horrified that that’s no longer the reality in America,” Giffords said.
Giffords said the numbers are horrifying: Nearly 100 people are killed every day by gun violence.
“If gun violence feels like it’s become an everyday occurrence, that’s because it is.”
Giffords urged lawmakers and voters to address the shootings with stronger gun laws.
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