In the wake of the recent Christchurch massacre, I’ve been left wondering if this sort of lone wolf attack is a modern phenomenon?
Obviously automatic weapons make this sort of attack much easier to commit in the present day. But did it happen before the advent of automatic weapons, or even firearms?
Specifically, I would like to know whether massacres (let’s say upward of 20 individual victims), committed by one individual, occurred before:
a) the invention of automatic weapons b) the widespread adoption of firearms (let’s say, before 1600 CE)
This is in an area where I have done legitimate research. At least in the US, the short answer seems to be no. Again, I can only speak to the United States.
20+ toll killings with firearms is extremely rare and I haven’t found any documentation supporting such acts prior to 1895, which is the invention of the first automatic pistol. Heavier, earlier automatic weapons appear to have never been used in this manner.
As a note, we aren’t including invasions, war, civil war, genocides etc., mass lynching and general types of group violence, merely acts perpetrated by “random” individuals against civilians.
Even non-firearm mass causality events are so rare as to be anomalous in and of themselves. I count three events involving bombs pre-WWII with a 20 or more death toll:
1927 Bath School disaster, 43 people (38 children), the perpetrator Andrew Kehoe, as well as his wife earlier in the day at their home. This would appear to be the closest to your “lone wolf” type of mass killing.
1920 Wall Street bombing, 40 dead, hundreds injured. No one was ever caught. Supposedly anarchists.
1910 Los Angeles Times bombing, 20 dead. During a labor dispute, two union workers admitted to it.
In short, the killing of 20 people at a time with firearms is very rare in the US, so much so that I have found only seven to this date. None are earlier than 1984, that being at a San Ysidro McDonald’s with a toll of 21 people.
So in summary, yes, it appears to be a modern phenomenon. Most “lone wolves” have not gotten up to 20 victims without automatic weapons and although there are a history of bombings in the US, only three were both earlier than 1930, of which only one was committed by a single individual, and had 20+ victims.
There appears to be exactly zero instances of a 20+ victim count prior to 1895 in any manner whatsoever.
You've probably heard the term "running amok," but most people don't know the history behind it.
"Amok" refers to the phenomenon of an individual grabbing a weapon and running into a crowded place to kill and maim as many people as possible until the attacker is killed himself. It is recognized in the DSM IV as a "culture bound syndrome," a mental disorder found primarily in a particular culture, in this case Malay.
The first westerner to record this phenomenon of Malay men making mass attacks on strangers was Captain James Cook in 1770, who described the frenzy that would seemingly overcome someone at random. Later western sources continued to report instances of amok, but apparently it grew less common over time.
I found this quote from a 1968 medical study: "In 1846, in the province of Penang, Malaysia, a respectable elderly Malay man suddenly shot and killed 3 villagers and wounded 10 others. He was captured and brought to trial where evidence revealed that he had suddenly lost his wife and only child, and after his bereavement, he became mentally disturbed." This seems like a pretty typical example.
Psychologists have noted that it seems to be proceeded either by depression following a loss, or a slowly growing resentment that bursts into uncontrollable anger.
I'm no expert in this, but I've often wondered if many of the massacres we've seen in recent years are actually examples of amok in the modern West. Obviously there are politically motivated terrorists like Anders Breivik who commit mass killings, but guys like Nathan Rodgers, Christopher Dorner, and the Las Vegas shooter might fit the criteria. Apparently these guys agree: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC181064/#i1523-5998-001-03-0066-b2