“On June 18, 1990, James Edward Pough walked into the GMAC auto loan office in Jacksonville, Florida and started shooting. The GMAC Mass Shooting was the worst in Florida history until the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in 2016.” From the back cover of Repossessions: Mass Shootings in Baymeadows by Tim Gilmore

He was upset about the way his car loan was being handled, or mis-handled. He felt justified somehow. He must have, but there was more to it than that. Among many insights and revelations in Mr. Gilmore’s book is a particularly bizarre irony: many or even all Mass Killings are perpetrated by people intent on suicide. Very often suicides kill others to build up the courage to kill themselves, either by their own hand or the hand of a by-stander or an officer of the law. James Pough killed several innocent people before killing himself. It’s a frequent scenario, a lamentable fact, and even a common denominator in these sordid affairs.

About Marvin Heemeyer:

Marvin Heemeyer killed only himself, but he did seven million dollars of property damage before committing suicide. His weapon of choice was a customized bulldozer fitted out with armor plating, the killdozer. On June 4th 2004 in Granby, Colorado, Marvin Heemeyer went on his final rampage. He was unstoppable as he bulldozed buildings, the former mayor’s house, and the police department before getting stuck and ending his own life.

Some years before, Heemeyer had purchased property at a bargain from the government and built a muffler shop. Later he sold some of the land for a hefty profit, but the new owners cut off the access to his shop. He had the money to move his shop, but he chose to go to war with his neighbors and the city council instead. Right or wrong, his righteous indignation got the better of him. It was a sad paradox. He was perfectly sane at the end, but he had lost his mind. The same thing happened to James Pough back in 1990.

We could call this the Heemeyer effect, and it seems to be gripping more and more of us every year. We are living in a kind of pandemic of righteous indignation. People wrap themselves in their own flawed belief systems just as Marvin Heemeyer built and enclosed himself in an armor plated bulldozer. We’ve all seen the Heemeyer effect in action. We call it polarization. On both sides we say, “There’s only room in America for people of my political persuasion. Those others have to be stopped.”

Proposed: Let’s dial back the righteous indignation. It has already killed way too many innocent people.

“On June 18, 1990, James Edward Pough walked into the GMAC auto loan office in Jacksonville, Florida and started shooting. The GMAC Mass Shooting was the worst in Florida history until the Pulse Nightclub Shooting in 2016.” From the back cover of Repossessions: Mass Shootings in Baymeadows by Tim Gilmore

He was upset about the way his car loan was being handled, or mis-handled. He felt justified somehow. He must have, but there was more to it than that. Among many insights and revelations in Mr. Gilmore’s book is a particularly bizarre irony: many or even all Mass Killings are perpetrated by people intent on suicide. Very often suicides kill others to build up the courage to kill themselves, either by their own hand or the hand of a by-stander or an officer of the law. James Pough killed several innocent people before killing himself. It’s a frequent scenario, a lamentable fact, and even a common denominator in these sordid affairs.

About Marvin Heemeyer:

Marvin Heemeyer killed only himself, but he did seven million dollars of property damage before committing suicide. His weapon of choice was a customized bulldozer fitted out with armor plating, the killdozer. On June 4th 2004 in Granby, Colorado, Marvin Heemeyer went on his final rampage. He was unstoppable as he bulldozed buildings, the former mayor’s house, and the police department before getting stuck and ending his own life.

Some years before, Heemeyer had purchased property at a bargain from the government and built a muffler shop. Later he sold some of the land for a hefty profit, but the new owners cut off the access to his shop. He had the money to move his shop, but he chose to go to war with his neighbors and the city council instead. Right or wrong, his righteous indignation got the better of him. It was a sad paradox. He was perfectly sane at the end, but he had lost his mind. The same thing happened to James Pough back in 1990.

We could call this the Heemeyer effect, and it seems to be gripping more and more of us every year. We are living in a kind of pandemic of righteous indignation. People wrap themselves in their own flawed belief systems just as Marvin Heemeyer built and enclosed himself in an armor plated bulldozer. We’ve all seen the Heemeyer effect in action. We call it polarization. On both sides we say, “There’s only room in America for people of my political persuasion. Those others have to be stopped.”

Proposed: Let’s dial back the righteous indignation. It has already killed way too many innocent people.