Mass murder
Mass murder is the murder of large numbers of people either by the state or by an individual. The largest mass killings in history have been attempts to exterminate ethnic and other groups: they have an article of their own at genocide. This article refers to other kinds of mass killing.
Although genocide does not necessary require actual killing, only acting on a plan to exterminate an ethnic group, mass murder by definition involves killing a large number of people.
Mass murder by the state
R. J. Rummel, a political scientist, coined the word democide to cover mass murder by a state. Some killings commonly viewed as genocide are actually democide or mass murder because they involve killing for political or cultural reasons.
Examples include:
- Killings in Cambodia of the intellectual and cultural elite.
- Killings in Stalinist Russia of Kulaks, alleged Trotskyists and other alleged enemies of the regime most of whom were ethnic Russians.
Mass murder by terrorists
In recent years, terrorists have performed acts of mass murder as acts of intimidation, and to draw attention to their causes. Examples of major terrorist incidents involving mass murder include:
- September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack in New York
- Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland
- the Oklahoma City bombing
Mass murder by individuals
Outside of a political context, the term "mass murder" refers to the killing of several people at the same time. Examples would include shooting several people in the course of a robbery, or setting a crowded nightclub on fire. Death tolls from mass murder in this sense range from under a dozen to the low hundreds.
Examples include:
Examples that might better be listed under spree killer include:
- Columbine High School Massacre (1999)
- Long Island Rail Road Massacre (1993)
- Wegwood Baptist Church Massacre (1999)
Mass murder in warfare
The wrongful killing of large numbers of civilians or prisoners during war is called a war crime although it may also be genocide if the proper ethnic motivation is present as in the killings which occurred in the breakaway republics of the former Yugoslavia or in the killing of the Pequot in colonial America.
See also: