As American As Apple Pie

I often ask myself....Why is the United States of America such a violent country?  Why is it that I write one of these kinds of story at least twice a year??

Yesterday,A man indentified as Aaron Alexis brandishing an assault rifle, shotgun and handgun (  He really took advantage of his second amendment right to bare arms didn't he?)opened fire Monday inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard — killing at least seven people and wounding at least five more, including two police officers, military officials and other authorities said., before he himself was killed.

SWAT officers swarmed the building, the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command, and a shooter there was killed, sources told NBC News.

The D.C. police chief said  originally that there could be as many as two other shooters at large, one white and one black, both in military-style uniforms. But there was no confirmation of more than one person firing shots. Federal officials said the information appeared to be based on eyewitness reports and surveillance footage.

President Barack Obama called it a “cowardly act.” He said the rampage targeted patriots, military and civilian alike, “men and women who were going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us.

Terrie Durham, who works at the Naval Sea Systems Command building, said she saw a gunman who appeared to be wearing dark fatigues. Another worker there, Todd Brundidge, said he heard a fire alarm go off, and later saw the gunman come around the corner.

"He turned our way and started firing, and we ran downstairs to get out of the building,” Brundidge said. “No words. He raised the gun and started firing.”
A naval security guard was among those shot and was hit in both legs, U.S. military officials said. Washington city police told WRC, the NBC affiliate in Washington, that one of their officers was also among those shot. It was not clear how many of the others shot were civilian and how many were military.

Patricia Ward, who works at the Navy Yard, said she had just gotten breakfast in the cafeteria when she heard “three gunshots, pow-pow-pow, straight in a row.”
“All of the people that were in the cafeteria, we all panicked, and we were trying to decide which way we were going to run out,” she said. “I just ran.”Smart move!

Tim Hogan, a spokesman for Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, posted photos to his Twitter account of people tending to at least one person down on a street corner.
Chaos enveloped the surrounding neighborhood for hours. Flights were briefly grounded at Reagan National Airport, and nearby schools and the headquarters of the Department of Transportation were locked down. Farther away, police stepped up security on the Capitol grounds.

Washington police issued lookouts for two people they described as suspects — a 50-year-old black man with a rifle, wearing a drab olive military uniform, and a white man with a pistol, wearing a short-sleeved, khaki uniform and a beret.

Dr. Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said that the hospital was treating three gunshot victims — a woman hit in the head and hand, a woman hit in the shoulder and a man hit in the legs.
She said that the victims came in alert and talking.

“They’re talking about gunshots that they heard in rapid succession,” she said.
George Washington University Hospital said it had one patient.

President Obama, speaking at an event marking the fifth anniversary of the financial crisis, turned to the shooting and said: “We are confronting yet another mass shooting, and today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”

“It’s a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel,” he said. “These are men and women who were going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us. They’re patriots. And they know the dangers of serving abroad, but today they faced the unimaginable violence that they wouldn’t have expected here at home.”

One day children...Another day runners in a Marathon...Today, Military and civilian personell...It just never ends...and I'm afraid there is no good answer as to why so much violence occurs in this country on such an annual basis...While you have nations like Canada, Great Britain,France, Sweden, et al where something like this happens once in two decades...Makes you wonder doesn't it?

The Navy said on its Twitter feed that three shots were fired at 8:20 a.m. ET at the Sea Systems Command headquarters. About 3,000 people work there, the Navy said. They were ordered to stay in place. WRC video showed a medical helicopter lifting someone off a roof.

“This is a huge piece of land with several building so it’s going to take some time for us to get through it and search it so we can make sure it’s safe,” Peter Newsham, assistant chief of the Washington police, told reporters.

The last I heard or rather at the time of this writing...The President was still getting regular briefings. As of this writing ,there is no further information on Aaron Alexis and a possible motive for the shootings.

The Naval Sea Systems Command builds, buys and maintains ships and submarines and their combat systems. The Navy Yard is along the Anacostia River in Washington, near the Washington Nationals baseball stadium.

We'll probably know more later on today...or really by the time you read this...But what we won't know..is the question I asked... "Why Is America so violent?"

H.Rap Brown said in 1967-"Violence is as American as Apple pie."  He wasn't wrong.