May Day Massacre

The May Day Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on May 1, 1991 outside the Pacifica State House in Astoria, Pacifica, in Lower Columbia. The assailant, 29-year-old John du Pen, shot 41 people, including six Commonwealth Assemblymen, during the noon lunch hour before fatally shooting himself to prevent his arrest. Thirty-eight of his victims died from their wounds, making this incident the deadlist spree shooting in Lower Columbian history.

Background
The perpetrator, 29-year-old John du Pen, had a history of mental illness, including delusions of grandeur and psychosis. A police investigation after the massacre turned up du Pen's journal, in which he wrote about his belief that he was the reincarnation of Karl Marx. He also wrote about his hatred of modern Lower Columbian society, especially the roles which capitalism and organized religion played in it. His writings allude to a plan he had devised to cleanse the nation of those influences, although he wrote down few details. While he had been in and out of therapy for years, none of his therapists ever suspected that he might have violent tendencies.

Du Pen purchased two firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for them prior to the massacre. Because the background checks that were required under state law at the time did not include psychological history, and because du Pen had no criminal record, he had no trouble arming himself.

Shootings
At 12:20pm on Wednesday, May 1, 1991, du Pen walked fully armed onto the Astoria Promenade and began firing at bystanders in the park. He appeared to be targeting businesspeople and anyone who looked like a politician. Although his aim was poor, the wide spray of his bullets repeatedly hit dozens of people, causing massive injuries. After his initial attack, he approached those whom he had already hit and fired point-blank at them. This second, targeted attack was responsible for most of the fatalities.

Because of the attack's location in central Astoria, police officers arrived less than ten minutes after du Pen started shooting. When he saw a group of them approaching from downhill, he started running uphill, toward Fort Astoria. However, two more groups of police officers cut off his avenue of escape, leaving him surrounded on the Promenade. Before they could reach him, du Pen shot himself with his handgun, killing himself before they could apprehend him. He was pronounced dead by paramedics at 12:33pm, when an ambulance arrived on scene.

Aftermath
After the police investigation into the May Day Massacre released its findings, there was a public outcry for measures that would prevent mentally ill persons from committing mass murders. The issue became heavily politicized, due to 1991 being an election year. The Conservatives won majorities in both houses of Parliament that fall, on promises that they would implement a long-term solution to the issue of violence by the mentally ill. After the start of the new parliamentary session, they quickly passed the Shootings and Sanity Act, which required lifetime institutionalization for anyone who was found to be "violently insane", in the act's words. It also implemented a nationwide background check policy for prospective firearm owners, requiring them to submit to a psychological evaluation before they could legally own any firearms. This law is credited with a marked drop in mass shootings after it went into effect at the start of 1992.