If you are only looking at recent history, this might be true, but there’s another that had more casualties than both of these together. In it, over 150 men, women, and children were killed. Unlike the two more recent shootings, it wasn’t the work of one shooter, it was done by the U.S. military and the victims were the Lakota people. It was the Wounded Knee Massacre.

In December of 1890, the 7th Cavalry Unit of the U.S. military went to Lakota reservation to take away the guns from the Lakota people. The Lakota had been bison hunters, but the numbers of those animals had been reduced by the U.S. military in an effort to starve out the people who were dependent upon them as a food source. The reservation land they had been granted had been reduced to a smaller and smaller area by white settlers and gold miners.

One story of the event says that a man named Black Coyote didn’t want to give up his rifle since he had paid a lot for it. His reluctance led to a scuffle, shots were fired, and then the massacre followed. Whether this is true or whether the Lakota just decided that they needed to make a stand, we can’t really know but it’s something to keep in mind when you hear someone say that we would be better off if only the government, and not the people, have guns.

At the time, Walter Brown was the head coach of the Boston Celtics, and he was in the same boat as Cohen, with the idea to have a mid-season All-Star game which will hold 20 of the NBA’s most talented players. Yet the Commissioner, Maurice Podoloff, wanted the game to be called off just days before the game would be played.

However, 1951 was not the best of years for the NBA, or basketball in general. There were many scandals in which college players were caught point-shaving which had an extremely negative effect on the entirety of the game of basketball. Haskell Cohen and Walter Brown, even in the midst of the overwhelming controversy at the time, decided that the game must still be played.  Yet the Commissioner, Maurice Podoloff, wanted the game to be called off just days before the game would be played, saying that it would be “a flop” and that “the league would look bad”.  The men did not back down, insisting the show goes on. The first ever All-Star Game was on March 2nd, 1951 and was  held at The Boston Garden in Boston Ma., with an outstanding turn out, having 10,094 fans show up to watch the stars of the NBA compete against each other. Like today, the teams competing were the best players from the East Division, and the best players from the West Division, with both sides playing against each other. The East easily defeated the West, with a final score of 111-94. The MVP was the Celtics’ very own Ed Macauley, racking in a game-high 20 points, while also holding Minneapolis Lakers star to just 4 field goals. The tradition of the NBA All-Star Game still carries on to this day, happening annually during the middle of the NBA season.

The statue we call the Statue of Liberty was completed in 1884 and presented to the United States Ambassador to France. It was shipped to the U.S. and assembled in New York in 1886 and dedicated on October 28 of that year. The arm and torch had visited America earlier, in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was then sent to New York City until 1882.

In 1984 the statue’s original torch was replaced by a copper torch covered in 24k gold leaf.

The statue represents the Roman goddess Libertas and the tablet she holds is inscribed with the date “July 4, 1776″. From toes to torch top, she is 151 feet and 1 inch tall.

Statue of Liberty National Monument Visitor’s Information Guide