The Mass Murder Method That Long Predates Guns

People have been capable of awful things for a long time

(Public domain)

Mass shootings are a heartbreaking problem that has plagued the Western world for many years. Every time one of these stories makes headlines, people shake their heads and decry that people can commit such heinous acts. But heinous crimes are nothing new for humans. Humans have been treating each other with brutality for centuries.

Before the invention of guns and bombs, there was another popular way to kill numerous people in one act. Starting a fire was more than enough to kill dozens or even hundreds of people. Before handguns and assault rifles were the sources of endless debate, people were locking each other inside of buildings and lighting them on fire.

There are numerous examples found in history where people would trap a group of people inside of a building, oftentimes a church, bar the door, and set the place ablaze. The result was always the same. No survivors.

This type of murder was so common that it entered modern popular media. There is a scene from the movie The Patriot where the villain of the movie locks a group of revolutionaries inside of a church and sets it on fire. This is one of the clearest visual examples of this ancient killing technique that people can see with their…