As Asian Americans attempt to make sense of two deadly shootings in California targeting the community within a matter of days, experts warn against drawing broad cultural conclusions from the gun violence.
Local officials say that Huu Can Tran, 72, who killed 11 people in Monterey Park on Saturday, may have been targeting his ex-wife in a personal dispute, while Chunli Zhao, 67, who the next day killed at least seven people and seriously injured one at two agricultural businesses in Half Moon Bay, engaged in an instance of “workplace violence.” Though both suspects are older Asian men, experts are making the point gun violence is pervasive and spans race, cultures and identities.
“The problem is, when an Asian American or Asian person does something in the United States, it feels like the whole weight of a community, whether that’s an ethnic community, or an entire race, gets placed on the bodies of people,” Jennifer Ho, professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told NBC News.
The violence, rather, is symptomatic of a “uniquely American phenomenon,” she said.
“Asian Americans aren’t exempt from mass killings,” Ho added.
While the timing of the tragedies and some shared characteristics between the suspects have led many to lump them together, or float a contagion effect between the shootings, the Half Moon Bay shooter told police that he had no knowledge of the previous shooting at Monterey Park, two police sources with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC Bay Area. And while there’s no evidence of the contagion effect between the latest tragedies, it’s been seen in mass shootings in the past, James Densley, co-author of “The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic,” said.
“Any mass shooting is lowering the threshold for the next one, so if you were somebody contemplating this type of crime and going through a crisis, there is certainly a chance that witnessing some type…
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