A snake. A semi-automatic assault rifle. But not a leader of men.
Josh Voorhees said it all in the headline to his December 26th article in
The Slatest: "Weapon of Choice: Holmes, Roberts, Lanza and Spengler All Used Same Type of Assault Rifle."
A frequent pattern of some copycat effect events, whether of a series of mass shootings, suicides, or murder-suicides, is the same method being used, often down to the specific type of weapon employed.
Sadly, the gun of choice in recent horrific shootings has forever linked Aurora, Clackamas, Sandy Hook-Newtown, and Webster. A little research probably will link this assault rifle to other multiple victim shootings.
Oh, yes, it already has. John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway Snipers, used a Bushmaster to kill ten and injure three others in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland in October 2002. Prior to those shootings, apparently Muhammed and Malvo were involved other killings, such as the one on September 23, 2002. That killing of a victim in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was also with a Bushmaster rifle. The Beltway snipers killed people with a Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic .223 caliber rifle equipped with a reflex sight. The manufacturer of the rifle in 2002 was Bushmaster Firearms, Inc. of Windham, Maine.
The Bushmaster is the gun in the news of late.
It would seem (and some
sites confirm it) that this assault rifle was named after the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, the snake is part of the logo of the company. (See at top.)
Lachesis mutus
Lachesis, The Measurer, is on the right.
The common names for the three different species of this snake are the black-headed, the Central American, and the South American bushmasters. The bushmaster's genus name is
Lachesis.
Lachesis is a genus of venomous pitvipers found in remote forested areas of Central and South America. The generic name refers to one of the Three Fates in Greek mythology who determined the length of the thread of life.....
One of the largest and most dangerous snakes in South America, this snake is capable of multiple-bite strikes and the injection of large amounts of venom. Even the bite of a juvenile specimen can be fatal. However, this snake is basically nocturnal and contact with humans is minimized for this reason. Source.
The Three Fates are:
Clotho, the spinner, who spins the thread of life. Lachesis, the measurer, who choses the lot in life one will have and measures off how long it is to be. Atropos, she who cannot be turned, who at death with her shears cuts the thread of life. Source.
As a boy, I remember the bushmaster being mentioned, often, in the books of early naturalists like Raymond Ditmars. Recently
one writer recalled a memorably dangerous encounter Ditmars had with a bushmaster in the 1920s, at the Bronx Zoo. Bushmasters are snakes not to be discounted.
The Bushmaster products
site has teeshirts, cups, and bomber hats. They all subtly push the myth-making that the assault rifle makes its owner into venomous warriors among men.
The Bushmaster .223 rifle has a history that appears to attract symbolic names.
"The AR-15 rifle was first developed by the Fairchild ArmaLite corporation in 1957. ArmaLite sold the rights to the design to Colt in 1959, and the weapon was adapted for military use as the M16; it went in to service in Vietnam in 1963. The modern AR-15 is a demilitarized version of the M16, and is now manufactured by several companies including Bushmaster...," noted
Time.
The Bushmaster and its corporate parent, Freedom Group, is a private company owned by a New York-based hedge fund, Cerberus Capital Management, since 2006.
Cerberus figurine, SafariLtd.
Cerberus in Greek and Roman mythology is a multi-headed hound (usually three-headed), which guards the gates of the Underworld (
Hades), to prevent those who have crossed the river
Styx from ever escaping.
But now, in the wake of the Newtown shooting, Bushmaster is being put up for sale by Cerebrus because of the new attention to the rifle.
One name origin for the Bushmaster is approaching almost comical mythical status: That the Bushmaster rifle was named after (now former) President George W. Bush. Not true.
The Bushmaster, clearly, is the most venomous of guns, the one that measures the length of the lives of too many innocents.
The underlying theme with this gun is death and more death.
