The Fourth State of Matter

Content Warning: This section references gun violence and suicide.

The phenomenon of mass shootings and school shootings have existed for many years in the United States but perhaps most clearly entered America’s cultural consciousness in the 1990s. The event that brought school and mass shootings into the American cultural landscape was the Columbine High School Massacre of 1999, which follows eight years after the shooting central to this essay, the University of Iowa shooting of 1991. Though both these events occurred decades ago, the scourge of school shootings continues to plague the United States, causing this essay to retain relevance. While school shootings were an emerging issue in the 1990s, they had not quite reached the fever pitch that the 2000s has experienced in relation to the regularity and pervasiveness of such violence. In response to gun violence in the United States, two major opposing sides arose in debate. Some Americans and politicians believe in gun reform, often in the form of increasing restrictions on gun ownership and purchasing, while others feel that self-defense is more necessary than ever and that guns should continue to be available to the public.

On November 1, 1991, at the University of Iowa, after months of planning, graduate student Gang Lu began his methodical attack on the space-physics department. The attack began during a space-physics-theorists group held on Friday afternoons. Lu’s first victim was Professor Christopher Goertz, a close colleague of author Jo Ann Beard’s. Lu proceeded to kill fellow graduate student—and perceived opponent for departmental attention and accolades—Linhua Shan. Attempting to protect himself from this ongoing slaughter, Professor Robert Smith fell to the floor and tried to shelter beneath the desk while others in the meeting attempted to flee the room. Lu then proceeded to the department’s office and shot and killed administrator T. Anne Cleary (referred to as Anne Cleary in the essay) along with department chair Dwight Nicholson. Before turning the gun on himself, Lu also shot receptionist and student Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, who survived but was paralyzed from the attack (Kilen, Mike. “Nov. 1, 1991: The day a university shooting rampage shocked Iowa.” Des Moines Register, 28 Oct. 2016).

In November 1991, Jo Ann Beard worked for the University of Iowa as the managing editor for a space-physics monthly. As she was not a specialist in space physics or the sciences, this monthly publication was Beard’s connection to the department. Beard by sheer coincidence didn’t have much work that particular Friday afternoon and decided to leave work early, which saved her from being another one of Lu’s victims.