Oklahoma City Bombing

   I chose to do my topic on, the Oklahoma City bombing. When I first chose this topic, I was not sure what I was going to be reading in the near future, but i did want this topic because my dad used to live in Oklahoma so it brought up some interest to me. What I found out that was pretty interesting is that until 9/11, this was the biggest threat of terrorism America had faced. Also, to help begin my research and lead me to the websites below, I started on Wikipedia.

Newspaper

   When I began to do my research on the topic, I quickly found at that this chaos was cause by an ex-Army soldier and security guard named Timothy McVeigh. All of this information can be found on the FBI website by the way, it's actually a very neat website to look at, especially when bored in classes. I recommend clicking the hyperlink and looking at all the info about the bombing, you might even find some cool info about a relative or friend with a rap sheet (hopefully not)! 

Timothy Mcveigh

 On April 19th, 1995 Timothy parked a rented truck out front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown OK City. He was about to kill 168 people, 19 of them would be children. The bomb that Tim used was a fertilizer bomb. Who knew a homemade bomb could do so much damage? The bomb collapsed around 1/3 of the building. There's actually a really cool and helpful time line on a website called newsok, and I'm guessing it stands for news Oklahoma City. 

Right after the bomb

 So, how many people were actually in on this massarce? Well some say that Tim tried to recruit more people a few days before the attack on the federal building. But, he did manage to get one co-defendant-Terry Nichols. Terry will go to trial for the death sentence. Timothy McVeigh also went to trial for the death sentence and was accused guilty and was sentenced to death in 2001. I found a lot of information on msnbc, and this just told me more about the conspiracy behind all of this. Terry's girlfriend was actually telling the FBI how they made a video swearing a war against the government. That's kind of crazy to think about today but I guess it wasn't as radical in 1995. 

Aerial view of the building and debris

 Timothy McVeigh's motives for killing are simply unreasonable. People think it was just because of the trauma of the war, but others think it was because of his fascination with his grandfather's guns and survivalism as a child. While i was reading an article on, The Washington Post and ukmc, i came across two ideas with different reasonings. The Post was saying it was because of his childhood and how his mom and dad were divorced, but just think about all the kids then and now whos parents are divorced now and they aren't as screwed up in the head as he is. But something that both websites shared the same views were his lack of trying in school. He didnt try at all, so it led him to only be able to join the Army. But, when he got back from war he really did not have many options for jobs since everyone and their brothers were trying to get one. I found a really cool saying from the ukmc website talking about guns and this is what it said: "his view of weapons as the great equalizer." This really intrigued me, because it's saying if you don't have a gun then your definitely outmatched and will be the less domiant. But, if you do have a gun your either equal or ahead of the game, but he was ahead of the game since he's an ex-army man.

 

After doing all this research, I realize how much this effected the families who lost someone in this horrific bombing. It's been 17 years since the bombing and I hope that it goes on infinitely until another terrorist attack occurs. I was watching some YouTube videos of fertilizer bombs to see how big the explosion was and you can watch it by simply click on the video below!