The Massacre of the Innocents, now and then

The murder of innocents such as happened in Connecticut yesterday is not unusual in the United States today.  Here are some contemporary images from that slaughter, available -- an invasion of a privacy no longer available to Americans:

The shooter in 2005:

The affected community:

See Ezra Kline's Wonkblog for a brief history off recent mass murder in the United States.

Mass murder pf innocents is not unusual in the history of the world. King Herod's Massacre of the Innocents is well known and was painted  often by Renaissance and Baroque painters. The paintings are great; the subject not so great.  Here are three:

Fra Angelico, 1452

Peter Paul Rubens, 1621

Cornelis Cornelisz Van Haarlem, 1590

The United States is a a well-gunned country.  Banning guns will not stop the slaughter of innocents.  Easy access to them certainly make killing many at once much easier for those otherwise incompetent to do much harm.

After the jump, more Cornelis Cornelisz Van Haarlem

I  did not know Cornelis Cornelisz Van Haarlem.  Some of you my be in the same boat.  Here are some other paintings by him:

The Baptism of Christ

Self-portrait

The Fall of Lucifer