Posted on 08/04/2019 5:47:34 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
On another terrible day, I hate to introduce even more pessimism, but when we discuss mass shootings, one of the first questions we ask is the simplest and also the hardest to answer. Why? Why does this keep happening? Those who advocate for gun control have an immediate answer — the prevalence of guns in the United States. Yet guns have been part of the fabric of American life for the entire history of our republic. Mass shootings — especially the most deadly mass shootings — are a far more recent phenomenon.
Writing in 2015, Malcolm Gladwell wrote what I think is still the best explanation for modern American mass shootings, and it’s easily the least comforting. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex argument, essentially he argues that each mass shooting lowers the threshold for the next.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
rx: ssri’s
factor in all school shootings, anti-depressants that can cause rare homicidal tendencies in teen males.
We are reaping the fruit of removing prayer and Bible from school.
2007 Virginia Tech shooting left 33 dead...absolutely no difference from what we are seeing now except results were much more severe
He wrote all the above to end it with that pathetic clincher?
He used the word threshold as a synonym for the proverbial "bar" that gets raised or lowered. I use the word threshold differently with respect to this shoot-up issue. I think each person has some space that is his/hers alone. No one is entitled to cross the threshold to that space uninvited. That is an axiom of ethics, I think.
In violent crime, someone obviously thinks he is entitled to cross over into someone else's space. How dare anyone think that?
Now in order to avoid namby-pamby handwringing about it, please allow me to make another societal comment: crime happens when unfettered desire meets opportunity. To deter crime, it is necessary either to curtail unfettered desire to cross over into someone else's space, or to take away the opportunity.
Raise the bridge, lower the river? That is the question. The "lower the river" response is to curtail unfettered desire. It would work if it could be done; but it involves changing the entire societal landscape.
The "raise the bridge" response would be to take away the opportunity for people to cross over into other people's space. Take away the opportunity is another way of saying maintaining defensible, defended spaces for oneself and those we care about. It's that simple. Does that look or sound like "fortress America"? So be it.
4 Aug: WTOP: Associated Press: Attack on Texas shoppers to be handled as domestic terrorism
The shootings in Texas and Ohio were the 21st and 22nd mass killings of 2019 in the U.S., according to the AP/USA Today/Northeastern University mass murder database that tracks homicides where four or more people killed — not including the offender.
Including the two latest attacks, 125 people had been killed in the 2019 shootings.
Since 2006, 11 mass shootings — not including Saturday’s — have been committed by men who are 21 or younger.
https://wtop.com/national/2019/08/20-dead-many-injured-after-gunman-attacks-texas-shoppers/
yet much of the FakeNewsMSM is reporting “292 mass shootings” this year!
5 Aug: Quartz: The 292 mass shootings in the US so far this year, mapped
By Katherine Ellen Foley
As of today (Aug. 4), we are 216 days into 2019. In the US over that time, more than 1,300 people have been injured or killed in mass shootings, according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive.
The nonprofit organization, which is based in Washington, DC, defines a mass shooting as an event in which at least four people were shot. By its calculations, that means there have been some 292 mass shootings in the US since the year began...
The high rate of gun ownership and the spread of white nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment are largely blamed for fueling the unprecedented number of mass shootings in the US...
https://qz.com/1681082/the-292-mass-shootings-in-the-us-so-far-this-year-mapped/
Texas tower shootings, 14 killed 39 wounded in 1966. Sadly these 2 are nothing new albeit disturbing. We can site mass shootings all day long but be no closer to a solution.
Not the point...Ft Hood shooter killed 13 and wounded 30 in 2009...so what? Stop feeding the fake news wizardry of trauma based mind control...
Because they can’t use it to push for gun control.
Not sure the fake news is taking any pointers from this site. My point is there is no single good explanation or solution to the current phenomenon. Certainly no politician has any interest except getting votes not solutions. Certainly no left leaning votes won on FR.
Speedy trials and public executions would help...there will always be murders
Very good. Hadn’t seen it before.
I still think we best look at the society that is raising these people.
Maybe socialism requires disarming the population.
Maybe homosexuality requires disarming men.
Maybe ‘social justice’ requires disarming people.
Maybe our society has become toxic to freedom.
Overall violent crime is down about 50% since 1993...fantastic news!
Why is it so easy and why does it work is the question.
The answer is the left has created an absolute irrational fear of guns in the minds of the American public. So when someone snaps and decides to go on a shooting spree the public does exactly the opposite of what they should do. We run, hide, turn away and ultimately get killed. We need to do the opposite. The answer is everyone close in and JUMP ON THE SHOOTER.
A lone gunman is the easiest mass murderer to stop. Unlike a bomber, or a killer who drives a truck into a large group of people, the lone gunman is very vulnerable to attack and is quite easily stopped. A lone gunman can only shoot in one direction at a time. He can only look in one direction at a time and he can only move in one direction at a time. Jump on the shooter. Come at him from behind from the side from the top, whatever and everyone at once.
One man, even with a gun is absolutely no match for a crowd of people determined to take him down.
Once the crazies of this country figure out the second they pull out a gun in a crowd they are going to get jumped by everyone around them then guess what will happen? The crazies will stop doing this as they will not attempt a mass shooting when they know they will be jumped on not die and ultimately end up in prison for life.
Ask youself why we will likely never have anyone attempt to hijack a plane with a box cutter? We need to apply the same reaction to the lone gunman.
yeah, but the nuts are out there like crazy ( so to speak).
Obviously many of these people should have been locked up for their, and our, protection.
but maybe there wouldn’t be so many needing treatment if society gave them the skills they needed instead of dogma.
Whatever the causes, they are about half as bad as they were in 1993...rejoice!
“24 hour news coverage on cable.”
Good point. The news media has always been a source of ideas for the loser sitting in front of the tube watching coverage of:
Robberies, hi-jackings, murders, mass murders etc.
The fame, created by the talking heads and the speculations brought forth by people who know nothing about which they expound upon, excites the loser to get off the couch, throw the beer can away and go into action.
Yesterday’s murders are still being debated. Less is known now because of false reports. Was the sister in the car or the bar when her brother killed her? Who was her boy friend?
Was the killer on a watch list because of previous behavior?
And, why have we not heard about the shootings in Chicago?
Good quote.
I grew up playing violent video games (without my parents’ knowledge until high school), and the last thing I’d do is go out and try to take out innocent people. I was born in ‘87, so everyone I became friends with in school had played the various versions of DOOM, Quake, Resident Evil, Half Life, Halo, Gears of War, GTA, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and so on. We played them competitively within our own group and online, and still do in spare time. I’m also one of the handful of women in our group while the rest are men, and none of them would do something like this. Several went into the military, with one in particular going into the Marines.
It’s unfair to make such a generalized statement. People who will commit such crimes are drawn to violence wherever it is, no matter the source. One of the many mistakes of correlation versus causation, and it’s one that I grow sick of hearing. Reasonable people don’t see or read of fictional violence and draw a parallel to reality, then deem such violence rational as a result. If you do that, there is some serious underlying issue that needs to be attended to. Sane people don’t do that.
I’m a prime example of the “Columbine Theory” being a failed one, having grown up playing those games and watching action films containing violence, being relentlessly bullied, having no proper friends (until high school) and isolating myself from others. Yet I never would have dreamt of doing such a thing, because I’m psychologically healthy, even if not physically so.
There are too many causes, but mental illness (including an inability to cope) is the primary reason.
Because you have a left wing faction trying to foment civil unrest day and night. Freedom of speech does not include incitement to violence.
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