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I tend to think these conspiracy theories are overblown by some factor although I would not want to dismiss every single instance, you could conceivably have rogue operatives in one case, while another potential case is actually just poor oversight and a third one is unforeseeable. There should be a low-profile top-level investigation from the administration of the FBI to see if any patterns can be uncovered. My hunch is that there have been isolated cases of manipulation rather than some FBI-wide conspiracy, but there’s no way to know from the outside. Somewhat related, the Las Vegas shooting seems to have all the hallmarks of an official cover-up of a much different reality. Paddock, as troubled and unpleasant a man as we know him to be, was not necessarily the real perpetrator of that event. But as to this rash of school shootings in the past two decades or so, I think we need to look at some of the violence cues out there, it’s fine to say we had this fifty years ago and few of our generation went to this extreme, but the culture nowadays is awash in much more graphic violence that is interactive rather than something you might passively watch with your parents, and it must be having an effect on the mentally unstable. America has 350 million people and I am guessing 20-30 million in the age range most likely to do these mass shootings, the idea that a thousand or more of them could be driven over the edge of insanity by external stimuli is hardly far-fetched, in fact, don’t you agree it’s a wonder there are not even more of these events? There are a lot of crazy and disturbed people out there, a culture that does nothing but egg them on, and drugs galore to complicate the situation.

I also believe that as with terrorism, a hidden component of all this violence is sexual repression or rejection. Guys who are getting laid on a regular basis have better things to do than go off on a shooting spree. And here again, our culture provides an endless call to be sexually active. Look at the calendar, there’s the biggest clue right there.

Having said all of the above, we can pretty much surmise that the threat is going to remain constant in the background of the school life of (North) America (we have had our instances of this in Canada, seldom on quite the same scale, but similar dynamics) — so the prevention is almost certainly vigilant security, because I doubt very much whether violent cues and over-sexed stimulation will go away for any reason any time soon, so we’re going to be living with a predictable number of such persons, add in the political dynamics that ease suitable candidates closer to the breaking point, and we know they are coming, so the answer is to intercept them (as with airport security). It sounds on first blush like a police or surveillance state but freedom has its price and also its responsibilities, if we want to be free in all these ways, we are going to have to accept a choice, either make the outcome a lottery or prevent it by force.

While the discussion is bound to center on the federal government and the president’s role, in reality this is almost entirely a problem for local governments even down to the municipal level and school boards acting in conjunction with law enforcement or whatever voluntary groups can assist. Arming teachers in America won’t work, they are almost all liberals. I’ve read some good suggestions in other threads about who could assist and that is probably the best response. It’s time to take a stand — gun control is not going to provide solutions either, in most cases these deranged individuals just take guns that other people have legally obtained.