The Gun Is Not The Killer
I have thought, for some time really, that "liberals" are flailing a little when they go after the availability of guns as the cause of mass murders. I would certainly like to see the availability of guns, and ammo, recede in the U.S., and hopefully one day the political will may develop to pass sensible gun regulations. As all knowledgeable people understand, there is nothing in the second amendment that prohibits regulation of gun ownership. Even Scalia has said so.
But, all the focus on guns as if they were the reason we have these mass killings is very ill advised because it takes suspicion and attention away from areas that may be the real explanation.
Although there have been historical clusters of mass shootings in the 1920s, 30s, and 60s, mass public shootings (defined as having four victims or more) have been increasing, especially in the last few years. They've also become deadlier.
In 2014, the F.B.I. released a report of active shooter incidents("an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area") that showed the number increasing both in frequency and in number of fatalities. Between 2000 and 2006 there were an average of 6.4 shootings annually, but between 2007 and 2013 the average more than doubled to 16.4. Researchers from Harvard using data from Mother Jones determined founda marked increase in mass shooting frequency since 2011: Between 1982 and 2011, a public mass shooting occurred on average every 200 days. Since 2011, that has increased to once every 64 days.
... Out of CNNs list of the 27 deadliest shootings (of the past 65 years), 14 have happened in the 21stcentury.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/122994/trump-right-when-it-comes-mass-shootings-perception-reality
Is there something about the 21st century that would lead to more frequent and more deadly instances of mass shootings? Broadband highspeed internet came into wide use around 2000-2001. Prior to that there was no social media as we know it today. The world was not "connected" in the sense it is now until high speed internet. There was no texting, or sexting, no You Tube, no selfies, no online bullying, no FB, no twitter, no 4 chan, none of it.
Out of curioisity and because the link appeared in a blog that I look at most days, I looked at the 4 chan forum page associated with the Oregon shooter, a 26 year old named Chris Mercer.
Normally one could say that we can look at "evidence" of disturbed thinking mostly after the fact , and conclude that it was not that evident before the fact. But looking nat the 4 chan page, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OZGEjT1ilSUJ:https://archive.moe/r9k/post/22785729/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us , and looking at these comments, and the whole theme of the forum, this is something that was visible prior.
There are all these disturbed young people on these forums, talking , very regularly, about how miserable and worthless their lives are. Young men who hate women because they believe women hate them. They call themselves "robots", and discussing , with others, their options for acting out on their misery is a regular routine.
Chris Mercer , like many before him, became detached from reality , most likely through a destructive relationship with 21st century communications venues and modes.
High speed internet access and activity is only 15 years old. Often the masses act as if it has been around forever. I suggest that we don't know what effect instantaneous mass communication is having on the psyche of the population, and I think it should concern us much much more than it does.
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"Posts on an online blog that appears to belong to Mercer reference multiple shootings, including one in Virginia in August that left a television news reporter and cameraman dead. The last upload on the blog was Wednesday. when a documentary about the Newtown shooting was posted.
In one post on the blog about Vester Flanagan, the man who killed the reporter and cameraman in Virginia, Mercer apparently wrote, "I have noticed that so many people like [Flanagan] are alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight." "
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I have to agree that the internet is a big part of the equation. The other is HIPAA laws. They prevent both doctors and families from intervening before it's too late.
I heard on the news a little while ago that he left a "manifesto" at the school ,which gives his reasons. According to the tv news report, the manifesto says he was lonely, depressed, hated, and did not have a girlfriend , and that satan would welcome him in hell.
The society has to find a way to deal with people like this, and frankly, I think there is little doubt that the internet is making it far worse, not better.