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Why do you think there is more school and workplace shootings in America than the rest of the world? Not to mention the abundance of serial killers?
I once went to a lecture on profiling given by Robt. Ressler, and HE didn't have an answer.
I agree strongly with Elliot Leyton -- whose Hunting Humans you really ought to read -- that there is a powerful payoff in being a serial killer. It's one of the few ways besides punk rock that you can have a lifelong celebrity career without having any skills or talent. And in America we actively treat these people like rock stars, with journalists fighting over the right to co-author your life story and Charlie Manson getting more fan mail than the Beatles. This is the only celebrity career path, besides appearing on reality TV, where the cognitively-impaired are over-represented (Henry Lee Lucas, Ottis Toole, Coral Watts, guys like that).
Americans also have an insane level of entitlement -- we not only want to be famous, we feel we DESERVE it, just because we're breathing. The fact that they don't have it leads some people to want to victimize someone, preferably an easy target like a teen runaway or a homeless schizophrenic. Some people are just going to act on that need, even if they have to stoop to killing old ladies in alleys. A good example in my own home town was the way the random teen shootings in metro Detroit skyrocketed after that first well-publicized shooting at Finney High. When the newspapers started focusing on the cost to the victims and their parents instead of treating the assailants like the heroes in a spaghetti Western, the shootings dropped down to nothing.
I'll be very interested to see what the next generation brings. Young adults today were raised on unanchored self-esteem and entitlement thinking the way mine was raised on studying hard and getting into a good college. We may be knee-deep in corpses...
Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948 It also happens to be the main reason why the blacks never dared to revolt against their 'master'.*
Every black American who owned a gun was in direct violation of the law so it was perfectly normal to shoot armed blacks on sight.
Someone managed to find a way to inject race into this...Amazing
Silly quote from a foreigner known for making false statements that he knows to be so:
"What Finland and America have in common is that 16 year old children are allowed to buy and carry firearms." (snicker snicker... this'll rile 'em! he chuckled, thinking himself quite clever....)
And, the correct answer on "Who Is Smarter Than A Third Grader or Hostile Dutchman?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by elvislives
16 years olds cannot buy a weapon in america...and they cannot legally carry either...
As well, here's some more sophisticated and complete answers, given the complexities of N. American society:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShepsMom
Let's see.
√ We live in a "fast pace, money is everything" society, we have to work to live and not live to work.
√ Parents have to work long hours to support their families, ignoring children education and not providing basic values (some!)
√ Education is poor, teachers have no control over kids in school, no uniforms in school to promote equality.
√ Video games, Junk television, violence, pornography, PG-13 rating will make your skin crawl.
√ Media keeping us brainwashed and a lot of time concentrate on wrong things, glorifying negatives and talking less about positive.
√ Young girls looking up to "idols" of mainstream celebrities without brains.
√ Our society have no values, we can't live together as a family. The farther family away, the more we love them mentality, no culture....... Should i go on?
Thanks, Shep's mom! Here's just a few more from my perspective:
√ Glorification of violence on the media (see: The Dark Knight, and Ironman, and what is it: Matchmaker? ...and hordes of other hyper-violent movies?).
√ Promotion of all types of violence as an initiation activity into the rampant gangs here (as with elsewhere in the world, even Holland!)
√ Liberal activist judges who over-sympathize with the criminal's "victim of child abuse, boo hoo!" past, instead of sympathizing with the true victims.
√ Lack of even minimalist judicial attention to existing anti-violence felony laws and appropriate sentencing, thus....
√ Minimalist sentencing with early parole.
√ Early paroles for violent criminals (see: California's current budgetary dilemma; Let 'em out of prison or else they'll starve to death in there!)
√ Screwball immigration policies that allow, wholesale, vast numbers of S. American and Mexican and Russian drug gangsters into this country. We even pay them if they're injured by the Border Patrol and then put the arresting officers in jail!
Shall I go on?
(BUT>>>> having said all of the above, The US overall violent gun crime rate/100k people is 4th in the world. Mucho higher, mahn, are Mexico, Russia, Lithuania & Cuba, all with Draconian gun control legislation. Thus PROVING that such silly laws don't affect crime. What does, obviously, is a lack of application of laws already on the books. Obvious and irrefutible, except for the intransigent arguers amongst us!)
Last edited by rifleman; 02-25-2009 at 08:05 PM..
Reason: typos
The Wikipedia source is dubious, but let's assume that statistically it is correct. If we use the list of the top 5 countries with the most serial killers it turns out to be:
1. U.S.
2. England
3. Australia
4. Germany
5. France and Japan
The only similarity I can think of from this list of all the countries is that they are modern and industrialized. If Japan were excluded, we could surmise that European roots are the problem. Perhaps the process of becoming an industrialized nation does create more of a disconnect in communities, and as people become less dependent upon each other they are more prone to kill each other.
Yep. Also, there's a HUGE difference in the level of Draconian gun legislation between the No. 1 and all the next 4! So, as a cause, gun ownership and availability's pretty much easily stricken from the list. But, as I understand it, a lot of other countres (China, Russia, Mexico, Cuba) also don't report serial killers, so just how can we compare them? In Russia, apparently, the government thugs are the state-approved serial killers!
We, often to our own dismay, are the most open culture in revealing our own faults to serious navel gazing and subsequent admission of our faults. Other countries who have many of their own, but unreported, problems, notably France, and, apparently, Holland, (and my ex-homeland, Canada. "We're NOT Americans, Dang It!") love to try to rub our noses in our problems. I suppose they think it makes them superior.
We use this process positively, to improve our society. It's one of the wonders of a free Republic, whereas the Denial Countries (some mentioned above) are like little immature schoolyard kids who think if they don't confess they've pooped in their pants, no one will notice....
How do we know how many serial killers are running around in third world countries? Do we honestly think that in the African bush there aren't serial killers that prob spend there whle life killing ppl and can't be caught due to lack of forensic technology?
The US, England and Australia don't surprise me in the least being at the top. Perhaps its in the anglo genes? Germans are notoriously cold ppl and the English descend from Germanic tribes. Germans and English are also the most well represented whites in the US. Australia was all ex English prisoners...hmm even more interesting...lol
I don't think blaming Tv is a realistic cause. To be as demented as these killers are you have to come from a very abusive childhood and have genetic predisposition to violence. I once read that the only thing all serial killers have in common is they were the result of unwanted pregnancies.
I think the comment about social disconnections is accurate.
Also, think of the gene pool that emigrated to America in the last 200 years. Overall, not a shrinking violet type of person- a person who is willing to leave family, familiarity for adventure, advancement, uncertainty, and maybe to escape persecution, a strong sense of self-survival.
It's been said (don't know if it's true) that the U.S. has the highest percentage of both sociopaths and Nobel Prize winners.
"How do we know how many serial killers are running around in third world countries?"
Mass murder/serial killers seem to be institutionaly/government sanctioned in many 3rd world countries.
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Not to mention the abundance of serial killers?
Boo hoo......
