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I forgot to add all the teen slasher/horror movies over the decades. The first Friday the 13th movie came out in 1980. And all of those killings were a (fictional) result of an outcast student bullied and done wrong, then holding that grudge and wiping out all of their tormentors.
Yes, using firearms is more efficient, but these mass killings can be carried out in so many other ways.
Again, schools and parents need to make their children aware of the serious consequences of bullying those who aren't as physically attractive or outgoing in personality. And while no one can force a friendship, at the very least, teach your children to be kind and have empathy for the lesser and weaker amongst us.
I think the Columbine tragedy started a meme. And it's has grown from that. Before Columbine, school shootings were rare to nonexistent. After, they became commonplace. The media's nonstop coverage and glorification of the Columbine shooters (for ratings and viewership) inspired a bunch of sick freaks to do the same. It helps of course that guns are readily available and it doesn't take much planning to get your hands on one of them.
So this is a toxic cocktail of gun culture, media sensationalism and mental illness.
We need to put a stop to this. If we don't have the courage to go after guns - at least let's institute a zero tolerance policy for our public schools. Any social media postings that are deemed threatening or signs of illness can immediately get the student booted from the school. This would have prevented tragedies in Parkland and here as both students left disturbing content on their social media accounts featuring guns and killing.
Parkland shooter had been expelled.
The Dixon Illinois shooter, this week, had been expelled.
No amount of good guys with guns in a school can PREVENT a mass shooting so long as anyone can walk into a school with one or more guns. Best case, the good guys can REACT to an active shooter. Most, if not all, of these shooters expect to die. There is an element of suicide of cop or suicide at the scene going on.
Many of them were products of broken homes, off-hand, Chris Harper-Mercer, Elliot Rodgers, Adam Lanza and Nikolas Cruz.
Cruz came from an intact home. Father died. Then his mother.
He displayed emerging mental illness in middle school.
Schitzoprenia is a biological and incurable condition. Symptoms begin to emerge in males with the onset of puberty. These shooters know they are not normal. By age 18 or so, symptoms increasingly become apparent to others.
Another possible contributor to the rising tide of school shootings, may be the increased use of drugs to "help" kids with perceived mental problems. Maybe kids do OK on these prescriptions. But what happens when an already-angry kid goes off his meds, for whatever reason?
I'd be curious to know how many of these school shooters were on medications for mental or emotional "problems". And how many of them went off their meds for a day or week or month before doing the shooting. Though records on going off their meds are probably sparse or nonexistent.
Most of the school shooters declined to be medicated.
Most mass shooters are not under the influence at the time of the shooting.
The Las Vegas shooter had been prescribed a low dose generic form of Valium, one of the most prescribed medications in the world since it hit the market 50+/- years ago. He was not under the influence of anything when he let loose 7.5 months ago.
MK Ultra ran until the 1980s. Govt was attempting to develop mind controlled assassins to carry out dirty work...and then a couple decades later, we start seeing 'lonewolf' gunman doing mass shootings (which is slowly changing public opinion on guns in general btw).
Not too hard to see a possible connection imo, Ultimately if enough of these happen and the tide is turned, guns are heavily restricted or banned outright, who benefits from a disarmed public? Gee, IDK? LOL
My son and I were just talking about this - it's not about guns - it's about media's lack of responsibility. They stopped reporting on all the suicides as it was found that suicides then increased the more that were reported. We are promoting this type of situation every time it's on every news station and repeated for days on end.
And I agree with the poster about medications - every kid is labeled these days and medicated. This started to happen back when my 33 yr old was in the 1st grade - have a boy that doesn't pay attention and acts out - he has ADHD - medicate him. Half the time these kids are wrongly diagnosed - meanwhile the drugs have done a number on their brains.
“ Every kid is labeled and medicated, today”
Hyperbole much ?
The number of youths who are medicated is quite small versus the population
Most mass shooters are not on medications or under the influence. In some cases, had they been, the outcomes might have have been different.
What facts do people have to prove that playing shooting video games makes it easier for you to handle a real gun.
I have three boys. All have played video games. One of those kids was taken to a shooting range once by a friend. He said it was absolutely positive nothing like playing a video game. He said it was completely different.
Those games the controllers (except in arcades and they aren't very realistic) aren't gun shape -- they are press a and b while holding x and toggling C. (yeah I don't know the exact thing).
But it is messed up to suggest someone would be a 'good shooter' because they played video games.
If you are going to cite video games as a 'training' gorund -- then the shooting range has to be one too.
It just has to be. One is specifically for training with a gun
Kids play violent video games all over the world.
It’s a serious addiction in Japan and South Korea.
Having said this, the combination of a serious and emerging biological mental illness, engagement in desensitizing violent games, online influences and easy access to guns has a predictable outcome.
I'm so sick of this argument. Guns ARE the problem.
Every country has exactly the same mental health issues the United States have.
But they don't all have such easy access to guns.
GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.
And attitudes towards guns are the problem.
It is not BS.
A gun has never got up on its own to shoot someone.
There are millions of law abiding gun owners out there that would never think to shoot innocent people just as there are millions of law abiding car owners that would never dream to operate that potentially dangerous weapon while drunk.
We have seen mass killers in other countries go on rampages and when they do not have access to guns they use other means such as knives, machetes, axes, poison gas, bombs, cars, vans, trucks and lets not forget the events of Sept. 11 2001 when airplanes were used to murder thousands.
I do agree that when a gun is present in a home that gun should be locked up or at least have a trigger guard on it so people that do not know how to safely handle that gun cannot use it.
The thing is the "attitudes" of gun owners is that they would never use their guns to kill or commit crimes yet the Left sees any gun owner as a potential murderer just waiting for a trigger to set him or her off.
You have to ask yourself a question. If this latest mass shooter did not have access to guns but instead took the keys to his dads pickup truck, drove it to school and then drove it into a crowd of kids would we be talking about banning pickup trucks? Really, who needs a 2-3 ton vehicle with a big V8 engine? Would we be talking about the need for common sense truck control measures to prevent this from happening again?
If we take away the guns, evil will always find a way to kill and no not every country has the same mental health issues as we do in our society. There are many countries where the people actually care about one another.
A gun has never got up on its own to shoot someone.
There are millions of law abiding gun owners out there that would never think to shoot innocent people just as there are millions of law abiding car owners that would never dream to operate that potentially dangerous weapon while drunk.
We have seen mass killers in other countries go on rampages and when they do not have access to guns they use other means such as knives, machetes, axes, poison gas, bombs, cars, vans, trucks and lets not forget the events of Sept. 11 2001 when airplanes were used to murder thousands.
I do agree that when a gun is present in a home that gun should be locked up or at least have a trigger guard on it so people that do not know how to safely handle that gun cannot use it.
The thing is the "attitudes" of gun owners is that they would never use their guns to kill or commit crimes yet the Left sees any gun owner as a potential murderer just waiting for a trigger to set him or her off.
You have to ask yourself a question. If this latest mass shooter did not have access to guns but instead took the keys to his dads pickup truck, drove it to school and then drove it into a crowd of kids would we be talking about banning pickup trucks? Really, who needs a 2-3 ton vehicle with a big V8 engine? Would we be talking about the need for common sense truck control measures to prevent this from happening again?
If we take away the guns, evil will always find a way to kill and no not every country has the same mental health issues as we do in our society. There are many countries where the people actually care about one another.
Prohibition style laws never work anyway. heroin is pretty good proof of that imo. it has been totally illegal to possess or sell for many years, but at the same time, numerous cities and states have major heroin epidemics going on...that alone is proof laws like this are not effective in the least.
Many seriously mentally ill people decline to be medicated. No one can be forced to take medications. Very difficult to have a teen / young adult declared mentally inferior, emerging mental illness vs cognitive and emotional immaturity.
Kendra’s Law (New York Mental Hygiene Law § 9.60) allows courts to order certain individuals with brain disorders to comply with treatment while living in the community. This court-ordered treatment is called assisted outpatient treatment. The law took effect on November 8, 1999.∗
Kendra’s Law is an important advance. It allows individuals to be ordered into treatment without ordering them into a hospital. In addition, the criteria to place someone in assisted outpatient treatment are easier to meet than the “imminent dangerousness” standard often required for inpatient commitment in New York. Kendra’s Law allows someone to be ordered into treatment “to prevent a relapse which or deterioration which would likely result in serious harm to the patient or others.” In other words, there is no need to wait until a deteriorating consumer actually is dangerous to self or others, as in the inpatient standard; under Kendra’s Law you can start procedures to “prevent a relapse” that could lead to dangerousness. The law includes strict eligibility criteria and numerous consumer protections.
This should be implemented on a national level.
I remember vividly when Kendra Webdale was pushed off the subway platform because she looked just like a woman who had spurned Andrew Goldstein's advances. Scared the crap out of me because I was in NYC on a weekly basis doing stuff for school, and taking the subway.
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