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In that same time period, social media has evolved. There is no historical precedent.
Most school shooters were not on medication at the time of the shooting. Perhaps if they were, ....
Seems to me the parents/ family of most mass shooters had no inkling their family member was capable of the violence they were.
Parents need to monitor their social media. Parkland shooter had dead animals and sick things on his. Lanza was out of his gourd but his mom took him shooting. Columbine kids were making bombs in the parents garage.
All of the school shooters are weird and awkward in some way. Parents seemingly have no idea the things they are exposed to online. Even as an older adult I cannot unsee it. What is supposed to happen when vulnerable kids (and adults) are exposed to such extreme degeneracy as can be found even on the open web, I don't want to think what must be on the dark web.
I have seen parents simply deny their kid has issues and they allow the kids to have interest in and even collect weapons. The parents are never held accountable.
Seems to me most of the massive school shooters did not spend most of their time in large groups/ organized activities. Their behaviors resulted in social isolation.
The Sandy Hook shooter lived in isolation in his mom’s basement and had ceased verbal communications with her and instead, relied on occasional email. Obviously this mom had no clue how disturbed her son was given she continued to store their guns and ammo in the house. She became her son’s first victim.
A parent’s speculation is not the basis for locking up a kid forever. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of “ it’s not so bad” .
Every single one of them spent a lot of time in large groups at school and not fitting into to those large groups or feeling connected, accepted could be part of it. Kids are in school 7 to 8 hours a day and completely surrounded by their peers, not inlcuding after school activities.
Most families are dual income families with parents putting in 40+ hour a week not including commutes. It’s less common these days to have larger family support in the form of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc living nearby and being involved. If kids are not feeling a solid connection or support from their families and are instead looking to their peers who they are surrounded by at school and who they are also surrounded by via social media for guidance and support it could be and is a losing proposition for many kids.
There’s also a lot of pressure to perform and meet high expectations. It seems like the majority of these types of school shootings are happening in solidly middle to upper middle class suburbs.
Maybe we need to re-examine the way we educate our kids and live our everyday lives?
The NRA has nothing to do with this. And it is funny that you posted there are more firearms in possession now, which is true. More people are taking advantage of the 2A. In many of these threads when the statement "overall" crimes are down comes up, the anti gun people are quick to say that gun ownership is down (there are some articles that say that) and or that it is already owners just buying more.
Your statement highlighted in red....so you are saying more laws , registration, and background checks won't help ? Those things I completely agree with...in most of the inner city gun violence. In many of these school shootings, the firearms were purchased legally. Although, in a couple of the cases, there where huge red flags that were blatantly obvious.
The NRA has everything to do with the tremendous increase in guns per capita. They've become salesmen, using fear tactics (Obama's gonna take your guns!!!!) to increase sales to previously unheard of highs. No matter who's buying them, and it is NOT kids because that's illegal, the fact that there are so many more of them around (and owned by losers who don't keep them safe) is the reason they have become the choice for unbalanced teenagers to do the most damage with the least effort.
I don't doubt that some of the nutcases would have used fertilizer bombs had they been as easy to obtain as guns. Obtain, mind you, doesn't mean buy, it means "borrow" from an adult within their circle. We are for regulations that would make guns harder for these kids to get their hands on. Not for taking away guns.
I have a gun collection. They are in my safe when not in use and not available for any kid to steal. Obviously too many other people aren't as cautious as me. When that happens (too many idiots doing too much damage) in society, we use the mechanism of government via regulation to correct it. Unless we're idiots too. License, insurance and registration. Period.
Regardless of firearm or vehicle, the end user is the one that decides what to do with it.
Except that the situation of using a firearm for that which it was designed for...the remote infliction of harm upon a person isn't going to improve with there being more of them.
Acknowledging there is a problem with American society, as there may well be with other societies, but doing nothing to address that while adding more firearms into the mix does nothing to mitigate the problem, it exacerbates it.
Societal problem + more guns = worse societal problems.
Number of guns per capita. There are a LOT more guns per person in the US now than there was in 1960. In other words, they were easier to buy back then but less people did so. The NRA has been wonderful for the gun manufacturing industry. The kids aren't going to the store and buying guns.
Do keep in mind that a significant percentage of legal gun owners own multiple guns, so a straight "guns per capita" isn't quite so meaningful.
Also, if one looks at ownership percentage vs gun murders for say Texas and California, two states with very different gun ownership laws:
Gun Ownership (% of pop): Cal 20% Tx 36%
Gun Murders (2010 per 100000): Cal 3.4 Tx 3.2
So despite the fact that I can walk into a local sporting goods store and walk out with an AR-15 with a dozen 30rd mags and 2000 rounds of ammo with a simple background check here in Tx while my brother in California has waiting periods, mag capacity limits, guns modified to restrict usage, etc the gun murder rates are roughly the same. You find even more glaring differences in states like Wyoming (56% gun ownership, <1 gun murders per cap) and Maryland (21% gun ownership, 5.1 gun murders per cap).
Again, we will solve nothing if we don't address the larger societal issues at play. Just random political/ideological victories while the real problems get kicked down the road.
The single purpose that a gun has is to do grave bodily harm--that is what it was made for. How it is used is different. And hunting does grave bodily harm, just to something other than a human. Target shooting--that is to hone the shooter's skill. And the idea that a gun does grave bodily harm is why it is used for protection.
Don't sugar-coat it. A gun's singular purpose is to kill. Your intent in using it is what varies.
It's an object like a knife or a bow. How it's used is up to the person. My garage is full of stuff that can kill you if I wanted it to. Saws, poisons, knives, guns, gun powder, diesel, fertilizer. They all have a purpose and none of them will ever kill a person in my lifetime. (Hopefully)
I also don't lock my firearms up because they would be useless for home defense if they were. My neighbor was just beaten to death in a home invasion robbery and I don't intend on that ever being me.
"The sole purpose of a gun is to do grave bodily harm."
Many people who make these claims, do NOT know what they are talking about!
What are guns built for? What is the purpose of making them capable of firing a projectile? What is that projectile supposed to do? You are not being honest with yourself if you answer anything more than, "Guns are built to do grave bodily harm." They are. How YOU want to USE them does not change that.
Answer me this: Why is a gun necessary for personal protection? If you answer that it's a deterrent, then tell me why. You can't dance around the fact that me aiming a gun at a person, no matter the circumstances, carries the implicit threat of grave bodily harm. Why is everyone so afraid to say that?
The NRA has everything to do with the tremendous increase in guns per capita. They've become salesmen, using fear tactics (Obama's gonna take your guns!!!!) to increase sales to previously unheard of highs. No matter who's buying them, and it is NOT kids because that's illegal, the fact that there are so many more of them around (and owned by losers who don't keep them safe) is the reason they have become the choice for unbalanced teenagers to do the most damage with the least effort.
I don't doubt that some of the nutcases would have used fertilizer bombs had they been as easy to obtain as guns. Obtain, mind you, doesn't mean buy, it means "borrow" from an adult within their circle. We are for regulations that would make guns harder for these kids to get their hands on. Not for taking away guns.
I have a gun collection. They are in my safe when not in use and not available for any kid to steal. Obviously too many other people aren't as cautious as me. When that happens (too many idiots doing too much damage) in society, we use the mechanism of government via regulation to correct it. Unless we're idiots too. License, insurance and registration. Period.
First off, most killings are done with weapons obtained in a straw purchase not stolen from someone. Next, govt officials are guilty of starting the massive gun buys by talking about "common sense" gun laws and we all know from the previous bans that it isnt common sense at all.
Obama started more panic buying than anyone in history by saying those things after every mass shooting. Governors do it too. The last ammo scare left shelves empty for half a year.
But i gotta know, how do you use your firearm for home protection locked in a safe? My kids know exactly where they are, how to use them and know when to use them if need be.
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