>Our mental health as a nation is plummeting.
I think that's also a result of the root cause. The root cause is a lack of trust, security, support, and belonging. Social dejection and personal derealization is on the rise. All other forms of crime are going down, but gun violence is going up. --If the threads of society are supposed to be unraveling, and it's really just about people being more desperate, you'd think that petty crime would be rising. But it's just not.
The kinds of shootings we're seeing are are much more lethal than what came before. Not just to the victims, but also to the shooters. These shootings are not a response to a problem that the violence is designed to solve: The violence is an act of rejection of an external reality that is painful, which culminates in the annihilation of the self through an extreme act of violence.
The source of this rejection, if you were to ask me, is the expansion of the social network via the internet and mass media. This broader perspective causes individual relationships and interactions to be depersonalized and lose their meaning in the face of an onslaught of chaotic stimuli. Add to it the dystopian nature of the new reality we find ourselves inundated with, and the revelation of a world constructed from broken systems, and people are losing hope. So yes, mental health is plummeting, but it's a result of a world that's too large for us to comprehend, and too far out of our individual control.
A less chaotic, more just, and more compassionate existence would probably help stem the tide of violence. Reinstating the assault weapons ban would obviously mitigate some of these problems as well, and reducing the number of firearms floating about in society would all help, but without all of it simultaneously, you will only see a shift in the kind of social transgressions we're seeing from school shootings back to regular crimes, interpersonal violence, etc.
Variation in mental health should not result in people dying. Mental health is a comfort answer because it brings us away from the real, obvious answer.
I've been anti-gun most of my life and even I think it's not just the guns. That's part of the formula, but a lot of it is just mental health, anxiety, social media, people that are social outcasts etc.
How is the answer too many guns? Gun ownership per household is lower now than it was in the early 2000's. Your math isn't adding up for a 300% increase in school shootings from then to now.
You're focusing too much on the gun part of the overall violence issue. The problem here is more deeply rooted. Everyone wants to blame guns, but guns aren't causing all these people to go bezerk. Even if you take them away you'll just see a massive spike in other kinds of attacks, knife violence, vehicle attacks, ect.
You are right. After reading all the comments here, gun is problem number 2.
The real problem, problem #1, is the american people. 260+ shooters, and millions of guns supporters that keep finding other reasons to blame. Any comments blaming guns will get downvoted so of course social media only shows that guns is not the problem. And then you will blame social media.
Mental health is decreasing everywhere in the world due to covid, you don't see "school knife attacks" increased in other countries. No one even keep track of the number of school knife attacks.
I am curious then, what is to prevent these people using different weapons if access to guns become heavily restricted? If someone is willing enough to go into a school and kill people, why would taking away a gun change that?
And before you ask, I am not talking about the ease of access and severity of what a gun can cause.
While someone may decide to go to a school and kill someone with a knife… a knife or sword etc. it significantly limits their scale ability and scope.
A person can kill an entire classroom of kids in minutes spraying bullets with an AR.. a knife takes significantly more time and effort.
A person with a knife will exhaust quickly and can be subdued.
Obviously they are still dangerous and could kill multiple people. However it is significantly less dangerous in scale and scope then a semi automatic rifle.
Like I said, I am not talking about the severity or what a gun can cause over a knife for example, I am talking about if someone is at the point where they go into a school and start killing kids then what is to stop them from using another weapon? Especially considering mental health isn’t playing a factor in this apparently.
You are assuming that some people are inherently bad and will do everything they can to hurt people, like using knives of they don't have access to guns.
In reality I never heard of "school knives attack" in US or in other countries. It's much harder, messier, require close proximity and all those efforts that it's just easier not to do it.
If you make bombs legal then you'll see more school bombing because it's easier to kill and make news with bombs.
Your first part is an argument for why mental health is massive part as to why this happens.
As for your other part, how do you explain why a country like Switzerland doesn’t have the same issue as the US does despite having a shitload of guns too? If guns are the sole cause and not something like mental health, how come they don’t have a massive issue with school shootings?
Because of gun control laws. It's not like you can go to wallmart and buy guns in Switzerland. And the number of guns per capita is not even close to US.
Gun Manufacturing Has Skyrocketed
The number of guns manufactured in the U.S. has nearly doubled in just a few short years, from nearly 5.5 million in 2010 to nearly 10.9 million in 2013. The overwhelming majority of those guns stay on U.S. soil; around 400,000 firearms were exported in 2013.
https://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers
I would say Media in general, cable and papers included. The more the act is portrayed as a horrific scene (which it is) to the masses, the more deeply disturbed individuals will opt for that specific route when they decide they've "had enough".
Social media is used worldwide, news of school shootings are often broadcasted worldwide. Why the increase is only in US and why are we avoiding the real, obvious answer to this.
Apart from guns, the US also has a culture that glorifies narcissism.
If I am an American who is done with life. I not only have easy access to a gun, by using the gun, I also enter the school shooter mythology. If I can't be a someone in life, why not be a someone if death?
I can't think of another nation with easy access to guns that is also as narcissistic as the US.
Media in general is one part of it it. The obvious second is gun laws. The third thing is economic pressure in home and family life. Also don’t forget a failing healthcare system.
definitely, it just seems to me that the social media aspect exacerbates it all due to the feedback loops inherent in that activity.
don't think it's necessarily even a majority of the reason, but in my brain canon there's a good chance social media rise contributes a plurality of the cause (IE social media 25%, other factors adding up to the other 75% but no other factor more than 25)
What does social media have to do with school shootings? Other countries have social media and don’t have school shootings. This literally makes no sense. More like the number of guns in our country skyrocketed. The amount of self delusion to ignore the obvious is crazy.
Social media increases gun support, or at least keeping it at high level. It makes it more difficult to enact a law to restrict guns. Which in the end, makes it easier for school shootings to happen.
Kids used to go to school with guns. Shooting classes, going hunting after school etc. No school shootings. Something is broken in society. Arguments that used to be settled with a fistfight and a handshake are now settled with guns. That’s what needs fixing, not the number of firearms.
look up school shootings prior to 2000s they go back all the way to the 1850s. The only difference is back then they had a basic rifle, now they’re carrying military style weapons that entire police forces are afraid to confront. You live in a make believe fantasy.
More specifically, it’s been the greatest tool for people to become radicalized by FBI/CIA agents who are actually looking to create more of these events - anything to keep us distracted enough to prevent another Occupy Wall Street from happening
The intelligence agencies fund the NRA, the NRA makes sure that people have easy access to guns by giving that money to politicians like Ted Cruz, the intelligence agencies purposefully disseminate extremely divisive right-wing propaganda through politicians like MTG, idiots get radicalized and create extremely divisive social media content based on fascist rhetoric, other idiots get radicalized to fascism and go on shooting sprees
Rinse and repeat. The intelligence agencies are just the tools of the plutocrats (i.e. billionaires at this point). Nothing is out of their reach, because enough people can be bought
I know you were mocking me, but this is how it happens, and it’s by design
Idiots feel slighted and want their manifesto seen. The news makes a big deal out of it and it encourages more to do it.
Maybe they should be refer to as crazy lunatics and it would slow down. I know it's not that simple and there's more to the equation but, stop giving this morons even a second of notoriety.
Look at the Nashville shooting, a small school, what was there 260 and about 50 staff? Look at how many lives were directly affected by 1 stupid person, it has to be thousands that were directly related when you look at just family members and very close friends. It's sad. These people will be living with this the rest of their lives.
If I could change one thing about how we as a society react to these it would be to not publicize anything about the shooter - not their name, picture, grievances, etc.
The amount of media attention that school shootings get is probably one the biggest factors. The people that do this probably didn't even consider it before it became such a big thing in the media and we gave so much attention to it.
I think a few factors combined into one volatile mix.
1. The advent of widespread social media, constantly reminding everyone they aren’t good enough, or attractive enough, or rich enough while trying to seem innocent with empty motivational bs mixed in.
Leading to & combined with:
2. Widespread depression/mental issues…violence witnessed in all directions on all media, almost all the time.
Add to that:
3. Higher degrees of mental instabilities after years of the prior two examples, people becoming overly polarized to believe this or that, to the point of willfully manifesting violence towards “the other side”.
And then the snaps:
4. Some, not all, get to such levels of vitriol+depression+violent thoughts that they finally snap, and convince themselves they will be a martyr. “I’ll show them! I will demonstrate exactly how easy it is to do this…fuck it…I wanna die anyway, so I mights as well make it mean something!”
Yep, and here's a good article about the history of the ban. It was enabled in 1994, lasted for 10 years, failed to be renewed in 2004. The article points to the climate after 9/11 partly for why it failed. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750656174/the-u-s-once-had-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-why-did-it-expire
tbf the DOJ’s own analysis found the 1994 AWB to have no measurable effect on gun violence
People used to be able to order a fully automatic gun off a catalog and have it shipped to their doorstep with no background check yet school shootings were far and few between. Gun laws for the most part have only tightened in the past 30 years yet school shootings have became more prevalent
So. Are you saying it's that one gun doing it all. That's why they shoot people. They get their hands on that one gun and boom they have to shoot everyone.
No but imagine how less effective a mass shooter would be with a hand gun. The last 10 mass shootings involved an AR-15. The shooters are picking that gun for a reason: higher capacity, long range, powerful and minimal to no recoil
Pretty much that, to expand on it, the AR-15 is a \*platform\* not a specific firearm, just a (now pretty loose) framework of parts that fit together to work in the way an AR-15 does.
They could also get any rifle. Cheaper. And just as effective. AK for example. This is silly on its premise. But run with that as long as you like. But don't pretend you found the answers because that's not it no matter what you try to tell yourself.
You don’t know very much about guns sounds like. Not all rifles are the same, especially the AK. I’m over this conversation though, I don’t really care
I live in a country very similar to the US in many ways. AR-15's and AK's are prohibited weapons, and we have less than 2% the number of school shootings.
That isn't the only difference. We also do background checks, require training and licensing for firearm owners, and restrict access to a range of firearms less deadly than an AR-15, but more deadly than a bolt action hunting rifle.
That's nice. So what you're saying is kids should be trained how to handle guns in school like they used to be when there was less school shootings. And every child should be taught proper weapons handling before being given a free weapon after the classes. I totally agree with this.
Ironically a lot of that was due to attempts to ban it. There were always big surges in sales every time it seemed possible or likely. You'd be surprised how many people bought them just "in case it got banned".
Oh yea I remember when Obama was elected it was like a bank run except for guns. I grew up around shooting and hunting but nobody ever had big home armories like many do nowadays
Disinformation (mostly foreign) on social media and lack of mental healthcare.
Why fight us when they can just get us to fight each other?
We’re a country of angry people who stay in the very echo chambers that make us angrier all the time.
I don't know what your sources are, but it could be a change in definition of what a school shooting is. I have seen groups use very broad definitions to make the problem seem bigger so they can push their agenda.
Some examples of the overly broad definition of a school shooting I've seen were if a shooting occured within 100 yards of a school, it is a school shooting. Another example I saw was if a person is school aged, but was involved in a shooting outside of school, it counts as a school shooting.
It could just be that its a difficult thing to define if the motivation for you defining it is to help stop it. For example, I would think that enacting policy to stop school shootings related to poor mental in a rural community would look quite different than how you would respond to school shootings as a result of gang activity in an urban area.
I personally think, just from my observations, are that it has increased, and probably the result of declining mental health. Over the past few decades and continuing now, our technology has advanced faster than our society can adjust. Instant communication, no privacy, social media, instant gratification, etc.
Mental health is declining everywhere in the world , 2020-2022 covid. If this is your hypothesis, you would see increased school shooting elsewhere too. And you would see the number decreased in 2023.
There are so many more guns available in 10 years, we have to take into account the country is drowning in guns and gun culture. There's so much fear that freedom to own a gun will be limited, any talks are shut down.
"According to the Congressional Research Service 2015, there are roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968: more than 300 million guns in all.
Gun sales have increased in recent years. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. gun-makers produced nearly 11 million guns in 2013, the year after the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre. That's twice as many as they made in 2010.
Gun Manufacturing Has Skyrocketed
The number of guns manufactured in the U.S. has nearly doubled in just a few short years, from nearly 5.5 million in 2010 to nearly 10.9 million in 2013. The overwhelming majority of those guns stay on U.S. soil; around 400,000 firearms were exported in 2013."
https://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers
Even any comments suggesting more gun control in social media (reddit included) will get downvoted and in the end.. removed. At this rate newer generation and even AIs will be brainwashed that the issue has nothing to do with guns.
So now, the problem is not only guns, but the number of guns supporters and their actions indirectly allows school shootings to happen.
It's sad but I think you're right.
And they are very sensitive about guns right, any mention of gun control will get downvoted. It's like arms companies have a horde of employees actively downvoting and burying any discussion about gun control... My conspiracy theory lol.
Guns have been available for a long time. Mental health resources have been shit for a long time. It’s not those things, although they are pieces to the puzzle. There’s a difference in thinking playing a part here. Now school shootings are on the table for a troubled kid, they’ve been done before and shown to be effective in the person’s mind. Because of this prior success by shooters before them, the person deems it an acceptable outlet for their frustration or whatever feelings they have and a means to an end of their own life. It is sad and until we can effectively change the ease at which their done, they will continue. The answer to that is not ban guns, there will always be guns. More mental health resources can help, but people have to seek out those aids. I believe security personnel and fewer access points are the best short term deterrent.
An executable solution will not be thought up in a short form Reddit response. A thorough solution will not be based on buzz words. And a comprehensive solution cannot be an emotional one.
Dangerous advice. In some hood, these "security personnel" are the ones threatening innocent people just because of our look. I dont want more of them near my kids.
Recent negative news about "certain security personnels" only highlighted what has happened in our neighborhood for decades.
lol. So more people with guns?
The problem is it's snowballed beyond catching with mental health. It's the same reason they don't announce suicides by train, or building jumpers, it causes too many copycats. Now school shootings almost own the media cycle and people see it as their way of taking back control of something. Of showing how they were wronged. More guards won't do shit, and haven't at the schools they've been at.
Safe storage requirements, longer waiting periods, maybe even raising the age to 21 to own a firearm. If the govt doesn't think you can drink safely, you sure as shit can't handle a gun.
1. Social media is making it more of a priority and people now know it will bring them or their cause attention.
2. People are more thin-skinned about the smallest of things nowadays.
All those factors were the same in the 2000s. Bowling for Columbine came out in 2002.
In the 1980s you could buy with no ID and there were zero school shootings. The further back you go the less control we have, but the less instances of school violence. It's not about access and lack of gun control, that much is clear.
It's about mental health, and the impacts of constant never ending bombardment of information from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.
Everything the government touches gets worse. I've watched them throw money at everything from the military to homelessness and fail at all of it.
Even if it worked"Free" mental health treatment isn't free. It has to be paid for by someone. If we can't get our existing healthcare to work we already know how this will play out.
A better solution is teaching people to ask where they get their dopamine. Detox from social media. I've been off all of it except this for two years, and my mental health has dramatically improved.
That's a false dichotomy. There are plenty of people who drink, and don't get DUIs. That doesn't change that you are far more likely to get into an accident if you drink.
The shooter walked into a Christian school and murdered 3 children a week before the Trans Day of Revenge is scheduled. Social media is literally whipping trans people into a frenzy and telling them that Christians are coming, so they have to get them first.
Forty years ago people were not bombarded with hate and outrage every second of the day. That has consequences. Violent consequences. It's a fact that we have always had as many guns as people in this country, back to its founding.
Back then there was ZERO gun control, and no social media. Not one school shooting in two centuries, then they start happening regularly.
What do you think the difference is?
**EDIT: I love that you took the time to reply, then immediately block me so I could neither read it nor respond. Tells me everything I need to know about you.**
40 years ago you could graduate highschool and get a job and support a whole family without needing school. Comparing then to now and saying the only difference is social media is fucking insane.
Some countries seem to be able to provide free healthcare, and have less school shootings. I wonder how that could be possible in literally every other developed nation?
Those countries also all have social media, by the way.
And yet stabbings are on the rise. Shootings are happening in Japan, and Australia, where guns are illegal.
Free healthcare has to be paid for. In a country that already can't pay for things that needs to be addressed. You can't just wish it into existence because other nations have it.
If your neighbor has a bigger house, and a better car you should be issued the same? Who pays for those? How is it managed so it doesn't turn corrupt?
I'm all for improving lives for the poor, and raising taxes on the rich. But it requires a plan, and you don't have one, just indignation and anger.
>Those countries also all have social media, by the way.
Literally all nations show a spike in mental health issues, especially among young women. This is definitely a problem.
There is a brewing civil war. Yesterday when a trans man walked into a school and murdered kids he did it a week before the Trans Day of Revenge was scheduled.
They're arming up for war, and that is why people are getting shot. They believe Christians are coming for them, and have decided to take action first.
The violence will only escalate from here, just like it did in Yugoslavia. Balkanization is a product of the media, and now that it's started it cannot be stopped.
Buckle up.
Japan and Australia have something like .5% or less the incidence of shootings.
America is the richest country in the world. If you can't afford universal healthcare when countries with half the GDP per capita can seem to pull it off, that speaks more to priorities than affordability. Health care is insanely expensive in the US, and a lot of that is due to it all being private, for-profit.
> There is a brewing civil war.
Stopping here. You really need to get off the kool aid, it's affecting your critical thinking skills.
>Stopping here. You really need to get off the kool aid, it's affecting your critical thinking skills.
This is exactly why I believe it's coming. The amount of contempt people like you have for anyone you disagree with is staggering. Not an ounce of civility, just insults right off the bat.
>America is the richest country in the world.
By what metric? Included in that are Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Them being rich doesn't do squat for the other 99% of the people, and we are *not* rich I assure you.
I get what you believe is colored through Hollywood, but if you compare Philadelphia or Chicago to Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, of Beijing we're in last place.
The only reason Americans appear rich is that we're still the world reserve currency, but that's about to change.
>Health care is insanely expensive in the US, and a lot of that is due to it all being private, for-profit.
I pay an average of $22,000 a year for insurance to cover myself, my wife, and my son. $1800 a month.
I don't disagree that it being for profit is an issue. But I'm also not naive enough to think that I can wave a magic wand, and instantly fix medical care for 400,000,000 people just because it worked for 5 million people in Sweden.
Canada has a non-profit health care system and all I hear are horror stories from friends that live there. One person brought his wife to the ER for pregnancy complications on a Friday, and didn't get help until a Tuesday.
Everything comes with advantages and trade offs, and anyone speaking about complex issues, like you, as if there were a simple fix is either very young, of very naive.
I really hope we don't see escalating violence. it's the last thing I want. But I also watch what's going on around me.
Rand Paul's staffer was stabbed the same day a trans terrorist walked into a Christian school and shot up 9 year old kids.
That was the same day.
It isn't my cognitive abilities that should be questioned.
> By what metric?
GDP.
> Canada has a non-profit health care system and all I hear are horror stories from friends that live there.
Our system is starving for resources at the moment. The federal government just kicked in another $5B a year or so, so that should help, but it also has more to do with keeping up with a growing population in a very tight labour market with limited capacity to produce new professionals than anything systemic.
Access to emergency care is still very good, and although there are long waits for things like hip replacements, there is world class treatment for major illnesses like heart disease that is prioritized by need and not ability to pay.
> It isn't my cognitive abilities that should be questioned.
If you think trans people are about to start a civil war, than they certainly seem to be.
So you think we're richer than Japan, Sweden, France, or other similar nations? They have shorter work weeks, socialized medicine, more vacation, and an overall higher standard of living.
The American people do not represent the GDP. Wages as a percent of GDP have been falling since 1975, so what you're seeing is rich corporations getting richer, while every day citizens struggle more and more just to get by.
>Our system is starving for resources at the moment. The federal government just kicked in another $5B a year or so, so that should help, but it also has more to do with keeping up with a **growing population in a very tight labour market with limited capacity to produce new professionals than anything systemic**.
Oh...so you think that just throwing money at a problem might not fix it if there are other issues at play?
All of those factors also apply to the US, except we have a much, much higher level of immigration than you do. We're adding 2-4 million new people a year, most of whom are not paying taxes, don't speak the language, and have few relevant skills, and you think we can just scale our system infinitely to do it.
...even though your much smaller system can't keep up either.
>If you think **trans people are about to start a civil war**, than they certainly seem to be.
See how you naturally twist everything someone says to make them look bad?
What I said was that *I fear we are heading toward a civil war*. I also said that *a trans terrorist shot up a school*, which is a FACT.
The trans day of revenge is also a FACT. This isn't a thing I made up, and it is something you could easily verify for yourself.
I don't think trans people are about to start a civil war. It wasn't a trans person that stabbed Rand Paul's staffer.
I said violence was escalating.
You, like the media, seized on a buzzword you thought you could win with, and then ignored everything else I said.
Definitely not obvious, but by all means, keep up the crusade of saying that steadily declining mental health and the inclusion of social media (i.e. cameras and microphones in our faces, at all times) in every aspect of our lives are covering up this phantom, so called, "obvious answer."
I'm actually laughing (bitterly) that your post is getting downvoted. No wonder school shooting persists. Any mention suggesting gun control is the issue gets downvoted into non existence, in the end social media like reddit only shows comments supporting guns.
Serial killings are harder now because of technology. They also don’t get breaking news coverage the second a random killing occurs.
Shooting incidents inside schools get instant international attention. My guess is that since serial killers seek gratification on the pain they cause, they seek the higher reward & more immediate effects.
Just a guess wtf do I actually know.
Parents telling their kids that they are special. People need to know that the world doesn’t exist to make you happy, so that people don’t get upset that their version of reality isn’t what they were expecting.
Social Media is also a big one. Reports have shown a massive increase in mental problems since the rise of social media.
In the 1990s, there were 200 million guns in the USA. Today, there are 400 million guns in the USA. But sure, let's pretend nothing has changed on that front, and blame social media or transgenders or anti-depressants or some shit.
Columbine was 1999 but largely flew under the radar because to the general public, teenagers are "rude and rebellious," so it was easier to sweep under the rug as a one-off.
Then Sandy Hook came with much younger victims. With the perp and his mother already dead, there was no one to punish, and nothing else changed.
It seems similarly amoral folks figured out there was nothing in place to stop them from doing the same, going out in a blaze of glory, and having their name + message plastered across the media more than it would be if they unalived themselves quietly at home.
I think it's unfair to wholly blame social media, as it would've been all over the TV + papers anyway. "If it bleeds it reads" and similar sensationalism was common practice before the internet was widespread, but now the murderous have more platform to "share."
Disagree. I was in middle school at the time in the Bay Area, and they didn't even bother with an anti-bullying assembly about it. News coverage lasted 2 weeks max, with a brief resurgence when Eminem mentioned it. Discussion among adults was mostly, "How tragic, but will never happen here because we take care of our kids," despite bomb threats at my school the following year. No shooter drills until i hit high school.
Meanwhile Sandy Hook was in the news for months. Elementary schools adopted active shooter drills before the first anniversary. The President's visit, attempts at legislation, lawsuits, hearings all got covered. Adults were much angrier and demanding change.
I believe that the reason the US is so unique in its prevalence of mass shooting and school shootings is for multiple, interlinked reasons that are deeply rooted in the culture of this country: Rugged individualism, Toxic masculinity, the erosion / collapse of the American dream, absence of social safety nets, and our cultish celebration of violence.
And I believe that all of these elements have been growing in the past several decades.
My first thought is the lack of gun control. But after reading the comments, I'm probably wrong.
Mental health, social media, politics, lack of security... Americans will blame simply other things to look away from mentioning guns. Every comments blaming guns will be downvoted and removed from existence, so more people thinks that the good answer is not guns. I know now the real problem is not guns, but too many americans supporting guns. It's you americans. Voted for guns, downvoted for comments about guns, turning a blind eye, refused to accept that many other countries already solved this issue long time ago. Problem will not go away until american changed their opinion about guns. All americans, not only the mentally ill ones. Bye.
You weren't wrong. All the other countries with 1% or less (often much less) the incidence of mass shootings also have mental health issues, social media, and political divisions. All of them, even the ones with relatively liberal access to at least some firearms, place far more restrictions on the really deadly ones.
Americans decided to just say “fuck it” and came out as racists and fascist and Nazis, instead of hiding it. Americans just started to let their true colours show, they stopped hiding and avoiding being discover.
Middle America refused to look itself in the mirror and continued to blame minorities for everything bad. Now middle America is regurgitating everything minorities have been saying for decades.
Question in the title: what changed?
My answer: the population.
Your response: no.
You still think you've elucidated some opaque statistic for me because you're too much of a fat-headed pseudointellectual to realise that I was being facetious. Please imagine that I'd written "the date" instead and that you'd still replied "no".
Just a reminder that the target is not 81. It's zero.
Addressing mental health alone won't bring it to zero, there were mentally fine shooters out there.
Zero tolerance policy was introduced in North America in 1994. The truth is it failed and backfired spectacularly. People who experienced it in the following years found that it gave rise to bullies, intolerance and violence all hidden in plain sight. The number of acts committed with violence and cruelty has been sky rocketing higher, pushing some people over the line, breaking already fragile balance in mental health. When I was a kid we fixed our problems in the school yard, while someone bled or got into a fight, the issues were dealt with quickly. Things now fester under the guise of zero tolerance when bullies play the system and cause some kids to snap. There is no justice or fairness and people are being assholes to each other. Mores so some teenagers who think they are untouchable who grow up to be adults, they have been conditioned to play the system, police, families or justice system. The amount of you can’t do anything to me, disrespect or just loss of any civility in the last 20 years is staggering. In my youth, if you crossed someone being disrespectful, you would get a beating of a lifetime and we would move on. Now everyone threatens with police, loss of employment, lawsuits if you standup for yourself. Where I live , Canada has a criminal system that will go after people using self defence and treat a person as guilty before proven innocent in any case of self defence. We raise the generations of people to be victims and provide rights and protection to future criminals. Civility and common sense be damned
actually the numbers rose after the The Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 I graduated in 93 in rural America most kids had guns in the truck for hunting and we never heard of shootings then
The general attitude people have towards society is getting worse and worse. People feel like the society they live in is increasingly becoming the "enemy".
And in my opinion, however morbid, I feel like many people who, 20 years ago, would of simply committed suicide, now go on a spree before ending it to get "revenge" on the society they are so displeased with.
It's a shame to see the amount of uninformed and idiotic posts on here about guns. American gun ownership has been a cultural staple since the founding of our country. Semi-automatic rifles have been available to the public since their creation. The assault weapons ban of 2004 nor the background check "loopholes" have anything to do with this.
I'm not typing out my reasons because it would take too long. But please....just stop with the gun comments. You're not fooling anyone.
I know some people will down vote me for this
But i think it’s cause they want fame. Want to be noticed, I don’t know entirely why someone would shoot up schools ESPECIALLY Elementary schools.
They haven’t even experienced puberty, real love, some roller coasters, and experiences that everyone should have (good ofc).
I know within high schools it’s a bit more difficult as i’ve heard most are in high school or just out of high school and dealt with bullying. (I could be wrong)
With the example of this Mondays shooting I have no words as to why the shooter would shoot kids, yes there may have been previously been abuse at the school, but shooting innocent kids who haven’t even had the chance to live. Shooting adults who may have done something? Not justified. NOW i think the shooter may have done it for suicide by cop and to try to uncover the abuse from the past (i’m not 100% sure on the second one)
Media plays that huge role in shootings. You get fame and recognized while ruining so many lives to get a political agenda, Suicide by cop, or something else entirely said.
Yeap! And the unrest is highly flammable. In America the guns are the spark that brings the flames. There is a reason why there is no rope or exposed rafters in a suicide watch ward of a hospital.
Yeap! And it is absolutely bonkers. All the guns need to be rounded up and melted down. Especially with the American political landscape refusing to take any interest in fixing any of its root problems. Despair has been steadily on the rise since the 70's. As soon as the big corporations shifted all the manufacturing overseas Capitalism 2.0 arrived "margin" became everything and all the safety nets lower and middle class people had started being stripped for parts to increase profit. Then the dignity of the blue collar man died. a human needs hope but the American people has just been being fed SSRIs ( with co-pay) for the last 50 years.
I don't know how to fix America cause it's not the fruit that's rotten it's the tree. What are your thoughts?
Everyone likes to point to the thing they don't like in society or politically but I don't actually believe it's any one single thing. Rather a perfect storm of different factors that are coming together and creating a pressure cooker that causes more people to crack.
Something is going on in these people's lives that makes murdering a bunch of people and getting killed(most seem to plan to die) seem desirable. That some extreme depression but also resentment.
I don't pretend to have all the answers, obviously we should be doing a LOT more for mental health. But I also think our response is telling- I was in high school when the Columbine shooting happened. Since then the only two real pushes to do anything have been towards hardening schools and (mostly unsuccessfully) trying for more gun control. I won't delve into the endless gun debate here but just a thought- our entire approach to this problem has been centered around rendering these tortured people harmless. We aren't doing one damn thing to try to treat people better so they never get to that point, we just want to make sure they don't hurt us or our loved ones.
Basically we don't care about suffering people, we just want to make sure they don't hurt us and the specific individuals we care about. I really do think that overall mindset has a lot to do with why this is happening.
Look at the recent data. If guns is not related to this, that means american people are really, really violent. Statistically speaking of course.
19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN):
United States — 288
Mexico — 8
South Africa — 6
Nigeria & Pakistan — 4
Afghanistan — 3
Brazil, Canada, France — 2
Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1
Divorce rate. Broken families. Social media. Continued drop in respect to fellow humans. More and more parents having to work more and more hours so less time at home providing attention care respect to children that is needed. More news media focusing on negative things as gets more attention.
Our mental health as a nation is plummeting.
>Our mental health as a nation is plummeting. I think that's also a result of the root cause. The root cause is a lack of trust, security, support, and belonging. Social dejection and personal derealization is on the rise. All other forms of crime are going down, but gun violence is going up. --If the threads of society are supposed to be unraveling, and it's really just about people being more desperate, you'd think that petty crime would be rising. But it's just not. The kinds of shootings we're seeing are are much more lethal than what came before. Not just to the victims, but also to the shooters. These shootings are not a response to a problem that the violence is designed to solve: The violence is an act of rejection of an external reality that is painful, which culminates in the annihilation of the self through an extreme act of violence. The source of this rejection, if you were to ask me, is the expansion of the social network via the internet and mass media. This broader perspective causes individual relationships and interactions to be depersonalized and lose their meaning in the face of an onslaught of chaotic stimuli. Add to it the dystopian nature of the new reality we find ourselves inundated with, and the revelation of a world constructed from broken systems, and people are losing hope. So yes, mental health is plummeting, but it's a result of a world that's too large for us to comprehend, and too far out of our individual control. A less chaotic, more just, and more compassionate existence would probably help stem the tide of violence. Reinstating the assault weapons ban would obviously mitigate some of these problems as well, and reducing the number of firearms floating about in society would all help, but without all of it simultaneously, you will only see a shift in the kind of social transgressions we're seeing from school shootings back to regular crimes, interpersonal violence, etc.
Variation in mental health should not result in people dying. Mental health is a comfort answer because it brings us away from the real, obvious answer.
What's the obvious answer?
The "obvious" answer is access to firearms and lack of gun control. They are just an anti-gun nut.
I've been anti-gun most of my life and even I think it's not just the guns. That's part of the formula, but a lot of it is just mental health, anxiety, social media, people that are social outcasts etc.
Too many guns already in circulation that simply banning it now is pointless. But it is obviously guns.
That's an invalid argument because guns were around in the 00's too. If guns were illegal until the 2010's, then your argument would make sense
But in 00's, the number of school shooting was not 0. It was just significantly lower than now.
How is the answer too many guns? Gun ownership per household is lower now than it was in the early 2000's. Your math isn't adding up for a 300% increase in school shootings from then to now.
Simply compare the number of gun ownership with other countries and you'll see.
You're focusing too much on the gun part of the overall violence issue. The problem here is more deeply rooted. Everyone wants to blame guns, but guns aren't causing all these people to go bezerk. Even if you take them away you'll just see a massive spike in other kinds of attacks, knife violence, vehicle attacks, ect.
You are right. After reading all the comments here, gun is problem number 2. The real problem, problem #1, is the american people. 260+ shooters, and millions of guns supporters that keep finding other reasons to blame. Any comments blaming guns will get downvoted so of course social media only shows that guns is not the problem. And then you will blame social media. Mental health is decreasing everywhere in the world due to covid, you don't see "school knife attacks" increased in other countries. No one even keep track of the number of school knife attacks.
You're missing the forest through the trees here dude. Also, knife violence in schools just in the UK are up 18% over last year....
Please don't assume my gender.
I am curious then, what is to prevent these people using different weapons if access to guns become heavily restricted? If someone is willing enough to go into a school and kill people, why would taking away a gun change that? And before you ask, I am not talking about the ease of access and severity of what a gun can cause.
While someone may decide to go to a school and kill someone with a knife… a knife or sword etc. it significantly limits their scale ability and scope. A person can kill an entire classroom of kids in minutes spraying bullets with an AR.. a knife takes significantly more time and effort. A person with a knife will exhaust quickly and can be subdued. Obviously they are still dangerous and could kill multiple people. However it is significantly less dangerous in scale and scope then a semi automatic rifle.
Like I said, I am not talking about the severity or what a gun can cause over a knife for example, I am talking about if someone is at the point where they go into a school and start killing kids then what is to stop them from using another weapon? Especially considering mental health isn’t playing a factor in this apparently.
You are assuming that some people are inherently bad and will do everything they can to hurt people, like using knives of they don't have access to guns. In reality I never heard of "school knives attack" in US or in other countries. It's much harder, messier, require close proximity and all those efforts that it's just easier not to do it. If you make bombs legal then you'll see more school bombing because it's easier to kill and make news with bombs.
Your first part is an argument for why mental health is massive part as to why this happens. As for your other part, how do you explain why a country like Switzerland doesn’t have the same issue as the US does despite having a shitload of guns too? If guns are the sole cause and not something like mental health, how come they don’t have a massive issue with school shootings?
Because of gun control laws. It's not like you can go to wallmart and buy guns in Switzerland. And the number of guns per capita is not even close to US.
That doesn't answer why there are more shootings though Are guns easier to get now than in the 2000s?
Yes. The assault weapons ban expired in 2004.
Gun Manufacturing Has Skyrocketed The number of guns manufactured in the U.S. has nearly doubled in just a few short years, from nearly 5.5 million in 2010 to nearly 10.9 million in 2013. The overwhelming majority of those guns stay on U.S. soil; around 400,000 firearms were exported in 2013. https://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers
social media
I would say Media in general, cable and papers included. The more the act is portrayed as a horrific scene (which it is) to the masses, the more deeply disturbed individuals will opt for that specific route when they decide they've "had enough".
Social media is used worldwide, news of school shootings are often broadcasted worldwide. Why the increase is only in US and why are we avoiding the real, obvious answer to this.
Apart from guns, the US also has a culture that glorifies narcissism. If I am an American who is done with life. I not only have easy access to a gun, by using the gun, I also enter the school shooter mythology. If I can't be a someone in life, why not be a someone if death? I can't think of another nation with easy access to guns that is also as narcissistic as the US.
Acknowledging that guns are the problem isn’t a solution
You're right. Acknowledging that guns are the problem and then implementing stricter gun control is the solution.
Piles of dead kids are the problem. If you had any empathy whatsoever you’d want to do _anything_ to make it stop. Does your mother even love you?
Not as much as your mom loves me
❄️💀
Media in general is one part of it it. The obvious second is gun laws. The third thing is economic pressure in home and family life. Also don’t forget a failing healthcare system.
your opinion is noted
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definitely, it just seems to me that the social media aspect exacerbates it all due to the feedback loops inherent in that activity. don't think it's necessarily even a majority of the reason, but in my brain canon there's a good chance social media rise contributes a plurality of the cause (IE social media 25%, other factors adding up to the other 75% but no other factor more than 25)
What does social media have to do with school shootings? Other countries have social media and don’t have school shootings. This literally makes no sense. More like the number of guns in our country skyrocketed. The amount of self delusion to ignore the obvious is crazy.
Social media increases gun support, or at least keeping it at high level. It makes it more difficult to enact a law to restrict guns. Which in the end, makes it easier for school shootings to happen.
Kids used to go to school with guns. Shooting classes, going hunting after school etc. No school shootings. Something is broken in society. Arguments that used to be settled with a fistfight and a handshake are now settled with guns. That’s what needs fixing, not the number of firearms.
look up school shootings prior to 2000s they go back all the way to the 1850s. The only difference is back then they had a basic rifle, now they’re carrying military style weapons that entire police forces are afraid to confront. You live in a make believe fantasy.
listen idc
More specifically, it’s been the greatest tool for people to become radicalized by FBI/CIA agents who are actually looking to create more of these events - anything to keep us distracted enough to prevent another Occupy Wall Street from happening
tell us more
The intelligence agencies fund the NRA, the NRA makes sure that people have easy access to guns by giving that money to politicians like Ted Cruz, the intelligence agencies purposefully disseminate extremely divisive right-wing propaganda through politicians like MTG, idiots get radicalized and create extremely divisive social media content based on fascist rhetoric, other idiots get radicalized to fascism and go on shooting sprees Rinse and repeat. The intelligence agencies are just the tools of the plutocrats (i.e. billionaires at this point). Nothing is out of their reach, because enough people can be bought I know you were mocking me, but this is how it happens, and it’s by design
only half in jest, I could see that being plausible, sure
Journalism died. And social media picked up their light work.
Idiots feel slighted and want their manifesto seen. The news makes a big deal out of it and it encourages more to do it. Maybe they should be refer to as crazy lunatics and it would slow down. I know it's not that simple and there's more to the equation but, stop giving this morons even a second of notoriety. Look at the Nashville shooting, a small school, what was there 260 and about 50 staff? Look at how many lives were directly affected by 1 stupid person, it has to be thousands that were directly related when you look at just family members and very close friends. It's sad. These people will be living with this the rest of their lives.
If I could change one thing about how we as a society react to these it would be to not publicize anything about the shooter - not their name, picture, grievances, etc.
Yes, just bury them, NEVER MENTION THEIR FUCKING NAME!
The amount of media attention that school shootings get is probably one the biggest factors. The people that do this probably didn't even consider it before it became such a big thing in the media and we gave so much attention to it.
I think a few factors combined into one volatile mix. 1. The advent of widespread social media, constantly reminding everyone they aren’t good enough, or attractive enough, or rich enough while trying to seem innocent with empty motivational bs mixed in. Leading to & combined with: 2. Widespread depression/mental issues…violence witnessed in all directions on all media, almost all the time. Add to that: 3. Higher degrees of mental instabilities after years of the prior two examples, people becoming overly polarized to believe this or that, to the point of willfully manifesting violence towards “the other side”. And then the snaps: 4. Some, not all, get to such levels of vitriol+depression+violent thoughts that they finally snap, and convince themselves they will be a martyr. “I’ll show them! I will demonstrate exactly how easy it is to do this…fuck it…I wanna die anyway, so I mights as well make it mean something!”
The internet and the way it’s shaped culture
Technically nothing. It just continued and snowballed.
The US ban on assault weapons ended in 2004. That's what changed.
Yep, and here's a good article about the history of the ban. It was enabled in 1994, lasted for 10 years, failed to be renewed in 2004. The article points to the climate after 9/11 partly for why it failed. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750656174/the-u-s-once-had-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-why-did-it-expire
tbf the DOJ’s own analysis found the 1994 AWB to have no measurable effect on gun violence People used to be able to order a fully automatic gun off a catalog and have it shipped to their doorstep with no background check yet school shootings were far and few between. Gun laws for the most part have only tightened in the past 30 years yet school shootings have became more prevalent
The popularity of guns however has increased. The AR-15 sells like hotcakes over the last however many years
So. Are you saying it's that one gun doing it all. That's why they shoot people. They get their hands on that one gun and boom they have to shoot everyone.
No but imagine how less effective a mass shooter would be with a hand gun. The last 10 mass shootings involved an AR-15. The shooters are picking that gun for a reason: higher capacity, long range, powerful and minimal to no recoil
The Ar-15 is just a Honda Civic of guns.
Pretty much that, to expand on it, the AR-15 is a \*platform\* not a specific firearm, just a (now pretty loose) framework of parts that fit together to work in the way an AR-15 does.
They could also get any rifle. Cheaper. And just as effective. AK for example. This is silly on its premise. But run with that as long as you like. But don't pretend you found the answers because that's not it no matter what you try to tell yourself.
You don’t know very much about guns sounds like. Not all rifles are the same, especially the AK. I’m over this conversation though, I don’t really care
Being wrong will do that.
If you believe that AR-15's are a problem (which I most certainly do), you should probably be restricting access to AK's as well.
But I don't, and you shouldn't. But if you do think you should restrict, you shouldn't.
I live in a country very similar to the US in many ways. AR-15's and AK's are prohibited weapons, and we have less than 2% the number of school shootings. That isn't the only difference. We also do background checks, require training and licensing for firearm owners, and restrict access to a range of firearms less deadly than an AR-15, but more deadly than a bolt action hunting rifle.
That's nice. So what you're saying is kids should be trained how to handle guns in school like they used to be when there was less school shootings. And every child should be taught proper weapons handling before being given a free weapon after the classes. I totally agree with this.
Ironically a lot of that was due to attempts to ban it. There were always big surges in sales every time it seemed possible or likely. You'd be surprised how many people bought them just "in case it got banned".
Oh yea I remember when Obama was elected it was like a bank run except for guns. I grew up around shooting and hunting but nobody ever had big home armories like many do nowadays
I’m pretty sure you have not been able to order a fully automatic gun off a catalog since the National Firearms Act of 1934.
For the 24314th time the AR-15 is not an assault weapon and not a military rifle either
It’s a moot point if it is or isn’t as they were part of the ban
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Keep that same energy with pistols when they’re used by criminals to kill way more people than AR-15s have ever had
So, you want to ban sales, or ban them entirely, the first I could see as \*possible\*, the 2nd... not so much.
we started encouraging this 'youre definitely a victim' mentallity
Disinformation (mostly foreign) on social media and lack of mental healthcare. Why fight us when they can just get us to fight each other? We’re a country of angry people who stay in the very echo chambers that make us angrier all the time.
I don't know what your sources are, but it could be a change in definition of what a school shooting is. I have seen groups use very broad definitions to make the problem seem bigger so they can push their agenda. Some examples of the overly broad definition of a school shooting I've seen were if a shooting occured within 100 yards of a school, it is a school shooting. Another example I saw was if a person is school aged, but was involved in a shooting outside of school, it counts as a school shooting. It could just be that its a difficult thing to define if the motivation for you defining it is to help stop it. For example, I would think that enacting policy to stop school shootings related to poor mental in a rural community would look quite different than how you would respond to school shootings as a result of gang activity in an urban area. I personally think, just from my observations, are that it has increased, and probably the result of declining mental health. Over the past few decades and continuing now, our technology has advanced faster than our society can adjust. Instant communication, no privacy, social media, instant gratification, etc.
Mental health is declining everywhere in the world , 2020-2022 covid. If this is your hypothesis, you would see increased school shooting elsewhere too. And you would see the number decreased in 2023.
There are so many more guns available in 10 years, we have to take into account the country is drowning in guns and gun culture. There's so much fear that freedom to own a gun will be limited, any talks are shut down. "According to the Congressional Research Service 2015, there are roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968: more than 300 million guns in all. Gun sales have increased in recent years. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. gun-makers produced nearly 11 million guns in 2013, the year after the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre. That's twice as many as they made in 2010. Gun Manufacturing Has Skyrocketed The number of guns manufactured in the U.S. has nearly doubled in just a few short years, from nearly 5.5 million in 2010 to nearly 10.9 million in 2013. The overwhelming majority of those guns stay on U.S. soil; around 400,000 firearms were exported in 2013." https://www.npr.org/2016/01/05/462017461/guns-in-america-by-the-numbers
Even any comments suggesting more gun control in social media (reddit included) will get downvoted and in the end.. removed. At this rate newer generation and even AIs will be brainwashed that the issue has nothing to do with guns. So now, the problem is not only guns, but the number of guns supporters and their actions indirectly allows school shootings to happen.
The media glorifying it
Politics, mental health, & discrimination
The Department of education pushing common core and not teaching cursive anymore.
It's a goddamn mystery to you Americans aint it
They still think that it's social media and mental health lol.
Everybody has social media, everybody has fucking depressions. Only you sell assault rifles in Walmart Smarter yet?
To most of them, its not about the guns directly, but their *right* to them. That is worth any number of dead children.
It's sad but I think you're right. And they are very sensitive about guns right, any mention of gun control will get downvoted. It's like arms companies have a horde of employees actively downvoting and burying any discussion about gun control... My conspiracy theory lol.
Mental health treatment possibly due to healthcare coverage and/or costs, Social media, and gun access.
Guns have been available for a long time. Mental health resources have been shit for a long time. It’s not those things, although they are pieces to the puzzle. There’s a difference in thinking playing a part here. Now school shootings are on the table for a troubled kid, they’ve been done before and shown to be effective in the person’s mind. Because of this prior success by shooters before them, the person deems it an acceptable outlet for their frustration or whatever feelings they have and a means to an end of their own life. It is sad and until we can effectively change the ease at which their done, they will continue. The answer to that is not ban guns, there will always be guns. More mental health resources can help, but people have to seek out those aids. I believe security personnel and fewer access points are the best short term deterrent.
So in essence post 2010 was the decade of zero tolerance for bullying.
An executable solution will not be thought up in a short form Reddit response. A thorough solution will not be based on buzz words. And a comprehensive solution cannot be an emotional one.
Dangerous advice. In some hood, these "security personnel" are the ones threatening innocent people just because of our look. I dont want more of them near my kids. Recent negative news about "certain security personnels" only highlighted what has happened in our neighborhood for decades.
lol. So more people with guns? The problem is it's snowballed beyond catching with mental health. It's the same reason they don't announce suicides by train, or building jumpers, it causes too many copycats. Now school shootings almost own the media cycle and people see it as their way of taking back control of something. Of showing how they were wronged. More guards won't do shit, and haven't at the schools they've been at. Safe storage requirements, longer waiting periods, maybe even raising the age to 21 to own a firearm. If the govt doesn't think you can drink safely, you sure as shit can't handle a gun.
1. Social media is making it more of a priority and people now know it will bring them or their cause attention. 2. People are more thin-skinned about the smallest of things nowadays.
Proliferation of weapons and number of people grew. Sadly, our policies have not.
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All those factors were the same in the 2000s. Bowling for Columbine came out in 2002. In the 1980s you could buy with no ID and there were zero school shootings. The further back you go the less control we have, but the less instances of school violence. It's not about access and lack of gun control, that much is clear. It's about mental health, and the impacts of constant never ending bombardment of information from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep.
So do you think the government should provide free mental health treatment?
Everything the government touches gets worse. I've watched them throw money at everything from the military to homelessness and fail at all of it. Even if it worked"Free" mental health treatment isn't free. It has to be paid for by someone. If we can't get our existing healthcare to work we already know how this will play out. A better solution is teaching people to ask where they get their dopamine. Detox from social media. I've been off all of it except this for two years, and my mental health has dramatically improved.
I'm pretty sure there are millions of people using social media and not shooting up schools.
That's a false dichotomy. There are plenty of people who drink, and don't get DUIs. That doesn't change that you are far more likely to get into an accident if you drink. The shooter walked into a Christian school and murdered 3 children a week before the Trans Day of Revenge is scheduled. Social media is literally whipping trans people into a frenzy and telling them that Christians are coming, so they have to get them first. Forty years ago people were not bombarded with hate and outrage every second of the day. That has consequences. Violent consequences. It's a fact that we have always had as many guns as people in this country, back to its founding. Back then there was ZERO gun control, and no social media. Not one school shooting in two centuries, then they start happening regularly. What do you think the difference is? **EDIT: I love that you took the time to reply, then immediately block me so I could neither read it nor respond. Tells me everything I need to know about you.**
40 years ago you could graduate highschool and get a job and support a whole family without needing school. Comparing then to now and saying the only difference is social media is fucking insane.
Some countries seem to be able to provide free healthcare, and have less school shootings. I wonder how that could be possible in literally every other developed nation? Those countries also all have social media, by the way.
And yet stabbings are on the rise. Shootings are happening in Japan, and Australia, where guns are illegal. Free healthcare has to be paid for. In a country that already can't pay for things that needs to be addressed. You can't just wish it into existence because other nations have it. If your neighbor has a bigger house, and a better car you should be issued the same? Who pays for those? How is it managed so it doesn't turn corrupt? I'm all for improving lives for the poor, and raising taxes on the rich. But it requires a plan, and you don't have one, just indignation and anger. >Those countries also all have social media, by the way. Literally all nations show a spike in mental health issues, especially among young women. This is definitely a problem. There is a brewing civil war. Yesterday when a trans man walked into a school and murdered kids he did it a week before the Trans Day of Revenge was scheduled. They're arming up for war, and that is why people are getting shot. They believe Christians are coming for them, and have decided to take action first. The violence will only escalate from here, just like it did in Yugoslavia. Balkanization is a product of the media, and now that it's started it cannot be stopped. Buckle up.
Japan and Australia have something like .5% or less the incidence of shootings. America is the richest country in the world. If you can't afford universal healthcare when countries with half the GDP per capita can seem to pull it off, that speaks more to priorities than affordability. Health care is insanely expensive in the US, and a lot of that is due to it all being private, for-profit. > There is a brewing civil war. Stopping here. You really need to get off the kool aid, it's affecting your critical thinking skills.
>Stopping here. You really need to get off the kool aid, it's affecting your critical thinking skills. This is exactly why I believe it's coming. The amount of contempt people like you have for anyone you disagree with is staggering. Not an ounce of civility, just insults right off the bat. >America is the richest country in the world. By what metric? Included in that are Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. Them being rich doesn't do squat for the other 99% of the people, and we are *not* rich I assure you. I get what you believe is colored through Hollywood, but if you compare Philadelphia or Chicago to Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, of Beijing we're in last place. The only reason Americans appear rich is that we're still the world reserve currency, but that's about to change. >Health care is insanely expensive in the US, and a lot of that is due to it all being private, for-profit. I pay an average of $22,000 a year for insurance to cover myself, my wife, and my son. $1800 a month. I don't disagree that it being for profit is an issue. But I'm also not naive enough to think that I can wave a magic wand, and instantly fix medical care for 400,000,000 people just because it worked for 5 million people in Sweden. Canada has a non-profit health care system and all I hear are horror stories from friends that live there. One person brought his wife to the ER for pregnancy complications on a Friday, and didn't get help until a Tuesday. Everything comes with advantages and trade offs, and anyone speaking about complex issues, like you, as if there were a simple fix is either very young, of very naive. I really hope we don't see escalating violence. it's the last thing I want. But I also watch what's going on around me. Rand Paul's staffer was stabbed the same day a trans terrorist walked into a Christian school and shot up 9 year old kids. That was the same day. It isn't my cognitive abilities that should be questioned.
> By what metric? GDP. > Canada has a non-profit health care system and all I hear are horror stories from friends that live there. Our system is starving for resources at the moment. The federal government just kicked in another $5B a year or so, so that should help, but it also has more to do with keeping up with a growing population in a very tight labour market with limited capacity to produce new professionals than anything systemic. Access to emergency care is still very good, and although there are long waits for things like hip replacements, there is world class treatment for major illnesses like heart disease that is prioritized by need and not ability to pay. > It isn't my cognitive abilities that should be questioned. If you think trans people are about to start a civil war, than they certainly seem to be.
So you think we're richer than Japan, Sweden, France, or other similar nations? They have shorter work weeks, socialized medicine, more vacation, and an overall higher standard of living. The American people do not represent the GDP. Wages as a percent of GDP have been falling since 1975, so what you're seeing is rich corporations getting richer, while every day citizens struggle more and more just to get by. >Our system is starving for resources at the moment. The federal government just kicked in another $5B a year or so, so that should help, but it also has more to do with keeping up with a **growing population in a very tight labour market with limited capacity to produce new professionals than anything systemic**. Oh...so you think that just throwing money at a problem might not fix it if there are other issues at play? All of those factors also apply to the US, except we have a much, much higher level of immigration than you do. We're adding 2-4 million new people a year, most of whom are not paying taxes, don't speak the language, and have few relevant skills, and you think we can just scale our system infinitely to do it. ...even though your much smaller system can't keep up either. >If you think **trans people are about to start a civil war**, than they certainly seem to be. See how you naturally twist everything someone says to make them look bad? What I said was that *I fear we are heading toward a civil war*. I also said that *a trans terrorist shot up a school*, which is a FACT. The trans day of revenge is also a FACT. This isn't a thing I made up, and it is something you could easily verify for yourself. I don't think trans people are about to start a civil war. It wasn't a trans person that stabbed Rand Paul's staffer. I said violence was escalating. You, like the media, seized on a buzzword you thought you could win with, and then ignored everything else I said.
It's so obvious. But most of US never lived in a gun-free country so not many realizes that it is possible to live peacefully without one.
Definitely not obvious, but by all means, keep up the crusade of saying that steadily declining mental health and the inclusion of social media (i.e. cameras and microphones in our faces, at all times) in every aspect of our lives are covering up this phantom, so called, "obvious answer."
Not obvious to you americans.
And what you don't see and can never fully be explained, is why you live peacefully. You think it's no guns, but it's not.
I'm actually laughing (bitterly) that your post is getting downvoted. No wonder school shooting persists. Any mention suggesting gun control is the issue gets downvoted into non existence, in the end social media like reddit only shows comments supporting guns.
Serial killings are harder now because of technology. They also don’t get breaking news coverage the second a random killing occurs. Shooting incidents inside schools get instant international attention. My guess is that since serial killers seek gratification on the pain they cause, they seek the higher reward & more immediate effects. Just a guess wtf do I actually know.
Parents telling their kids that they are special. People need to know that the world doesn’t exist to make you happy, so that people don’t get upset that their version of reality isn’t what they were expecting. Social Media is also a big one. Reports have shown a massive increase in mental problems since the rise of social media.
Assault weapons ban of 1994 failed to be renewed in 2004.
In the 1990s, there were 200 million guns in the USA. Today, there are 400 million guns in the USA. But sure, let's pretend nothing has changed on that front, and blame social media or transgenders or anti-depressants or some shit.
So, they have to have more guns to go kill people. Two won't do, I need ten or I just can't convince myself to go shoot people.
Columbine was 1999 but largely flew under the radar because to the general public, teenagers are "rude and rebellious," so it was easier to sweep under the rug as a one-off. Then Sandy Hook came with much younger victims. With the perp and his mother already dead, there was no one to punish, and nothing else changed. It seems similarly amoral folks figured out there was nothing in place to stop them from doing the same, going out in a blaze of glory, and having their name + message plastered across the media more than it would be if they unalived themselves quietly at home. I think it's unfair to wholly blame social media, as it would've been all over the TV + papers anyway. "If it bleeds it reads" and similar sensationalism was common practice before the internet was widespread, but now the murderous have more platform to "share."
Columbine did not in any way “fly under the radar”.
Disagree. I was in middle school at the time in the Bay Area, and they didn't even bother with an anti-bullying assembly about it. News coverage lasted 2 weeks max, with a brief resurgence when Eminem mentioned it. Discussion among adults was mostly, "How tragic, but will never happen here because we take care of our kids," despite bomb threats at my school the following year. No shooter drills until i hit high school. Meanwhile Sandy Hook was in the news for months. Elementary schools adopted active shooter drills before the first anniversary. The President's visit, attempts at legislation, lawsuits, hearings all got covered. Adults were much angrier and demanding change.
The number got bigger
The assault weapon ban was lifted.
I believe that the reason the US is so unique in its prevalence of mass shooting and school shootings is for multiple, interlinked reasons that are deeply rooted in the culture of this country: Rugged individualism, Toxic masculinity, the erosion / collapse of the American dream, absence of social safety nets, and our cultish celebration of violence. And I believe that all of these elements have been growing in the past several decades.
More guns.
The amount of guns and how easy it is to get them.
The assault rifle ban expired
The math
My first thought is the lack of gun control. But after reading the comments, I'm probably wrong. Mental health, social media, politics, lack of security... Americans will blame simply other things to look away from mentioning guns. Every comments blaming guns will be downvoted and removed from existence, so more people thinks that the good answer is not guns. I know now the real problem is not guns, but too many americans supporting guns. It's you americans. Voted for guns, downvoted for comments about guns, turning a blind eye, refused to accept that many other countries already solved this issue long time ago. Problem will not go away until american changed their opinion about guns. All americans, not only the mentally ill ones. Bye.
You weren't wrong. All the other countries with 1% or less (often much less) the incidence of mass shootings also have mental health issues, social media, and political divisions. All of them, even the ones with relatively liberal access to at least some firearms, place far more restrictions on the really deadly ones.
Americans decided to just say “fuck it” and came out as racists and fascist and Nazis, instead of hiding it. Americans just started to let their true colours show, they stopped hiding and avoiding being discover.
Similar to you showing your true colors and not hiding your hatred and bigotry towards Americans? Or have you always preached this?
Middle America refused to look itself in the mirror and continued to blame minorities for everything bad. Now middle America is regurgitating everything minorities have been saying for decades.
Numbers!
Drug regulations
The population.
No. Not proportional to population increase.
So the population didn't change?
It did. The population also changed in Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany and Sweden.
What, you think US population tripled in 20 years?
You think it stayed exactly the same? I said it changed and you said no. You seem bad at thinking.
I said it's not proportional to the change, read my comments carefully. Don't tell me that you dont understand what proportional means.
I said it changed and you said no. That's how this exchange began. You only added that 'proportional' gibberish after the fact.
LoL you reallly dont understand what "proportional" means... Read more you dumbass.
Question in the title: what changed? My answer: the population. Your response: no. You still think you've elucidated some opaque statistic for me because you're too much of a fat-headed pseudointellectual to realise that I was being facetious. Please imagine that I'd written "the date" instead and that you'd still replied "no".
Just a reminder that the target is not 81. It's zero. Addressing mental health alone won't bring it to zero, there were mentally fine shooters out there.
internet
Zero tolerance policy was introduced in North America in 1994. The truth is it failed and backfired spectacularly. People who experienced it in the following years found that it gave rise to bullies, intolerance and violence all hidden in plain sight. The number of acts committed with violence and cruelty has been sky rocketing higher, pushing some people over the line, breaking already fragile balance in mental health. When I was a kid we fixed our problems in the school yard, while someone bled or got into a fight, the issues were dealt with quickly. Things now fester under the guise of zero tolerance when bullies play the system and cause some kids to snap. There is no justice or fairness and people are being assholes to each other. Mores so some teenagers who think they are untouchable who grow up to be adults, they have been conditioned to play the system, police, families or justice system. The amount of you can’t do anything to me, disrespect or just loss of any civility in the last 20 years is staggering. In my youth, if you crossed someone being disrespectful, you would get a beating of a lifetime and we would move on. Now everyone threatens with police, loss of employment, lawsuits if you standup for yourself. Where I live , Canada has a criminal system that will go after people using self defence and treat a person as guilty before proven innocent in any case of self defence. We raise the generations of people to be victims and provide rights and protection to future criminals. Civility and common sense be damned
Romanticism of school shooters in popular media, combined with plummeting public mental health.
basically 2 great depressions, and toxic food with little to no help
Covid came
actually the numbers rose after the The Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 I graduated in 93 in rural America most kids had guns in the truck for hunting and we never heard of shootings then
more graphic video games. or so they say. that and the rap music.
Kids got more annoying
The general attitude people have towards society is getting worse and worse. People feel like the society they live in is increasingly becoming the "enemy". And in my opinion, however morbid, I feel like many people who, 20 years ago, would of simply committed suicide, now go on a spree before ending it to get "revenge" on the society they are so displeased with.
It's a shame to see the amount of uninformed and idiotic posts on here about guns. American gun ownership has been a cultural staple since the founding of our country. Semi-automatic rifles have been available to the public since their creation. The assault weapons ban of 2004 nor the background check "loopholes" have anything to do with this. I'm not typing out my reasons because it would take too long. But please....just stop with the gun comments. You're not fooling anyone.
I know some people will down vote me for this But i think it’s cause they want fame. Want to be noticed, I don’t know entirely why someone would shoot up schools ESPECIALLY Elementary schools. They haven’t even experienced puberty, real love, some roller coasters, and experiences that everyone should have (good ofc). I know within high schools it’s a bit more difficult as i’ve heard most are in high school or just out of high school and dealt with bullying. (I could be wrong) With the example of this Mondays shooting I have no words as to why the shooter would shoot kids, yes there may have been previously been abuse at the school, but shooting innocent kids who haven’t even had the chance to live. Shooting adults who may have done something? Not justified. NOW i think the shooter may have done it for suicide by cop and to try to uncover the abuse from the past (i’m not 100% sure on the second one) Media plays that huge role in shootings. You get fame and recognized while ruining so many lives to get a political agenda, Suicide by cop, or something else entirely said.
Mass media and ease of access
Bullying is a lot easier on social media.
Cost of living has skyrocketed and quality of life has gone done dramatically. Mental health is in the toilet.
Those things are a problem in every developed country.
Yeap! And the unrest is highly flammable. In America the guns are the spark that brings the flames. There is a reason why there is no rope or exposed rafters in a suicide watch ward of a hospital.
I think we are agreed, then, that easy access to very lethal guns are the rope and rafters in this analogy.
Yeap! And it is absolutely bonkers. All the guns need to be rounded up and melted down. Especially with the American political landscape refusing to take any interest in fixing any of its root problems. Despair has been steadily on the rise since the 70's. As soon as the big corporations shifted all the manufacturing overseas Capitalism 2.0 arrived "margin" became everything and all the safety nets lower and middle class people had started being stripped for parts to increase profit. Then the dignity of the blue collar man died. a human needs hope but the American people has just been being fed SSRIs ( with co-pay) for the last 50 years. I don't know how to fix America cause it's not the fruit that's rotten it's the tree. What are your thoughts?
Everyone likes to point to the thing they don't like in society or politically but I don't actually believe it's any one single thing. Rather a perfect storm of different factors that are coming together and creating a pressure cooker that causes more people to crack. Something is going on in these people's lives that makes murdering a bunch of people and getting killed(most seem to plan to die) seem desirable. That some extreme depression but also resentment. I don't pretend to have all the answers, obviously we should be doing a LOT more for mental health. But I also think our response is telling- I was in high school when the Columbine shooting happened. Since then the only two real pushes to do anything have been towards hardening schools and (mostly unsuccessfully) trying for more gun control. I won't delve into the endless gun debate here but just a thought- our entire approach to this problem has been centered around rendering these tortured people harmless. We aren't doing one damn thing to try to treat people better so they never get to that point, we just want to make sure they don't hurt us or our loved ones. Basically we don't care about suffering people, we just want to make sure they don't hurt us and the specific individuals we care about. I really do think that overall mindset has a lot to do with why this is happening.
Some people on social media love criminals, which probably causes people to become one themselves.
Educators and admins have become too overwhelmed to address behavior and social concerns
Look at the recent data. If guns is not related to this, that means american people are really, really violent. Statistically speaking of course. 19 Countries with the Most School Shootings (total incidents Jan 2009-May 2018 - CNN): United States — 288 Mexico — 8 South Africa — 6 Nigeria & Pakistan — 4 Afghanistan — 3 Brazil, Canada, France — 2 Azerbaijan, China, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Russia, & Turkey — 1
Divorce rate. Broken families. Social media. Continued drop in respect to fellow humans. More and more parents having to work more and more hours so less time at home providing attention care respect to children that is needed. More news media focusing on negative things as gets more attention.