What has changed?
Why are people engaging in this behavior so frequently in just the last two decades or so?
Is it the guns?
I say no, but you know what? There are other nations with fewer guns that do not have this insanity, do they?
Are more people just nuts?
Sure looks that way. In decades gone by this would have cause the world to stop turning for a while. Today people hardly notice..."Oh. Another mass shooting. Oh well."
I have a theory, but will keep it to myself for now.
I know when I went to school, not that long ago (I graduated high school in '87), up until the last couple of years (new principal) all of the boys in Jr. High and High school carried pocket knives, as did some of the girls. Teachers asked to borrow them at times, and gave them back when they finished whatever it was they needed it for. Trucks had gun racks with guns in them, especially during hunting season. We admired and swapped during break time. We had shells too, but we had enough sense to not fire off a round during school.
Nobody ever got shot. Nobody ever got in a knife fight. There were plenty of fist fights, black eyes, and bloody noses--that's all. Things sure have changed.
Chad
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"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Since the begining of man, we've found ways to be at war with one another. Either on a micro level or as nations. Since the begining of this Nation, we've been very violent toward each other. Several cities that are considered "seedy" have lower murder rates today than they did in the 1800's. Kansas City, San Francisco, etc...
As populations grow, and information is more easily shared, it would seem that crime rates go up. Not always the case. In areas that weren't developed until recently, of course they go up. For the bigger cities, the rates sometimes go down while the actual numbers go up.
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While you rest, someone, somewhere, is training. When you meet, you will lose.
i think people are becoming more detached from their basic humanity. the more "connected" we become technologically, we begin to suffer an information and sensory overload. we are exposed to every bad thing that happens in the world, but it's only a theoretical exposure. we see it, and hear it, but cease to comprehend it, at least on a granular level. the only way to absorb all the data is to absorb it intellectually, not emotionally.
i think it isolates us at a basic level. it begins to drive us away from our pack animal instincts. it affects the way we behave, and the way we view our own actions. we are more likely to act purely on our own behalf, without empathy or consideration for those around us.
look at this, or any internet chat forum. people are rude, angry, combative, and often hateful on a level far in excess of the population as a whole. is it that the internet attracts these folks, or that this form of technological communication encourages that kind of disassociative behavior?
i understand, from an historic perspective, humankind's ability to empathize with each other was always, at best, imperfect. nonetheless, this ability has been one of our species' defining and best attributes. it seems, however, that this characteristic is eroding, and may be incompatible with the age we live in.
Taking some of the simply short directives found in the bible and seeing how they "play out" in history is a real maturing experience. God doesn't have to send any punishment down, when flesh feeding is 'attractive" bad things will follow. One of the interesting things about it is they don't say what specifically will happen just what should be done, history fills in the blanks and the fillings are astonishing in number and severity.
The book says:
Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
To answer VC's question. Decades ago nutcases like this guy were locked away in insane asylums. Unfortunately, the political pukes and the shrinks decided that guys lite this one would do just fine out in society.
The perp was a woman hater. He did not have the social skills required to successfully interface with females.
A gunman who killed three women and injured nine others before killing himself at a gym in suburban Pittsburgh wrote on his web page about years of rejection by women, struggles with alcohol, domineering family members and an earlier failed shooting attempt.
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On the site, Sodini listed his date of death as Aug. 4, 2009, and his status as "never married." The page ended with the words "Death Lives!"
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The 4,610-word web page, on a domain registered in Sodini's name, chronicled his nine-month plan to carry out the shooting.
"The biggest problem of all is not having relationships or friends but not being able to achieve and acquire what I desire in those or many other areas," said an entry dated Sunday.
"Everthing [sic] stays the same regardless of the effert [sic] I put in. If I had control over my life, then I would be happier. But for about the past 30 years, I have not."
Apparently, Sodini had planned the attack since at least November and attempted it on Jan. 6 but "chickened out."
Neighbors described Sodini, who worked in a law firm's finance department, as anti-social.
There are nutz every where, I saw on the news the other day where a lady killed her three week old baby and ate her, because the devil to her to, now you got to admit, that's wacky!
Is it the guns?
I say no, but you know what? There are other nations with fewer guns that do not have this insanity, do they?
Are more people just nuts?
Sure looks that way. In decades gone by this would have cause the world to stop turning for a while. Today people hardly notice..."Oh. Another mass shooting. Oh well."
Combine the easy accessibility of guns in this country with the many looneys we have here and you might get the type of scenario that happened here. You are correct when you mention other nations with fewer guns. You have looneys everywhere, but in general they can't get their hands on the type of firepower we can in this country so these type of massacres happen a lot less frequently. Since this will most likely stir a few people the wrong way here, why can't someone tell me where all these people who have CC permits are (and there are a considerable number of them around) when these types of rampages occur? I can understand them not being in schools since schools ban guns, but many of the shootings occur in other places as well yet I never hear of any of these CC permit holders coming to the rescue of anyone other than themselves on very rare occasions and in a much less serious scenario. I highly doubt any of these modern day cowboys have the guts to stand up to anyone with their weapons they love so much and think they need to have in their possession at all times. They simply talk a good story, that's about it.
We sell guns to pretty much anyone who wants one with absolutely NO training required. We will continue to hear about these type of stories again and again.
#1) I think boysda's answer is the best on this thread.
#2) It has become almost predictable who is going to dismiss these shootings as nothing new, who's going to blame the guns, etc. We need some new material to stir the pot around here.
#3) There are plenty of mass shootings that occur in America, for sure. But the fact is that they're occurring elsewhere in the world and our domestic news media spends far less time dwelling on them, so we're kinda hidden from that fact. For instance, in the 2.5 years since the VaTech massacre, there have been five shootings that killed multiple victims on some sort of school campus. Two of them happened in the U.S. Three of them happened abroad. We don't hear the stories of a boy killing 15 and wounding 17 more in Germany (March 2009) or of a man killing nine in Finland (September 2008).
Also, it's easy to say that other countries have fewer guns and fewer gun-related deaths, but that's a simple comparison. If you trace the statistics back, those same countries had homicide rates far lower than ours even before they adopted tough gun laws. So who knows what makes Americans so prone to violence, but it would appear that there is another factor at play besides guns.
And, Steve, before you start asserting that CCW laws don't help in situations like this, do a little research. There are a number of incidents where someone with a CCW permit stopped a shooter and probably prevented more accidents from happening.
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Politics, it seems to me, all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong. ~Richard Armour
Health Club Shooting near Pittsburgh
