Dillogic wrote:
J-Greens wrote:
Why the gun?
Good question.
There's been a lot of melee weapon massacres in Asian countries, where firearms aren't prevalent (they do have high amounts of killed in each massacre to show that they can be very dangerous).
Some of the worst massacres have involved explosives (a dedicated person can make such no matter how illegal), and fire (matches and flammables from the grocery store).
But, many, almost most, really, utilize firearms; not just the modern "assault weapons", but way back with Charles Whitman and his deer bolt gun and the latest in the UK (this shows that blaming certain types of weapons can be a sign of ignorance -- lead is lead, and if you can get out one round a second, the bodies pile up).
Firearms availability leading to an individual using such because it's more likely there for them? Whilst you can obtain a firearm anywhere (as long as the government has them, but legally, firearms aren't banned in almost all countries), but if half of all houses have one, then they're easier to obtain.
Would most of these people then perhaps be of a poorly functioning ability (easiest weapon to obtain is the weapon used), so they can't plan out a larger massacre, such as what we deem as "terrorists"?
Would these people perhaps be influenced by the "gun culture" -- I don't mean shooters (good people) who play on the weekend and talk about it to others interested in the same, but the "gun culture" as seen in movies and other media?
I'm not naive enough to say the firearm is the cause (if the firearm wasn't invented, replace it with another weapon), of course, but it is interesting that they more often than not choose them.
Luckily, it's far too rare to really worry about, other than for those interested in the psychological profiling of criminals.
I think there are several factors: a culture of violence centered around the gun as the favored weapon of choice from early childhood, a highly efficient portable killing machine, easy access, easy availability, anger and the ability to see others suffer in real time that are the target of that anger and/or revenge, and the control the weapon provides in ending the person's life that is controlling the crime. These factors all fit the profile of the rampage killings that have been studied in the last century beyond those that involve domestic disputes, robbery, and gang related violence.
Although these crimes are indeed relatively rare as violent crimes goes, and one of the last things in life statistically worth worrying about in the real world. The real world now includes TV and the internet, and the brain when exposed to the repeated emotions of these media reported events is impacted similarly as it would be if it occurred in one's own community or school. But, most people can get desensitized to almost anything in life, as habituation to uncomfortable stimuli is something humans are well evolved for. Children murdered for random reasons in large numbers is perhaps one of the hardest things for humans to get desensitized to, because it is an ultimate taboo for survival of the species, on an instinctual level.
As long as I have been living in the US the one factor that I have seen that has "fired up" the US gun culture more than any other factor was the election of Obama. There was a dark storm brewing at the beginning of his election for these type of events to increase as time went on in his first term, and now there is a cumulative effect of that storm as the events have come to pass and the gun culture continues to get more "fired up" now that the fears of gun control are growing stronger everyday in the US. A mass school shooting of elementary school was an ultimate stimulus for this dark storm of factors to grow more intense, as some type of action of gun control is now inevitable. There is a social contagion associated with this type of phenomenon that humans are vulnerable to that cannot be easily dismissed.
I've pondered why these rampage killings and serial killings dropped so suddenly after the year 2000, in the first part of that decade, and I think about the nation's focus on an outside enemy and 9/11 that was pretty strong for several years.
That focus of social contagion on an enemy outside of the borders is effectively gone in the national psyche and an enemy inside the border has become guns, guns, and more guns, and the fear of less guns, guns, and guns.
For some Obama is an ultimate icon of anger and fear, "firing up" the US gun culture, as no other icon could likely do at this point in history, other than a terrifying school shooting of elementary children to "fire up" the protective human instinct for survival of the species. It seems part of a larger ultimate human struggle of the warrior instinct vs. the nurturing instinct of the village for survival, with guns as the perceived icon of protection and prize for some and the perceived icon as villain and harm for others.
It should be no wonder guns continues to be the weapon of choice for rampage killings, and those rampage killings will likely continue to increase still relatively rare per violent crimes but ever present in the national psyche, along with guns and control of both. I'm not sure anything could slow it, substantially, other than a renewed national social contagion for a common enemy outside of the borders that obviously would likely come from an even darker force of storm brewing.
27 Jan 2013, 7:44 pm
