http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015 Two more happened since Roseburg Communitsy College. Such a shame.
I'm stealing this off another video that I won't share since its largely video game related, but there's a reporting aspect to this that isn't touched on enough. Some psychologist said about how the media's incredibly voyeuristic reporting on every minute detail they can possibly scrounge inspires copycat shootings and now there's a couple others within days of reports on Roseburg. I've seen clips of american news coverage of an earlier school shooting and on top of breakdowns on the gun used and a ton of backstory dug up on the killer, they walked you through the shooting step by step and basically gave you a walkthrough on how to shoot up your local school. Not going to bother writing anything decent on gun laws because screw it. Citizens have heard it all before and we'll still be sat here in 5 years time having the exact same discussion with a couple hundred more dead people added to the list because a seemingly large chunk of people are morons when it comes to the 2nd amendment. Easy example: Video of Obama's speech on it where he deals with the "well people die in cars" bollocks. Scrolled down two whole comments to find a well liked one saying "well cars kill people." As I say. Morons. But the news angle is something different to bring up so might as well put it out there.
And here is another angle I wish people would consider more, studying the mental health aspect of this. Listen, I have mentioned them before, but now is a good time to do so again. Point being, as you say, the gun issue won't change, but there are multiple other angles where this can be approached that aren't getting enough attention. This foundation was started by a former instructor and his wife at another location in my school. They moved away and then lost their daughter to a school shooting. Before this even happened, I wondered why more people didn't approach this from this aspect of the issue. I don't just support this because of its connections to my school, I truly think this a good approach. http://www.aviellefoundation.org/
There is a ton of evidence on suicide and reporting, which is why you don't get detailed reports on suicides here. As spree shooting is largely a form of externally destructive suicide, it would make sense that the same effects hold .
I really can't understand what would drive someone to do that. Why they feel the need to mass kill people. Gun laws aren't changing any time soon, but they sure need to be. Are incidents like this only an American thing? I don't seem to recall any mass killings here in the UK. The mental aspect is challenging, how do you know who will do something like this? What makes you think they would even seek mental help?
I think there's been 3 in the UK in my lifetime.Obviously there was the Anders Brevik (sp.)shooting spree in Norway. Apparently Australia used to have one every year until they brought in stricter gun laws. However in the US there's on average a spree shooting every week.
There have been a couple Hungerford (sp?) which essentially initiated most of our current laws and Dunblane would be the most well known. There was an incident in the north a few years ago where a guy drove round with a shotgun if I remember correctly , but the lack of automatic weapons means similar incidents are unlikely.
They've happened, they're just a lot harder to do when you can't by guns when you pop out for milk. The bans in the UK and Australia were in direct response to mass killings. There's been a few other things thrown around as explanations for their prevalence in America: Violent media (mostly bollocks), use of violent rhetoric in politics (have people in sights, targeting X, clear shot at Y etc etc) but its quite hard to come up with a reason that's more convincing than the fact its so easy to get hold of a gun and guns are remarkably good at killing people. On which I would also add a widespread ignorance of real violence. For example just how quickly you can kill a decent number of people with a gun before there can be any response, and how people are unlikely to get involved. The latter is quite important as I'm very used to people saying guns are important because if they had been at X shooting with their CCW they would have stopped it. Completely ignoring the reality of what the average person does in the face of violence. The vast majority of people are too scared to get involved to break up a fist fight yet there's people convinced they'd be the hero if they were chilling out at a movie theatre and someone opened up with a shotgun. The mental health side of this is something I'm torn over. On one hand, it is an issue that undoubtedly needs more funding and more investigating. On the other, it seems to have become the easy thing to palm this off onto. So when these shootings happen people can deflect talk of gun control by saying we need to focus on mental health when its not an either/or. Also ignoring that "do more stuff with mental health" is very vague and making improvements there is going to be a far more involved and drawn out affair than basic improvement to gun control that can bridge the gap while the mental health bit gets improved. And I mean, like Obama said, America is not the only country in the world with mentally ill people. It is the only advanced country in the world (and almost the only country in the world period) where mentally ill people get easy access to firearms and then go killing people. Which to me is another mark next to gun reform needing to be part of the solution and not mental health reform on its own.
Much more than that if you take the linked site at face value , 297 this year to date and apparently we're on day 277 ! that's more than 1 a day.
True. I think it takes mass shootings to mean a case where someone was shooting indiscriminately at people, or shooting at a particular group of people based on religion, skin, or other discriminatory features. The website posts shootings where 4 were injured but nobody died.
Yeah , that's why I added the caveat of taking it at face value , they seem to deem any situation where multiple people were shot at as "mass shootings" I can kind of see where they're coming from , but , can't help feeling there's some sensationalism going on.
I'm not sure that there is any point discussing mass shootings in the USA any more. Let's face it: they aren't really 'news', any more than car bombings in Iraq are. I don't mean to sound insensitive about the victims, but really, this is just what happens in America, and the majority of Americans don't seem to want it to change. So why keep talking about it? If they are happy, leave them be.
It would be interesting to see stats on whether the people do want change, all we really hear from is NRA lobbyists, and politicians in their pocket.
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_rothkopf_how_fear_drives_american_politics?language=en I found this fascinating too. Re the politics of fear. Progress, terrorism and statistics.
It's clear that there a a great many Americans who would like something done about the situation, but they seem to be outnumbered by those who don't. A good number of American MAP members have in the past expressed the view that they would like to see some degree of reform brought in, but just don't see it happening because the whole concept of 'gun control' is such a sensitive one over there. And even though they deplore the killings, in many cases they still believe that the constitutional 'right to bear arms' is so sacrosanct as to outweigh the obvious issues caused by having a heavily armed population. So while we may think that it is crazy to allow practically anyone to own automatic weapons, they see it as a fundamental right. Even as a good thing. I get the impression that for the 'gun lobby', the thought of even tiny changes are seen as being potentially the 'thin end of the wedge', and so they are instinctively opposed to any change whatsoever in the status quo.
