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People like to get angry and get attention by doing something dramatic like hurting others. I think anger has been glorified too much by the media, people getting their "just desserts" and whatnot for ignoring that person.
My theory on the school shooting is that disturbed teens follow the Columbine template. They are being neither clever or smart. They simply follow the known template. The reason? An hour of feeling feared and powerful perhaps. A desire for vengeance maybe. A striking out because of an unhappy life, or hope for notoriety.
There are so many guns out there, what do we really expect these days?
Obviously you aren't familiar with what you are talking about.
The Arlington TX shooting was not a Columbine-style premeditated crime. The shooter's family describes is as a case of black-on-black self defense where the shooter is the victim, picked on by thugs because of his nice clothes and fancy car.
Today’s newspaper featured a heart rending story of an 18-year-old boy in Texas who shot and wounded three students, one of them critically (link), and one of whom declined medical attention. Of course, is very hard to interview these people because once they are arrested, they cannot really talk freely. Still, I would love to ask so these people why do you think using moral force in a schoolyard dispute is worthwhile.
In another story, a 29-year-old women cover for no good reason, attempted to push another woman how to Subway tracks in New York City (link). Again, why?
Are there any serious studies other than agenda-driven tracts about these fairly common, purposeless and tragic situations? Or in lieu of such studies, does anybody hear have any ideas?
These are two completely different situations.
The Arlington TX black-on-black public school shooting was (according to the shooter's family) an act of self defense after a long period of bullying over the shooter's nice clothes and a fancy car. The cell phone video that I've seen does show a kid getting beat up pretty bad by another kid in a classroom. the shooter's family says they reported the bullying to school authorities multiple times.
The NYC subway pusher is a mentally disturbed BIPOC woman who has been arrested multiple times for horrific acts of violence against other random BIPOC women and released each time. The family has been begging the city to force her into treatment but the city can't or won't. I heard a previous victim from July interviewed, saying the disturbed woman was under-charged with a third degree offense and released. That's only 3 months ago and she should have been held in a mental hospital or a prison.
As I said, they are different situations but they are both the result of a systematic dismantling of the structure of society. In what world is it OK for a knock-down, drag-out fight to erupt in a classroom? If this was a class for emotionally disturbed or otherwise problematic kids, why wasn't a husky aid (or two) assigned to the room? Why wasn't the bullying addressed? Why don't black kids applaud other black kids who dress nice and whose families appear successful?
The subway incident is just another in a long list of random attacks committed by mentally ill people in large cities. Why is that behavior tolerated by city authorities? Why is it tolerated by the voters? Why was Andrew Yang, when he ran for mayor earlier this year, excoriated in the press and by other candidates for pointing out the problem with mentally ill people roaming the streets? Why do the elites in New York look the other way, roll up the windows and tell the chauffeur to drive on when confronted with these issues?
Sorry that I don't have any data on the subject. However, I don't believe a lack of data is the problem. The question is what we should do about the problem. When your car engine is smoking you turn off the engine first and then set about about diagnosing and fixing the problem. Right now our society's engine is smoking. We need short term solutions before moving on to the big picture.
Today’s newspaper featured a heart rending story of an 18-year-old boy in Texas who shot and wounded three students, one of them critically (link), and one of whom declined medical attention. Of course, is very hard to interview these people because once they are arrested, they cannot really talk freely. Still, I would love to ask so these people why do you think using moral force in a schoolyard dispute is worthwhile.
In another story, a 29-year-old women cover for no good reason, attempted to push another woman how to Subway tracks in New York City (link). Again, why?
Are there any serious studies other than agenda-driven tracts about these fairly common, purposeless and tragic situations? Or in lieu of such studies, does anybody hear have any ideas?
OP, there's violence in many places besides in urban areas. Why do you think urban violence is different?
I think it is the "normalization" of extreme, pointless violence on TV.
Just look at what's Number One on Netflix---apparently the MOST popular show they've done so far.
"SquidGames"---hour after hour of video-game-like killing but with real actors getting murdered en masse just for a "game". I was really alarmed to see this transition from game characters to real actors----this is a step in the wrong direction.
Violence is in almost every movie but this is a new LOW.
Kids absorb all this and unconsciously imitate it, probably not thinking of the ramifications. Nursing some affront they've experienced, as someone said.
I think this is an interesting point and one that warrants further investigation. But I'd also want to compare how things are here to how they are in other countries where these kinds of shows are also available. Urban South Korea--which is apparently used to shows like Squid Game and even more extreme violence than the US is--doesn't have a huge problem with urban violence. I understand that South Korea also doesn't have a high gun ownership rate, but the same point can be made about other countries with a relative high gun ownership rate to include, Switzerland.
My theory on the school shooting is that disturbed teens follow the Columbine template. They are being neither clever or smart. They simply follow the known template.
I agree with this. I think the Columbine, and Jonesborough shootings which happened about 2 years before, paved the way for a lot of this stuff. Unfortunately, the parents were making excuses for this kid saying "he was bullied", okay A LOT of people were bullied in school. Admittedly, I did my share and received plenty of my own. But, shooting up a school was the last thing my mind.
This ^^, of course, is easy for me to say when I don't know what many of these people are dealing with at home but A LOT of people got abused at home as well and didn't become school shooters.
Op, I wish I had answer to all of this but all I anybody can do is try to give their own children the best guidance they can to make sure they aren't raising they next school shooter or violent urbanite.
i think it is the "normalization" of extreme, pointless violence on tv.
Just look at what's number one on netflix---apparently the most popular show they've done so far.
"squidgames"---hour after hour of video-game-like killing but with real actors getting murdered en masse just for a "game". I was really alarmed to see this transition from game characters to real actors----this is a step in the wrong direction.
Violence is in almost every movie but this is a new low.
Kids absorb all this and unconsciously imitate it, probably not thinking of the ramifications. Nursing some affront they've experienced, as someone said.
If the availability of guns was a primary driver of the gun crime rate, one would expect the same states to appear in both lists at more or less the same order. And yet, only two states (Alaska and Mississippi) appear on both lists. Montana and Wyoming are awash in guns, yet they rank only 33rd and 34th (respectively) on the gun crime list. Idaho and both Dakotas rank even lower.
The fact is, we don't have a gun problem in this country. We have a moral problem.
We have a gun problem. How do I know this? Unaccounted for military guns gone missing in the thousands. Guns in the hands of unhappy, vengeful teens, even when owners know their guns should be locked away. The ability for mentally unstable or criminal people to buy guns without any checks or regulations. The ability of gun owners to own as many guns as they want. The opportunity for almost anyone to own assault weapons, which exist solely to kill people. People kill masses of people continually, gunning them down in schools, shopping malls, supermarkets, newspaper offices.
We have a gun problem. How do I know this? Unaccounted for military guns gone missing in the thousands. Guns in the hands of unhappy, vengeful teens, even when owners know their guns should be locked away. The ability for mentally unstable or criminal people to buy guns without any checks or regulations. The ability of gun owners to own as many guns as they want. The opportunity for almost anyone to own assault weapons, which exist solely to kill people. People kill masses of people continually, gunning them down in schools, shopping malls, supermarkets, newspaper offices.
We have a gun problem.
Bravo! Undisputable!
We also have an entitlement problem. It's not just us--Taliban Sunni Muslims set off one of their suicide bombers today and killed/maimed over a 100 Shiites.
Extremes. Entitlement and extremes. Religious ideals provoke extremes.
We have poor inner city people mowing each other down with drug wars. We have inner city people looting the mag mile in Chicago because they felt entitled to steal.
We have some right wing nut cases that want to control everybody else and dictate what is normal, eschew gays, colored people, religious control freaks who can get an abortion. Again, extremes.
We are no better than Afghanistan. Everybody needs to calm the crap down and mind their own business, be kind and polite, and when able, lend a helping hand to not just their tribe, but anybody they see who needs assistance. Give instead of take.
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