Despite what we are hearing from reporters, talking heads, pundits and politicians, we don’t have a gun control problem, or even a problem with mental illness. Instead, we have a much deeper problem, a true cultural problem.

Fifty years ago we had guns and people who suffered from mental illness. We had guns in or at schools. We took guns to school because we were probably hunting on the way to school or hunting on the way home after school. We could buy guns and ammunition from the local hardware store, or order it from the Montgomery Ward or Sears & Roebuck catalog. There was one significant cultural difference, however. Whether you were mentally healthy or mentally ill, you were taught that it was wrong to point a gun at a person, even accidentally. And if you did, consequences were immediate. You lost your gun and you probably got your butt kicked. This immediate consequence didn’t just come from your parents, but from any adult around you. It was part of the culture that insisted on cultural norms such as politeness and individual responsibility.

Fifty years later we have a very different cultural norm. Thanks to movies, videos, games and the internet, we are slowly losing the societal politeness and individual accountability. Modern culture celebrates not only the pointing of weapons at others, but we are actually scored on the number of kills we have. Winners are the people who kill the most people. We can insult others with apparent impunity through the anonymity of the internet, without regard to truth or consequences. We glorify violence in virtually all the media sources we encounter, and are then shocked when it lands on our doorstep. While those with normal psyches may be able to deal with this virtual overload of violent stimulation, is it any wonder that those who suffer from mental illness are not able to process this stimulation without more than a small amount of confusion? Everyone wants to ‘belong’, everyone wants success. And success can now be defined as how many ‘kills’ we can score, how many people we can kill, humiliate or destroy.

Until we come to grips with the cultural reversal that glorifies this systemic violence, we will continue to repeat the Columbines, Virginia Techs, and Newport’s that seem to leave us asking why, without truly examining our culture.

Us old guys know what that is about........the younger ones........doubt it.

We treated them back then, Einstein.

The rest of your post is BS. Look at the side of a WWII fighter. We counted kills back then, too.

el defenso resto.......

missed the point

The point is on your dunce cap.

I don't find much fault with a lot of the stuff in your post, Alan...but that start often ends with the "and an armed society is a polite society", and the eventual conclusion that the problem is that we don't have enough guns, and that not having enough guns is the "cultural problem" that needs to be fixed.

What's your solution to the "cultural problem"?

Fish on...

Todd

How many kids had semi-auto with 30 round clips 50 years ago? None.

To say that 50 years ago was some sort of peaceful utopia is complete crap.

JFK
RFK
MLK
Wallace
Lynchings
Watts
DNC
University of Texas
etc, etc, etc

It's not just this country either....Germany, Scotland, Norway. The difference is we make it a lot easier.

How about no or little parental supervision?

think that has changed?

Schools raising kids is far from parents doing it.

credit and debt has both parents working.....chasing utopia? or plain greed?

You want a "no entitlements" kick and claw, sink or swim, society but are surprised when people snap?
We've always had some form of this. Usually it's a father or mother taking out the entire family.

We treated them back then, Einstein.
Committed, not treated, but off the street anyways. We don't do this anymore because we would be infringing on somebodies right to the pursuit of happiness or some [Bleeeeep!].

How many kids had semi-auto with 30 round clips 50 years ago? None.
Doesn't matter how big your clip is, they still didn't go around shooting up kids. All the shootings you listed were Ideological or political, what happened last week had no purpose at all, unless it was the left trying to get gun control back in the big picture(for all you conspiracy theorists)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there is no one cause for any of the problems our society has, it's a combination of issues, and different issues for each different incident. If you blame video games, why not music, maybe they listen to to much LMFAO or RAM. Maybe to much Neil Diamond and they just go off the deep end. Maybe chemicals the gov't puts in outr food. Who knows.

Same video games, movies, and music in Canada and in the UK.

Anyone care to take a stab at comparing gun violence rates?

Blaming music, video games, and movies makes as much sense as solving our gun problem with more guns.

Fish on...

Todd

You saying Charles Whitman had a politcal agenda?
1966: killed his family then went on a shooting rampage at the U of Texas. Sound familiar?

As far as I can tell every generation is convinced things were way better back in the good old days.

"Their manners are more gentle, kind, than of our generation you shall find.”

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Don't know if these were posted before but the pattern is all the same dating back more that a hundred years. The only difference is that weapons are more efficient. We have always lived in a violent society.

"The Bath School disaster is the name given to three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, on May 18, 1927, which killed 38 elementary school children, two teachers, and four other adults; at least 58 people were injured. The perpetrator first killed his wife, and committed suicide with his last explosion. Most of the victims were children in the second to sixth grades (7–14 years of age[1]) attending the Bath Consolidated School. Their deaths constitute the deadliest mass murder in a school in United States history.[2]"

1974 Olean High School shooting
1976 California State University
1976 California State University, Fullerton massacre
1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shootings_in_the_United_States

No, because I was 3 yrs old and don't have all day to look [Bleeeeep!] up to prove a point! what I put on here is an opinion not trying to change the world.

The point is that this is nothing new. There have always been people who snap and go on a rampage unlike your and the above arguments to the contrary.

The human condition. Wonder why the various religions have a
Good God and a Bad God. Jehovah and Satan if you will. There has
to be some explanation for the instances when the Good God is
looking the other way. ergo Satan.
Unfortunately we will alwaays have the psychos. Perchance we will
find a way to see their anti-social potential. But I doubt it.
Hell getting two shrinks to agree on any diagnosis or treatment
scenario is damn near impossible.
Se la guerre.

It might not come across in these posts, probably the way I state things when typing, but I generallly agree with you, sthead. Yes, it seems we have more incidents now, but comparing the ratio of incidents to population density of now to any time in the past, is it really more? Or do we still have the same number of crazies comparablly?

...and we do have much better(maybe) communications now. The
media won't miss a chance to be the first to get it wrong.

I think we've always had crazies, they just have access to better killing toys and we hear about all of them while they're happening now.

Fish on...

Todd