I would agree I just don't know what the source is

It's obviously something cultural where a certain portion of mostly young white men want to have their Columbine moment. But what do we as a society do to stop that beyond banning guns?

I mean banning guns would be the most effective approach, but two things that come to mind are mental health discussions less tabboo (on our way but still far off) and improving community connectedness to put a damper on antisocial behaviour and isolation. I also think that wealth inequality and a corrupt and unsustainable government are both making the future seem bleak for a lot of young people who aren't born into the 1%. Contest the validity of that all you want, but perception is real. A revolution seems like the only answer to that though.

Circling back to my point about the coverage of the Columbine shooters creating copycats (called the contagion effect by Malcolm Hackwell to push the convo away from guns), I think that that precedent of obsessing over their motives and lives was set by the Unabomber manifesto (even though he's a hero and a genius).

Iran-backed militia Hashed al-Shaabi breach US Embassy in Baghdad, Trump says Iran will be held 'fully responsible'

Countries are being held accountable for the actions of the groups that they're arming now? We're pretty ****ed if that precedent is set. We even have oil, it's over.

I agree the future seems bleak for a lot of people... And I agree wealth inequality causes problems.. but the demo that the shooters come from is largely privileged middle and upper class white guys... I feel like the Columbine copycat thing is real too.. some people might use it dishonestly to deflect from the gun issue but I'm not doing that. I agree guns should be banned.

But we had the guns to pull off these shootings for a long time before Columbine. I can't help but think the notoriety and infamy that comes along with being a shooter isn't one of the main motivating factors.

War with Iran right before the election is so ****ing predictable.

Democracy!

We have a middle class? I thought that was just a marketing campaign.

It's one of them for sure but the whole "we always had guns" argument doesn't really mean much imo. Guns were never a beneficial addition to society and delivered a rotating set of problems, but it took the perfect storm of several factors on top of it to create a mass shooting trend.

that's a very middle class thing to say



I wasn't defending guns just saying we had the capacity for this sort of thing to happen for a long time. It just wasn't a relavent cultural trend.

Ja I was speaking generally. I don't disagree with the fact that Columbine introducing the idea led to the copycats, but it came with a number of other cultural trends that don't exactly give the past the same capacity for shootings.

Do you think the media should quit giving us all the details of every shooting and their motive/backstory?

It wouldn't be as much of an issue without a 24 hour news cycle I think, but I think that reporting on the details without releasing information about the killer could curb the issue slightly. Kind of too late for that now though.