What's the reason for the increase in mass shootings?

[nightdrot]

Did not vote as the options were a bit too vague. Suffice to say that there are a variety of factors at work, not least being that in the recent response to the COVID pandemic, the nation conducted a giant uncontrolled social experiment with itself as guinea pigs. That, combined with a loosening of law enforcement standards and, in a strange way, the society's increasing wealth, has made possible the increase in mass shootings - as well as many other unpleasant phenomena.

To take the last first. The wealth has had an incidental and paradoxical impact of making the means to commit major crimes less expensive. Thigs like body armor and larger guns that once would have been beyond the means of most have - at the margins - become relatively cheaper and easier to obtain. Thus you have the most recent example of the young man in Buffalo, New York who was as well armed as some American soldiers.

There is no such thing as an unmixed blessing. On the whole, a wealthier society is a good thing. However, when you put more money in the hands of society in general. statistically, over time, some of that money will end up in the hands of the criminal and the mentally deranged. Bad things to follow.

The second - the loosening of law enforcement standards - is a somewhat cyclical phenomenon. Coming out of the tumult of two world wars and the Great Depression, the 1950s were a period of relative - it is ALWAYS relative - peace, prosperity and stability.

The society wanted normality and stability. Men wanted to go to jobs where they knew they would come home at night to their families, not be drafted and shot at. Women, who had been in the factories, wanted a traditional home life. All this conduced to a stable society and record low crime levels.

However, starting in the 1960s, the youth who had grown up in this stability came to take it for granted. They found it not liberating, but confining. The youth culture - with its emphasis on "do your own thing," non-conformity and rebellion was born. Respect for law declined. Police came to be routinely called "pigs." The criminal was treated not as a perpetrator, but as a victim of society's injustices. The emphasis was less on punishment and more on reform.

Not surprisingly, crime began to soar such that a 1977 Gallup survey found that 78% women of ALL backgrounds, races, income levels, etc. reported that they did not feel safe walking in their neighborhoods alone at night. Parts of some inner cities looked little better than war zones.

Backlash and crackdown followed starting in the 1980s. It took over 20 years but by the early 2000s crime rates - allowing for population differentials - had fallen to levels not seen since the aforementioned peaceful placid 1950s.

Suffice to say, society began to take safe streets for granted again. The emphasis in the culture shifted again to reform over punishment. The police were again in disrepute. The riots in cities were called "peaceful protests." Yet again, the level of violence in the culture has begun to rise.

Finally, onto this bonfire came COVID. The isolation of people in their homes has cause a spike in mental illness. The culture is emphasizing "self." Courtesy and manners are seen as an encumbrance on one's needs. The level of vitriol in public dialogue has soared - this given further emphasis by new technologies.

Put it all together and you get a perfect form for social splintering and cultural mayhem. Crime - and proportionately with that, mass shootings - to follow. Part of this is cyclical, part may not be fixable. Mass shootings being a symptom - albeit a highly visible - of a larger problem.

[razelove]

There's a study I'll link that finds a good causal link, unemployment and financial distress. Unemployment and inflation have been rising, it would stand to reason that you'll see an increase in mass shootings among other crimes. You only see "successful" mass shootings on the news, not failed ones, for whatever reason, police, rapid evacuation, whatever. They still tried to rack up that kill count on civilians though.

Personally I think another large part of it is popularity, that some people find the idea take root through seeing others being blasted on the news for their "success" while they have nothing notable and have it grow into an obsession. Add on external stress, and they'll try to make that obsession reality.

Study linking unemployment/financial stress to mass shootings
https://docs.iza.org/dp12728.pdf

Mass shootings per year trending upwards, more in line with a feedback loop
https://www.statista.com/statistics/811487/number-of-mass-shootings-in-the-us/

[PinkMichae]

The mainstream media and politicians are responsible in every way by using emotional issues to pray on the people and politicians not funding resources to protect the people. Especially in the cities.

It also doesn't help having an open border where illegal criminals (not saying all immigrants are criminals) have easier access to bring drugs, sex traffic our children with American criminals. This is why we also have record accidental drug overdoses.

Our country is in a really sad and dangerous position. We look so weak right now. And instead of realizing the politicians that are responsible for this, we are easily manipulated by the news and social media to keep us busy fighting each other. Divide and conquer. And sadly we are being conquered.

Now our President has us on a verge of a world War when we are at our weakest. These are scary times and people need to pay closer attention to the manipulation of our government.

[Redhead999]

Obviously the availability of guns is a problem in America but during covid a lot of people suffered with depression and over use of ilegal and pharmaceutical drugs, couldnt get their medication, people developed mental health issues, lonliness, social problems, lost their jobs etc.
Add to the fact that phenomenon that's almost exclusive to America that If a person is unhappy in their life or having mental problems they will seek out to make other pay and gain 5 minutes of infamy based on some warped ideology and commiting a mass shooting.

[Sixgunsound]

Many of them have the markings of strategic hit jobs, based on timing and targets and who gets the most mileage out of the resulting talking points. Mental health is also being treated with drugs more now because it would take a lot of resources and time to actually solve the underlying issues; you can profit from drugs for the patients entire life but from expensive as well as intensive cures only once. The Buffalo NY shooting took out the inventor of a car that runs on water, think of all the rich and powerful people that would piss off if it went public. The country concert shooting was to justify gun part bans, as have several others been. Quite a few were to fan the flames of racial or sexual orientation or religious sectarian hatred, which distracts the public from what government is doing. Why is it so hard to contemplate that we are ruled by bloodthirsty nuclear armed mental toddlers who are willing to sacrifice as many other people as necessary to hang onto their corruption and grift game known as elected politics as possible? They need us fighting each other instead of seeing them for who they really are to keep the con going, that’s why.

[goaded]

An entire political party not just accepting hateful people voting for them, but encouraging people to be hateful so that they will vote for them.

Harking back to the 1950's, when lynchings were commonplace and women had been pushed back into the home, despite having proven themselves capable workers, and only white soldiers were able to benefit from the GI Bill is ridiculous.

Then, there was lead in fuel almost certainly leading to the massive increases in violent crime until the 1990s, especially in cities (New York's murder rate was about 10x higher than it is today). The Republican (and, to an extent, Democrat) myth that being "tough on crime" brought down those numbers is belied by the fact that states and cities that didn't implement "zero tolerance" or "broken window" policing saw similar declines in crime.

However, these same police strategies led to racism in the ranks, because the people most affected by lead in the air were the people who couldn't move out of the cities in the 1950s. The backlash against that came to a head when a white police officer casually murdered a black man in front of multiple cameras. Nearly 10% of the country turned out to protest that injustice. The Republican government did nothing to try to fix the problem, and the president even wanted to have those protesters shot.

Of course, some people would prefer you to believe the pandemic they were completely wrong about and has killed a million Americans is the problem.

[Jabberjaw]

Inaccurate tracking and misappropriation of the term

There is a lot of gun violence but not a lot of "mass shootings"= "shooting that involves 4 or more deaths not including the shooter". That's the FBI standard.

What is often cited are gang violence, robberies gone wrong, domestic shootings where no one or one person actually died. All of this makes up a majority of the gun violence yet they're included in the "mass shooting" criteria by the media.

Mass shootings actually haven't increased. Media mislabeled events as mass shootings has increased.

As for the seemingly increase of Lone Gunman walking the streets and shooting people going up, those types of situations I think is more emblematic of population size (my opinion here).

Per capita the numbers are insignificant

[Oigit]

To me it does come down to political and social strife. Because once we start seeing strife start ratcheting up in one area or both is when people start to crack. It's also part of a self fulfilling cycle. Because when it comes to political and social issues people are quick to say that an issue can be resolved peacefully. Only for people on both sides of a given issue to seek a solution through less then peaceful means.

It's a self fulfilling cycle that has been playing out since the earliest records we have on our history as a species. It's a cycle that plays out in every group through out time. Also when it's not one group using less then peaceful means to fix an issue with another, it's members of a given group fulfilling the cycle within their own group. It all comes back to how humanity can be it's own worst enemy.

[yofuknutz]

You don't have these types of problems with Utah three reasons a homogeneous population , a active religious population that has excellent Family Values 3 Utah teachers are allowed to go armed was just a carry license nobody needs to know that is a whole point of concealment surprise surprise so no surprise that there are no school shootings in that state. other states every moron knows which teachers carry firearm which gives away their surprise advantage and it's teachers that face The Killers while the cops wait outside what they feel like playing hero.

[t-8900]

A&B and a lot of other issues. We shouldn't be glorifying mass shooters. We used to have the Son of Sam laws which prevented it. But the media seems to have stopped following that and glorifies the idiots once again. I'm all about responsible ownership and firearm safety and I love my guns to high heaven. The issue is the propaganda going on between both sides. You can feel the tensions brewing. A looming civil war could very much be a reality in the future. Both sides are done even talking to each other and even the parties are showing the same mentality towards one another now that the people are. When everything goes dead silent, that's when you should be most afraid because that's the calm before the storm.

[boombastik]

I am pretty sure it all ties in with the medication used to treat anxiety (most shooters are on it) and whoever is pulling the strings using what is called voiceover which was patented in '96 and through the use of digital computer technology, they can target someone, well anyone as long as they have their DNA and speak inside their skull and the person will hear it as if it's "voices inside their head" (voice to skull technology i think is what they call it) which if anybody remembers, all these shooters have complained about right before they did it and they were telling them to do it. Then automatically they turn to taking our guns. Funny how these shootings stopped under Trump. They want to take our guns so they can take our freedom but they have to have the people voting for it and what better way to gain compassion through a false flag. It's obvious to me.

[xHoneyxBeex]

I do believe it may have something to do with the pandemic. I work in the mental health field and it's a fact that the rate of mental illness drastically increased during COVID lockdowns and because of that, we could be seeing more incidents like this. I don't believe that everyone who commits mass shootings are mentally ill, some people I think are truly just evil, but I do think it would be interesting to explore the correlation between the rise in mental health issues and mass shootings/other forms of violence in society. In my workplace, we are definitely seeing an increase in suicides and people seeking mental health services/treatment. All in all, I believe the ramifications of COVID and the lockdowns have been much more costly and detrimental to everyone's wellbeing than many of us expected.

[Smoke-n-Growls]

I'm honestly convinced there's some shady social media consultant company working behind the scenes to generate hate and outrage online - like how Facebook influenced elections in smaller countries overseas, but on their home turf.

That said, even on a non-conspiratorial tone, it makes sense. A worldwide pandemic raging for over two years, economic uncertainty, war (s), climate change - there's lots of stressors that at this point are chronic. Humans under chronic stress will suffer mental illness and strain more, and stress can make us do stupid shit.

Lots of people are understandably looking for comfort, and unfortunately that does mean some extreme people are going to take that as "finding enemies to fight". Making an external enemy is easier than confronting an internal demon for most people.

All these disperate things make for a powder keg. Easy access to firearms in the US makes it easy for a mass shooting to occur.

[Alex8736]

From my own experience working in an ER during the peak of COVID-19 is The mental health crisis and lack of facilities and resources available due to Covid and most patients coming in through ambulance would be an astounding 70% on average each night and the other 30% we're due to a car crash, cardiac arrest, etc. Another reason for increasing shootings is the media where for example the buffalo shooter showed all types of mental illness and when sent to an institution he was discharged less than 24 hours later and another example was the NY subway shooter. Between local, State, Federal Law enforcement an act was finally passed on May 12 regarding mental health training and policing. We will see in the near future how this outcome will be especially nearing November elections but I'm not gonna hold my breath

[purplepoppy]

Uncontrolled free speech. Most western countries have free speech but people are generally responsible with it but Americans take it too far. They've moved it from freely sharing opinions and open healthy debate into nothing more than hate campaigns. Where we debate and move on, you lot just seem to be stuck in a never ending cycle of verbal diarrhea.
Over here I might think Boris is a clown but at least I can respect people who voted for him and get on with them even if I don't agree. People aren't shoving their political beliefs down each others throats or calling each other childish names like Republicunt or libtard. There's no political point scoring like in your upcoming abortion ban.
You've created a country where you think anyone different is the enemy and tell each other they must be stopped. If you fill a man with hate then tell him to buy a gun to defend his beliefs what do you expect.

[Finchie40]

Mental illness and how depressed people are today with how things in this country are going , the pandemic and social media etc. We are facing a lot of negative things around us , relationships and marriages are falling apart , people are cheating on each other left and right cost of things is rising , a lot of people are struggling , The government is a joke , me personally thinks it was all rigged honestly , Trump should still be our president but instead we got a moron that hasn’t did one thing for this country since he has been in house , the economy is crashing , so to be happy and content in this world today is getting harder to do because there is so much dumb shit occurring around us , so people are losing their minds and feeling depressed which causes mental illness , So To find positiveness in todays world is hard to come by , all we can do is pray that things start looking up again

[D_Bone_Steak]

I would have to see stats first. I mean what if it just seems like there is more because the media is reporting on them more. Mainstream media is thirsty for ratings. They also have an agenda when it comes to these shootings... All I'm going to say about that, is you will hear a whole lot about it, just as long as the shooter is white, otherwise the reporting will be fleeting if reported at all and they'll try not to mention a particular racial detail.

[MuddyMole]

The numbers are still pretty average for the US (or a warzone) compared to pre-covid. It's just that numbers had been much lower the past few years, so year on year, it's a significant percentage increase.
Obviously covid lockdowns pretty much eliminated mass shootings (you can't have a mass shooting if there are no mass gatherings), and then it's almost a case of out of sight, out of mind - until one does happen, there is a tendency for them to come in bunches.

[alice55]

I would say mental health must have declined during lockdown and people that already had trouble even worse.
Personally lockdown was the best time in my life, not having to go out see people and forcing myself to understand people and how I should act to be normal and not seen as weird.

[DarkWinterNights]

Because they're copycat shooters and the media glorifies them and cements their place in historical infamy for a week. It’s become the most effective way to go from a nobody to a household name. Think back 10 years, can you think of a single shooters name? If you can they were successful.

[Guffrus]

I think prozac was likely the cause of the first shootings but as time has gone on it has adopted as a black op, presumably with the aim of disarming people and I guess there is some element of copycats, because it has happened so much before it has become an established option for people who get into that state of mind.

[Anonymous]

It is a combination of a couple things. One of which if false flag/mk ultra. Think whitmer kidnapping case only they are grooming someone who is likely already crazy to go on a shooting spree or flat out using mk ultra on them. Another is the media portrayal and focus which encourages copy cats and plants seeds in at risk people.

Remember when the fake news told you vegas shooting used a bump stock and that there was only one shooter?https://www.youtube.com/embed/_mXe9dk77bkI am not going to dig it up now but if you can find the police body cam and radio chatter of the night of vegas the entire narrative of one shooter and bump stock falls apart.

[NYCQuestions1976]

It's a myriad of things. It started with the defunding and shutting down of "involuntary" mental health facilities that began in the 1970s in the United States. Just about all of them were gone by the mid 1990s. So it's no surprise that Columbine happened in 1999, and it's gotten progressively worse since then. Now you also have the increasing "allure" of the copycat effect the more it happens, and the addition of social media. Nearly two years of pandemic shutdown didn't help either.

[notwoke]

are you sure they are going up? or just hyped more? If they are going up, my answer is that we now have lots of people who were raised by a single parent that are now single parents themselves, Since they never learned a lot of critical things they have zero chance of teaching them to their kids so their kids are fucked