In America why were there far less shootings in the past when my Grandparents were growing up?

Question

They still had the same gun laws back then.

But people weren’t as fcked up in the head.

So because people are now more fcked up in the head nowadays we have to change our existing gun laws to account for this.

But what’s the route cause of the issue?

Is it perhaps the breakdown in family? Rising divorce rates? Crappy parenting? Kids becoming obsessed with social media? The decline in church attendance and rise of secularism?

This sudden change in the past 20 years towards violence seems to be saying more about people than guns. Since guns themselves have always been part of the picture.

razelove · Accepted Answer

Actually there were less gun laws, with less enforcement of the existing ones. Finances seem to be the main motivation. Most of our current gun laws for silencers and machine guns went on the book after the double whammy of prohibition and the great depression. Crime paid, criminals had easy access to machine guns with manufacturers having no need to provide information on weapons manufactured except to the military.

First law on the books was to have an inventory of weapons produced for sale. Another reason is that crimes were easier to get away with. There's so much technology that most people use on a daily basis today that a murder is more easily recognized just because of how quickly a person being missing and the timeline of that can be established.

Still and all, if jobs and prosperity are choices that can be made, overwhelmingly people will choose them. If poverty and helplessness is on the table, crime is a way to change your destiny, burn bright and short. Look at general crime trends and read about attitudes towards police and imprisonment. 1950's seemed like a golden age because getting beat, shot, lynched, or imprisoned with hard labor were possible penalties of being on the wrong side of the law. The 1960's diverged from that (look at the Watt's riots for example), crime ran rampant across the country, by the 1980's people were fed up and swung back to beating people down like Rodney King. Come 2000's we're getting soft on crime again and here we are today, primed for another beat down.

This time will be so much worse though. Police don't want to work in cities, there is no job security or incentive to. They talk about defunding while the police are constantly under-staffed in major cities. So they'll get a blind eye in suburbs and rural areas, while crime will continue to grow in cities. If it festers that way, it won't be a cycle, but a feedback loop that keeps high population density areas scared of offending violent criminals, with lower population density areas giving them fear of death.

Best case scenario it just brings the Mafia back in cities. Organized crime does keep crime organized as too much attention is bad for business. Also you can get paid by those businesses to keep their store-front clean, protection, etc. It's not as effective if you can't fulfill those promises though.

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

Actually they would've had fewer laws at the time, but your point about mental health is very valid, and this is why it'll never be addressed even if the entire country is literally burnt to ashes:

The Pharmaceutical lobby, which makes massive profits off of medicating kids and young adults, spends just under 25x as much greasing the palms of American lawmakers as the "gun lobby" does. It is furthermore an industry that receives significant federal funding despite also operating on average with the highest profit margins of any industry in the country. It is a ridiculous racket in which politicians send tax money to companies like Pfizer and Moderna both as subsidies and to provide "free" vaccines and boosters, which are in fact paid for at often inflated prices by politicians, again using taxpayer money. About $370 million comes back to the house and Senate in addition to often increased stock value, with over 3/4 of house and Senate members owning stock in benefitting companies, as do seemingly most if not all major political appointees, most notably the Secretary of Defense. Do you want to take a guess as to why the usual media lapdogs smeared J&J during the vaccine rollout while the trial data and reports of severe side effects from the Pfizer vaccine were buried away to not be unclassified until after everyone involved would be long dead?

Now in regards to societal trends, you could sum it all up with the fact our culture is very narcissistic and made worse by celebrity idolization and the glorification if victimhood and oppression. Broken homes and apathetic parents who treat their kids like accessories have also opened the doors for degenerates like gang members and pedophile teachers to fill the role of a parental figure for these kids.

Flower7 · Accepted Answer

I feel like a lot of it is copycat crimes. People hear about these events and then get it into their mind to do the same thing themselves.

Stoner710 · Answer

Because we have father absence because we have social media which encourages groupthink. Because we are being told that our future is disastrous by our government. We have more fringe people in our population writing articles that would never have or rarely have been seen by the public. We can’t punch our bullies in the face without getting arrested so a more people are turning to extreme violence do to these factors guns aren’t the problem social media is the problem. Oh and lack of opportunities in manufacturing. (This is an unpopular statement even through its true) we’re seeing a lot more divorce in rule communities because of the lack of male income being able to support there wife and children. Traditionally manufacturing paid more then healthcare secretaries and teachers which are and still are traditionally women dominant fields. And women want men to make more then them so because of the lack of a higher male income (women shouldn’t be getting paid less for the same job) but women still wanting there man to make more then them we see a lot more tore families which leads to psychological issues in children which makes men more violent

EyeKnowMeNahYou · Answer

There's been no sudden change of any sort. You know why there are more shootings and killings and such commas now because the media is able to show you. You don't think that's never been mentally of people in the large scale, but now that we have people to taste statistics and take note of it you now know more of it. The same for shootings I guarantee you you could go back 40 years if they want to do a statistic that's probably been a shooting or a murder in every state every day but no one would know about it what they because no one's doing numbers Friday about it and peddling it to the public. Trust me there were many of cities since 20 years ago that were known as the most notorious places in America where we alive to hear about it that they reported on the news constantly no but you can read it in whatever gazette the thing is it's just surprisingly new to us. We often are delusional and thinking that none of this stuff ever existed like there's almost something something brand new in the water or something brand new Under the Sun. It's not. I mean if we have to think about our grandfather's era we're talking about individuals who possibly gone through World war II the Korean war the Vietnam war are you telling me these individuals are f***** up or don't have mental issues and didn't beforehand. I'm going to say I don't believe that and I don't see why you could possibly be shocked...

ArrowheadSW · Answer

I think it is a "learned" thing. They hear about the ones that have happened, so they get the idea to do it. Over the years, it has had a snowball effect.

I remember when Columbine happened. I think 1999? Before then I don't think there was any school shooting to THAT degree. Now look at it.

WindAtMyBack · Answer

How old are your grandparents? Are they close to my age? If so there were not less shootings then, there were a lot more shootings in the past. The murder rate has dropped a LOT in the last 30-40 years. That's true of almost all crimes, not just murder.

Keep in mind that the population has more than doubled since your grandparents were born. That affects everything, including how much stuff you hear about in the news. In general, the news is a lot nuttier than it used to be. It's WAY more sensationalized. It's way more biased. It's way more of a big business out for profits.

AviatorTom · Answer

I agree with @windatmyback. Mass shootings are not new, they've been happening for decades. Key difference is social media, which makes each shooting instant news. Back then, there was no social media so shootings were less well known... but they still happened. Check out this Wikipedia article:

exitseven · Answer

In the 50s and 60s there wasn't a welfare culture with all single mother households collecting a check and living in housing projects raising a generation of kids who think it is a suitable way of life. All these kids grew up to have another generation of impoverished kids growing up in badly run school systems and drugs and crime. No wonder they kill each other.

jshm2 · Answer

Because they were murdering them by knife and disappearances instead.

Not to mention they were stringing up Black guys by trees every other week. As well as invading, looting and raping any place they could point to on a map.

Things weren't "better" back then, they just didn't record it as well as they have to now.

jahaims · Answer

They actually had fewer firearm laws then and it was common place in rural areas to have firearms as part of p. e. or an after school activity.

alice55 · Answer

I guess mass shooter spend too much time on internet reading stupid things and getting radicalized.

DWornock · Answer

Back then there were no false flags to convince the public the USA needed to eliminate guns. Take away the false flags and nothing has changed.

OddBeMe · Answer

It wasn't a meme back then. But crime was exponentially more. So im still glad i live today.

bamesjond0069 · Answer

Because we had a conservative society.

Fromdusktilldawn · Answer

Politics, social media, split society

In America why were there far less shootings in the past when my Grandparents were growing up?

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