Guns ain't the problem, it's the bullying at school!

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Apart from believing in the 2nd Amendment right to defend oneself, my point is that the root cause of the problem stems not from possession of assault weapons but from bullying. Statistically, if you google search, ALL the perpetrators of mass murder at schools have been bullied by Jocks or older kids, while the educators and administrators sat idle and even perhaps condoned it as the pervailing pecking order.

For the record, I do NOT endorse or condone what they did. However, I UNDERSTAND where it came from.

In the state I live in, starting this year all the districts have to instruct and abide by tough anti-bullying laws, otherwise the bully face expulsion. I believe that we should tackle bullying first and assault guns later.

I'll tell you what the problem is. It's not guns OR bullying, it's EVERYTHING. Everything in the US is royally screwed up and they're too narcissistic and pull of themselves to do a thing about it. Their country has bee built solely on hate, greed, and vilence. I've noticed how quick they are to blame video games and movies but no one thinks about how we're having a stupid war where people with spouses and children are being sent off to die or suffer PTSD and there is constant coverage of THAT.

So far, everyone's been stating that there is no evidence indicating that Adam Lanza was ever bullied and some reports claim that a school therapist was in his presence almost constantly (prior to him being removed from school), so an opportunity to be bullied never presented itself. This is what I have to go on so far and since no evidence has been presented to the contrary, I am forced to conclude that Mr. Lanza acted on factors other than bullying.

The former Marine, Charles Whitman's records indicate bullying was not a factor in his actions as well. He did, however have a glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer infecting the tissues of the brain. It was initially contested whether or not this played a factor, with the initial findings showing no malignancy, and later findings indicating that the tumor was in fact malignant and could have affected the perpetrator's behavior.

It is a sort of potpurri of factors that create spree killers, not any single characteristic.

Last edited by CyborgUprising on 22 Dec 2012, 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

As an active "occupy" leader and organizer in the NorthEast, I acknowledge there's something rotten in our society. But I don't think it didn't happen anywhere else. Germany, Scotland and Australia are just some on the list of countries where mass shooting has taken place in the past 15 years or so.

There's a ton of things wrong

1.) Mental Health. In talking to doctors, it is very difficult to get people help. You have to be really f*****g crazy to get committed, and doctors often have their hands tied with laws. Doctors need an easy way to report people who are a danger to the police and the National Instant Check System (the agency responsible for background checks). We need better resources for carrying for those who need long term commitment. We cannot continue this policy of medicating and sending home.

2.) We need to stop glorifying violence.

3.) We need parents who parent, not be their kids best friend.

4.) Our morals are f****d up. In the old days, you had clear villians and hereos. Nowadays we have so blurred the line.

That's just a sampling.

I don't think you can blame war for it. You didn't see school shootings back during WWII did you? Back then most kids had at least one family member off fighting.

Surprisingly enough, I actually agree with you. I should add that we would have to have a clear-cut way of discerning who exactly constitutes a threat to public safety. We cannot simply warehouse every bloke on meds for any mental issue. There also needs to be a system in place to prevent people from using this as a means to be rid of someone they view as being disagreeable or otherwise possess a negative sentiment towards.

I would say bullying is probably more of a problem than guns...though even that is still only a factor not usually the only one, if it does happen to be one. Also, i do not think its documented that all who have committed mass shootings were bullied just a large amount of them.

what makes al of this attractive for many types of killers is the media attention centered around the shooter, it always has been and plenty of criminal psychologists agree on that.
one creates a cultural anti hero that reaches notoriety very quickly and thus get theuir messae out, even at the cost of their own lives.

people and media shouldnt give the shooter that satisfaction, focus on victims and not circumstance.

Has anyone blamed Islamic influence yet? I've noticed a correlation between the influx of Islamic immigrants (from Iran/Iraq) to the USofA and the increase in mass killings by angry white males under the age of 30.

How about GMOs? The advent of Genetically Modified Organisms seems to coincide with the beginning of this most recent spate of mass killings.

Why hasn't digital television been tossed about yet? Now that digital TV is here, there seems to be more mass killings than before.

Considering many of them kill themselves afterwards how would anyone know if a desire for media attention was a major factor or not? Also how can the dead shooter experiance satisfaction? I think it is actually kind of important to focus on what factors might lead up to these things and what could maybe be done about them......just focusing on the victims is a nice idea but then its likely to just keep happening.

You're joking at least on the DTV one, right?

No. There are a lot of fingers pointing at things that that correlated with the increase in the frequency of mass killings, so I thought I'd point out a few more too. Here's a more general listing of things involved in mass killings:

Methods: Explosives, Firearms, Incendiaries, Poisons, Vehicles.

Motives: Anger, Delusion, Fame, Hatred, Ideology, Paranoia, Revenge.

Opportunities: Public Buildings, Public Events, Public Gatherings, Public Transportation.

Firearms are only part of the issue.

Here's the problem, at least with the methods. The US doesn't stand out from other countries on most types of crime except one: gun homicide. On that one, we're far and away the leader. That would lead one to believe that increased access to firearms is a significant factor. However, this is an Aspergers forum and not a gun control forum, so I'll leave that there.


That said, there is a lot of work that needs to be done on our mental health system. I'm all for making it easier to commit people, although I'd focus more on halfway homes etc, as long as there's a functioning path for people to rejoin society when they're ready. I think we really need to work on that.

if media attention wasnt a factor then why does so many shootings include a manifest of some sort?
there are often public threats from the hooters in some cases.

granted there will be different reasons and variables as we are dealing with humans so i am not saying it is always the case.

the satisfaction is a metaphor for the idea or ideology behind the shooting, for someone who wants attention and change due to that, a media storm is playing right into their hands.

and you are right it is important to discuss and investigate the factors that play into this because as said media attention is only what made it an attractive option compared to suicide or similar, there would still be some underlying cause for that.
where i disagree is the way it is sensationalized and discussed in the media, how much coverage has the actual victims had compared to the sensationalized and frankly faulty stories focusing on irrelevant reason a through z.
combine that with the story telling and imagery used and suddenly what you have has nothing to do with the actual reasons or factors involved, only the public view of same and the feedback it provides for the news sites.

what one would need would be to minimize the focus on the shooter to any actual confirmed fact and stop tying a frankly biased and emotionalized view onto that, frankly it is bad journalism.

I'd have to agree with most of that I certainly do not like the way the media goes about reporting these sorts of things and all the non-confirmed assumptions about what disorders the guy might have had or what the motivations were or what groups of people are 'dangerous' and should be regulated more based on the actions of one who might happen to be associated with that group. Bad journalism indeed.