Another mass shooting? Yes. Today, six injured. If mass shooting* seems to becoming a frequent event in America, it certainly has. The US averages 10 mass shootings every week thus far this year according to the National Public Radio.
When mentioning “shooting,” gun control is often the next comes to mind. But I don’t really think that is the root cause. If not gun, people have plenty of other weapons to use to inflict injuries. Knifes, cars, bombs, poisons – anything they can get their hands on to achieve the same objective if determined enough.
What I believe the issue has more to do with pent-up emotions that seek for release. Whether a disgruntled employee, desperate extremist, or copycat, the common thread has to do with the individuals’ emotional imbalance and lacking impulse control.
Understandable that day-to-day stress builds up. Economic downturn, illness and all sorts of other pressure can turn our world upside-down. Coronaviurs has certainly taken away some of normal safety nets like family, religious, and social interaction. But harming others is never an acceptable relief.
Will more anger management, depression counseling, or other similar community assistance help? I don’t know. But we should treat at least not the symptoms but the root cause before the whole thing gets out of control.
*The FBI defines a mass shooting as an incident in which there are at least four shooting victims who are wounded or killed.
What do you think is the cause of or contributing to mass shootings?
Running with Buddha 
Yes, Terry, these terrible acts reflect a deep malaise in our country. So sad. We need to take a hard look at our society, its underpinnings, economic and social injustices, leadership.
LikeLike
Thanks for your comment, Nancy. One metric I looked at related to this is suicide prevention. In the US, suicide has gone up one-third between 1999 to 2019. It is alarming and says something about our mental hygiene and approach to solving this kind of problems. Violence against self, others, or the establishment are all related. And we seem to have a hard time getting our arms around them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sadly true, Terry.
LikeLike
Hi Terry,
I think the abundance of guns and their enhanced lethality has something to do with it.
But you are right, there are other ways. In Iraq they use IEDs and car bombs.
On 9/11 they used commercial aircraft.
This country can’t get out of it’s own way right now and Congress can’t handle the truth.
How will we ever get them to address all of the social issues contributing the growth in mass shootings?
LikeLike
For whatever it’s worth, an interesting piece I noted in President Biden’s proposed budget for 2022 is the so-called rebuilding America’s social safety net. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-s-6-trillion-budget-proposal-would-rebuild-america-s-social-safety-net/ar-AAKxJwW
Don’t know if it will survive the Congress. I suppose it is something.
LikeLike
I’ve often wondered why America has this problem. Depression, economic struggles, etc. are not more common in this country but I feel the culture is the culprit. This country is founded on violence. It’s often promoted that if you’re not happy use violence to get what you want. Look at the insurrection of the Capitol building that happened back in January. That was all based on people being unhappy with election results. Police having a bad day are known to use excessive force, killing first and asking questions later. Kids have no problem using their parents guns to take out a teacher over a bad grade or kill a student that didn’t want to go to prom with them. The relaxed gun laws continue to promote the violence and I fear things will continue to get worse.
LikeLike
Hi Heather, I would say the American culture is founded based on freedom. But freedom is not free. It comes with responsibility. How each individual chooses to pursue it varies. Nevertheless, the method needs to within the bound of laws. The early days of the pioneering spirit required courage to seek better life. Little laws existed back then, so violence was probably a part of the process. Fast forward to now. Violence is no longer acceptable. Our political systems is far from perfect, hence problems like the mass shooting, policing, Capital riot, etc. continue to plague our society. We need courage to address these problems and addressing them soon before they worsen. Thanks for your comments and best wishes on your journey.
LikeLike