Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

There was a programme called The Burke Special over here in the 70s.

It was a mash up of popular science and sociology.

One episode looked at newspaper headlines and looked at a bombing in London by the IRA that was front page.

Bombings in Northern Ireland were relegated to other news.

The message of the programme was that if we carried on the way we were going bombings in London would no longer be worthy of the front page.

Unfortunately we carried on for about twenty years before The Good Friday Agreement made significant changes.

That's where America is with gun violence.

Why do people use guns when they commit mass murder?

There's solid evidence that nearly half of all mass shootings are associated with suicide by perpetrator, or what they call “suicide by cop.” Guns are the most successful method of killing oneself.So, one main reason people choose guns is they want to die. In about 30% of mass shootings, perpetrators kill themselves with their own gun; about 10% are suicide by cop. However, while guns are the most effective method of suicide, they’re not as effective at killing a large number of other people. Mass murder committed with means other than firearms, such as bombing, arson, vehicles, even stabbings, is about two and a half times more deadly than mass murder committed with firearms.

Another reason people use firearms to carry out mass shootings (aside from availability) is our cultural romanticization of violence. As a result, the movie, television, music, and video game industries will have to play a role in any efforts to decrease gun assaults.

What tends to be the motivations behind mass shootings?

First, understand that mental illness as the primary cause of any mass murder, especially mass shooting, is uncommon. Half of all mass shootings are associated with no red flags—no diagnosed mental illness, no substance use, no history of criminality, nothing. They’re generally committed by middle-aged men who are responding to a severe and acute stressor, so they're not planned, which makes them very difficult to prevent. So, we must look much further upstream.

This is why it is important to consider ways to manage gun availability, for example. The yearly prevalence of the incidence of mass murder was stable at about 7 per billion people, or seven mass shootings for every billion people, between 1900 and about 1970. Then between about 1970 and 2019, the incidence increased by four times, so now mass shootings occur about 28 times per billion people around the world. One might say that this is because of the availability of guns in general, and automatic weapons, in particular, especially in the U.S. where these weapons became more available to the general population during this time period. Mass murder committed with means other than firearms also grew, but at a slightly slower rate. The other thing that one must consider is that most mass shootings are committed with non-automatic weapons, making them the weapons of choice, and supporting the notion that gun availability is a primary contributor to method of mass murder.

You have said that the media’s publishing personal details about the perpetrators encourages violent behavior and is harmful. Please explain.
If we’re talking about the mass shooters that we hear the most about, such as school shooters and other individuals who commit such public crimes, we have examined a number of these cases and are seeing a pattern. As opposed to most mass shooters, these perpetrators tend to be younger males who are often nihilistic, empty, angry, feel rejected by society, blame society for their rejection, and harbor a strong desire for notoriety. They want to make their mark on the world that will elevate them to the status they believe they are entitled to and deserve.

Sensationalized headlines, photographs, and breaking personal information about the shooters, victims, and acts themselves provide the notoriety perpetrators of mass shootings crave and can spark others to carry out similar acts. Refraining from publishing any personal information about mass shooters may be one of the easiest, quickest, and most effective interventions for decreasing mass shootings, especially school and other public shootings, which comprise about 10% of all mass shootings.

Yes.

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Are people with mental health disorders more likely to commit mass shootings or mass murder?

The public tends to link serious mental illnesses, like schizophrenia or psychotic disorders, with violence and mass shootings. But serious mental illness—specifically psychosis—is not a key factor in most mass shootings or other types of mass murder. Approximately 5% of mass shootings are related to severe mental illness. And although a much larger number of mass shootings (about 25%) are associated with non-psychotic psychiatric or neurological illnesses, including depression, and an estimated 23% with substance use, in most cases these conditions are incidental.

Columbia University Department of Psychiatry

Most mass murderers are mentally ill.

So they don’t address the problem.

The govt refuses to take the steps to stop gun violence because they want to disarm the populace.

Studies of mass killings strongly suggest they began to increase in incidence in the *1980s, and that the incidence is increasing.

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@Lash,
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Most mass murderers are mentally ill.

This is what the right-wing gun zealots and the firearms industry want us to believe.

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So they don’t address the problem.

The "problem" is the Second Amendment.

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The govt refuses to take the steps to stop gun violence because they want to disarm the populace.

And what steps would those be? Do you really think it's realistic to "disarm" the people when there are 400 million guns in people's homes?

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Studies of mass killings strongly suggest they began to increase in incidence in the *1980s, and that the incidence is increasing.

There wouldn't be any correlation between this increase and the number and types of weapons being sold, would it?