So Today there was a shooting scare at my university

[rory_20_uk]

Yes, mental illness is a scourge on our society.

Thoughts and prayers.

[Beskar]

Yes, mental illness is a scourge on our society.

A 2004 analysis of more than 60 mass murders in North America, for example, found that just 6% were psychotic at the time of the killings. And when it comes to mass shootings, those with mental illness account for “less than 1% of all yearly gun-related homicides”

BBC Article

[rory_20_uk]

BBC Article

Erm... my lines were the traditional crap that gun nuts say after a massacre.

[Beskar]

Erm... my lines were the traditional crap that gun nuts say after a massacre.

Unfortunately that particular line gets lost on a lot of people. Even the not-gunnuts say it.


Thoughts and prayers.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Another thing that struck me was the scale and speed of the Police response - within just a few minutes seven officers and a dog piled into Amory and nabbed the guy.

[Montmorency]

What an American shooting scare might look like:

[Seamus Fermanagh]

BBC Article

60% of gun deaths in the USA are suicide or accidental. Ready access to firearms gives would-be suicides a more easily lethal tool to use.

[Montmorency]

Sorry if hijacking, but this is the most recent relevant thread:

In case our non-American readers missed it, we saw two major mass shootings within hours yesterday. The first in El Paso, Texas, by a white supremacist, ~20 dead. Then hours later in Dayton, Ohio, by a leftist with unknown motive and ~10 dead, including shooter's sister, because he was killed by police within a minute. (Please let it sink I that the shooter killed or wounded three dozen people within a minute - 30 seconds according to some reported police statements.)

This after another less severe shooting earlier in the week in California. The police had also engaged the shooter here within a minute here, for 17 casualties. The motive is technically unknown, as with the Dayton shooter, but the festival he shot up appears to have majority non-white attendants and he sure liked his far-right literature. The El Paso shooter meanwhile survived and has a manifesto; he is adamant that he was trying to stop the Mexican "invasion."

El Paso makes at least three 8chan-linked massacres this year. Yeah, terror is a meme.

Going by this database, just since 2013 there have been at least 85 shootings with 5 or more fatalities, 30 more with fewer than 5 fatalities but at least 10 injuries. Switching to Wiki, from 2010 to 2012 there were 13 such shootings. Between 2000 and 2010, 26 such shootings. In the 1990s, 14 such shootings. In the 1980s there were 13 such, although the two listed with highest fatality count are not actually mass shootings. Before the 1980s (to 20s) there were 19, with many of the ones listed on wiki being gun battles or massacres by soldiers or police rather than the iconic type of massacre by singles or pairs. Terrorism in this country was more diffuse and systematic than a mass shooting comports with. Whatever the effect of Trumpism is, mass shootings are demonstrably accelerating; the numbers are unprecedented, but also the motivations. We are entering a state of affairs not dissimilar to that of internally-conflicted countries experiencing regular sectarian or militant attacks on civilians, like Nigeria or Pakistan...

In response, Trump supporters I know are exulting that whites have had enough of the dark races and will soon rise up, telling wild stories of lazy Latinos and sinister ragheads, of uppity blacks being rude to them and thus deserving summary execution, ultimately devolving into tangents like every single allegation ever of sexual harassment or assault being a lie motivated by personal gain.

I wish I could say I feel fury, but I don't really, never do. Only intellectualized confidence in my mental model of the world. The social order is warping in real-time. Who doesn't believe we're on the eve of destruction?

[Tuuvi]

The social order is warping in real-time. Who doesn't believe we're on the eve of destruction?

I've been thinking the same thing myself, the recent uptick in mass shootings is a sign that something is deeply wrong with our society. When you combine the modern rise of nihilistic fascist terror with the impending environmental catastrophes the ruling class refuses to do anything about the future looks very dark indeed.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

First, as shocking as these shootings are I wonder if this may just be a horrible, horrible co-incidence. I remember a few years back another instance where I think we saw three in the US in a week.

It's worth noting that since the 1990's up until last year the UK, then Australia and now New Zealand, simple banned guns in response to major mass-shootings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._Great_Britain

We banned semi-autos in the UK after the Hungerford massacre in 1987 - 16 dead, 15 wounded, comparable to to a US shooting. We banned hand guns in 1996 after the Dunblane massacre, 17 dead, 15 wounded - mostly children. Since then there has been only one major shooting, in Cumbria in 2010.

From this we might conclude that what is unique about the US is not the impulse that causes the shootings so much as the failure to just ban gun-ownership. In fact, it seems that mass-shootings are a significant problem in anglophone societies and the only effective solution has been draconian firearms bans.

[Montmorency]

First, as shocking as these shootings are I wonder if this may just be a horrible, horrible co-incidence. I remember a few years back another instance where I think we saw three in the US in a week.

It's worth noting that since the 1990's up until last year the UK, then Australia and now New Zealand, simple banned guns in response to major mass-shootings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._Great_Britain

We banned semi-autos in the UK after the Hungerford massacre in 1987 - 16 dead, 15 wounded, comparable to to a US shooting. We banned hand guns in 1996 after the Dunblane massacre, 17 dead, 15 wounded - mostly children. Since then there has been only one major shooting, in Cumbria in 2010.

From this we might conclude that what is unique about the US is not the impulse that causes the shootings so much as the failure to just ban gun-ownership. In fact, it seems that mass-shootings are a significant problem in anglophone societies and the only effective solution has been draconian firearms bans.

It is a coincidence in that the shooters were not explicitly organized, but with trends under Trump I firmly repeat that the ideological and political component of the violence is an important element in the recent timeframe. Gun availability and gun culture is one thing (and don't forget toxic masculinity), but there is an additional layer in the echoing of 'lone wolves who all happen to believe what the President believes and want the same things.' That's the gap between societal ill and sectarian violence.

Edit: In a pleasing turn if you hate all subtlety, this was one of the photos the El Paso shooter Liked with his Facebook profile. One of the contemporary memes floating around is that the universe needs to fire its writing team, the implicit metaphysics of which you would probably remark on.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Yes, mental illness is a scourge on our society.

Thoughts and prayers.

You forgot the secular equivalent, "Sending Positive Vibes your way"