Guns of all kinds have existed for centuries.
Handguns, hunting guns, and all sorts of guns have been a part of American life for 200+ years.
But only in the past 20 years or so have mass shootings, and school shootings, become commonplace. I think it's necessary to explore WHY that is.
The guns have always been available. It's the PEOPLE who have changed, IMO. Our common values and goals as a society have disintegrated.
Some broad brush, pessimistic observations contribute to that, IMO.
Families have disintegrated on a large scale. Social mores and norms have been obliterated. Children are conceived irresponsibly, and they get older, but are not nurtured, supervised, guided, and raised. Violence, murder, guns, and killing is considered a fun spectator sport and entertainment for even small children, in the form of movies and video games. Kids are completely desensitized to killing and gun violence on TV, in movies, and video games. Kids have fewer attachments to adults, and have less respect for adults than ever before. Education is not valued, and has been watered down. The ethic of hard work is disappearing, and being replaced with entitlement mentality. Youth have no idea how to work hard and consistently at anything, or what it means to have integrity, responsibility, and accountability. Extremist religious, social, racial, and political ideologies proliferate on social media and the internet, gathering new recruits far easier than ever before, and urging violence and destruction. Mental illness and poor coping abilities are commonplace. A rapid influx of people from many areas of the world have not assimilated to common goals and core values, but remain in their tribal enclaves, becoming ever more disaffected. Diversity is killing us, not making us stronger.
Definitely pessimistic, but these are trends in the U.S. I see every day. So then you add easily available guns to the mix of vast social problems and disturbed individuals we have, and these mass killings, suicides, and domestic gun rages are understandable from a sociological perspective.
We need to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. We all agree on that. But to do that, we have to clearly identify what behaviors and conditions/ diagnoses constitutes the "wrong" person. We have to have easier mechanisms to COMPEL disturbed people to get diagnosis, and compel treatment. And we can't even get to that point. IMO, we have essentially no functional mental health system in the U.S., which was a direct and intentional result of de-institutionalization. Why? Because effective mental health care is extremely costly and labor intensive, and oftentimes is a lifelong need. Nobody wants to pay for it.
After many of these mass shootings, there have been piles of obvious red flags, reports not followed up on, massively disturbed people. Preventing mass shootings is NOT just about restricting gun access.
