Summary: Another week, two more mass shootings in America. It is clickbait heaven for journalists and politicians, both working to make Americans ignorant. Meanwhile, the daily carnage in our cities continues – lost amidst the excitement of ClownWorld. Let’s put our feet on the ground and coolly examine the numbers.
Liberal Americans go berserk at each mass shooting incident. While horrific, they are not increasing in frequency. When not obsessing about mass shootings, they scream about the shootings by police officers (often of criminals, but sometimes unjustified). Both of these represent a dot in the river of blood spilled in America each year, flowing through our cites amidst the indifference of activists on the Left and Right.
- In 2017 there were ~433 mass shooting deaths (estimates vary), 17,284 homicides, and 38,773 deaths from guns.
Be proud, America! We have five cities in the world’s top 50!
A list of the top fifty cities with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 residents. We are the only developed nation on the list. There are 10 nations, all but South Africa are in the western hemisphere.
66 – # 13 – St. Louis.
55 – # 21 – Baltimore.
49 – # 32 – San Juan, Puerto Rico.
40 – # 41 – New Orleans.
40 – # 42 – Detroit.
London is having a crime wave. How does its homicide rate compare with our cities?
Celebrate that the homicide rate is down but still very high
The homicide rate has declined from its insanely high levels down to levels far above those of our peers. Graphs from 538 tell the tale. To put this in perspective, America’s homicide rate of 5.3 per hundred thousand was #88 in the world. The next highest among our peers was Canada at 1.8 (#151) – data here. Let’s not party too hard about this.
Why don’t we care about the daily carnage?
Perhaps we don’t care because mass shooters kill “regular people” while the daily carnage mostly afflicts denizens of our inner cities. See “Black Homicide Victimization in the United States” by the Violence Policy Center – “An Analysis of 2016 Homicide Data” (press release here).
“The devastation homicide inflicts on black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities. For the year 2016, blacks represented 13% of the nation’s population, yet accounted for 51% of all homicide victims.
- Of the 7,756 black homicide victims, 6,748 (87%) were male, 1,003 (13%) were female ….
- The homicide rate for black male victims was 37.12 per 100,000. ….For white male homicide victims it was 4.39 per 100,000.
- The homicide rate for female black victims was 5.07 per 100,000. …For white female homicide victims it was 1.55 per 100,000.
Other details about Black homicide victims.
- “7% were less than 18 years old and 2% were 65 years of age or older. The average age was 31 years old.
- “For homicides in which the weapon used could be identified, 87% were shot and killed with guns. Of these, 66% were killed with handguns. In comparison, 67% of white victims and 78% of victims of all races were killed with guns.
- “For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 75% of black victims were killed by someone they knew.
- “For homicides in which the circumstances could be identified, 71% were not related to the commission of any other felony. Of these, 48% involved arguments between the victim and the offender, and 17% (523 homicides) were reported to be gang-related.”
Black communities attack the source of their problems
Across the nation, Black communities attack the police for too-severe responses to their astronomic crime rates, and demand higher quality recruits for these jobs with low pay and hostile working conditions. Here is a community mobilizing! This is logic …in ClownWorld.
But we need guns for self-defense!
Just like most previous studies, a report by the Violence Policy Center concludes that guns are rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes.
“In 2016, across the nation there were only 274 justifiable homicides involving a private citizen using a firearm reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program as detailed in its Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR). That same year, there were 10,341 criminal gun homicides tallied in the SHR. In 2016, for every justifiable homicide in the United States involving a gun, guns were used in 37 criminal homicides. And this ratio, of course, does not take into account the tens of thousands of lives ended in gun suicides or unintentional shootings that year.”
Let’s try those effective solutions used by other nations
There have been many studies about the effectiveness of gun regulations, looking at the experience of many nations. For example, Australia implemented stricter gun regulations after mass shootings in 1996 and 2002. A vast body of studies has examined their effects, finding that the new regulations have no effect. Or they have big effects. It depends on the analyst. It is more evidence that modern science is broken, but tells us little else.
The important thing is that we continue to experiment with large-scale social engineering on this problem, using our people as lab rats. The confidence of ideologues is the same as knowledge …in ClownWorld!
Conclusions
American politics has become a mob of people demanding solutions to problems that we do not understand and politicians promising to implement imaginary fast certain easy fixes. This is politics for a nation of gullible peons.
We must know the limits of our knowledge, and implement research and experiments to provide a basis for serious social policy. We can address our problems – if we are willing to pay the price in money and work.
For More information.
Ideas! For some shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
Here are the findings of an exhaustive study of mass shooters. They also give recommendations, which appear to me to be either extremely difficult to do or probably ineffective.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about gun violence and regulation, and especially these …
- The Founders talk to us about guns for a well-regulated militia.
- But Hitler confiscated guns, leaving Germans helpless!
- Let’s look at the Second Amendment, cutting through the myths and spin.
- Myth-busting about gun use in the Wild West.
- Second amendment scholarship (using money to reshape America).
- Do guns make us more safe, or less? Let’s look at the research.
- The number of children killed by guns in America makes us exceptional, not better.
- Cut thru the lies and myths to understand guns in America.
- Why Americans love guns and don’t care about the blood.
- Debunking the hysteria about mass shootings.
- Is an armed society a safe society? – Spoiler: no.
Interesting books about guns
See reviews of these books: Don’t just mourn. Remember what we know about guns.
- Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America
(2011) by Adam Winkler (a professor of constitutional law at UCLA). See David Cole’s book review at the NY Review of Books (gated).
- Guns across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights
by Robert J. Spitzer (2015).
- Do Guns Make Us Free?: Democracy and the Armed Society
by Firmin DeBrabander (2015).
- The Gunning of America: Business and the Making of American Gun Culture
by Pamela Haag (2016).
by Robert J. Spitzer (2015).
by Firmin DeBrabander (2015).For something different, see Living with Guns: A Liberal’s Case for the Second Amendment
“Study Shows Leading Cause Of Gun Violence Is Those You Disagree With Politically.”
An exhaustive new study from the CDC reveals that the leading cause of gun violence in America is your political opponents. Researchers looked at a number of potential causes of gun violence such as mental health, family situation, cultural shifts, gun laws, rap music, videogames, sugar consumption, and the actual gunman, but by and large, the most prominent cause of gun violence was what most already suspected. The fault lies with those who you disagree with politically.
Researchers say they almost forgot to even consider the idea that the shooter had any volition or free will of their own. After looking into it, they said that the gunman was, “…a moot point. The fact is, even if the gunman didn’t act, your political opponents would have caused the violence one way or another,” lead researcher Karl Porkenheimer. “They wanted this in the first place.”
Other findings include:
From the Babylon Bee.
I thought Babylon Bee was satire. Porkenheimer may be on to something here.
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
Ron,
That it becomes ever more difficult to distinguish The Onion and Babylon Bee from the NY Times is big evidence that we’re in ClownWorld. Fighting the descent into ClownWorld might be our greatest challenge. But systemic problems are often too big to see, and so ignored until it is too late.
“The black homicide victimization rate in the United States was 20.44 per 100,000. In comparison, the overall national homicide victimization rate was 5.10 per 100,000. For whites, the national homicide victimization rate was 2.96 per 100,000.”
The homicide victimization rate is 6.9 times higher for blacks than for whites. A rational society would want to find out why such a stark difference exists, but both the corporate owned mass media and black leadership seem to have other priorities. The tell us that he three hundred or so blacks killed by police (of all races, BTW) every year are far more important than than the 7000 blacks killed mostly by other blacks.
Gloucon,
That pretty much nails it. I linked to this post, which you might find of interest: America’s unspeakable problem: African-American’s crime rates.
Gloucon,
Jako caught the bad link in my reply. Here is the correct one: America’s unspeakable problem: African-American’s crime rates.
FM
Wrong link in your reply to GX, me thinks.
Gloucon X
As you wrote: “A rational society would want to find out why such a stark difference exists, but both the corporate owned mass media and black leadership seem to have other priorities.”
What IF they may already know why or are afraid of the answer? Desegregation, affirmative action etc. have been implemented more-less for two generations and yet, there’s no marked “progress” in the extremities of the associated issues.
And now, after all that time and effort (wasted) should “reparations” (for slavery) solve all the outstanding problems? NUTS!
Jako,
Thanks for catching the bad link! Fixed.
“yet, there’s no marked “progress” in the extremities of the associated issues.”
Or, to extend your statement, they might have made the situation worse. A friend of mine teaches at a community college in NYC. He says that African-American students react with disbelief when he tells them that Harlem was a poor but low-crime neighborhood circa 1960 – and once had a thriving entertainment district with white customers. They cannot even imagine any of those things.
“should “reparations” (for slavery) solve all the outstanding problems? NUTS!”
It is not “nuts”. You are applying the wrong metric. Rather, free money is political crack – socially disruptive but possibly politically effective.
Surely there are two problems, one relatively fixable, the other very very difficult?
The mass shootings maybe you could tackle simply by more controls on buying the weapons. It does seem extraordinary that people who any decent background check would reveal as unstable can buy semi-automatic weapons for which they have no conceivable legitimate need or use.
Then how you tackle the other issue, which seems to be a proliferation of personal violence and gang warfare in some urban areas? That’s the wicked one, now that its gone so far. The sheer number of weapons and ammunition out there makes it very hard to see what would be effective in controlling this.
henrik,
“one relatively fixable, the other very very difficult?”
Color me skeptical that the mass shooter problem is easily fixable (even relatively so). It suggests that something is broken in American society, and the mass shootings are an expression of the problem. Stop it and I wonder if the pathology will erupt in some other form.
I’m just guessing, of course. That’s not a reason of inaction. It does suggest caution and the need for research.
US mass shootings. Data from Mother Jones:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/
That’s some grim data with lot of facts from left of center Mother Jones. Many problems with hard decisions to make.
History tells us little gets done, pointing fingers dies down and we wait for the next one…Repeat.
I feel this might add the the conversation.
https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/drunk-driving-statistics/?gclid=CjwKCAjwyqTqBRAyEiwA8K_4O3OehrIq9x2JRYBSkghKv5qL_nKBjW6SvoWtsDEG4wEEDD_OICpsVhoCZCoQAvD_BwE
This link says in 2017 10000 people died from drunk driving accidents and nothing is done about it. No calls to ban alcohol or cars or place alcohol interlocks in every car. But in 9/11/01 5000 people died in one day and we embarked on international crusade to invade 2 countries, change our laws and society, that cost billions of dollars and cost more than 5000 soldiers lives and untold civilians deaths.
I know they are not the same but it seems like a parallel to me.
Perhaps there is something about our brains that react differently to tragedy based upon how they are spread over time.
I dont know, but just an observation.
Sven,
“and nothing is done about it”
That is obviously quite false. NHTSA began tracking booze-related traffic deaths in 1982. By 2002, they had fallen by over a third. More importantly, deaths per vehicle-mile had fallen by 62% (i.e., adjusting for population growth, etc).
We could do more, of course. For a comprehensive look at this subject, see “Epidemiology and Consequences of Drinking and Driving” by Ralph Hingson and Michael Winter at the NIH website, December 2003.
Larry,
We fully agree on this one. I was recently looking at some data on mass shootings (4 or more victims per incident) and it statistically mirrors your information. “Studies” are best understood by first seeing who commissioned the study and are as often as not subject to scientific rigor. They are often sophomoric. I note that different groups want to pin to tail on the other donkey.
The violent computer games are not to blame, the next group dismisses mental illness while the other group rejects mood altering drugs. You know all of this. Our naive population of Lemmings know none of it.
DC,
I don’t know what to make of this and the scores – hundreds – of similar phenomena in ClownWorld America. There is something systemic at work causing so many bolts to be popping out simultaneously from America society.
We are like the five blind men feeling an elephant. They sense the parts, not the whole. It’s like a snake, a tree trunk, a rope, etc.
We can’t fix what we don’t understand.
What do you think about an explanation that seems to have gained traction, at least in some part of the political/intellectual spectrum (not academia though) over the last years, that is that there is now a generalized loss of purpose, or more aptly a loss of sense of purpose, in younger generations? The point behind this idea is to put it at the crossroads of several majors changes in culture, mentalities, education, the state of the family, and see it as the overarching, driving force to explain such phenomena.
Then other environmental factors add on to it: availability of guns the stalemate of the debate about them (due to a total absence of trust between the two sides), lax controls in gun policy (aided by the developing anarchy of a gun culture disconnected in many places from a stable, educational family/community environment that used to put boundaries and structure to owning and using guns), overuse of drugs (legal or not), lack of prospects in many economically devastated parts of the country….
I’m mentioning it because of the “average” profile of such mass shooters: it has been shown that most come from broken homes, have suffered one form or another of abuse and/or neglect, have grown without a father figure (or not one worth mentioning), that many were on prescription drugs…. Which can send the thinking back towards topics frequently discussed here: less prospects and jobs in an increasingly automatized economy requiring a higher cognitive charge for the good jobs it still creates, an overall diabolization/bashing of boys and manhood in general (white ones in particular), an invasion of everything males have an interest in (male “spaces”?) by the “loving and inclusive” culture, the exclusive focus and propping up of girls (and certain groups) coupled with a sometimes active blocking of the way for males, an education system that has grown more and more to be maladjusted for boys (sometimes even geared against them)….
The result can be, at the most extreme end of the spectrum (the most at risk/unstable), that kind of crazy shooters, especially among whites who generally have less access to outlets like gangs (which tend to be more frequently ethnic in the US); others with sufficiently similar problems putting them at risk, will go into gangs/crime if they have a way in, or terrorism (the profiles in Islamist terrorism in Europe are on the same spectrum), and others will be abusers (in their own family), or, on a bigger scale, will be self destructive (drug addiction, antisocial behavior). And this would in large part result from a loss of structure (community, family) and purpose, individual and collective, that were provided by a dominant culture (with all its faults) that included religion, the nation (as a complement or an alternative), the family….as constants in the ordering of one’s priorities.
Overall, the most vulnerable part of the male population (a big number these days), for socio-economic, cultural and/or psychological reason, will find an outlet of destruction, of themselves or others, or both, in a society that does not value them and often actively signals that it devalues them, as students, prospective workers, husband or fathers. And the most vulnerable are just answering that signal in a more visible and dramatic way. For the most privileged, you’ll see more of them that may be sensitive to such signals go toward isolation, underachievement, selfishness and the dreaded “Peter Pan Syndrome” feminine magazines complain endlessly about.
Just a hypothesis.
Tancrede,
You raise a host of fascinating questions. Here are a few thoughts, just sketches, in response.
“that is that there is now a generalized loss of purpose, or more aptly a loss of sense of purpose, in younger generations?”
I too have heard that story. IMO it makes no sense. What “sense of purpose” did previous generations have? My gen, the Boombers, had no such thing. My guess (guess) is that what they are trying to describe is a rising group of people who are alienation from society plus isolation from friends and kin. For young men, some of them will go rogue – embracing a short but intense life. Drugs, booze, and violence – why not?
More broadly – and speculatively – perhaps people raised without a strong sense of family and community have higher rates of “mental illness”. I put that in quotes since it is, in the commonly used sense, empty of meaning. Referring to people who find their own values, their own way of living. And that is often destructive.
Last, there are the effects of mind-altering drugs that doctors prescribe like candy, starting when they are children. They know little about their effects, and are using Americans as lab rats. The usage of these drugs is far far higher in America than elsewhere. Perhaps that explains some of the difference in mass shootings between America and elsewhere.
Here we see the three great rules of American public policy: we know little, we don’t want to know anything, and we want big bold actions. I wonder if any society can survive such mismanagement.
Tancrède & FM,
The following link is to the El Paso shooter’s manifesto:
https://drudgereport.com/flashtx.htm
It is amazingly contradicting the MSM explanation narrative.
That may bring a bit of “different spectrum of light” upon the issues you both raised.
JaKo,
That manifesto looks like BS to me, like the last part was written after the fact.
Ron and Jako,
There are denials on 8Chan, saying that the El Paso shooter’s “manifesto” is a fake. That so many take so seriously something lacking the slightest shred of verification is yet more evidence that modern Americans are very gullible – perhaps too gullible to be capable of self-government.
Larry,
This is how the NYT’s covered it: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/us/patrick-crusius-el-paso-shooter-manifesto.html
I wasn’t about to post that garbage online even if it was true. Sad.
Larry,
Living in SE Pa. my entire life, I watched three small cities in the Philly suburbs disintegrate before my eyes. Chester, Darby and Coatesville.
Nice towns, places you went to shop before shopping malls in the suburbs. They are now drug and crime infested slums.
Industry moved out and took the jobs with them. Whites moved out, blacks moved in; Trashed houses, litter, old mattresses in the alleys, welfare, fatherless boys roaming the streets at night fighting turf wars, drug gangs, rapes, and muggings.
It still remains that way today. I moved west to the sticks with the Amish.
Work, money, the family unit restored, stop the hard drugs by all means possible, and fill up the prisons with the animals on the streets (of both colors) who can’t be rehabilitated. A tall order but not impossible.
Getting rid of assault rifles is a feel good approach to these larger issues, imo.
Ron,
Yes, that nails it. Our society is disintegrating in ways invisible to our elites. I suspect that anger is building in the lower classes. Lots of historical precedents for this. Few end well.
Larry,
“Our society is disintegrating in ways invisible to our elites”
Is it invisible? I think they see it but don’t know how to fix it, and don’t seem to care one way or the other.
I watched those towns go down, Chester, Pa. was the worse. You know how the politicians tried to revitalize it? Build a casino on the Delaware river with a ramp off of I95 to bypass the carnage and decay below. Great plan, it will work just like it did in Atlantic city. Well, it didn’t work…Who would have known?
” I suspect that anger is building in the lower classes.”
I have no doubt.
Ron,
That nails it on all points!
I actually prefer to either have capital punishment, caning like in singapore or restitution to replace prisons.
Prison rape is rampant. As is murder. And prisons often serves as schools in criminality. Gang members treat prison as a rite of passage even.
info,
To what are you replying? Do you seriously believe that mass shooters are deterred by punishment? So many are executed by police, after all.
@FM
I am talking about crime in general including mass shootings.
Prison only made prisoners worse. The rapes that occur no doubt would by its nature render released prisoners even more destructive.
Petty criminals would be trained to be even worse criminals or that released violent criminals wreak havok. Even against other more petty criminals can render petty criminals worse.
Executions at best limit the damage like cutting off a gangrenous limb but by no means solve the origin of crimes.
Including mental illness and dysfunctional family dynamics.
info,
What’s your point? Will more and more severe punishments will reduce the number of mass shootings and homicides?
I don’t see the relevance to this post.
“Work, money, the family unit restored, stop the hard drugs by all means possible, and fill up the prisons with the animals on the streets (of both colors) who can’t be rehabilitated. A tall order but not impossible.”
Responding to this statement in regards to those who cannot be rehabilitated. And proposing a superior solution. Perhaps veering offtopic in the process.
As for the reduction of regular homicide. Yes. I believe Capital punishment does work over time.
It became more and more common in regards to crime that often involved murder like highway robbery and horse theft since the 12th century. And there is a long-term trend of decline ever since in Western Europe.
Prior to that European society did not do capital punishment in regards to murder since the dark ages.
Carbasse, J-M. (2011). La peine de mort, Que sais-je ? Paris
Eisner, M. (2001). Modernization, self-control and lethal violence. The long-term dynamics of European homicide rates in theoretical perspective, Br J Criminol.,41, 618-638. http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/4/618.abstract
There are so many ways to address at least the gun component of the problem but politicians either want to do nothing, or just pretend Heller had never been decided and that the second amendment doesn’t exist.
Established constitutional law does allow you to restrict a fundamental right, it just has to be for a compelling government interest, narrowly tailored, and the least restrictive means possible.
What you can do is allow basic self-defense and hunting related firearms categories such as revolvers, shotguns and bolt action rifles, to be purchased freely (albeit with mandatory and universal background checks for all gun transfers) while making more dangerous weapons require greater levels of scrutiny.
To obtain a semi-automatic handgun or rifle for example, you would have to do a safe use and storage orientation along with a short psychological questionnaire where if your responses indicate some latent mental health issue, you would have to go to a licensed psychologist and obtain a clearance before you could take possession of the weapon.
Something like that would create a means to delay or deter people who are buying these firearms for some nefarious intent. I won’t get the most determined, but at least it will put a filter in place that does not otherwise unduly burden our constitutional rights and create outright bans on entire classes of weapons.
As it stands, a ban on all semi-automatic weapons that many on the left are proposing would never survive a constitutional challenge and are akin to the clown world political moves to ban abortion that the proponents know have zero chance of surviving. Yet a narrowly tailored law could have the desired effect while avoiding successful constitutional challenges.
Another thing we could do is require mental health screening at the high school and college level, possibly even via workplaces. These would be confidential and would not generate a permanent record, but would require referral to a mental health professional if the screening indicates a possibility of violence or self-harm.
Beyond that we need to figure out how to reach isolated young (and even older) men who have lost all sense of meaning and purpose. The actual ideology motivating these killers seems to me much less critical than the fact that they all have this pent up existential rage that eventually manifests itself in mass killing.
To a certain extent, this is also what may be behind the far larger tragedy of homicides in our inner cities.
Again, young men who have no real meaning or purpose, looking for what are essentially nihilistic outlets (gang membership, violence, drugs, promiscuity) to their rage and sense of hopelessness.
Cornel West has talked about this extensively and despite being about as “woke” as they come, his ideas in this area are not even discussed by the left.
Dave,
“Established constitutional law does allow you to restrict a fundamental right,”
Very true. Remember, we had functional gun regulation in this nation for well over a century, until washed away by the GOP and its judges.
“Another thing we could do is require mental health screening at the high school and college level, possibly even via workplaces.”
I would strongly oppose that until it is shows that such screening has any practical value. Color me skeptical about the results of such validity tests.
“Beyond that we need to figure out how to reach isolated young (and even older) men who have lost all sense of meaning and purpose.”
Our current situation is the result of a generations-long program of social engineering, using America as a nation of lab rats. The results have been unexpected. I suspect another round will have equally unexpected and probably more detrimental results, no matter how well-intentioned the instellectuals guiding it.
“The actual ideology motivating these killers seems to me much less critical than the fact that they all have this pent up existential rage that eventually manifests itself in mass killing. To a certain extent, this is also what may be behind the far larger tragedy of homicides in our inner cities.”
I am certain that such guessing will hinder any effective public policy action, and and action based on it will produce disastrous results. The statement about the inner cities is, imo (speaking as a former social worker), certainly false.
“Our current situation is the result of a generations-long program of social engineering, using America as a nation of lab rats. The results have been unexpected. I suspect another round will have equally unexpected and probably more detrimental results, no matter how well-intentioned the instellectuals guiding it.”
I am not advocating for more experimental social engineering though, rather things like re-igniting the old civil society institutions and organizations that created ongoing opportunity for meaningful participation in the community.
Young men need an outlet and a place to belong to, a sense of camaraderie and service to something greater than themselves. Those are also opportunities to build real relationships, friendships and even cultivate healthy romances, all of which are needed to avoid the isolation that leads these killers down a dark path.
“I would strongly oppose that until it is shows that such screening has any practical value. Color me skeptical about the results of such validity tests.”
Well it would have to be based on empirically validated screening. The idea is just to better identify who may be in need of mental healthcare.
“I am certain that such guessing will hinder any effective public policy action, and and action based on it will produce disastrous results. The statement about the inner cities is, imo (speaking as a former social worker), certainly false.”
It seems to me a lack of stable familial settings, lack of opportunity for community involvement, and inequality are drivers of this, with the end result being the nihilism I referred to.
Still, as a former social worker what do you think leads young men in the inner cities to engage in these self-destructive behaviors?
Dave,
“like re-igniting the old civil society institutions and organizations that created ongoing opportunity for meaningful participation in the community.”
Got it! Sounds like a good idea. But these have slowly died. We can’t just wish them back into existence. Look at the service clubs that played such a large role in America’s towns: Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc. Ditto the fraternal and Veterans organizations. Their average age has increased so that they’re retirement clubs. Reversing this won’t be easy. I wouldn’t know where to start.
“Well it would have to be based on empirically validated screening.”
That will take years, and I’ll bet most of today’s screening tests will fail validation. To mention just one problem – mass screening often results in more false positives than real hits because the inaccuracy rate is larger than the incident of the illness being screened for. Plus, in today’s America, we’re likely to see political incorrect personalities labeled mentally ill. Such as toxic masculinity. Mass screening is a powerful tool for social control. I don’t want the government to have it.
“It seems to me …”
Yes, that is guessing.
“Still, as a former social worker what do you think leads young men in the inner cities to engage in these self-destructive behaviors?”
I’m uninterested in guessing. It’s fun over drinks but has no place in a serious discussion. I would be interested in hearing from social scientists who have studied these things, and even (with salt) to people with decades working on the front lines of the inner cities.
“Their average age has increased so that they’re retirement clubs. Reversing this won’t be easy. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Yes, that has been my sense. I am in my 30s and trying to get a group of friends and cousins to join all at once. From there we can branch out and hopefully bring others in the area once they see it is not just a social club for retirees. The plus is that with social media, assuming someone can make a local chapter work, it can incentivize similar efforts nationwide.
“Mass screening is a powerful tool for social control. I don’t want the government to have it.”
Unfortunately having considered your comments I suspect you are right, it is too risky in the current environment. I am also not a fan of the medicalization of mental health and the accompanying mass drugging of people. Too many people my age are already on psychotropics, often for what seem like spurious reasons.
“Yes, that is guessing.”
I should not have paraphrased in in that way, things like lack of familial stability, especially in regard to fatherlessness, are absolutely empirically validated drivers of self-destructive behaviors in young men. You have made numerous references to that yourself. Nihilism is not often used in this way, but I think the word fits in terms of describing behaviors that ultimately destroy a person’s life, and by extension wreak havoc in communities where they become prevalent.
Regarding your second point, here are two studies I was able to find on the matter I found interesting:
Social Connections, Trajectories of Hopelessness, and Serious Violence in Impoverished Urban Youth
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3105375/
“Our longitudinal findings extend our understanding of relationships between hopelessness and violence highlighted in earlier research: males and youth with trajectories of increasing hopelessness during middle adolescence are at increased risk of involvement in violence during later adolescence.”
Hopelessness and violence among inner-city youths.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11822525
“Hopelessness about the future was relatively rare, affecting only 20-30% of the respondents. However, it was a strong predictor of fighting and carrying a knife for females, and of carrying a knife, carrying a gun, and pulling a knife or gun on someone else for males.”
Dave, what geographic area are you in where you’re trying to get people to join?
Mass shooters most commonly have this in common: Absentee or weak Fathers.
Abusive and dysfunctional family dynamics.
It always seems a huge factor.
info,
Yes. And now. The research cited in the For More Information section supports your statement.
BUT – we have had lots of absentee and weak (what does that mean?) fathers in the past, yet frequent mass shooters are a new phenomenon of the past few generations. What has changed?
I think influence of the legacy media as well other electronic means of communication that allows for radicalization. Perhaps combined with psychiatric drugs.
Fatherlessness as a result of abusive fathers or absentee fathers. Make such men fertile ground for such acts in my speculation.
Personally I know of some men who due to domestic violence in their childhoods(of one in particular who was physically tortured and beaten in uncontrollable rages by his father) are angry at the world for such circumstances. And is often as violent as his father in his anger.
Also goes to show that toxicity in the home is never merely contained there. How parents treat their children and each other and children treat each other will inevitably impact society.
I think also relevant is that Antifa is urging its members to arm themselves against everyone to the right of them:
To fight the fascist United States Government.
info,
That’s a very different phenomenon than those discussed in this post. It’s the possibility of increased political violence, nothing new in US history. I have notes about that for a possible post.
True.
No worries. After the finger pointing and feel good legislation gets passed, it’s back to normal.