General News The violence is getting out of hand

Not sure what to say. If I were to ask some of my family members, they'd say it's because we are in the End Times.

I think we are probably just living in a society where people are growing up without as much structure as before, less discipline, and other social factors. I wonder how much having a dual-income household (or single-parent household) has helped contribute to this (i.e. the rise of the number of "latchkey kids").

 

We're not immune from it in Canada too. Just a few days ago some nut killed three Mounted Police officers in Moncton New Brunswick, one of them was the father of three, another had a toddler and his wife was pregnant...

Any explanations? Plenty, but I would guess it comes from a mix of paranoia, humiliation and powerlessness. What greater power is there than being able to kill someone?

 

There will always be violence, the only thing that's changed is our ability to notice it.

 

"This is a revolution!" lol. People are stupid. Why do stupid people have guns?

 

I think it boils down to the fact that parents need to teach their kids not to shoot people.

 

Ban all the guns. Women, people of color, and queer people get killed even more. Problem solved.

 

And is this the case anywhere in Europe where guns are extremely hard to acquire legally? No, because our society isn't as murderous apparently.

Maybe American society is beyond repair, and people will continue to get slaughtered every other day.

 

I think to some extent they're copycat crimes, what with shootings being reported on the news so often.

 

I have no means of verifying this, but I question whether the rate of such things has not changed at all, but merely the news coverage has?


I mean, really, it's not as if violence has sprung out of nonexistence. Just based on my generalized knowledge of history I have reason to doubt the rates are terribly different from any other given decade in the past 100 years (let alone history as a whole, in which it goes without saying that we are undoubtedly better off than usual).


-------------
Gun control is a different thing. My feelings on that are relatively undecided - it's just this comparing of now to "the good old days" that strikes me a wholly illusory and misinformed. That's the part that bothers me.


Especially stuff like the "oh, people are raised differently now" arguments - I'm thinking people "change" a lot less generation to generation then y'all think...

 

It could very well be... I would think that a few people might have been more motivated towards violence after hearing about other shootings though, but that's just my opinion...

 

I'm getting really worried about the future of this country. Shootings are basically a regular thing at this point and it's very scary :icon_sad:

 

This. If I'm not mistaken, crimes involving guns has gone down, and continues to decline. I think it's really just the coverage, and the sharing of the coverage. With the internet, smart phones, and especially social media, these stories are able to spread like a wild fire. You no longer have to sit in front of your TV or radio to get the news. With social media, these stories are pretty much forced upon you.


From a quick Google search: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/08/us/study-gun-homicide/

 

I agree, America is about to collapse.

 

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Firearm Violence, 1993-2011

Gun violence is on a decline not an incline.

From 1993 to 2011 Gun related homicides dropped by 39%
Nonfatal firearm crimes declined 69%, from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 victimizations in 2011.

^ going down not up, you just hear about more of it because the media is a giant rhetoric machine.

 

Glad to see folks verify my initial thoughts toward this subject with statistics. (Being too lazy pays! okay not really)

Alarmist/digital culture and a never-ending cycle of "kids these days are so terrible"... ick.

 

I do not doubt these statistics, it is a happy development, and yes, the echo chamber of the media does illustrate the "microscope effect", where focusing on a single event magnifies it out of all proportion.

That being said, I have lived with this echo chamber all my life and from that perspective there is something new going on with these random mass shootings that is out of the ordinary, and it does appear to be increasing in frequency.

 

This. If anything violence is a lot lower than it used to be. Just look back centuries ago where you couldn't walk outside without being harmed and people in power could hack body parts off more brutally than now for extremely silly reasons.

People only think society is more dangerous now because back then we didn't have as much news coverage as today. Nobody wants to publish stories about how "this family loves each other and gets along every day" or "Little Susie got a new puppy and things are great". They want to publish tragedies that will get more attention since most people are drawn to drama.

With that being said, this is a tragedy for sure, and It's a shame it happened.

 

I'd encourage you to re-think your surety.

I will take 1.5 million over 467000, and would happily take a lower number tomorrow.

Whatever can be done to decrease the number - but no need to spin falsehoods while we're at it.