Why the U.S. is No. 1 in mass shootings
By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times
The United States is, by a long shot, the global leader in mass shootings, claiming just 5 percent of the global population but an outsized share — 31 percent — of the world’s mass shooters since 1966, a new study finds.
The Philippines, Russia, Yemen and France — all countries that can claim a substantial share of the 291 documented mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 — collectively didn’t even come close to the United States.
And what makes the United States such a fertile incubator for mass shooters? A comprehensive analysis of the perpetrators, their motives and the national contexts for their actions suggests that several factors have conspired to create in the United States a potent medium for fostering large-scale murder.
Those factors include a chronic and widespread gap between Americans’ expectations for themselves and their actual achievement, Americans’ adulation of fame, and the extent of gun ownership in the United States.
Concealed handgun permits have zero impact on crime rates
Read more at http://scienceblog.com/80422/concealed-handgun-permits-have-zero-impact-on-crime-rates/#WP8flmfvEJw9w0fJ.99
You are off level.. Level
Right, no amount of gun control laws can change anything……other than the fact that all the countries WITH sensible laws don’t have this problem. Any questions?
Armed security at all schools should have been in place years ago and there are plenty of returning veterans available for hire or they can contract with local law enforcement. The question is what is creating these monsters? Most of whom are very mentally ill, and how to stop them sooner than later. Many guns are obtained by criminals by theft and any number of new laws won’t stop determined criminals who will get them by theft or smuggled across the open borders by drug cartel gangs.
What about all the mass beheadings in the middle east? Good luck banning knives. You can ban and ban but the bottom line is idiots will always be idiots and weapons will always be obtained by them. NEXT
The mass murders everywhere in the Middle East are a good example of defenseless people. Also these “Gun Free” zones are magnets for these murderers and should be stopped. There should be more armed security staff, this Oregon college had one unarmed security person, and/or having some trained and armed employees should be in place as well. These killers go where they think the easiest target is and the unarmed law abiding people are the ones who end up victims.
Watch the movie, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and you will see what can happen when government makes you turn in your weapons.
justice: any rational person clearly sees that you and those who resist gun control legislation have it backward. so backward.
The history of defenseless people having their arms taken for the “good” of the state or country and the resulting mass murders of defenseless millions used to be taught in school and it is called history. Many now have no idea of history and are uneducated to the point of being unemployable and unteachable. They can maybe start by reading some books about WWII and just before, try the 1930’s era, when the USA had to send the UK all of our spare arms, ships, planes, tanks, etc. to defend their islands from invasion and mass murder like what happened to many other countries then when they found themselves unarmed and invaded.
For anyone interested in some intelligent information about this issue, as opposed to the Limbaugh/Fox/NRA/ corporate media spew, I recommend a book called “THE PARTY of FEAR from Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History” by David H. Bennett.
A cogent review of this historically and culturally factual work can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/15/books/putting-a-lid-on-the-melting-pot.htmal?pagewanted=1
However, reading this review may be a bit too thought provoking for those that get their opinions about this complex issue from Clint Eastwood movies.
Pretzel logic kooks….you actually find this nonsense acceptable? This is the best you got , more guns?
Pathetic.
Grab a cup of coffee and try this one on…
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/24/9183525/gun-violence-statistics
Read the book, “More Guns, Less Crime.”
Or the recent CNN interview with the author.
Clowncy: It still doesn’t negate the fact that it DID happen.
Only idiots think more guns in everyones posession is the answer. There are so many idiots….so many…
Experiment results are in, more guns equals more mass murders.
gun nuts and evangelicals: same thought process.
Here is my honest opinion that you will not hear from anyone who is pro gun:
I think the number of innocent lives lost vs our right to use guns is acceptable. It would be great if the rate would decrease a little more. I don’t have any facts right now but I think the overall rate of mass killings per capita has been decreasing, and that is looking at innocent victims, not suicides and drug related crime. If CCW carries really think they can make a difference and intervene in this rare events then they need to really step up and show us they are our protectors. At the same we need to figure out how to make it more difficult for killers to kill effectively. And let’s not kid ourselves, the killers choose guns because of how effective they are.
“Armed security at all schools should have been in place years ago and there are plenty of returning veterans available for hire or they can contract with local law enforcement.”
That is a crazy idea, did you think that through?
How much is this going to cost? Let’s assume its $50k per year per person (includes training, wages, management, etc so that is pretty low). How many people will it take in South Lake Tahoe alone… 20 people? $1M per year. Make the gun community pay for it and operate it, tax each round 10 cents. There aren’t enough shooters in the region to fund guarding just the schools in our city that way so who else is going to chip in? It would be really pathetic if the public chose to spend billions on armed guards for schools instead of educating the people in them.
The media needs to step up and refuse to publish the names and life stories of the shooters. We shouldn’t bury them near normal people. They should get their own site with unmarked tombstones that we are allowed to deface.
The thing that needs to be shown is the carnage, the bloody mess, the twisted bodies, the grief on the faces of the ones not murdered, the horror on the faces of children who have to see this scenario again and again. Maybe if the truth of these scenes is shown than just maybe the outrage and disgust will help give courage to those of us that will work to change this horrible ugly truth. All we get to see is an aerial view of a parking lot and crime scene tape, a few tears streaming down a teenagers face and parents hugging their children. This isnt gonna get people up in arms to do something about this evil sickness.
id like to see wayne lapierre have to be at the scene of one of these events, have him mop up the gore, have him tell the parents to their faces that more guns would have prevented this ugly unnecessary slaughter of innocent life. Than he needs to be tried as a domestic terrorist and every time there is yet another mass murder he gets the job of cleaning it up and explaining how he is really the one that is responsible for these tragedies cuz he is a greedy, ugly, uncaring, hateful human…IMHO
pretty good stuff, nature
billy:
“It would be really pathetic if the public chose to spend billions on armed guards for schools instead of educating the people in them.”
Just who do you propose educating and HOW? The students and teachers? I guess you could tell them to hide better or out run a bullet. I know, since this puke was a Muslim, maybe you could invite some into our schools or Christian churches and have them try to justify the reason for this worm to seek out Christians and shoot them dead. I’m sure that will go over well.
You sound like your president. Dialog not action…..as the terrorism continues.
The tax payers fund the public schools and colleges with billions, some of that will have to be simply re-directed to armed security which should have been in place for decades. Eliminating some highly paid six figure plus admin positions would help. The money is there and the priority couldn’t be higher, they are just as important as court houses and government buildings. One armed and trained person could have stopped the attacker in this case and in all cases.
It would be nice if the adults could have a conversation, but given that our congress is bought off by the NRA, using hysterical right wingers to make everyone scared of their neighbors and of the gub’mint.
But hey, “…stuff happens.”
Precription drug use among shooters is rarely mentioned by the media. Why would it be? Those are the companies that pay big to advertise during news broadcasts.
Pretty certain if there had been armed security there would not have been as many causalities, if any but the whack job. That has been the case before. Without this in place there were numerous casualties and numerous dead in the time it took LEO’s to arrive.
Libs think banning guns is the answer to everything. It doesn’t work and will never happen. Move on to some other liberal idea that won’t work either.
Kits and Justice your “George Zimmermans of the world will save the day” attitude would be laughable if it wasn’t so mind boggling that you and your ilk actually believe it to be true. Study after study and death after death PROVE you are simply wrong.
And neither one of the two of you are even actual George Zimmerman wannabes. Your nothing more than KEYBOARD George Zimmerman wannabes!
Empty-Picture is a blithering empty-headed numb skull. If armed security doesn’t work and isn’t needed then why do all of the places guarded by it have it? Answer; It works, has always worked, and is needed to protect schools and colleges with some of the billions tax payers pay.
Providing brain dead answers to problems is all that liberals can do, really pathetic.
Empty-Picture is empty headed. If armed security doesn’t work and isn’t needed then why do all of the places guarded by it have it? Answer; It works, has always worked, and is needed to protect schools and colleges with some of the billions tax payers pay. It is that simple.
Providing brain dead answers to problems is all that liberals can do while real solutions are ignored to the danger of all.
Justanass. still is…
“Just who do you propose educating and HOW? The students and teachers? I guess you could tell them to hide better or out run a bullet. ”
What?
I was talking about what students do every day, nothing to do with guns.
Do yo have any ideas for how armed security at every school will be paid for or not.
“why do all of the places guarded by it have it?”
Fort Hood… that place was full of the people you volunteered earlier and it didn’t work well at all. You are doing a very poor job supporting the idea that people with guns are going to much to prevent mass shootings. And there is the reality that in intense situations the average CCW carrier will have the wits to be as useful as they need to be to make a difference. I don’t think doubling the number of CCW carriers would make a difference. I guess it is worth a try but what do we do when the more guns idea fails? Be honest and stop denying that easy access to guns enables killers to be more effective.
Has anyone seen Zimmermans twitter? It’s disgusting.
These gun worshipers think that everyone packing heat is “on guard” at every moment. If people are walking around looking for situations to be the “good guy with a gun” that is just as scary and creates the”zimmerman” im the judge and jury mantality. The problem is too many guns and a population of shallow thinking people who believe the NRA have given then the “right” to interpret the 2nd ammendment to fit their shallow needs. I will work tirelessly in any way I can to change the constitution. This will be the next big fight for humanity IMHO. idiots like kitty litter and justanass (still is) can stay locked up in their homes with their loaded guns to hug.
Bat-head: You should spend time learning how to spell first. Makes you look more ridiculous than you already are.
Impotent littledick gun nuts(nationally AND on this site) have a complex…maybe if they would be less obsessed with their guns if they weren’t so insecure about their manhood. They talk like some teenager solving their problems by challenging someone to a fight after school, which is a reflection of their worldview.
‘mantality’ is a great play on words. Perhaps that just went right over your heard.
Figures lie and liars figure. We all know anything from the LA Times is gospel, sure.
Freedom sucks, the Bill of Rights sucks, n’est pas?
Kitty litter, I doubt there are many out there who care less if I mispell a word or not. Youre one to point fingers regarding spelling anyway, yet that Is your one great skill, pointing fingers. Although im sure thats hard to do while you fondle your gun…lmfho
Nat’s-I’m sure it’s a squirt gun with a really short barrel he’s packin’.
Gosh…are you talking ‘freedom to’ vs. ‘freedom from’?
Hmmm: Come and break into my house and you will find my “squirt gun” full of acid….and lead.
Bat head: With your lack of spelling and punctuation knowledge you fit right in with some of the mindless youth and their faces attached to an I-phone. None of them care if a sentence is complete or correct….nor if put on the spot could they dribble out one. Just another fine example of Lib ignorance and declining education.
Don’t forget to look up when you cross a street….you could be run over….then the Thug will jump out and blame you…..as he points his stolen gun in your face. You will be looking for the flag that says “Gun free Zone”, but he doesn’t believe in that…only you do and think it will work. What shall we spray on your tombstone? LOL. Then you and your president will blame anyone other than yourself. Heck, he’ll even send you a free replacement phone.
Well Kit, Since I do not hunt, nor compete in shooting contest, I do not own a gun as I am not frightened of life.
I spend 100 plus days a year in the back country all over the west and travel all over this country annually. For example I will be in SoCal for three days next week and the week after I will be in DC and NYC for 10 days for business and pleasure and will not be packing as it is frankly a nuisance and unnecessary. My daughter goes to college in NYC and frankly the most dangerous thing she is at risk for now in Manhattan is gingivitis and diabetes. So by all means, if you are afraid of your shadow, then own a gun for protection and sleep with it on your chest. My sense is, the average person who owns guns for protection are more at risk of heart disease, colon cancer, and ailments related to obesity, not being murdered in their sleep.
So instead of owning a gun, I focus on eating nutritionally and being obsessed with fitness. A lot more fun.
Rick
Ok Rick: The people in Oregon said they never thought it would happen to their town. We have heard that time and again. Just saying because it hasn’t happened (and hopefully never will to your family) don’t think it can’t.
I don’t fear life,. I’m only prepared…huge difference. I don’t walk around packing either. But I have thought, what if….based on the whacks in our society.
Kit, you focus on the unlikely rare event – kind of like the phobic flyer. What’s your BMI (are you a healthy weight, over weight or obese?) , blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, lung capacity, any polyps with your last colonoscopy, do you drink to much, smoke at all, etc., speed on the highways, etc. All of those metrics are magnitudes more important than packing. So if you are packing and but engage in more risking practices, then you are illogical.
Rick
Kits, I don’t break into people’s houses. You are a paranoid little child.
If most mass shooting perpetrators were abused,…… What if the shooter contacted lawyer after lawyer who refused to sue the government over being abused on public property? If anyone wants to stop the abuse in government buildings by government employees and can get a lawyer to sue the state of california, I will point you to around 20 typewritten pages on only one office.
Rick:
Good luck if you ever become a victim. To be aware of surroundings is not to be paranoid. You obviously lack common (present day) sense. Hopefully your daughter learned some from her friends. Ps: I already told you I don’t walk around packing. Plus, I lead a healthy life so, come up with some other excuse, please.
hmmm: You take things wayyyyy too literal. Geeze, you are SOOOO predictable.
Kit your amusing and not terribly logical. Good for you for leading a healthy life as that is 1000 times more important then owning a gun for protection in your home. We all will die from something and extremely unlikely that either you or I will be invaded in our home and killed. Don’t know the clowns you hang out with, but the chance of me being murdered in my house (or at lunch or work) is far less likely (based on statistics) given my lifestyle, then a plane falling on my home.
So you owning a gun may make you feel safer, but its value in extending your life is immeasurable, if not an actual negative risk factor (meaning it could increase your chance of mortality somewhat).
Rick
Kit, also please find the top ten leading causes of death.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929.php?page=3
About 14,000 people are murdered each year out of a population of 320 million. Murder is well below suicide (the 10th leading cause of death). Most murdered victims knew their assailant; in a fair number of cases men murder their spouses or girlfriends. Murders by strangers are very very rare. So given that I am an older male, who does not hang with criminals and lives both in the South Bay Area and Tahoe, both places with very low murder rates, the probability that I will murdered is so remote its not worth considering. So no I will put my focus on doing what I can to minimize or hold back as long as I can, those factors that will eventually be my cause of death.
I choose to base my life on reality.
Rick
Had I really wanted to take things too literally I would have suggested that you had just INVITED me to break into your house, thereby negating the illegality of it.
You are still a paranoid child.
AGAIN…MENTAL HEALTH IS THE PROBLEM PEOPLE!! Gun control is not going to do a darn thing. The bottom line is that people need mental help, there is none in this country…NONE. Do we think the drug problem in our country is going away with enforcement?? Look at how the war on drugs is going peeps, it started in the ’80s with Reagan. The drug trade is alive and well. People in this country need help with drug addiction and mental health.
And folks…we live in the STRICTEST gun control state in the Nation, maybe instead of enacting more USELESS USELESS USELESS gun control laws we start helping our mentally ill.
Kitty litter dosnt pay attention too well, thats the result of being paranoid and delusional at the same time. Im guessing that, and finger pointing, are the most skill he/she possesses. Fyi im a 50 something with a graduate level 4.0 education, worked in my field of education for 20 years and have achieved more in life than kitty litter probably ever will, not that I give a rats ass. Im not paranoid and, like a few others have posted, choose to not get sucked into the gun worship culture. But go ahead kitty litter, the gun builders thank you for supporting their existance.
snoplease,
I’m impressed with your ability to scream so many rightwing talking points from multiple wingnut BS sources while simultaneously listening to hate radio and watching foxnewz. Of course, you’ll deny it.
Stigmatizing mental illness is such a crude, reprehensible position to take on the gun issue when the real insanity is the perversion of the 2nd Amendment by the NRA purchased politicians.
The NRA is not a support group for responsible gun owners anymore, it is now just the sales dept. for gun manufacturers.
We are trying to live under the tyranny of guns, threats from guns and and violence from guns while LaPierre and the NRA laugh all the way to the bank.
There were only a handful of documented fatalities from faulty airbags in Toyota airbags and a massive 1.7 million vehicles were recalled. YET, about 90 people die every day from guns and we are told that nothing can be done to help or even more hideous, we are told more guns are the answer.
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
Yes, it is one sentence that begins by discussing regulated militia.
K. Clancy-
You have me all wrong. No Fox News or Limbaugh here. I just have a different view on gun culture and mental health in our society.
I know first hand how the mentally ill are underserved in our country. How am I stigmatizing them?? Its true…people who commit mass murder are mentally ill…are they not? What resources do the mentally ill have? Nothing. We need more help for our mentally ill. Period.
And do you really think more gun control laws will help reduce murder and killing? Your dreaming. I’m a realist, I know that the guns will never go away…EVER. I know the government will never take my guns from me…EVER. It’ll never happen, even though so pro gunners do believe that. You are correct, the gun lobby is very, very, very strong. You will never, ever get rid of guns in our society. We are a gun loving society. They, are here to stay. So why not try something new? More resources for our mentally ill, more acceptance of the mentally ill, more mental health workers and buildings to help them? Could we at least try?
Or lets just keep beating the same anti-gun drum and see if that works…it wont.
Sno. If you want evidence that gun controls and safety legislation works, look at Japan, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and more along with the rates of gun deaths per 100k population. All of these countries have 2 deaths per 100k population or less while in America we have have 11 deaths per 100k population.
More resources to the mentally ill may have in impact. However, the NRA is against a national registry for background checks for the mentally ill. Therefore, we have a hit and miss State by State system or in some States no check at all.
Also, the NRA is against smart guns or guns that recognize the owner/operator of the weapon; technology that is currently used in smart phones and other mobile devices. This is the 21st Century, not the 17th.
It is not an anti-gun argument but a pro-safety argument that will work.
Also, when American News outlets are able to re-print and broadcast the pictures of the carnage from these gun massacres instead of the yellow caution tape, then change will happen.
Guns are inanimate objects. They don’t have a mind nor do they work unless some human picks it up and decides to pull the trigger. Whackos are the problem in this society, not law abiding citizens. We would be better off if the idiots trying to get rid of guns focused on the real issue, the mental people. Try fixing/helping the source and forget about disarming the good people because THAT will never happen.
Kit, guns may be inanimate objects, but a wackoe with one is so much deadlier than an unarmed wackoe. How anyone can argue for more guns is beyond me
Nic,
We are not saying more guns but to at least TRY with a better mental healthcare system for America. Gun control has not proven to decrease gun violence in the USA. We’ve tried the gun control route…it doesn’t work, it doesn’t. Millions and millions of guns are already here in America and they are NEVER going away. We need better drug and alcohol treatment, we need better mental healthcare for America.
Kitty Crap. About 10,000 kids are killed or injured by your “inanimate” object – Guns each year, and over 1/3rd are from accidental use of Guns.
rock brain: AGAIN…the guns didn’t do the dirty deed, people did.
Any mental person hell bent on a rampage has all kinds of weapons available. You take a gun away he will find some other method. Get used to it. Our guns are here to stay. You might ask Chicago how a ban on guns is working for them.
Kit Crap. Again, your ranting about inanimate objects rings hollow. Inanimate objects called Boeing 767’s slammed into the Twin Towers and WE DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Because, it turns out, Airplanes are inanimate objects that can be turned into a weapons. Hence, more security at airports etc for safety reasons!
Yes, and how many people would have been killed at Virginia Tech (and many other places) had Hui Cho (and others) had a hammer or baseball bat instead of Semi Automatic Weapons?
Doing nothing about American Gun Violent deaths and tyranny is NOT a solution.
Awesome. Gun nuts think this great!
http://news.yahoo.com/woman-shoots-home-depot-parking-003307231.html
It rings hollow because your head is hollow. We could go on for days about this and never get anywhere. Enjoy your anti-gun, anti-American president who is trying to take political advantage by going to Oregon. I applaud those there who refuse to meet with the lying sack of dung.
The anti American wants guns banned but I bet you his paycheck he would never dis-arm his security staff nor would the old goat in Sacramento. Sounds a lot like “do as I say, not as I do”.
Kitty litter, you are one messed up human and if the mental health system were any good you would be first in line for an evaluation and removal of your gun hugging right to bear arms. Maybe thats what has you so flustered cuz you know that your guns would go by by cuz there Is a real chance your mental health status would be classified as unfit to be amongst anyone. IMHO
Bat brain: YOU WOULD know about mental cases.
Go hug a tree somewhere and maybe a bear will take a chunk of your hind side. Then your little brain will be even smaller.
You think anyone who doesn’t agree with your liberal rants is mentally ill. Typical and soooo predictable.
It’s a little early in the month to be shaving off your psych meds, Kits.
Kit Crap. You really need professional help with your Negrophobia and Xenophobia because the only real “Anti American” you see is in the mirror.
Rock: You are such a little Pi$$-ant. I said nothing about race. YOU race baiter, brought it up. Go whine somewhere else, and to someone who cares what you and your minions think.
Kits are you the one who brought up how white people are a minority recently?
So yeah…. your reputation precedes you. Work on being a respectable person and then worry about being respected.
Oh Kat Crap, I am touched by your last post from the playground, but I left out your problem with Islamophobia too. Time for your medication now Kitty.
billy: All I did was say the obvious. We ARE a minority now. You clowns twisted it around to a race thing. Check your mirrors, lest they break.
rock: You attach “phobia” like others point fingers. You are the phobic.
“All I did was say the obvious. We ARE a minority now. ”
If only there were data to prove how wrong you are…
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html
LOL. 73%.
Well done local conservative.
Kitty poo is losing it. Like even worse than usual! I love sipping my coffee and laughing at her.
Crokett and Tubbs 2 American hero’s.
everyday on Television folks are shooting each other.
Has anyone who posts here ever heard of the Gandhi/King idea that violence begins with words. Look at how you talk to each other from behind the masks of made-up names. What chance do we have of not annihilating each other with behavior like this? SHAME! SHAME! Can we begin by not speaking to each other like we are out looking for a fight? I wonder about the brain health of everyone who has to stoop to this level when commenting on a news article.
Challenge for the day: post a comment without insulting anyone else.
Change begins with each of us.
Um Kitty Crap you said, ” I know, since this puke was a Muslim.” How exactly do you know that Chris Mercer was Muslim? Ah, you don’t… that is Islamophobia. Faux news is about the only media outlet trying to claim Mercer was a Muslim.
What we do know from actual News Sources is: his Mother is American while his Father is British, his parents are divorced, his online dating profile listed him as a Conservative Republican, he disliked organized religion, he was pro Irish Republican Army, he had white supremacist leanings, he had long term mental illness, he went to a School for kids with learning disabilities/mental issues, he flunked out of the Army, his Mother claims he had Asperger Syndrome.
OH, AND HE HAD FOURTEEN (14) WEAPONS IN HIS HOUSE INCLUDING A LOADED AR-15 AND SEVERAL LOADED GLOCKS.
Sorry Craps, but you have way to many phobias to discuss on this new blog.