| Posted: 16 December 2012 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | 12
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I honestly believe that the main reason for the killing was the fact that the attacker was 100% sure that his name would be on national television, that he would be a celebrity (a bad one, but still a celebrity) he would be remembered as the evil child killer, people would talk about him, his life and maybe, they would even make a movie about him. That is the real issue.
I'm not disputing this.
In fact, I believe in many cases, that is the motivating factor (coupled with/augmented by whatever horrible mental disorders would lead one to such thoughts).
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I'll dispute it. Did no one learn anything from Columbine? In the wake of that shooting, there were so many assertions as to the motives of the shooters, much of which turned out to be misinformation. And in the wake of that, the nonconformist students who were formerly bullied were then regarded with suspicion as potential killers by the other students and school administrators.
Even with this shooting, there's misinformation. The initial reports were that Lanza's mother was a teacher, now they are saying she was not associated with the school and was a stay-at-home mom. Wait until we get a clearer picture and some perspective before trying to make some grand sweeping claim about why he did this.
As for the notion that society is getting sicker, having recently visited an exhibition about medieval torture devices, I'd say we have the capacity to be depraved as we ever were. Just the devices that were used to punish women for being uppity or gossipy were stomach churning, and the idea that these were socially acceptable to use was a bit depressing. And the devices to punish heretics used by supposedly holy men? I don't even understand how one could even consider using them. I'd argue that we have become less tolerant of this type of violence, while retaining the propensity for it, so when it does happen, we feel things are getting worse.
As for this magical period when horrible things like this did not happen in the US, there was a time when things like the extermination of Native Americans in order to expand territory, the abuse of blacks for slave labor, and the lynching of blacks by the "heroic" KKK were all considered tolerable by sizable amounts of the population. I'd assert that gun violence in the US isn't caused by the loss of our values, but because we refuse to let go of our outdated ones. Where some other countries seem to want to distance themselves from their violent pasts, America still seems to want to cling to the idea that violence is the primary option in getting our way.
The difference between now and the past? Population is bigger, so that while the percentage of crazies may have stayed the same, there are still more of them, and they are exposed to more people. And modern firearms make it more efficient to kill people. I think the latter is something that can be addressed immediately.
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