07-10-2016, 11:09 AM
This thread focuses on government policy and how it effects homicide rates. A casual familiarity with the statistics also shows economics, drugs and race are significant factors. Still, while drug dealers are statistically more likely to be involved in homicides than others, no one truly cares if drug lords are shooting other drug lords. The reasons for the violence are generally ignored. It is presumed that gun policy is the dominant factor, which it is not.
The current concern is with spree shooters, who are often described as 'lone nuts'. CNN recently put up an article on why young males might be prone to violence, The evolutionary psychology behind mass shootings. It is written from the evolutionary behavior perspective. Basically, the status one gets as a young man is apt to follow a male for the rest of his life. In the old hunter gatherer days, the ability to excel in violent physical acts, as a hunter and/or warrior, and the parallel ability to dominate and bully emotionally as the leader of the active males, yields status. It's about testosterone. It's why young males put on football uniforms and manhandle one another.
The argument is fairly simple. Spree shooters are losers. They cannot get status or win the girl. There is allegedly an itch in the male psyche that suggests the thing to do when one is at the bottom of the pecking order is show proficiency in violence.
This suggests that part of the rise in spree shooters might be coming from the inability or difficulty of young people to launch cleanly into adulthood. It's the outcast loser that tends towards suicidal behaviors, but going out in a burst of gunfire seems the thing to do when one is caught in at the bottom.
It is certainly easier to change gun policy than to make it easier for young troubled males to adapt to society. Well. Maybe not. Todays politics make it very hard to change gun policy. Still, spree shooters are becoming a more common phenomena. Some part of it at least is an inability to face social pressures. I would certainly expect the troubles of young men will be visible after the fact, given 20 20 hindsight.
If nothing else, if it is not possible to change the culture such that all 'weirdos and losers' are embraced and welcomed, we might at least learn to recognize the symptoms better.
Anyway, the CNN piece is worth a read.
The current concern is with spree shooters, who are often described as 'lone nuts'. CNN recently put up an article on why young males might be prone to violence, The evolutionary psychology behind mass shootings. It is written from the evolutionary behavior perspective. Basically, the status one gets as a young man is apt to follow a male for the rest of his life. In the old hunter gatherer days, the ability to excel in violent physical acts, as a hunter and/or warrior, and the parallel ability to dominate and bully emotionally as the leader of the active males, yields status. It's about testosterone. It's why young males put on football uniforms and manhandle one another.
The argument is fairly simple. Spree shooters are losers. They cannot get status or win the girl. There is allegedly an itch in the male psyche that suggests the thing to do when one is at the bottom of the pecking order is show proficiency in violence.
This suggests that part of the rise in spree shooters might be coming from the inability or difficulty of young people to launch cleanly into adulthood. It's the outcast loser that tends towards suicidal behaviors, but going out in a burst of gunfire seems the thing to do when one is caught in at the bottom.
It is certainly easier to change gun policy than to make it easier for young troubled males to adapt to society. Well. Maybe not. Todays politics make it very hard to change gun policy. Still, spree shooters are becoming a more common phenomena. Some part of it at least is an inability to face social pressures. I would certainly expect the troubles of young men will be visible after the fact, given 20 20 hindsight.
If nothing else, if it is not possible to change the culture such that all 'weirdos and losers' are embraced and welcomed, we might at least learn to recognize the symptoms better.
Anyway, the CNN piece is worth a read.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.