What is the cause of kids commiting mass shootings in school ?

[Moonglow]

Rage and revenge is another reason...

 

[ding]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

In 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history, the shooter came from homes in which the biological father was not present.

Coincidence? Maybe. But that is a stunning statistics.

And there are other critical factors at play. My short list:

--kids need a responsible mom and a dad in the home. Very very few criminals or violent people of any sort come from such homes.

--kids benefit from a religious faith that teaches love, respect for life and authority, caring from others. Good churches and synagogues aren't producing many criminals.

--kids need role models that demonstrate some of the best to which we can aspire instead of heaping admiration and fame, making heroes out of, or generating sympathy for those who promote hate, anger, violence, and lawless behavior.

--kids need to be taught personal responsibility and accountability in which the norm is educating yourself, staying away from illegal substances and activities, meriting a good reputation, learning a trade, getting married before having kids, and contributing to your family, your community, your country. Such people are rarely involved in any kind of bad acts.

--kids need video games, television programs, and movies that promote real heroism, good triumphing over evil, and rejection of violence except in self defense. When video games have the player having to do bad, even evil things to win, how can that not translate how they relate to their real world? When what passes for entertainment on television and in the movies promotes the worst kind of violence, promiscuity, immorality, and sympathy for the bad guys, it is no wonder that children become desensitized to violence or the pain of others and see bad acts as glorious acts. It all is teaching the kids and it is invariable that some of them will be motivated to act on it.

Maybe correlation isn't causation when it comes to kids being violent, but I sure think we need to look at what our culture has become and what we are teaching and demonstrating and how that contributes to the social problems we have.

I agree on all points as to what is needed. However, I think the changes you are addressing are generational changes that can take decades. You can not expect children to be responsibility when their parents are irresponsible. IMHO, the first step is to convince young couples that having children is a huge responsibility, requiring almost endless sacrifices. Not all couples are suitable parents and when they recognize it and decide not to have children, they should be praised by family and friends for making the right decision. Starting a family when you are not prepared to raise children properly is one of the worst problems we face in society.

I can't argue with that, but we have to start somewhere to fix the problem. For sure we didn't get into our current cultural mess in just a few years--it has taken decades of fuzzy, convoluted, and/or selfish thinking and philosophy infiltrated in government, into education, into science, into media plus dedicated efforts of the politically and socially ambitious to divide us so they could conquer us to arrive at the mess we are in. So it will take at least a generation of right thinking and values to correct most of it.

Standing in the way of even beginning are way too many people who refuse to even consider that screwing up and/or corrupting our culture is the primary problem. They are focused entirely on blaming a political party or prominent personalities, blaming guns, blaming an ideology, blaming our past, blaming anything and everything other than themselves and/or that/those that they support, and/or what they want to believe it true.

Although our society has it's problems, it is one of the best in world. I've lived in Europe, traveled throughout the Far East and spent some time in both Africa and the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, there is no society that even comes close to America. This is why so many people want to come here.

At first look American society might appears to be violent, immoral, and dominated by the worst possible people but this is merely because people focus in on the worst. The news media magnifies all that is wrong with society and focuses very little on what is right with society. If you actually look at the people around you in the country you can clearly see that most people are honest hard-working people, regardless of there political preferences, income, or race. They try to raise decent responsible kids, hate not being able to support them, and are generous to a fault. However, it's the failures that make the news and create false impressions of the country.

Compared to other societies, Americans are the most self-critical people on earth. We tear apart everything and are never satisfied.

That seems like a poor measure. We are the best of the worst?

 

[Moonglow]

Is it any worse than when schools and churches were bombed and burned killing kids in the 1920's through the 1960's?

 

[ding]

Is it any worse than when schools and churches were bombed and burned killing kids in the 1920's through the 1960's?

In that standards of conduct were lowered? No difference at all.

In terms of what motivated it? Yes, quite different.

 

[Desperado]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

\

In case you don't know:

The removal of God from schools
The removal of discipline from schools


No God + no discipline= a bunch of degenerate heathens with no respect for anything.

Who could have known?

Anybody with half a brain.

I do know that almost all mass shooters are white guys with a heavy sense of conservative victimhood.

And exacty how do you know that?

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

In 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history, the shooter came from homes in which the biological father was not present.

Coincidence? Maybe. But that is a stunning statistics.

And there are other critical factors at play. My short list:

--kids need a responsible mom and a dad in the home. Very very few criminals or violent people of any sort come from such homes.

--kids benefit from a religious faith that teaches love, respect for life and authority, caring from others. Good churches and synagogues aren't producing many criminals.

--kids need role models that demonstrate some of the best to which we can aspire instead of heaping admiration and fame, making heroes out of, or generating sympathy for those who promote hate, anger, violence, and lawless behavior.

--kids need to be taught personal responsibility and accountability in which the norm is educating yourself, staying away from illegal substances and activities, meriting a good reputation, learning a trade, getting married before having kids, and contributing to your family, your community, your country. Such people are rarely involved in any kind of bad acts.

--kids need video games, television programs, and movies that promote real heroism, good triumphing over evil, and rejection of violence except in self defense. When video games have the player having to do bad, even evil things to win, how can that not translate how they relate to their real world? When what passes for entertainment on television and in the movies promotes the worst kind of violence, promiscuity, immorality, and sympathy for the bad guys, it is no wonder that children become desensitized to violence or the pain of others and see bad acts as glorious acts. It all is teaching the kids and it is invariable that some of them will be motivated to act on it.

Maybe correlation isn't causation when it comes to kids being violent, but I sure think we need to look at what our culture has become and what we are teaching and demonstrating and how that contributes to the social problems we have.

I agree on all points as to what is needed. However, I think the changes you are addressing are generational changes that can take decades. You can not expect children to be responsibility when their parents are irresponsible. IMHO, the first step is to convince young couples that having children is a huge responsibility, requiring almost endless sacrifices. Not all couples are suitable parents and when they recognize it and decide not to have children, they should be praised by family and friends for making the right decision. Starting a family when you are not prepared to raise children properly is one of the worst problems we face in society.

I can't argue with that, but we have to start somewhere to fix the problem. For sure we didn't get into our current cultural mess in just a few years--it has taken decades of fuzzy, convoluted, and/or selfish thinking and philosophy infiltrated in government, into education, into science, into media plus dedicated efforts of the politically and socially ambitious to divide us so they could conquer us to arrive at the mess we are in. So it will take at least a generation of right thinking and values to correct most of it.

Standing in the way of even beginning are way too many people who refuse to even consider that screwing up and/or corrupting our culture is the primary problem. They are focused entirely on blaming a political party or prominent personalities, blaming guns, blaming an ideology, blaming our past, blaming anything and everything other than themselves and/or that/those that they support, and/or what they want to believe it true.

Although our society has it's problems, it is one of the best in world. I've lived in Europe, traveled throughout the Far East and spent some time in both Africa and the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, there is no society that even comes close to America. This is why so many people want to come here.

At first look American society might appears to be violent, immoral, and dominated by the worst possible people but this is merely because people focus in on the worst. The news media magnifies all that is wrong with society and focuses very little on what is right with society. If you actually look at the people around you in the country you can clearly see that most people are honest hard-working people, regardless of there political preferences, income, or race. They try to raise decent responsible kids, hate not being able to support them, and are generous to a fault. However, it's the failures that make the news and create false impressions of the country.

Compared to other societies, Americans are the most self-critical people on earth. We tear apart everything and are never satisfied.

We should never be satisfied but I believe we are losing our unique American culture that made this the great nation the world has ever known. I do believe this most likely is the last generation that will be able to start turning things around. But if we continue tearing ourselves apart as we have done in the last several decades, and don't start turning it around, we will become like all the places that far more people want to move from than move to.

 

[Slyhunter]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

\

In case you don't know:

The removal of God from schools
The removal of discipline from schools


No God + no discipline= a bunch of degenerate heathens with no respect for anything.

Who could have known?

Anybody with half a brain.

I have said since the Feb 14th shooting and mentioned it here since that the breakdown of family coupled with weak parenting is the whole problem. The parent/parents are the guilty party. That is the root of the whole problem and nothing else. I read about a sheriff somewhere today making the same assessment. One of the biggest culprits are the video games that are about violence and killing. Those things are the current baby sitters.

We need to go back to one earner households and stay at home moms.

 

[dudmuck]

 

[PredFan]

That is THE question we need to ask if we really want to stop that kind of thing. Why are we so violent? Why do we value life so little, why are we raising kids who are willing to kill?

Until we spend time and money trying to get answers, people will continue to die.

The politicians on the left say to ban guns, the politicians on the right say to arm teachers, no one is looking for answers.

People have been asking those questions for decades. The answers have very little to do with government and lot to do with how we raise children, how we treat each other, and our personal sense of value.

Maybe that’s true, I don’t know. But people are asking but no one is trying to answer the question.

I think we have the answer to why? We just can't come up with an answer to how that will work in our society?

We love violence. We spend billions of hours viewing it and glorifying. We have more firearms than people. In fact, there seems to be a fairly large segment of society that would be happy to return to frontier justice, where the law of the gun rules.

Two separate things.

I love violent movies. I love them all from the slasher horror films to the shoot 'em up ones like John Wick. I have respect for life and would not kill an innocent person. I have more firearms that people in my family, yet I have not shot a single person, and my children, 5 daughters, respect life and wouldn't take a life. I wouldn't be happy to return to Frontier Justice, if by that you mean posies and hangings without due process and trial by peers.

I don't believe that we have the answer yet, but I agree that the second part; applying what we learn to society, will be the most difficult part. It's just that we haven't even tried.

As Chris pointed out, there is almost certainly more than one factor involved.

Of course the vast majority of people who enjoy the violent movies/TV/video games don't act out those scenes. But a high percentage of those who do also enjoy such violence and there is less and less available to balance and counter it.

And most kids coming from single parent homes or otherwise who grow up without a biological father in the home don't become violent criminals and many become exemplary citizens. But a largely disproportionate number of criminals in our society do grow up without a biological father in the home. And the fact that 26 of the 27 most violent mass killers in America were boys/men who grew up without a biological father in the home almost has to be looked at as significant.

Is the fact that the cultural trend of mocking, ridiculing, and/or downright hostility toward public expression or acknowledgement of religious faith, scorn of patriotic pride in flag/country, promotion of disdain for reverence for life, lack of respect for authority etc. a coincidental correlation? I would lay odds that it is significant factor in creating a kind of sociopathy in some people. Definition of sociopathy: personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.

Does the media's almost obsessive focus on anger, hatred, disapproval, and/ contempt of the President et al and/or giving excessive coverage to something like the Parkland shooting while giving only quick mention, if any mention at all, of any good news happening have an effect on how people view their world? How they feel? I think it almost has to.

And any one factor could be harmful but add them together and I think we have a huge problem. When you destroy cultural cohesiveness and norms by taking away so many of the components that create it, you will have a much more angry, hate filled, violent society.

Until we stop allowing certain segments of society that for whatever reason continue to divide us and separate us and we start promoting a return to a culture in which most of us share good old fashioned traditional values. . .

I think we will continue to see a culture that is increasingly divided into special interest groups pitted against other groups. . .

we will increasing dilute all the components of society that promote security, integrity, sense of belonging, general goodness while allowing or even promoting those things that dilute what is good and tolerate what is bad. . .

we will continue to express and display and act out excessive anger, contempt, hatred, intolerance and worse for those who think, speak, and believe something politically incorrect or who belong to the wrong' group. . .

and yes, we will see more lawlessness, violence, and unconscionable acts against the most vulnerable in our society.

All of you have touched on some things that can be reasonably assumed to be contributing factors. Not being a psychologist, I am limited in my ability to argue with any of it. It just seems to me that none of those things can be pointed to as THE reason for the violence. If you can be triggered by a violent movie while the majority of people are not, then it's not the movie, it's something else. I'm not trying to argue or disprove anything you say, my whole point here is that no one is really looking for the cause. They are simply using the tragedies for political gain. I have no idea why the GOP isn't taking this route, but the mainstream GOP doesn't know their asses from their elbows these days.

 

[PredFan]

Funny meme, but what's sad is the way schools are run in reality, all of the students (who do not have guns) would get it wrong.

 

[PredFan]

That is THE question we need to ask if we really want to stop that kind of thing. Why are we so violent? Why do we value life so little, why are we raising kids who are willing to kill?

Until we spend time and money trying to get answers, people will continue to die.

The politicians on the left say to ban guns, the politicians on the right say to arm teachers, no one is looking for answers.

People have been asking those questions for decades. The answers have very little to do with government and lot to do with how we raise children, how we treat each other, and our personal sense of value.

Maybe that’s true, I don’t know. But people are asking but no one is trying to answer the question.

I think we have the answer to why? We just can't come up with an answer to how that will work in our society?

We love violence. We spend billions of hours viewing it and glorifying. We have more firearms than people. In fact, there seems to be a fairly large segment of society that would be happy to return to frontier justice, where the law of the gun rules.

Two separate things.

I love violent movies. I love them all from the slasher horror films to the shoot 'em up ones like John Wick. I have respect for life and would not kill an innocent person. I have more firearms that people in my family, yet I have not shot a single person, and my children, 5 daughters, respect life and wouldn't take a life. I wouldn't be happy to return to Frontier Justice, if by that you mean posies and hangings without due process and trial by peers.

I don't believe that we have the answer yet, but I agree that the second part; applying what we learn to society, will be the most difficult part. It's just that we haven't even tried.

You wouldn't take the life of an innocent person? So who decides on guilt or innocent. If you reject due process, the fundamental principle of fairness in all legal matters there can be no justice. A trial becomes a formality before imprisonment or execution.

I mean I wouldn't murder someone. If someone was trying to murder me, or my family, I'd kill him without batting an eyelash. He gets no trial.

 

[boedicca]

What standards have been lowered? Racism? Bigotry? Misogyny?

Seems to me that the kids at the wrong end of a barrel in Florida showed the type of guts and civic responsibility that kids of 50 years ago were incapable of.

Adversity tends to do that.

I couldn't be happier for you to ignore the decline in our standard of conduct and the warning signs of a deteriorating society. These things have a way of working themselves out.

Again, what decline are you referring too?

Moral standards; conduct; behaviors; values.

The problem is systemic. The signs are everywhere. All one has to do is look at the last two candidates we chose to run for the presidency.

Those are symptoms, not a cause.

No. As a society we have lowered our standards of conduct. That is the cause.

Circular nonsense. Again, lower standards are a symptom. They didn't just decline without a cause. Try identifying the root cause of The Decline.

 

[Flopper]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

In 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history, the shooter came from homes in which the biological father was not present.

Coincidence? Maybe. But that is a stunning statistics.

And there are other critical factors at play. My short list:

--kids need a responsible mom and a dad in the home. Very very few criminals or violent people of any sort come from such homes.

--kids benefit from a religious faith that teaches love, respect for life and authority, caring from others. Good churches and synagogues aren't producing many criminals.

--kids need role models that demonstrate some of the best to which we can aspire instead of heaping admiration and fame, making heroes out of, or generating sympathy for those who promote hate, anger, violence, and lawless behavior.

--kids need to be taught personal responsibility and accountability in which the norm is educating yourself, staying away from illegal substances and activities, meriting a good reputation, learning a trade, getting married before having kids, and contributing to your family, your community, your country. Such people are rarely involved in any kind of bad acts.

--kids need video games, television programs, and movies that promote real heroism, good triumphing over evil, and rejection of violence except in self defense. When video games have the player having to do bad, even evil things to win, how can that not translate how they relate to their real world? When what passes for entertainment on television and in the movies promotes the worst kind of violence, promiscuity, immorality, and sympathy for the bad guys, it is no wonder that children become desensitized to violence or the pain of others and see bad acts as glorious acts. It all is teaching the kids and it is invariable that some of them will be motivated to act on it.

Maybe correlation isn't causation when it comes to kids being violent, but I sure think we need to look at what our culture has become and what we are teaching and demonstrating and how that contributes to the social problems we have.

I agree on all points as to what is needed. However, I think the changes you are addressing are generational changes that can take decades. You can not expect children to be responsibility when their parents are irresponsible. IMHO, the first step is to convince young couples that having children is a huge responsibility, requiring almost endless sacrifices. Not all couples are suitable parents and when they recognize it and decide not to have children, they should be praised by family and friends for making the right decision. Starting a family when you are not prepared to raise children properly is one of the worst problems we face in society.

I can't argue with that, but we have to start somewhere to fix the problem. For sure we didn't get into our current cultural mess in just a few years--it has taken decades of fuzzy, convoluted, and/or selfish thinking and philosophy infiltrated in government, into education, into science, into media plus dedicated efforts of the politically and socially ambitious to divide us so they could conquer us to arrive at the mess we are in. So it will take at least a generation of right thinking and values to correct most of it.

Standing in the way of even beginning are way too many people who refuse to even consider that screwing up and/or corrupting our culture is the primary problem. They are focused entirely on blaming a political party or prominent personalities, blaming guns, blaming an ideology, blaming our past, blaming anything and everything other than themselves and/or that/those that they support, and/or what they want to believe it true.

Although our society has it's problems, it is one of the best in world. I've lived in Europe, traveled throughout the Far East and spent some time in both Africa and the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, there is no society that even comes close to America. This is why so many people want to come here.

At first look American society might appears to be violent, immoral, and dominated by the worst possible people but this is merely because people focus in on the worst. The news media magnifies all that is wrong with society and focuses very little on what is right with society. If you actually look at the people around you in the country you can clearly see that most people are honest hard-working people, regardless of there political preferences, income, or race. They try to raise decent responsible kids, hate not being able to support them, and are generous to a fault. However, it's the failures that make the news and create false impressions of the country.

Compared to other societies, Americans are the most self-critical people on earth. We tear apart everything and are never satisfied.

That seems like a poor measure. We are the best of the worst?

Maybe it is, but it is far better than measuring our society against that which does not exits, never has, and probably never will.

 

[Foxfyre]

Adversity tends to do that.

I couldn't be happier for you to ignore the decline in our standard of conduct and the warning signs of a deteriorating society. These things have a way of working themselves out.

Again, what decline are you referring too?

Moral standards; conduct; behaviors; values.

The problem is systemic. The signs are everywhere. All one has to do is look at the last two candidates we chose to run for the presidency.

Those are symptoms, not a cause.

No. As a society we have lowered our standards of conduct. That is the cause.

Circular nonsense. Again, lower standards are a symptom. They didn't just decline without a cause. Try identifying the root cause of The Decline.

I know it seems like a worn out argument, but I honestly believe the primary cause is an insidious progressivism that has slowly but relentless come to dominate our media, our education system, scientific institutions, and yes, our government.

Not all of it has emerged from bad intentions, but a lot of it has, namely that which seeks to increase its own power, prestige, influence, and personal wealth along with an unhealthy motive to control what others are allowed to do, think, speak, believe.

And while there are always anecdotal exceptions to any trend the big picture shows results of:

Destruction or dilution of traditional values and the traditional home. An unacceptable number of children who grow up without a biological father in the home and children overall do not do as well personally, socially, academically, or economically as children from responsible traditional homes. Again a stunning fact: 26 of 27 of the most violent mass killers in American history grew up without their biological father in the home.

Increased hostility to religious faith that once tempered hatred and promoted peaceful solutions in both individuals and groups, but is now increasingly unwelcome in our institutions and in the public sphere in general.

Schools that no longer arm students with useful information and encourage critical thinking in how to use that information, but that indoctrinate with ideology as much as or more than they educate.

Scientific institutions that promote an agenda more than pure science .

A media that seeks to control what information is available to the people and no longer makes much attempt to report fairly, honestly, and with respect for their readers/viewers and that gives excessive coverage to violence and the militantly politically incorrect while giving short shrift to what is positive or constructive.

An entertainment industry--books, television, movies, video games--that promotes the anti-hero, gratuitous sex and violence, and generates sympathy for the criminal and social deviant or promotes doing socially unacceptable things for fun. At the same time it has almost eliminated the noble and normal hero and heroine or plots that emphasize traditional values and/or the best that we can be.

Government comprised of a permanent political class whose primary, perhaps sole focus is achieving and retaining ability to increase its own power, prestige, influence, and the personal wealth of those in it. It only throws enough bones to its constituencies to keep them voting and gives little more than lip service to actually solving problems.

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

The FBI crime manuals point out that the 3 major causes of murder are (1) money, (2) revenge, or (3) sex.

You can remember them with the pneumonic "M.R.S."

Kids kill for revenge.

 

[yiostheoy]

Rage and revenge is another reason...

Like I said ... THIS is the ONLY main if not the only reason kids kill.

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

In 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history, the shooter came from homes in which the biological father was not present.

Coincidence? Maybe. But that is a stunning statistics.

And there are other critical factors at play. My short list:

--kids need a responsible mom and a dad in the home. Very very few criminals or violent people of any sort come from such homes.

--kids benefit from a religious faith that teaches love, respect for life and authority, caring from others. Good churches and synagogues aren't producing many criminals.

--kids need role models that demonstrate some of the best to which we can aspire instead of heaping admiration and fame, making heroes out of, or generating sympathy for those who promote hate, anger, violence, and lawless behavior.

--kids need to be taught personal responsibility and accountability in which the norm is educating yourself, staying away from illegal substances and activities, meriting a good reputation, learning a trade, getting married before having kids, and contributing to your family, your community, your country. Such people are rarely involved in any kind of bad acts.

--kids need video games, television programs, and movies that promote real heroism, good triumphing over evil, and rejection of violence except in self defense. When video games have the player having to do bad, even evil things to win, how can that not translate how they relate to their real world? When what passes for entertainment on television and in the movies promotes the worst kind of violence, promiscuity, immorality, and sympathy for the bad guys, it is no wonder that children become desensitized to violence or the pain of others and see bad acts as glorious acts. It all is teaching the kids and it is invariable that some of them will be motivated to act on it.

Maybe correlation isn't causation when it comes to kids being violent, but I sure think we need to look at what our culture has become and what we are teaching and demonstrating and how that contributes to the social problems we have.

I agree on all points as to what is needed. However, I think the changes you are addressing are generational changes that can take decades. You can not expect children to be responsibility when their parents are irresponsible. IMHO, the first step is to convince young couples that having children is a huge responsibility, requiring almost endless sacrifices. Not all couples are suitable parents and when they recognize it and decide not to have children, they should be praised by family and friends for making the right decision. Starting a family when you are not prepared to raise children properly is one of the worst problems we face in society.

I can't argue with that, but we have to start somewhere to fix the problem. For sure we didn't get into our current cultural mess in just a few years--it has taken decades of fuzzy, convoluted, and/or selfish thinking and philosophy infiltrated in government, into education, into science, into media plus dedicated efforts of the politically and socially ambitious to divide us so they could conquer us to arrive at the mess we are in. So it will take at least a generation of right thinking and values to correct most of it.

Standing in the way of even beginning are way too many people who refuse to even consider that screwing up and/or corrupting our culture is the primary problem. They are focused entirely on blaming a political party or prominent personalities, blaming guns, blaming an ideology, blaming our past, blaming anything and everything other than themselves and/or that/those that they support, and/or what they want to believe it true.

Although our society has it's problems, it is one of the best in world. I've lived in Europe, traveled throughout the Far East and spent some time in both Africa and the Middle East. As far as I am concerned, there is no society that even comes close to America. This is why so many people want to come here.

At first look American society might appears to be violent, immoral, and dominated by the worst possible people but this is merely because people focus in on the worst. The news media magnifies all that is wrong with society and focuses very little on what is right with society. If you actually look at the people around you in the country you can clearly see that most people are honest hard-working people, regardless of there political preferences, income, or race. They try to raise decent responsible kids, hate not being able to support them, and are generous to a fault. However, it's the failures that make the news and create false impressions of the country.

Compared to other societies, Americans are the most self-critical people on earth. We tear apart everything and are never satisfied.

We Americans are violent.

But we are not alone in that.

Russians are violent too.

We each protect our way of life and this sometimes requires violence.

America protects freedom and democracy.

Russia protects Russia.

The rest of the world including the PRC are all wimps. Ergo the rest of the world is less violent than America and Russia.

 

[yiostheoy]

Video games, drugs, frustration, lack of teaching morality.

Those are NOT direct causes.

Those are merely facilitators.

The proximate CAUSE is REVENGE.

 

[yiostheoy]

I don't want to talk politics or guns on this subject because guns have been around for hundreds of yrs and politics even longer ......when I was in high school kids would drive to school with rifles and shot guns hanging on gun racks and you never heard about someone getting shot much less dozens being injured or killed ......so instead of arguing over the weapons used or not used in these mass killings I would like opinions on what motivates todays kids to commit acts of evil that was unheard of 30yrs ago ? what has changed ? what is different about the way kids think today ?

In 26 of the 27 deadliest mass shooters in American history, the shooter came from homes in which the biological father was not present.

Coincidence? Maybe. But that is a stunning statistics.

And there are other critical factors at play. My short list:

--kids need a responsible mom and a dad in the home. Very very few criminals or violent people of any sort come from such homes.

--kids benefit from a religious faith that teaches love, respect for life and authority, caring from others. Good churches and synagogues aren't producing many criminals.

--kids need role models that demonstrate some of the best to which we can aspire instead of heaping admiration and fame, making heroes out of, or generating sympathy for those who promote hate, anger, violence, and lawless behavior.

--kids need to be taught personal responsibility and accountability in which the norm is educating yourself, staying away from illegal substances and activities, meriting a good reputation, learning a trade, getting married before having kids, and contributing to your family, your community, your country. Such people are rarely involved in any kind of bad acts.

--kids need video games, television programs, and movies that promote real heroism, good triumphing over evil, and rejection of violence except in self defense. When video games have the player having to do bad, even evil things to win, how can that not translate how they relate to their real world? When what passes for entertainment on television and in the movies promotes the worst kind of violence, promiscuity, immorality, and sympathy for the bad guys, it is no wonder that children become desensitized to violence or the pain of others and see bad acts as glorious acts. It all is teaching the kids and it is invariable that some of them will be motivated to act on it.

Maybe correlation isn't causation when it comes to kids being violent, but I sure think we need to look at what our culture has become and what we are teaching and demonstrating and how that contributes to the social problems we have.

I agree on all points as to what is needed. However, I think the changes you are addressing are generational changes that can take decades. You can not expect children to be responsibility when their parents are irresponsible. IMHO, the first step is to convince young couples that having children is a huge responsibility, requiring almost endless sacrifices. Not all couples are suitable parents and when they recognize it and decide not to have children, they should be praised by family and friends for making the right decision. Starting a family when you are not prepared to raise children properly is one of the worst problems we face in society.

The good thing about Catholic and Protestant brainwashing is that it gives you fear of infinite punishment for evil deeds.

The bad thing about Catholic and Protestant brainwashing is that like any other brainwashing it deprives people of reasoning and choice.

 

[yiostheoy]

PBIS.org Home Page

Quit suspension and expulsion . Alternative ed and mental health classes and schools should be in every community. Students need to report and schools need to punish bullies and teach empathy.

Social brainwashing is good.

However it is also bad, but to a lesser degree.

So the ends of this kind of brainwashing justifies the means, at least until the kids grow their own empathy and conscience.

School security is the only practical workable solution.

But until you have Uzi's on every street corner like in Israel you will not stop school shooters.