I’m not a fan of guns, but they are not the CAUSE of these mass shootings and the increase in their occurrence. Guns have always been around and fairly easy to obtain (yes, both handguns and semi-automatic rifles). Yet mass shootings like the one today didn’t start occurring en masse until the mid to late 90’s. One or two took place in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, etc., but nothing like what we have today. So you have to ask yourself why now? Are people MORE mentally unstable now than ever before? Not likely.
But what was invented in the 90’s and then went on to complete saturation of public usage by the early 00’s (the same time school and workplace shootings began to escalate)? THE INTERNET!! More specifically, social media.
Human beings have always had some levels of anger, resentment, and grievances within them. Even the most happy-go-lucky and stable of us has some minimal amount of anger inside. Then there are the majority of us who have a moderate amount of anger and frustration below the surface, but because we’re mentally healthy and have anger management skills, we are able to deal with those feelings in a healthy way. Then there are the psychopaths/sociopaths, who have always been around and have always killed. Luckily for us, their numbers are small when compared to the other groups.
But there exists one more group of people, whose level of anger and resentment sits somewhere in between the “normal” person and the total psycho. This group of people are bombs waiting to go off, but for most of the last 100 years, there fortunately hasn’t been enough of a final push to ignite their fuses and push them over the edge, turning them into violent killers.
Enter the Internet. Never before in human history has it been SO easy to spread hate, anger, rumor, resentment, and distrust of one another. Just look at social media, message boards (even this one, sometimes), and chat forums and the absolutely horrible things said to other people that normally wouldn’t be said in person. Politics have become so much angrier and nastier. Everyone is pitted against one another. Left wing vs. Right Wing. White vs. Black. Christian vs. Muslim. Straight vs. Gay. Man vs. Woman. These conflicts have always existed at one level or another, but now the extreme vitriol can be seen and spread with one click. Our society is very angry. Even the most calm of us can get kind of heated over opinions or stories we read online. But think of the injustice collectors and angry/fringe parts of society. Prior to the Internet, they were mostly able to keep their rage in check because they were not subjected to trigger messages and imagery on a daily basis. But now, these ticking time bombs are pushed over the edge on a daily basis, and in almost every case it is discovered afterward that the shooter was indoctrinated/radicalized/enraged/encourage by online content.
I don’t know what the solution is, but the Internet has been the reactant that has cause mental instability and ease of access to firearms to finally combust into the horrific almost daily cycle of violence we see now.
