Only 3 school mass shootings between 1903-1966. Didn't take off until the 90s | Hacker News Reader

Only 3 school mass shootings between 1903-1966. Didn't take off until the 90s

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11 pointsdonsupreme13 comments

The 90s were thew era of "Zero Tolerance" stupidities that punished the victims and protected the bullies. "Jocks vs Nerds" tensions got official teeth; and the Nerds were the targets.

Columbine "started a conversation about bullying" when it was a well known "we just don't talk about it" feature of life. There was a feeling that maybe the troublesome kids could be beaten into shape by the "good kids".

That didn't work so they switched to participation trophies and "awareness" campaigns.

In 1966 half of all children (in the US) weren't even completing high school. This thread is a disjointed set of "facts", just asking questions, and implying issues without any real analysis or insight.

At first I was a bit squeamish about the phrase "take off". But on reflection it's suggestion of something being fashionable is probably sadly accurate.

Yet overall crime went down in the mid 90s all the way until the late 2010s.

Any explanation based on mental illness, lack of stable parenting, Ritalin, lack of community, etc. needs to explain why all these negative impacts only affect shootings in schools, while apparently far more mentally ill, drug addled 18 year olds decided to stop committing crimes outside schools in much greater percentages.

Relentless pressure to conform and be a "team player" + massive levels of doublethink and hypocrisy + lack of parental guidance and care even in two-parent households because everyone has to work and has no time and energy for raising children.

Also definitely a big portion of attention-seeking. If you want to be "seen" or "heard", a pretty sure-fire way is to shoot a bunch of people, especially the vulnerable and innocent. Where better than a school? Media has been told over and over again that they create copycats, but their profit motive prohibits reform.

> Relentless pressure to conform and be a "team player" + massive levels of doublethink and hypocrisy + lack of parental guidance and care even in two-parent households because everyone has to work and has no time and energy for raising children.

And why does that only lead to more mass shooting events? Why doesn't it lead to all sorts of other violent crime that went down significantly over this period? Why would overall violent crime drop drastically over this period of time?

Attention seeking may be an answer, because it would explain why it leads to all these mental pressure increasing the number of media covered mass shootings, even if overall crime was going down. But the mental illness aspect simply doesn't fit. We should be seeing an increase in overall violence if so many 18 year olds were mentally unwell.

I wouldn't say there's necessarily any aspect of mental illness, just a lot of stress on kids. Breaking under pressure and lashing out against society isn't a mental disease, just teenage angst and nihilism.

Attention-seeking probably is symptomatic of mental illness though.

Now compare them against Europe and Australia.

Also, for Americans blaming it for the lack of "religiousness"...

Most of Europe it's more secular than ever and yet we don't have mass shootings.

Guess whay.

> Most of Europe it's more secular than ever and yet we don't have mass shootings.

One of the largest mass shooting was in europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

Try not to fall off your high horse.

Ah, yes. A single one.

Now, that case in the US it's just "Tuesday" at least once a month.

Seriously, the US is socially uberfucked if you can compare a single terrorist attack (from technically brainwashed but adult people) with damn kids generating a shooting several times a year.

The comparison it's just cynical and laughable. Grow up and look at the facts.

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/15/1099008586/mass-shootings-us-...

2022 alone: https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

> Ah, yes. A single one.

That's all it takes to debunk your assertion - "... yet we don't have mass shootings." I proved you wrong.

But since you want more... Here's one from this year...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/europe/germany-shooting-heide...

If you want more...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_Germ...

Makes a mockery of your claim doesn't it?

Your message is bullshit.

Half of the issues in Germany were due terror attacks. You know, we had ETA, IRA and so on in Europe. Also, a bunch of far right groups too. Now these are inexistent.

Oh, and for the last ones the German have to go back to... 1910.

The US compared to that it's a shithole on CIVILIANS owning weapons, not with paramilitary bands with OFC proper weaponry backgrounds. You have terrorist everywhere, but not mass shootings like the US.

That's your top issue. And yet, you are unable to learn of the TRUE background issue you have with social issues, lack of welfare, hard-rooted racism and guns EVERYWHERE.

Get lost. The US will collapse in a decade. You know what to do. Either make all guns illegals for civilians except for hunting or sports (forbidding open-carry or public display or weapons, as we the Europeans do), or collapse down a la Mexico.

>something happened in the late 60s early 70s.

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