Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Drib
I was catching up on some news from my country (U.S.) and found out about the shooting yesterday in New York.
In doing some research, I found reports that some criminologists believe the increase in mass murders may be related to the recession in the United States.
Quoted from an article in the Irish Times:
"Some criminologists suggest the recent spate of shootings could be linked to the recession and the impact of job losses on personal finances and relationships."
What do you think?
Don
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I suppose it might be true, but then pretty much anything "might" be true.
I do believe, however, that this latest "rampage" doesn't appear to have much to do with the economy and everything to do with a mentally imbalanced man who thought people were making fun of him.
There are going to be people in any society who go around the bend. Some of them are going to be serial killers and some of them will be mass murderers. Several of the most infamous serial and mass killers committed their crimes without the use of a gun. Guns don't kill people, they just make it incredibly easy to do so.
When anyone runs around saying that this sort of thing doesn't happen in their society .... blah, blah, blah .... I just wonder how often it really happens, and the perps just plain get away with it. Anyone here ever seen or read "Citizen X"? Yep ..... serial killers are just a decadent Western phenomenon .... my ass. How many children did that guy kill? I know it was well into double digits. I don't think he shot any of them. There are also means other than guns to effect mass murder.
Gun control alone is no answer. I was shot once with a 22 caliber "target rifle" .... did a fair amount of damage to my left knee. If he had kept shooting, he might have killed me. So, I don't think knowing that only 22 caliber rifles are allowed in the UK would have given my mother much comfort if she'd had a dead child on her hands.
Even the background checks aren't enough. So what if a person passes a background check and has no psychiatric history or criminal history? That just means that when they kill 13 people, that was the first offense and the first sign that they were nuts.
Any sort of cultural stressor can result in an increase of criminal activity. It doesn't always happen, but it can. Personal stressors can also result in problems, in individuals. Family annihilators are particularly prone to personal stress. They can't stand the idea of being humiliated in front of their family, so they just remove the family and the problem is solved.
However, anyone who tries to lump all of this stuff into a neat little package for an article just hasn't done their homework.