

Facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States - sethbannon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/

======
tadfisher
And how does any of this apply to Connecticut, which already has one of the
lowest per-capita firearms death rates in the country (and lower than many
European countries, I might add) and some of the strictest gun control laws in
the country? Would even stricter laws have prevented the shooting?

We need to stop seeing this as a gun crisis, because it isn't. It is a mental
health crisis. Bombing federal buildings and shooting up shopping malls is the
sign of a serious lack of ability for society to recognize and help the
mentally ill. While prior experience with weapons is a common thread among the
perpetrators of these tragedies, there are usually clear signs of mental
illness tied with each.

Here are the key findings of a Secret Service study performed after the
Columbine High School massacre in 1999:

\- Incidents of targeted violence at school were rarely sudden, impulsive
acts.

\- Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker's idea and/or
plan to attack.

\- Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing
the attack.

\- There is no accurate or useful profile of students who engaged in targeted
school violence.

\- Most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused
others concern or indicated a need for help.

\- Most attackers had difficulty coping with significant losses or personal
failures. Moreover, many had considered or attempted suicide.

\- Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the
attack.

\- Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.

\- In many cases, other students were involved in some capacity.

\- Despite prompt law enforcement responses, most shooting incidents were
stopped by means other than law enforcement intervention.

This week's incidents (I also refer to the shootings near my home town in
Clackamas, Oregon on Tuesday) are a wake-up call: be on the lookout for these
signals, and make sure these people get the help they need. This may involve a
re-examination of current laws on the books that prevent the involuntary
committing of the mentally ill. This may require a serious effort to allocate
resources to mental health facilities and faculty. And yes, this may mean
denying access to weapons until a psychological examination is performed.

~~~
harshreality
No argument here; there's no clear evidence that fatalities would be
dramatically reduced from these sorts of perpetrators if guns were not
available. [1] Psychology is too variable to predict whether any particular
killer would resort to less direct methods like bombs or poisoning if guns
were not available to them. Serial killers tend to prefer either more direct
or less direct methods with not much cross-over (the same serial killer will
almost never switch between strangling and poisoning, for instance), but I
don't know if there's evidence of rampage killers having a similar bias in
their selection of weapons/methods.

Also note the gender gap in rampage killers generally, and school rampage
killers specifically. [ibid] Perhaps all males should be locked up until their
obvious psychological faults, which contribute to this tendency, can be dealt
with.

The problem with increasing sensitivity to mental health issues is the
vagueness of some of the "warning signs". Should society punish students for
playing cowboys and indians on the playground, miming gunplay, drawing or
writing about scenes involving killing? Lots of adolescents who exhibit the
same "warning signs" (though not going so far as to plan an attack or execute
it) as school rampage killers turn out just fine without intervention. What
level of interference and "reeducation" of marginalized and/or antisocial
students should be tolerated in the name of catching the small minority who go
on to commit these heinous acts?

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers>

------
fjorder
I think it was Margaret Atwood who described civilization as the intelligent
trading of "freedoms to" for "freedoms from". For example, you can trade the
right for everyone, regardless of criminal background, to buy automatic
assault weapons for _freedom from_ the extreme violence that comes with that
_freedom to_.

The U.S. already has some gun control laws, but the data presented here
suggests they don't go far enough. However, gun control laws are always going
to come down to how much people value their freedom _to_ versus their freedom
_from_.

~~~
chrisbennet
It _already_ illegal for convicted felons (who serve more than a year in
prison) to own a gun.

