MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
By James Alan Fox, The Conversation @ The Chronicle of Higher Education website, Dec. 18, 2012
[James Alan Fox is the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University and the author of Violence and Security on Campus: From Preschool Through College (Praeger, 2010).]
[....]
Myth: Mass shootings are on the rise. Reality: [....]
Myth: Mass murderers snap and kill indiscriminately. Reality: [....]
Myth: Enhanced background checks will keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of these madmen. Reality: [....]
Myth: Restoring the federal ban on assault weapons will prevent these horrible crimes. Reality: [....]
Myth: Greater attention and response to the telltale warning signs will allow us to identify would-be mass killers before they act. Reality: [....]
Myth: Widening the availability of mental-health services and reducing the stigma associated with mental illness will allow unstable individuals to get the treatment they need. Reality: [....]
Myth: Increasing security in schools and other places will deter mass murder. Reality: [....]
Myth: Students need to be prepared for the worst by participating in lockdown drills. Reality: [....]
Myth: Expanding “right to carry” provisions will deter mass killers or at least stop them in their tracks and reduce the body counts. Reality: [....]
Myth: We just need to enforce existing gun laws as well as increase the threat of the death penalty. Reality: [....]
Comments
This ought to be popular.
by DF on Wed, 12/19/2012 - 1:44am
Seems reasonable enough to me.
by Michael Maiello on Wed, 12/19/2012 - 10:45am
This is a good article, worth the read. One of the things that popped in my head was that article deals with, as does most of the discourse right now, on how to deal with the individual once he or she makes the decision to carry out a mass shooting.
For instance:
Yet if these services were improved and intervention is provided early on in these individuals lives, then maybe they don't decompensate to the point where they become "potential" mass murderers in need of help.
Ultimately, mass shooters are in large part a symptom of a culture. Especially among males, the view that creating mass carnage as some means to an end has become part of the collective consciousness. It will take a long, long time to put the genie back into the bottle. In fact, it is not about going backwards to a better time, but for the culture going forward and transforming itself, evolving.
The shift in views about guns, our view of relationship with them, our views on mental health, and so on can be facilitated by new legislation. But it isn't going to happen overnight. But if we do nothing because nothing can be done to eliminate the threat immediately will only doom us to never getting this issue under control.
The article ends well:
by Elusive Trope on Wed, 12/19/2012 - 9:21am