After I’d read that the Trump shooter had looked at photos of Trump and Biden and their upcoming speech locations and the fact that the shooter was a lone wolf and bullied at school, I read part of the Wikipedia page about the Uvalde shooting . The Uvalde shooter also was a lone wolf and also used an AR-15. My thoughts right now are like this :
-
The lone wolfs probably have suffered badly from an inferior complex due to bullying and alienation
and wanted to do something which made them feel historically “significant” instead of feeling completely “useless”. -
The US appears to have a pretty dominant machismo culture (Think about GOP with their MAGA, it is humiliating for women and minority groups) and so-called snowflakes are looked down upon. This is very bad for everyone involved.
-
Cops are afraid of citizens having an AR-15 on them.
What can be done ?
-
Should vote with our wallets ? Like stop using exTwitter now that Elon Musk has publicly shown support for Trump ? (On Mastodon I’ve seen many comments about people that did cancel their subscription to the New York Times and that seemed to have some effect. Finally the NYT is posting more critical articles about Trump and Project 2025.)
-
Should people talk more often to each other and avoid alienation ? In books of Gabor Maté he talks about the fact that most people in society look down on hard drug addicts but these junkies are still human beings. And the same goes for homeless people and refugees of course. They are still human beings. No need to automatically view them as inferior beings, right ?
-
Should we limit our screen time on mobile phones ? Are we silently producing a sort of zombies that cannot think for themselves anymore ? Should tech companies be obliged to make phone apps less addictive ?
Should mobile phone usage during class in school be forbidden ? -
Should we promote exchange projects as part of cultural improvement ? Like say 50 people from Congo Republic in Africa swap places with 50 people from California for 1 year, and then after swapping back talk about the experiences.
-
Should we in our education system or during leisure time educate people more on what happened in World War II and what we can still learn from that ? For example the book by Umberto Eco about how to recognize a fascist ( Ur-Fascism ) could be used.
-
Should bullying at school be pro-actively approached and make victims and bullies talk to each other under professional supervision ?
The things you have suggested are just distractions away from these two points and won’t fix anything.
I think you are correct about the mental health issues. It scares me that the health care is private, and not all can afford it
Yes, we’re underfunded as hell on mental health services but the person that thinks mass murder is the best solution to their problems is probably not going to opt in to treatment.
If that is indeed true, my follow up questions would be “why not?” and “how do we solve that?”.
Probably awareness. There should be a public hotline at well known as 9-1-1 that anyone can call for counseling and referrals. There should also be an expectation or pathway to retaining your rights. It’s probably policy in many states that to check yourself in to a mental health facility means you have to work 10x harder to get a job, a gun, or even vote someday down the line when you’re in a better state.
Removed by mod
Your point about mental health issues is about the victim being bullied or being avoided by others I guess ?
If I refuse to buy Nike shoes like all others, and if I decide to wear all black clothes with heavy metal shirts and I prefer to read books rather than talk loud and the rest of my class mates avoid me for reasons, does that mean I need to get therapy ?
I think anyone who wishes harm on another has some issues they need to work through. Not just people who want to shoot up schools or whatever, but also people who feel so much hate for certain minority groups, or get too involved in sensationalist media.
I honestly think giving each child a yearly “checkup” with a psychologist where they can air greivences and get support would improve the quality of life of so many children.
So many people are scared and angry nowadays (and for good reason), yet don’t know if any healtht coping mechanisms.