Cynthia Miller-Idriss has recently addressed in Foreign Affairs (8 July 2022) the issue of mass shootings. Rather than focusing on the availability of arms she has indicted extremism as an immediate influence but identified mental health as the long time underlying context:
‘The alleged Buffalo shooter was referred for a psychiatric evaluation after telling his high school classmates he wanted to carry out mass violence, but he was released. When he graduated from high school two weeks later, investigators stopped paying attention to his case. Within a year, he had targeted and murdered Black Americans.’ (note 1)
She concludes:
‘But Americans are fooling themselves if they think the country can ban or arrest its way out of violence’.
Meanwhile Warren Farrell has stated: “All six of those mass school shootings that have killed more than 10 people have been done by boys, and all six of them have been done by boys who have been ‘dad deprived,’ from Sandy Hook right on through to the Texas shooting,” Farrell said .
‘The boys that committed these mass shootings at schools suffered from not having a caring, strong male role model. In addition to that, boys are often told their feelings don’t matter, which leads to emotional toxicity, said Farrell (Note 2) :
At least there are some sensible people left in USA. Hope springs eternal…
Notes:
- https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-07-08/americas-epidemic-hate .
- ‘Fatherless Homes Linked to Mental Illness, Mass Shootings’, https://www.theepochtimes.com/fatherless-homes-linked-to-mental-illness-mass-shootings-author-warren-farrell_4585225.html