Well there’s still ISIS among the Yazidis and whatever’s going on in Africa these days.
And if the Mongols were worse, I don’t need to know. This isn’t making me feel better!
Timex
3728
Mongols: History’s first bronies
Well, it shows that we are getting better. It’s just we started really really bad. Maybe in a few thousand years?
JonRowe
3730
Well, in 'Murica guns are so cheap that you can have 2 or 3 in case one jams.
I do have to wonder if things haven’t changed a lot over the past few decades. People have been getting fired, laid off, let go, harassed, or otherwise been on the receiving end of crappy work-related (and relationship-related) stuff forever, but it seems only now that far too many times the response is some sort of lethal, suicidal rage. The question is, what has changed? And it’s not the availability of firearms, certainly. There’s something else at work here, damned if I know what it is though.
Increased desperation and income inequality? Faster changing times? Less free time, less pay? Pick your poison.
Maybe? “Going Postal” derives from the late 80s-early 90s, which corresponds with the rise of 24 hour media coverage.
I have no idea if it was less frequent prior to that, or just less reported.
I’ve been wondering about a lack of spiritual peace. Even if you think religion is the opiate of the masses, well, there you go.
Possibly also something about changing communities in modern times and less connectedness.
There might be something to that, tying it to the loss of third spaces. Community is a place to gripe. Griping is blowing off steam, in a sense.
Disclaimer: I am not a sociologist, and have no way to back up that thought whatsoever.
So the shooter was fired from a station in Florida where he was on-air talent who “got pretty weird” and became unmanageable. Filed a racial discrimination claim against the station, which was dismissed.
Worked at the station in Roanoke from 2012-2013. Was fired for constantly blowing up, losing his temper, and other angry outbursts and threats. Had to be escorted by police from the premises.
It’s been two years since that happened, of course.
So yeah. This guy was clearly dealing with mental illness.
Didn’t stop him from getting a handgun, or killing.
Shooter mailed this letter to a restaurant earlier in the year.
I think all of that plays a role, as well as the decline of parenting (by which I mean that families with one parent or two working parents don’t have the time to spend with their children that they used to). The connectedness item is the most ironic, though. We think of tech as providing us endless and sometimes overwhelming connectivity, but it’s of a limited and superficial nature.
Does technology mitigate isolation via online communities? Cause it via allowing people to retreat from real life? Or even exacerbate mental health issues by allowing people to connect to unhealthy communities that reinforce their worst habits and aspects? Even this one aspect of change in modern life can be read so many ways, it’s so difficult to say.
Alstein
3740
The shooter also listed the Charleston shooting as a trigger for his own shooting. So clearly mentally ill and tipped over the edge by the news.
Grifman
3741
Too much jumping the gun:
- You don’t know that this guy was socially isolated
- You don’t know that if he was, it was tied to technology
- You don’t know that violence due to perceived injustices is any worse than it was 100 years ago
This event could be no more statistically different than it was 100 or 200 years ago.
I’m pretty sure Dave, Tim, and the rest were speaking in general about social isolation and not specifically about this guy.
I think we can all agree that, at least by the evidence so far, this guy was mentally ill.
Timex
3743
He also sounds like he was kind of a dickhead.
Walmart announced that they will no longer be selling semi-automatic shotguns and centerfire semi-automatic rifles.
This has nothing to do with the recent gun violence. They will continue to sell other firearms.
The sales of these particular weapons was discontinued based on low sales volume.
Of course both the pro-gun side and the anti-gun sides are claiming political reasons.
The Guardian is reporting that a memo given to the shooter while employed at the station in Norfolk reprimanded him for constant co-worker complaints, odd behavior, and harassment. They warned him that if he didn’t seek out medical help for whatever was bothering him, his employment would be terminated.
Makes sense. Not sure I’d ever think to buy a semi-auto long gun from Walmart unless it was some generic brand that’s 20 bucks cheaper than a regular dealer.
And even then I think that’d be worth avoiding Walmart.
