What element in American society is responsible for VT and Columbine?

Question

If we look at the US and Canada together they are both quite similar in their culture - heritage(mainly European), language, sports etc. But yet the rate of gun related murders in the US is more than 50 times that of Canada.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-crime-murders-with-firearms
I appreciate there are probably more guns per capita in the US, and I understand that Canada has stricter gun laws.........but the people are essentially the same.
It would be interesting to hear from Canadians as well as Americans.

Answer 1

First off, Canada has had some pretty horrific mass murder type situations too. Comparing Columbine and VT with a general murder rate is not a proper comparison in any event.
You also overlook trememdous differences in population, have you controlled for the fact that the US population is 10 times that of Canada?

Next, you assume also that things like Columbine and VT result from gun ownership exclusively. Not so....in most cases these mass murders are caused by people who have social and other problems, they merely resort to guns as a means to their ends. If there were no guns, would they stop? I posit not likely, they would merely find other ways to strike out.

I'm not even going any further to answer your question because I believe it contains too many faulty antecedants and premises.

Answer 2

I'd like an unbiased investigation into these events. Honestly, I don't think that our own government agencies are credible at this point in history (Check out the errors and omissions in the Warren Commission Report and the 9/11 Commission Report.) Our media is also not credible given the conformist and parrot-like reporting service that they perform.

If we could get impartial investigators from Canada, France, and perhaps some credible specialists to investigate the root causes of these event. We can only fix the problem when we understand what the problem is.

Until then, you can bet that someone somewhere will blame CIA Black Ops for these events.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre

"The reality of social cliques in high schools was a frequent topic of discussion. Many argued that the pair's isolation from the rest of their classmates prompted feelings of helplessness, insecurity and depression, as well as a strong desire for attention. Some schools also began programs to expose and stop school bullying, which many charged had fueled anger and resentment within Harris and Klebold." (Students tell of bullying at Columbine High . (October 3, 2000) rockymountainnews.com)

Answer 3

The lack of attention to serious mental health issues seems to be a theme in both situations you mentioned. I am not a pro-gun or really and anti-gun person, but why is it so easy for folks with histories of serious mental illness to get guns. Harris, Klibolt and Chu all had histories that their families knew about yet they got them little to no help and actually in some cases made it easier for them to be societies problem and not their problem.

It isn't fair to compare gun violence in US vs. Canada, there are so many cultural and population differences that it just doesn't scientifically hold a lot of weight. Doing things in a big way to be noticed is more a US phenomena than Canada or most other countries, but Canada has its fair share of serial killers and slower methodical types of sickos, ie Hamolka situation. It isn't correct to say the people are the same in the US as in Canada, there are so many political and cultural difference I wouldn't know where to start, but for starters I would like to point out the effects of population density, poverty, racism and a failed health care system which the US has to contend with and Canada for the most part doesn't.

Good question, no easy answers.

Answer 4

Hmm it has got here approximately right here - Motreal out west it has got here approximately it somewhat is rather demanding - i think of a thank you to look at it somewhat is a cultural phenomona - particular it somewhat is greater sturdy for me to get a gun right here - in spite of the incontrovertible fact that this is not impossible to do it Blame television ? nicely a number of it perhaps - yet isn't it greater that the dad and mom are so busy making a residing that the television is now the suitable toddler sitter and there isn't any stability supplied to it with the aid of social interplay ? infants have been observing cowboy video clips and such for an prolonged time - No gun fights at intense midday have been pronounced to the perfect of my awareness . the different element is that we would desire to constantly settle for that a % of our inhabitants is and could constantly be nut bars . Does the U. S. shootings while in comparison with the Canadian shootings properly characterize the a million/2 % of lunitics in step with capita ? i've got in no way heard one way or the different some time past while that a million/2 % had a 6 shooter or a knife so the # of ineffective became into decrease . Now it somewhat is a device gun. long gone are the days while it became right into a black eye and a thick lip What has replaced and is of super notice is the urge to kill strangers - It leaves police baffled - all their life they have been taught reason reason reason. If i will make the attempt to kill somebody - it somewhat is concept I actual have a reason Killing strangers that I would desire to have not something against - this is new- i think of quite often gun administration curbs crimes of pastime - injuries and so on It does end the gentle offender as nicely and those issues are a huge % of gun killings - it won't end the hardcore lunitic or offender So back we could look on the stats between our countires with that throughout innovations - i think of it would be interesting

Answer 5

Although there are many similarities, we cannot put one element in place and point to it. We also have to allow for the human variable. In Columbine the two shooters, seemed to be focused on being loners in a group of loners, and were apparently outcasts as a group. Because of this, they acted and dressed differently then the rest of their peer group. Neither the parents nor the teachers picked up on this, or they thought it was a phase that the kids were going through. The VTech shooter, was over the last two or three years a loner, but one doesn't know if his cultural background influenced him as a variable. Apparently there were several indicators, but they weren't followed up on. This might be due to political correctness, or people not wanting to get involved.

Answer 6

The major difference between Canadians and Americans when it comes to gun laws, is that owning a gun is NOT enshrined anywhere in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as it is in the American constitution.

Ontario put a limit on guns in 77 after the first school shooting here in Ontario in73 in Brampton Ontario.

I think most Canadians up until the last 7 years or so weren't inclined to have a gun in their homes,unles they were with law enforcement or were a hunter or a gun enthusiast. With the advent of gangsters bringing illegal guns into the cities and now the rural areas, some people are thinking that they may need guns to protect themselves, but I don't think the majority of Canadians do.

My father had hunting rifles and amunition, I never knew where he kept them until I had to break up my parents home after they both passed away. Canadians have a respect for guns that Americans, imho don't. We're not as gun culture crazy as Americans. We don't view owning a gun as our God given right. I think if the forefathers were still alive , they wouldn't interpret the second ammendment that way either. It was mainly for the militia and farmers, not the regular citizen.

Answer 7

Nothing in "society." There are a lot of problems that could be allieviated by social change. This is not one of them. The sad truth is that we occasionally have deranged individuals who cause tragedies like VT or Columbine.

Maybe one day we will know enough about how the human mind works to reliably spot and treat such sick individuals--but not today, and maybe not in our lifetimes. But don't confuse a psychological problem with a social one.

Answer 8

I believe the word is "personal" responsibility. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Politicians call for gun control, commentators decry the decadent popular culture, scientists even suggest genetic disorders; but the real answer goes much deeper.

Today's kids desperately need moral guidance. They need to know right from wrong. And sadly, too many adults have abdicated their responsibility to teach kids values that respect life. In public schools, students are taught to "construct" their own truths. And teachers are trained not to offer direction, lest they hamper a child's autonomy. The results of such thinking have been explosive.

Answer 9

Probably the fact that parents are too busy working to devote energy and time to raising kids. That is the job of the TV.

Answer 10

Racial, cultural, and sexual alienation caused by the inherent deteriorating nature of society's contemporary fixation on multiculturalism in the institutional and academic realms, combined with the exploitative effects of popular meda and its pseudo-cultural dictates.

Give Canada time and increased diversity, and they will catch up.

(cabron o, Marxist much?)