It troubles me how we've seemingly inured ourselves to the violence

[Oeditpus Rex]

Barely 13 hours ago, a guy walked into a department store in Omaha, shot eight people to death and wounded five others.

The only discussion of this in GD revolves around the right of U.S. citizens to own firearms. In the Lounge, there's been no discussion at all.

And I wonder, what have we become? Not those of us at Democratic Underground, but we as a society.

Most of us can probably remember quite well the shootings at Columbine High School. We might also remember that the shootings were the primary topic of conversation for days afterward. But, just eight and a half years later, a "massacre" barely rates the front page.

Maybe we're just getting used to them. In those eight and a half years, there've been 15 additional shooting sprees in the U.S. with a total of 127 people killed.

Has this kind of ugliness become so commonplace as to rate barely a glance? Or do we just shy away from talking about it because it is so ugly? (I started to say "unthinkable," but that's not the case anymore — not when schools have "live" drills to "practice" for just such an occasion.)

It upsets me that we either don't talk about it, or, if we do, we talk mostly from a gun-rights platform, for or against. It upsets me that we don't talk about it from a platform of humanity. But there's little point in talking about why these things happen because it's obvious that the people behind them are insane, at least temporarily. There's also little point in rehashing "This wouldn't have happened if..." because we can pull ifs out of our hindquarters all day and all night long.

I dunno, man. It's late, I'm tired and I just wonder what the fuck's going on.

[some guy]

1. For myself,

I don't talk or post much about these masacres, because it's incomprehensible to me.

Many issues or topics, I can put myself in the place of a person involved, and then contemplate how I would feel in that situation. These killers, I simply can't do that. From a vitcim's perspective, what can one say? People going about their normal daily lives, and suddenly they're in the middle of a crisis. It has nothing to do with who they are, or things they may have done.

ry to look for root causes that push a person over the edge? There are so many possible reasons, many of which I've experienced, and yet, they haven't pushed me over the edge, so I can't say with any certainty this or that was the root cause.

[MissHoneychurch]

2. I guess there are some who feel differently

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2414255&mesg_id=2414255

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. That's just more 'It's the media's fault'

Find the least common denominator to blame, rest easier.

Where would we be without scapegoats?

[MissHoneychurch]

4. But MSM doesn't has anything to do

with the kid who went in the Mall and shot those innocent people. I read in German news that this boy said "I was treated like shit my whole life and now I will be famous" :wtf: That kid was 19 years old!!!!! His mind sure was messed up.

I do say that with a more strict weapons policy such dramas would be less. They won't vanish, I know that. But I am sure there will be less massacres.

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Yeah, but that's not gonna happen

Oh, there'll be a great gnashing of teeth, and Congress may — may — pass a "feel-good" bill so about half the country can say, "Our politicians are doing something about this!" But any such bill would be little more than lip service to the anti-gun crowd because Congress is either afraid of or owned by the NRA. So I don't look for more legislation as the answer until/unless we get a legislature that refuses to sell itself — and us.

[Quantess]

5. It's really terrible.

Not to diminish the Omaha tragedy, at all, but personally I've been focused on the flooding disaster just a few miles south of me in Centralia / Chehalis, WA.

This is the epiphany of knowing that NOTHING Britney Spears, or OJ Simpson does, will EVER be important enough for national news coverage. There is ALWAYS something more newsworthy!

[Connonym]

6. I personally don't think we should give the asshole shooters any attention

Making them infamous can only be an incentive to future would-be mass murderers who seek attention. I think we'd do far better as a society to mourn the dead and shun the killers. I think the constant mind fucking over why or what lead the person to perform such a thing is a disgusting glorification of their crimes and preoccupation with it a sick fascination that shouldn't be indulged. Fine and good for professionals to study the psychology of what makes a killer but the armchair psychoanalysts amongst us? what's the freaking point other than to glorify the crime? Haven't we figured it out that it's pretty evenly split between "he was a quiet man and I would have never suspected" and "he was a disturbed man and they should have anticipated this"? Again, I say mourn the dead and fuck the killers.

By the way, how many people died in Iraq today?

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. We can separate ourselves from Iraq

because it's "over there." But all these shootings happen "where you'd least expect it," or so the media always tell us — which is rather odd in that that's often virtually in the same breath with "right in our own back yard." I think it's been proven that they can happen anywhere, and that's another reason I find it hard to understand why more people aren't screaming their heads off about it.

After all, these aren't soldiers getting killed, but shoppers. Even though we may hate that it happens to soldiers, at least we expect it. But it seems a good chunk of America is a "war zone," only nobody told the victims.

[Connonym]

9. Shoppers are way more valuable than soldiers

Edited because I forgot to add :sarcasm:

I think the very fact that it's "over there" means we should emphasize it MORE. Fact is nobody is ever safe anywhere because safety is an illusion; however, these events are really statistically not very fucking likely to ever happen to you and all the attention gives it greater weight and makes people more afraid than they need to be. Man has killed man from the dawn of time and it's not likely to change any time soon.

[raccoon]

11. I agree with you about that,

" Making them infamous can only be an incentive to future would-be mass murderers who seek attention. "

I remember Dr. JOy Brown wouldn't even say on the air the names of the Columbine shooters, because that was making them (in)famous.

I just wish people like this shooter would just stay home and shoot themselves, instead of shooting a bunch of innocent people.

[Chovexani]

10. I don't talk about these things because people are ignorant.

When stuff like this happens, they freak out. They look for scapegoats. Especially when the perps are young people...inevitably some jackass starts waving hir cane and laying into music, video games, or a particular subculture and then I have to start defending said subcultures. Again. They engage in the very kind of stereotyping and ofttimes bullying behavior that is the real cause of tragedies like this. To paraphrase Chris Rock in Never Scared, I love video games but I'm tired of defending them. I love my subcultures and I'm tired of defending them every time some fringe lunatic who's not even associated with them gets hit with the label by know nothing Muggles. Shit even when something like this doesn't happen, there is ignorance that has to be dealt with from supposedly progressive people.

I was a high school senior when Columbine went down, and you have no idea the kind of bullshit people like myself went through when that happened. I was one of the lucky ones--I only got suspended for wearing a trenchcoat, I didn't get the shit kicked out of me like so many of my friends and acquaintances did.

People are ignorant, emotionally-driven, easily frightened sheep, they will believe what they want to believe no matter how many facts are logically presented to them. And then the next time it happens, they'll wring their hands and cry out to the uncaring heavens wondering why it happened. It's utterly futile to talk about it.

Wow, I'm extra cynical tonight.

[underpants]

12. I have to admit that I was completely unaware of it

until I passed a TV with CNN on with the subtitle "Why did Hawkins snap?" and then saw a pic on yahoo of a Omaha swat member.

I don't think that we are immune to it we just sometimes don't feel like talking about it or we have other things going on.