Going "postal"

[StrictlyRockers]

Does any other country in the world have an equivalent expression for this phenomenon? No. I don't think so. I think this is a uniquely American expression.

From Wikipedia: Going postal is an American English slang term, used as a verb meaning to suddenly become extremely and uncontrollably angry, possibly to the point of violence. The term derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, and members of the police or general public.

Please, do tell me, because I want to know. There are a lot of highly intelligent people here on DU. Perhaps other countries also have an expression for describing people who flip out and shoot as many people around them as they possibly can. Maybe I am just unaware.

I honestly can't think of this phenomenon occurring regularly in any other country. Is there anywhere else where people regularly wig out and "go postal" and shoot as many people as they can before usually also shooting themselves? I can think of maybe a dozen occurrences of this type here in the US off the top of my head.

Again according to Wiki: Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage in the US.

Those are just the workplace killings. That list does not include the school shootings and other mass murders. Now we can add Columbine, the VTech shootings, the Maryland snipers, the Amish killings and many others to that list which have all happened in the last ten years. Am I wrong, or is there something seriously wrong with this country? I mean is this the most fucked up place on the planet? Has England had any incidents like this? Have they had any mass shootings at schools? I googled it. I found one in Scotland in 1996.


Germany had one in 2002:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_massacre

This is from a 2002 BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1953425.stm

The Erfurt massacre is the worst school shooting in Europe since a gunman killed 16 children and their teacher in Scotland in 1996.
Detailed below are some of the worst incidents of the past decade.

Scotland, March 1996: Gun enthusiast Thomas Hamilton shoots 16 children and their teacher dead at their primary school in Dunblane, Scotland before killing himself.

Yemen, March 1997: A man with an assault rifle attacked hundreds of pupils at two schools in Sanaa, Yemen, killing six children and two others. He was sentenced to death the next day.

United States, October 1997: A 16-year-old boy fatally stabbed his mother before shooting dead two students, including his former girlfriend, at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi.

United States, December 1997: A 14-year old boy killed three students attending a prayer meeting at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky.

United States, March 1998: Two boys aged 13 and 11 killed four pupils and a teacher after setting off fire alarms at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

United States, April 1999: Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

Germany, November 1999: A 15-year-old student in Meissen, eastern Germany, stabbed his teacher to death after taking bets from classmates he would dare commit the crime.

He was later jailed for seven years.

Germany, March 2000: A 16-year-old pupil at a private boarding school in the Bavarian town of Branneburg, shot a 57-year-old teacher, who later died from injuries.

The teenager - who also shot himself - was facing expulsion from school after failing a cannabis test.

Germany, February 2002: A former pupil killed his headmaster and set off pipe bombs in the technical school he had recently been expelled from in Freising near Munich.

The man also shot dead his boss and a foreman at the company he worked for before turning the gun on himself. Another teacher was shot in the face, but survived.

Germany, April 2002: Seventeen people killed after a gunman - a former pupil - opens fire in a school in Erfurt, eastern Germany. He then turned the gun on himself.



So, maybe Germany has some problems like this, too. Just Germany and the US, and nowhere else on the planet?



Here's a timeline of recent worldwide school shootings.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html



I don't know if it helps to contextualize the tragedy. I am trying. Maybe "going postal" has a general connotation of applying more to workplace killings. Wiki only lists one recent mass killing at a post office in Goleta, California, in 2006.

We seem to have more school shootings and less workplace shootings in the US now? I really want to try to make some sense out of this tragedy. I hope people will help me try to get to the root of what causes these horrible events. It breaks my heart to think of those students, professors and that community.

[soothsayer]

1. Wait until the returning PTSD vets start piling into USPS jobs again

(they get a 10 point preference on the tests, so lots and lots of vets get jobs there); I fear we'll see a resurgence of 'going postal' a few years down the line. It's a perfect storm of psychologically wounded veterans and inhumane management style (Not every postal manager is bad---some are great! But there are plenty who suck.)

[lazer47]

4. Where in the name of common sense

do you equate PTSD with "going postal" That is the same thought process that has plagued Veterans for years,,,,,

[StrictlyRockers]

5. Well then what would cause someone to go "postal" if not stress?

[lazer47]

7. PTSD isn't about stress, it is a

condition in Veterans caused by, in most cases the inability to accept loss thru combat, or survivor guilt, at last count over a million vets either Vietnam of the current Iraq vets have PTSD and you won't see the vast majority involved in anything as "going postal", stereotypical views are an insult to most veterans.

[mainer]

2. This cuts across all cultures. That's where "gone amok" comes from

I think it's an Indonesian word, describing young men who suddenly go wildly violent and start killing people (with machetes at that time). It's not purely American. What makes American incidents so noteworthy is our access to automatic and semi-automatic weapons, which increases the number of fatalities.

[StrictlyRockers]

3. Thank you for that information mainer.

So, the problem may be that in the US we hve ready access to guns and machine guns.

[StrictlyRockers]

6. Thanks for help with understanding this terrible thing, DU.

Going to sleep now. I love you all.

:grouphug:

[mdmc]

8. kick

[Karenina]

9. "Going postal" a phrasal verb

I taught my ESL students this week.