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More Shootings, More Divorces, More Single Parent Homes
What if we are looking at this incorrectly? What if the number of shootings per year in the last 70 years is X and that corresponds to an average population of 250 million people. Now, we have 350 million people and so we should expect that X to be correspondingly larger in raw numbers — everything else being the same.
Now, here’s my question: what if the actual phenomenon correlates better with, rather than the total population, the population of single-parent homes or homes with children of divorced parents?
Here’s the data over 62 years:
This graph is just to give you an idea of what I’m trying to say here. The number of single-parent homes has gone up considerably. I just bet that these numbers are better ones to look at in order to predict these school shootings. If the likelihood of this kind of dysfunction increases with the number of single-parent families then we need to consider that issue more than gun control.
What do you think? Is there data already compiled to look at this? I mean: rather than worry about what the MSM thinks because they aren’t looking for a solution — they are looking for a narrative scapegoat — what are the real drivers for this? Should we be surprised by these shootings?
The second thing to look at is the schools themselves — are they places that we should send our kids? The schools are run by leftists these days — what can we expect from this? One issue is the anti-male behavior that creates unsafe spaces for our boys. That should be counted, shouldn’t it?
I really can’t read any of the headlines by either side after one of these things happens. I have no interest in re-hashing the same old, tired arguments.
Published in Politics
@henryracette‘s comment about the small sample size should still apply, shouldn’t it? And could it be that they are on drugs because they are the kind of person that would do this rather than the other way around? I don’t know, I just don’t trust statistical analyses where cause and effect mechanisms cannot be proven.
The millenials. Seems the most sensitive, tolerant, socially-aware generation is also the most responsible for mass murder.
Contradictions such as this are hardly surprising. Human nature will out, and when suppressed, moreso.
As did the one in KY. He is scheduled to have a hearing deciding whether to try him as an adult soon which will make the proceedings much more public if it succeeds.
My impression is these shootings do seem, as a general rule, to be anti-school more than anti-fellow student, thus the random choosing of victims. I wouldn’t begin to understand everything that means but there does seem to be an underlying anger at the ‘system’.
The problem is, mentally ill people didn’t do this kind of thing before these drugs became so widely used. From what I’ve learned, could be wrong, un-medicated mental illness leading to violence is relatively rare. I think Charles Whitman on Valium in 1966 was the canary in the coal mine. And now after a massacre like this, everyone is always lamenting we need to do something about mental illness, but mental illness itself probably isn’t causing it.
Im not saying people shouldn’t take these meds. They certainly help far more people than they backfire on. And in some cases they may even prevent a mentally ill person from becoming violent. But the danger is real and is mostly being ignored.
My first thought when I hear of someone so young doing something like this that’s so horrific is where are the parents, who are they, where are the family members or spokesperson for the family? That will tell you something – I’m not blaming them, but it would fill in some gaps – medications, guns in the house, in and out of hospitals, did he have any friends? Just normal questions – I can’t tell you how many people I know or have heard of family situations that are very bad – youth living at home, who don’t work, are violent, steal, can’t parent, on drugs – it’s shocking – these are new – we’ve always had these issues but they weren’t as rampant.
His parents are dead. His mother died just last November, from complications of the flu. He was living with friends of the family.
Well that brings up an interesting question, doesn’t it? What are the ages of these shooters, and how have they changed — if they have — over the years?
Yes, great points.
We seem to be creating psychopaths by prescriptions. But, it’s so important to note how few there are. Perhaps these drugs need to be prescribed by a team of psychiatrists or medical experts who specialize in these things.
Exactly. Any discussion of the hypothetical harms of anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication (which it wouldn’t surprise me to discover are over-prescribed, but I don’t know) should be balanced against the good that these drugs undoubtedly do for a great many people. It’s hard to think that way when a horrible thing happens, but it’s still necessary to maintain some kind of perspective, however cold-hearted that might seem.
I don’t think the problem is perscription. It is observation post prescription. You don’t know who will react badly until they take the drugs.
You know, I read these comments and it just seems that all the memes about this or that issue, this or that solution, each is perhaps one part of the elephant and we are all blind men.
Drugs, family, community, education system, religion, social media, I believe all of these have a part to play.
Personally, I believe there is an underlying issue that affects all these and is why I doubt that men will solve it: 2 Chron. 7:14 -“if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
I know there is at least one here (whose commentary I follow and resperct) that is hostile to this premise, and that’s fine: But mass murder is not the disease, it is only one of many symptoms.
This is just being practical and wise. We are pushed into un-wise thinking because of the media’s constant pressure to find conservative culprits for their larger agenda against America.
With 8 billion people on the planet I think we can expect at least a few Cain’s in the mix. Are we worse off now than we were when Cain and Abel were living? — proportionally?
That said, I agree with your appeal for people to turn to God. This is what life here is about.
Right, right, right. Add that to my suggestion for more oversight of patients given these drugs and we might see this turned around.
What’s really sad is that politically it is difficult for sane medicos to push such ideas forward in the gun control blizzard created by the all powerful left wing media.
I dunno, I work with a lot of medical professionals because of family circumstances and even they seem to be trending away from benzos. Whenever I ask about it, they reassure me they’re not prescribing benzos for ongoing treatment of anxiety/depression.
I’m not saying it’s definitive that we should ban benzodiazepines for long term use, I just don’t want my family experimented on with them. A sibling already had a very bad experience.
If this graph is just school shootings, which it appears to be, then as far as I know most of them are committed by fellow students or recent graduates. These are millennials preying on themselves and the next generation.
I believe the Sandyhook shooter went to the elementary school where his mother worked, which seems doubly evil in some way.
Interesting thread. My question with the graph doesn’t center on what happened in the 2000’s as much as what happened to cause the decline of the 1990’s?
The breakdown of the family is clearly a factor. I would think exposure to violence would be as well but honestly, I’ve read study after study that seems to show emphatically that it does not. The drug issue is an interesting idea. I also wonder if Federal policy changes in dealing with the mentally ill during the 60’s might be a variable?
All sorts of anti-social, deviant behavior seems to be getting normalized today. I wonder if social media is a culprit in this? Normal folks just don’t get any clicks anymore.
Here is a more thorough piece on the drug connection.
Consider that most of these shootings also seem to occur in lily white schools. If your theory that 1 parent households is a contributing factor, it should follow that we would see these events occurring in inner city schools where we also see higher percentages of 1 parent, out of wedlock households. I suspect higher usage of psychotropic drugs is the most suspicious probable cause.
Thanks, Bob. From the article:
Yes. I haven’t researched it but I’d bet middle class suburban kids take these drugs much more than low income inner city kids.
That’s a great point. Are these drugs more likely given to white kids? Because their parents seek more professional help? Or??
I thought they never determined a connection between the shooter and Sandy Hook.