After the Parkland school massacre that killed 17 people, a few thoughts on the ugly realities in America …

In a nation with more than 300 million guns, limiting access to firearms would likely produce a very slow gain.

Mental illness is often viewed as a key factor in mass shootings, though many studies show that the vast majority of those with mental health problems are not violent.

Banning assault-style rifles, bump stocks and large magazines would help prevent mass shootings. But by how much? We’re now at the rate of five school shootings in the first six weeks of 2018.

Making schools safer should be an obvious response to this carnage. But we’ve seen Americans gunned down en masse at concerts, in churches, on college campuses, at movie theaters and nightclubs.

When you consider that many countries have widespread ownership of pistols and rifles (most notably our gentle neighbor, Canada) without experiencing mass shootings, it’s fairly clear that something more is at work to create an ultraviolent America.

Beyond a gun culture, we have developed a national psyche that ingrains in men and boys the mantra that anyone who disrespects them must pay the price. This macho mentality used to result in fistfights. Now, the response is to shoot the one who wronged you. If a man is slighted or disparaged, for too many of these “victim” the proper response is to kill, taking innocent lives in the process.

If you get expelled from high school, launch a military-style assault on your school and kill more than a dozen students and faculty.

If you are fired from your job, charge into the workplace firing randomly at former co-workers and bosses, murdering as many as possible.

If you are seething at your ex-wife or ex-girlfriend, barge into her home and shoot her – and a few of her family members too.

If you engage in a nasty argument with a neighbor, respond with gunfire out on the front lawn for the whole neighborhood to see.

These men and boys are quick to become angry and hateful, many of them loners or losers who can’t handle rejection, who frankly refuse to accept the challenges life throws at us. So, they make a plan to lash out. They take their revenge just like that guy whose face was all over cable TV news.

They seek their revenge in dramatic fashion. It’s easy, just pull the trigger.

 

CORRECTION: This post was corrected to reflect that number of actual school shootings this year is five, not 18.