Why School Shootings Happen

Gun control only works to disarm law abiding citizens, as police, military, and criminals all will still have access to the latest and greatest in the firearms world. Needing gun control to curb school shootings is an overly emotional response created due to pity and fear. Guns are an easy scapegoat, but really, are they to blame? Are knives to blame in stabbings?In my opinion, school shootings are caused by a number of things, none of which have to do with the number of guns readily available to disgruntled children.

Our moral compass is lost as a nation. Children play violent video games and nobody cares (kids playing Mario = great! Kids shooting up everyone they see in 'GTA' or 'COD' = disturbing). Rap/trap music (not hip-hop, I love hearing hip-hop, but rap/trap) is played at sporting events, malls, on the radio, and not to mention advertised heavily on platforms like Facebook and YouTube which children congregate to. Major media has conditioned us to judge everyone for everything! People are too stupid, too fat, too Black, too White, too country, too republican, too liberal, too religious, while self-reflection is merely posting meme's to your social media and having others mindlessly agree with you. Lust, not love, is what fuels the modern relationship, and nearly all forms of media push the idea that this is normal and healthy. In fact, in many circles, suggesting otherwise is akin to racism. "Slut shaming" has become such a powerful platform that California has nearly decriminalized spreading HIV purposefully to those unaware of your infection.

With the "soul" being under attack in America, let us talk about the mind. The human brain needs nutrition. The average American diet doesn't offer much of that, nor does the food from the food service businesses who spend the most in advertising in America. Sugar addiction, terrible for the brain. Sugar addiction, pushed on Americans from every angle. Overconsumption of salt is also terrible for the brain, and we both know how many salts food are consumed by Americans every day through them being readily available. So the average American brain isn't as sharp as it should be due to the food it is ingesting, and on top of that, let's add dangerous pharmaceutical drugs which do all sorts of ungodly things to the human brain, and are proven to drive some people completely insane. That doesn't sound like someone who is going to be making good decisions when in an emotional state.

It is really difficult to mention being in an overly emotional state without bringing up teenagers in general. Between puberty, raging hormones, and learning many of life's hard lessons for the first couple of times takes its toll on a person. I wager that 99.9 percent of teenagers fantasize about taking their own life, as well as the lives of those who make them miserable. These fantasies are why selling violent video games and movies is so easy; the desire to go out there and take down the bad guys is a strong one within human beings, and looking at history books shows this propensity towards violence is nothing new.

So a teen who eats perfectly healthy and isn't on psychotropic drugs will most likely fantasize about suicide and murder during some of his/her darker hours, but will rarely act on it. Human beings use their imagination to work out what is troubling them emotionally often, but rarely cave to darker desires which would have long-lasting effects on their lives and the lives of those around them. But take a teen who is void of morality, conditioned to kill (albeit pixels) to alleviate stress, whose brain isn't functioning properly due to nutritional imbalances, and tell me he isn't going to snap.

This nation has very little to be proud of anymore. We aren't united, nor do we even try to be. Individual pockets of culture are worshiped in an almost tribal fashion, and centrists are not only not given much media time or attention, but are often mocked by all sides for their lack of commitment to a particular ideology. We don't strive for a better world, but for enough cash to create a big enough bubble to ignore what we don't like.

With guns being the easiest way to kill people (bombs are complex and scary to make), you're going to have people using guns to kill people. Take guns away, people will use the next easy weapon to kill people. Knives, trucks, bombs, HIV-filled syringes, who knows what would become the next popular method of murder, but all of those have been used. You have a society that doesn't make people feel welcome, you're going to have a lot more murders happening than in a society that welcomes, values, and respects each resident. People say Japan has less mass shootings because Japan has less guns. I say Japan has less mass shootings because Japan has a higher level of pride for itself.

How do we stop school shootings? Probably by not being such stupid, tribalistic assholes.