Gun Violence Increasing . . . Why?

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

Why is our society producing mass shooters?

Gun Control, once again, has become the primary political issue being discussed.  About a week beyond the Florida High School Shooting, students are protesting, Democrats are screaming for more gun control, and some Republicans and Conservatives are making the mistake of getting into the conversation about guns, and the perceived need for the federal government to increase its intrusion into our right to keep and bear arms.

It seems to me, as an individual who's not quite a Baby Boomer, and not quite a Generation X'er (born in 1966, so I feel like I have been wedged in between . . . but I feel like I have more in common with the generation that's older than me, than any of the youngsters younger than me) that we're missing something.  We have to ask ourselves; there was a time period when mass shootings weren't out of control, and now they are ... what has changed?

If my memory serves me correct, I don't remember there being a lot of mass shootings when I was a kid, and the Baby Boomers tell me it was even a lower number in their younger years.

Has the incidents of mass shootings been increasing?  And, if so, why?

It amazes me that while everyone is trying to figure out how to take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, we have failed to really investigate the true reasons behind what is going on.

I visited "HeraldNet", who put out an article in January of 2013, and according to their list of mass shootings per decade, the number does seem to be increasing, particularly since the 1960s.

Here's their numbers regarding Mass Public Shootings per Decade:

1900s : 0

1910s: 2

1920s: 2

1930s: 9

1940s: 8

1950s: 1

1960s: 6

1970s: 13

1980s: 32

1990s: 42

2000s: 28

2010s (three years): 14

Looking at that list, there has definitely been an increase since the 1950s and 1960s.

Next, I visited the Washington Post, who claims so far in 2018 there have been 7 "school" shootings, and "Since 2000, there have been more than 188 shootings at schools and universities."

When I entered into Google "list of mass shootings in U.S. history", the big liberal news sites wouldn't give me a list anything like the one from HeraldNet. . . their lists showed a countdown from the worst, or more recent lists.

CNN's List of the Deadliest Mass Shootings in U.S. History counts down the worst mass shootings from the 58 killed in last year's Las Vegas shooting, to 8 people killed in 1982.  Interestingly, there were only two shootings on the list older than that 1982 shooting.  Overall, the list has 31 shootings with only two prior to 1982; occurring in 1966 and 1949.

In a more recent CNN article about mass shootings, CNN points out the ten worst, with only that 1966 shooting making the list, when it comes to something going back before the HeraldNet list says the numbers started rising. CNN also points out, "Of the 30 deadliest shootings in the US dating back to 1949, 19 have occurred in the last 10 years."

ABC News echoes CNN's list of Ten, also only having the 1966 University of Texas shooting as the only example of a shooting going back farther than the last 50 years. ABC points out that "Four of the five worst gun massacres on the list -- including the deadliest, at a concert in Las Vegas -— occurred in just the past year and a half."

The goal of the lists are to convince you that we somehow have an epidemic of mass shootings that are getting worse, and the underlying message is that it likely has something to do with an increase of access to guns.

Is it truly an epidemic?  Have mass shootings truly increased like the media is claiming?

For the sake of argument, let's agree with them.  Let's agree that since 1968 (about 50 years ago) there was somehow this line in the sand that got crossed, and gun violence has steadily increased - especially since the beginning of the 1980s.  We are expected to assume that somehow gun violence suddenly sprang up as a major threat in the last 30, or 40, or 50 years, but before that it wasn't really that great of a problem.

Let's break it down this way:

The 1900s to 1950s - low number of shootings, aside from some mob violence during prohibition.

The 1960s to the 1970s - this is about when the change happened.  Numbers were slightly going up, but hadn't gotten out of hand, just yet.

The 1980s until Now - explosion of gun violence, mass killings, and school shootings.

What, pray tell, is the difference between the 1950s and older, and our modern day mess of mass violence?

According to the Heritage Foundation, the primary progressive major institutional and policy changes that fundamentally began to change America were initiated between 1965 and 1975.  That's the decade that separates the older generations and the younger generations.

I have heard that prior to the 1960s, gun safety was taught in schools.  Now, it is not.  Other changes have happened over the generations, during that dividing decade, as well:

Before 1965......................................1965-1975...................................Since 1975

No gun control laws except those passed in the 1930s specifically targeting mob related firearms such as Tommy Guns.	Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the Gun Control Act of 1968	Democrats embrace gun control era, with ever-increasing gun control laws in the decades following the 1968 laws under President Johnson.
The sanctity of life is protected and observed.	Roe v. Wade 1973	Over a million abortions per year leads to a crisis of a disregard for life, and a desensitization of humanity’s attitude towards death.  In the last decade of so, euthanasia has also become more common.
Prayer was in schools.  The Bible often served as a textbook ... and was the primary textbook prior to the 1900s.	June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion.  1963 Supreme Court Rules reciting Lord’s Prayer in school is unconstitutional.	Not only is prayer gone, but any mention of God is frowned upon, and disallowed.  Following the loss of God on campus, we have also seen a deterioration in morality in our schools, and a push to do away with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Traditional Families are recognized as being between a man and a woman.	December 15, 1973 - By a vote of 5,854 to 3,810, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in the DSM-II Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.	It began with the Sexual Revolution.  Now, militant homosexuality is using legal action to force their drive for the normalization of homosexuality upon society, even if it stomps all over religious freedoms.  Christian business owners and church related entities are being targeted.
Beginning with the establishment of the State of Israel, the United States embraces a full alliance with Israel.  A positive relationship with the Jewish People goes all the way back to George Washington, "May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy."	Israel captures East Jerusalem in 1967’s Six Day War – placing the whole city of Jerusalem under Israeli control.  Jerusalem as a whole was declared as the capital of Israel, but the United States, along with the international community, refused to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel, declaring it an international city.	The liberal left has since sided with Islam in any conflicts that have arisen in the region.  Jerusalem remained unrecognized as Israel’s capital by the United States until President Trump decided to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December of 2017.

See the common denominator?

We have lost our way, our soul, and therefore we have lost our minds.

Benjamin Franklin wisely determined that “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." --George Washington

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --John Adams

The Founding Fathers recognized the divine providence involved in the forging of this nation.

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." -- John Adams

If we abandon God, we abandon liberty, and as Ben Franklin recognized, we will become corrupt and vicious.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary