We have a helluva lot of guns (over 300 million) that are easily available; quantity has it’s own quality.

An exponential increase in the glamorization of gun and every other type of violence generated by the entertainment industry. Violence as a problem-solving tool is pretty much baked into the culture at this point.

We have powerful organizations funded by arms and munitions manufacturers, like the NRA, whose sole purpose is to generate enough fear, hatred and paranoia to turn hunters and sportsmen into insurrectionists and “freedom fighters”.

There is a reason that mass shootings begin skyrocketing after the 70’s; the decade in which the the NRA went from ‘a Field and Stream to a Soldier of Fortune’ mentality.

Given just those three factors is it any wonder we are seeing this phenomenon emerge with increasing frequency? It’s just probabilities and outcomes at this point. Who needs alienation when you have that toxic brew? Alienation without opportunity and you get Holden Caulfield; alienation and an AR-15 and you see what we get.

And finally we have enough invertebrate and corrupt politicians who refuse to lead or follow on this issue; either afraid of the pro-gun lobby or happy to take their money.

Eventually absolutist pro-gun forces will jump the shark – they may have already – and some reforms will be enacted. They had better hope so. Because if this continues and nothing is done when this generation grows up and begins taking the reins of leadership then the 2nd Amendment will be in real jeopardy. […]

Why not? […] – Rod Dreher, TAC writer

TAC Reader:
I know anecdotes aren’t evidence, but…

When I was born (1963) my father was 25 years old. He was married, an Air Force officer, had a bachelors degree in engineering, and was working on his masters.

For the last five years I worked at a large engineering firm with a number of young male civil & structural engineers in their mid twenties. To a one they were unmarried, lived at home or in group homes, and played video games obsessively in the evenings. One young man in his mid twenties was a avid Taylor Swift fan club member and traveled around to her concerts like a Deadhead from my college days.

It appears to curmudgeonly old me that…if 40 is the new 30, then 25 is the new 15, and 18 is the new 8. What high school students of Rod and my generation appeared to have that some lack today is the impulse control of someone who understands the are approaching adulthood and what that entails. The seventeen year old shooting up his school is a seven year old throwing a tantrum, with a rifle. […]

LOL yes, Truthiz1, I see that you are certainly a woman of your word. However, it’s such an important topic that I encourage you to return and respond as many times as you wish.

I dedicated this entire week to the issue of guns in America, under the hopes that we should all continue to try and make a difference — however large or small — in any way possible.

– DJ

The world has changed, they haven’t. And we see what can happen when we add a gun to that equation. […]

Jim Fallows:
All these are well-argued points. For now I’ll simply add that working-class men around the world are subject to similar pressures. Only in one country are they routinely vented through mass gun slayings. […]

Jobs, if men possess them, no longer provide routes to self-esteem for working class men and so, with the help of the NRA, guns have become a talisman for a potency and meaning that has evaporated in the marketplace.

Take a moment to look at the gun magazines at your local WalMart and register the themes that are hammered home. Constant references not to hunting but to warfare, and the trappings of masculinity, the humorless insistence on the tacticality of every day objects, including, I kid you not, a spork with a hidden knife. These industries are preying on the needs of men to feel like they have a job, bigger than themselves, a protector of the fatherland, the constitution.

There has been no counterweight to this culture of death. No one seems to be able to answer the question: What are men good for? What are the qualities that make a good man … good? Instead this enormous vacuum is filled by people with products to sell. Men are warriors with tactical sporks. What else could they be if they can’t be providers?

Mental illness in this context means the inability to adapt to new circumstances but shouldn’t we at least admit the difficulty of what we are asking of men? I fear by not posing the question we are opening the door to a fascist mentality whose answers we cannot tolerate. […]