Currently, there seems to be two schools of thought regarding the deterrence of mass murder – mental health treatment versus gun control. Unfortunately, it seems that the moment the topic of mass killings is brought up people retreat to their respective corners; either invest billions of dollars in mental health programs, or ban guns, especially assault rifles. Just generalizing the origins of mass carnage to faulty mental health is painting with too broad a brush; while the myopic focus on gun control is as limited as trying to replicate the Sistine Chapel ceiling with an eye liner.

Myriads of soci0-psychological complexities populate the human mind. Which are relevant to the generation of destructive impulses and which are merely quirky? What lies in between? How can the billions of dollars spent on mental health be best focused to reduce these tragic calamities? I wish I knew. Hopefully, the best and brightest minds and painstaking research can bring the serious potential for violent incidents into sharper focus.

This article isn’t an argument for or against gun control. All possibilities and approaches need to be evaluated and considered, hopefully in somewhat rational and empirical ways. I will attempt to tread cautiously around the delicate tripwire of gun control versus social reform.

While it can’t be argued that guns, specifically assault rifles, aren’t the homicidal manias’ weapon of choice, viewing gun control as a panacea is too narrow and specific. As paradoxical as it sounds, troubled minds are very creative at being destructive.

On November 18, 1978 Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple cult, initiated a mass murder-suicide at the Jonestown compound in Guyana. More than 900 people died in the Jonestown massacre, including some 300 who were aged 17 or under. It is one of the largest mass deaths in American history. Jonestown was a remote compound in Guyana built by Jones. With little interference from the Guyanese government, Jonestown was a virtually autonomous settlement.

And what was the horrific instrument of this mass extinction? Cyanide based Flavor Aid, a Kool Aid-like powdered punch base.

On the morning of April 19, 1995 an ex-Army soldier and security guard named Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. He was about to commit mass murder. He ignited a bomb, a deadly cocktail of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel and other chemicals. It took the lives of 168 people, including 19 children, with several hundred more injured.

A terrorist attack took place a short distance from the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. A pair of homemade bombs detonated in the crowd watching the race, killing three people and injuring more than 260. It was revealed that the devices used in the attacks were household pressure cookers that had been packed with an explosive substance, nails and ball bearings – the latter two elements acting as shrapnel when the bombs detonated.

Even the ever dependable family minivan can become a tool of mass carnage the instant it hops the curb and heads down a crowded sidewalk.

We need to begin with study of the why’s of social violence, not the how’s. It’s more productive to understand the psychological origins of fatal impulses than to debate the availability of farm fertilizer or the toxicity of Flavor Aid.

We need to accept the fact that there will always be acts of violence in a crowded society, but that doesn’t excuse us from striving to protect every individual possible. To the rational and compassionate mind every life is sacred. In short, we should, as each individual, do the best we can to ensure the safety of every other individual. Again, far easier said than done, but nonetheless must be done.

Part of the answer may lie in being keenly aware of those around us exhibiting a sense of isolation. Individuals can be emotionally adrift, even in a crowd. Dangerous psychological disconnection and quiet refreshing solitude both germinate in isolation. Recognizing which is which among our acquaintances is crucial. We must find those drowning in a sea of anomie and be genuinely inclusive with them.

Extended families are far less likely to live in a physical proximity than in past times. It’s therefore important for individuals and nuclear families to form and maintain close friendships and other positive affiliations wherever they can. Civic activity, church and spiritual organizations, interest groups, clubs and positive social media participation (gotta be careful with this one!), and other gregarious activities can draw individuals out of the void of loneliness and potentially lethal despair. The real trick is for each of us to leave our comfort zone and fine, or create, the time to reach out and involve others.

What triggers these unfocused vendettas against the whole human race? No real grand theories or panaceas here, just a few reflections to try to make the unbearable a little less so. But by all means let’s attempt to make the community of humankind a real community.

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‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

ISLA VISTA, CA—In the days following a violent rampage in southern California in which a lone attacker killed seven individuals, including himself, and seriously injured over a dozen others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Tuesday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. “This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop them,” said North Carolina resident Samuel Wipper, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the world’s deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. “It’s a shame, but what can we do? There really wasn’t anything that was going to keep this guy from snapping and killing a lot of people if that’s what he really wanted.” At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past five years were referring to themselves and their situation as “helpless.”

It’s the why and the how.

So it cant be both? Bulls**t.

What about the incentivization and promotion of widespread violence by government leaders? What about those who kill others being released without bail the very next day in many blue states? What about the violent speech screamed by Joe Biden last week declaring half of the country’s voters and deeming them/us as semi-fascists? What about the 2 million+ illegal migrants that have overrun (and still are) our southern border in just the last 18 months, some of whom are on the terrorist watch list? Society is breaking down. People are becoming more and more polarized, brainwashed, apathetic and morally bankrupt. The economy is heading towards disaster and our nation’s energy has been all but cut off. We will see increased levels of violence very soon when people no longer have food, or heat for their homes. When people who aren’t used to being hungry, or going without lose everything, they absolutely lose it. Guaranteed. This isn’t a democrat/republican paradigm though the democrats are openly waging war against our freedoms and standard of living because they have the political power to do so currently; these dictates have come down through the World Economic Forum and other globalist organizations and are being unleashed worldwide. Worse times are ahead and…winter is coming.

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