- Re: 'you come home big when you're feelin small' Archived Message
Posted by walter
on April 22, 2020, 6:23 pm, in reply to "'you come home big when you're feelin small'"
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Yes There was a discussion here a while back triggered by a Gary Younge article where he asked why no-one was discussing the fact that the perpetrators of mass kiillings are always male. Mental illness is the issue often invoked in first press reports (or maybe after 'was the killer Muslim?', though they usually aren't); however there isn't a clear link between mental illness and violent actions generally; so other factors may prevail. The connection with past domestic violence is more clear cut: "An Everytown for Gun Safety report last year revealed that between 2009 and 2016 more than half of mass shootings in the US were related to domestic or family violence. In a third of the public mass shootings during that time period the gunman had a history of violence against women – domestic abuse is a more common trait among mass murderers than mental illness." [Younge] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/26/mass-killer-toronto-attack-man-men?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other This was the report linked to: Mass Shootings in America 2009 – 2020 "Although many people think of mass shootings as random acts of violence, this analysis shows that most mass shootings are not at all random: In at least 54 percent of mass shootings between 2009 and 2018, the perpetrator shot a current or former intimate partner or family member during the mass rampage. These domestic violence-related mass shootings resulted in at least 532 people shot and killed and 83 people wounded, amounting to almost half of all mass shooting deaths and one in ten injuries." https://everytownresearch.org/massshootingsreports/mass-shootings-in-america-2009-2019/ Though no-one can lay claim to a single, overriding factor it is legitimate to examine any contributing factors. In the above reports there were strong gender-related elements; the perpetrators were male (which must mean something), and issues they had with partners (or not having partners in the case of 'incels'). And past domestic violence. This doesn't mean that all men are violent - any more than a possible mental illness factor would mean that mentally ill people are violent, or even more likely to be violent. In the motivations of these mass killings, there are often elements of 'toxic masculinity' - which I take to mean a narrow/misogynistic view, and expectations of, women, and/or expectations and entitlements of being male. It's legitimate to ask about this wider problem, which seems relevant to the present shooting if he killed his partner, but certainly to the others featured above. Cheers and thanks for mentioning this ongoing taboo subject, Jackie. |