Everyone has a right NOT to get killed by a random person with a gun. The right to live on this earth without fear of sudden death from going about everyday activities must rise above all else.
Where are you safe from a mass shooting? Not in schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, malls, supermarkets, clubs, concerts, parks, office buildings or street corners.
There is no logic to not allowing people to live.
There is no logic to allow people to get gunned down at any give moment.
And it’s up to us to figure out how to fix this.
Here are 12 ideas about guns, violence, gun control, and mass shootings—all of which connect to longer articles. They are from a diversity of viewpoints. Ultimately, they are about hope. We must start, we must start somewhere. Start somewhere, start anywhere. It is up to us.
—
1) Ever wonder how mass shooters get made? Here’s how.
“Keep Him Angry. In addition to having your would-be killer have a sense of entitlement, you’ll also need to teach him that anger is the only acceptable emotion. When he gets hurt, ask “what are you going to do about it?” instead of acknowledging that pain and sadness. Teach him to “tough it out” and “play through the pain.” Pain feeds anger and anger feeds action. Sadness doesn’t feed either anger or action.
Point out the people who look like they are “gaming the system” and moving ahead faster than others. Call them cheaters and repeatedly point to their group as rigging the system. It really doesn’t matter what group you pick – Blacks, Jews, Women, Muslims, Illegal Immigrants, whatever. The important thing is that he resents one or more of these groups. Resentment feeds anger.
Teach him that revenge is a good way to deal with anger, that vengeful acts have no scale, and that all hurts and pain are equivalent. This way, he’ll believe that overwhelming force is an acceptable response to any hurt he experiences. If his own list of accomplishments is short or non-existent, he may even come to believe that his own pain and his own life can be sacrificed in the name of revenge.
Once you teach him all that—then you can trigger him. — Read more on “How to Make a Mass Shooter” by Andrew Smiler
“Internet trolls, as it turns out, have their own particular type of reasoning. I wrote a post about gun violence that made the argument that gun violence stats for the US in 2018 will make ‘any reasonable person nauseous’. In return, a commenter came back with this counter-argument: “To lower the death by gun rate in America, liberals need to stop being idiots.”
But what I realized was that every troll these days has the same argument. It’s the only argument left when you are talking about the senseless deaths of innocent people.
“Stop caring.”
This is the only counter-argument to hearing the sound of gunfire, the screams of people as they lay dying or injured.
“Stop caring that people were hurt.”
It’s the only argument left when school children are gunned down mercilessly.
“Stop caring that children are killed.”
What other logical argument is there, really?
And look! You can also apply that same logic to all sorts of issues.”
In a few years you will have the vote. You will no longer be teenagers and will have the same voting rights as every adult in America. You can use those votes in blocks to eliminate every cynical politician who has sold us out. Between now and then, it’s all about exposing them and pressuring them to do what is right or step down.
Organize, gather, and demand what is right, once and for all. Yes, it will take decades to clear the land of guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. The sooner we begin, the fewer the decades.
Thoughts and prayers in absence of action aren’t even background noise.
“Movies had taught me that a gun was a magic wand that created loud noises, and would get me my way by shattering inanimate objects around anyone who confronted me. That its mere presence would end arguments. And on any given evening, it would protect me from everything I was afraid of, which was everything. The violation of that evening replayed itself each time I crossed paths with another man. We would meet eyes, puff up like two male lizards. The weaker would acquiesce, look away. I strutted with false bravado, knowing the Ruger in my closet was there to fall back on. I told myself that knowing it was there kept me from acting upon my fear and anger.
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free
White supremacist neo-Nazi bigots are engaging in online video “games” in which the aim is shoot and murder Jews, LGBTQ people, and black people. The video slaughters, attributed to “Wheel Maker Studios,” are openly promoted and downloadable from Christopher Cantwell and his far-right website. Cantwell is now well-known as the so-called “Crying Nazi.” Reporters recorded him weeping in jail to gain sympathy following his arrest as one of the organizers of the infamous Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where marchers carried Tiki Torches and changed Nazi slogans like “Jews will not replace us.” A marcher killed a counter-protested with his car.
In the original video game, Angry Goy, according to the British newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle, the game’s opening announcement reads:
“I’m tired of writing about gun violence. I’m tired of discussing active shooter training with my twelve-year-old son. I’m tired of having to spend time in my own classroom planning escape routes, a protocol for how to keep my students safe. I’m tired of this becoming—of being—a part of our life.” — by John Williams
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad free
“‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun,’ we are told repeatedly, ‘is a good guy with a gun.’
On Thursday, March 1, 2018, a high school teacher in Georgia named Randal Davidson showed up for work. He was by all accounts a good guy: The principal characterized him as a “very good teacher” who was “well thought of.” He had been there over a decade; he had written a book about the school. Then he locked himself in his room and fired a gun (which he was illegal in possessing). One student tweeted, “My favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot.”
It wasn’t long before the media caught itself and realized Davidson had to be painted as a lunatic. Time reported that he “has a history of bizarre behavior,” and pulled out a wild-eyed mugshot to go with the story. And as easily as that, he became a bad guy with a gun.”
9) Even avid gun owners are trying to find solutions for gun control.
“I am a life-long shooting enthusiast. I can do the two-pistol thing better than almost anyone I know. I enjoy skeet shooting. I grew up hunting. Haven’t killed an animal in a long time now, though. There’s plenty of food at the grocery store and I object to killing other living creatures for no good reason, but I could totally stalk and butcher other mammals if that was the only way I had of feeding my family.
As far as handling the guns proficiently goes, I’ve got that. I’m pretty attached to my scattergun which was manufactured in the 1930’s and gifted to me by one of my grandfathers. I treat that gun with all the reverence that is due an ancestral weapon. I have rifles, shotguns, and handguns in my house which I have no plans to give up anytime soon.
But this is not about my guns.
Schoolchildren are dying needlessly in mass shootings at such an alarming rate in this country that I’d homeschool the boy just to keep from sending him to the schoolhouse every day, if I could afford to do that. And I am not a fan of homeschooling. I believe in public education. I don’t mind paying my share of the taxes to support it. But I would keep him home if that were an option.
10) So you think you have a God given right to own guns. How about cobras?
“Me, I got probably 50 cobras around my place. I keep some in every room and always have two in my nightstand. People say “why you need so many cobras” and I say “why don’t you need more cobras?” That’s what I tell them. And besides, what’s the right number of cobras—three? Twenty? Who’s to say, that’s what I say.
“But isn’t it illegal to have cobras,” some ask me. You show me in the constitution where it says a man can’t keep a venom spitting snake for home protection. I know my rights.
My sister, she’s always trying to make a big deal out of it. “What if they get loose,” she says. Look, I’m not a fool. I keep my cobras locked up safe, ain’t none going to get out except for that one time those three got out on the porch while the mailman was handing me that package. Some people don’t have any common sense. Don’t you know better than to knock on a stranger’s door just to give him a box? He might have a house full of cobras.”
“What I see is this. In the majority of cases, the catalyst for the shooting was something that threatened the man’s identity as a man. The main statistic is inarguable—98 males to one lone female are the perpetrators in mass shootings. Being a man is the single most common characteristic of every mass shooting in the last 32 years. I’d prefer to think that men are not inherently more violent—most men do not become violent in their lifetimes, for any reason. And while biology, strength and testosterone can’t be completely discounted, I’d rather look at whether the pressures to conform to a certain type of masculinity are so strong that not being able to do so can cause a person to break under the pressure.
The idea of men going on shooting rampages because of threats to their identity as men makes sense to me. One way to think about that idea is to look at the cases where women DO kill multiple people. In the ones that make the news, most often the victims are the woman’s own children. They are not counted as mass killings because the body count usually isn’t high enough. But just like the breakdown in identity that I see happening with men, when the thing that defines a woman’s identity as a woman breaks down (being a good mother), she—in those most extreme of cases—feels the need to kill the part of her that is causing the most pain.
And there is no doubt these killers, men and women both, are in pain. In fact, that’s why I believe the place where these shootings happen is worth looking at—they happen in schools, they happen in the workplace, in churches, at parties—the very places where the person doing killing has been in the most pain. Sometimes the killer sets out to kill specific people, but other times it is simply a desire to kill whoever is in that particular place. When you are socially isolated you go to kill in the places where people are most social.”
“I have a Winchester over-and-under that was a gift from my grandfather.
And I love that gun.
It’s a 12 gauge, which should make it heavier with bigger recoil than a 20 gauge, but somehow, magically, it isn’t—it’s lighter, with less recoil than most modern 20 gauge shotguns I’ve handled. Or maybe it’s just that this has always been my gun, and I’m most used to it.”
We are proud of our SOCIAL INTEREST GROUPS—WEEKLY PHONE CALLS to discuss, gain insights, build communities— and help solve some of the most difficult challenges the world has today. Calls are for Members Only (although you can join the first call for free). Not yet a member of The Good Men Project? Join now!
Join The Good Men Project Community
All levels get to view The Good Men Project site AD-FREE. The $50 Platinum Level is an ALL-ACCESS PASS—join as many groups and classes as you want for the entire year. The $25 Gold Level gives you access to any ONE Social Interest Group and ONE Class–and other benefits listed below the form. Or…for $12, join as a Bronze Member and support our mission, and have a great ad-free viewing experience.
Register New Account
Please note: If you are already a writer/contributor at The Good Men Project, log in here before registering. (Request new password if needed).
◊♦◊
ANNUAL PLATINUM membership ($50 per year) includes:
1. AN ALL ACCESS PASS — Join ANY and ALL of our weekly calls, Social Interest Groups, classes, workshops and private Facebook groups. We have at least one group phone call or online class every day of the week.
2. See the website with no ads when logged in!
3. MEMBER commenting badge.
*** ANNUAL GOLD membership ($25 per year) includes all the benefits above — but only ONE Weekly Social Interest Group and ONE class.
*** ANNUAL BRONZE membership ($12 per year) is great if you are not ready to join the full conversation but want to support our mission anyway. You’ll still get a BRONZE commenting badge, and you can pop into any of our weekly Friday Calls with the Publisher when you have time. This is for people who believe—like we do—that this conversation about men and changing roles and goodness in the 21st century is one of the most important conversations you can have today.
♦◊♦
We have pioneered the largest worldwide conversation about what it means to be a good man in the 21st century. Your support of our work is inspiring and invaluable.
◊♦◊
“Here’s the thing about The Good Men Project. We are trying to create big, sweeping, societal changes—–overturn stereotypes, eliminate racism, sexism, homophobia, be a positive force for good for things like education reform and the environment. And we’re also giving individuals the tools they need to make individual change—-with their own relationships, with the way they parent, with their ability to be more conscious, more mindful, and more insightful. For some people, that could get overwhelming. But for those of us here at The Good Men Project, it is not overwhelming. It is simply something we do—–every day. We do it with teamwork, with compassion, with an understanding of systems and how they work, and with shared insights from a diversity of viewpoints.” —– Lisa Hickey, Publisher of The Good Men Project and CEO of Good Men Media Inc.
—
***
RSVP FOR LIVE CALLS TO DISCUSS POLITICAL ACTIVISM:
In my opinion, the best, most useful insight here is #11, with its observation that the vast majority of multi-victim murderers are reacting to a situation in which they felt that their identity was threatened. Other viewpoints struck me as rather silly – especially the analogy between guns and cobras. The problem with that analogy is also the foundation of the merit of the identity point… Cobras are living things which have naturally evolved a deadly venom & delivery system to facilitate their survival (defense, procurement of food), while guns are inanimate objects that are completely incapable of harming anyone… Read more »
In my opinion, the best, most useful insight here is #11, with its observation that the vast majority of multi-victim murderers are reacting to a situation in which they felt that their identity was threatened. Other viewpoints struck me as rather silly – especially the analogy between guns and cobras. The problem with that analogy is also the foundation of the merit of the identity point… Cobras are living things which have naturally evolved a deadly venom & delivery system to facilitate their survival (defense, procurement of food), while guns are inanimate objects that are completely incapable of harming anyone… Read more »