Someone posted online recently: Ever wonder why kids didn't shoot up schools back then? Because they were raised to respect God, their parents and their country. My response: Doubtful. Nobody ever took Christianity seriously. Or else we'd be selling our daughters into slavery and putting fortune tellers to death immediately. I think it's because people had less access to guns then. The Second Amendment clearly says "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State". There was some debate at the time about extended that right to private gun ownership. But our founding fathers never did that. Now, we could expand that right, as the SCOTUS has done with other rights under the doctrine of substantive due process. But original intent judges don't believe in that. They also don't believe in the doctrine of selective incorporation. Yet they did that two years later with McDonald v. Chicago. You know, you rightwing nuts are going to lose all your rights when the First Amendment doesn't apply to the states anymore. Under the doctrine of super precedents the originalist nuts on the court will let it stand for now, but not forever. (Criminals will always have rights though. Because that was the original meaning of due process under the 14th Amendment.)
Personally, I think the main issue isn't that there were fewer incidents, as much as the fact that firearms are more readily available today combined with the fact that social media makes the incidents almost instantly available and none is waiting for "News at 11" or the morning newspaper.
They've definitely increased over the past decade or so and really spiked post covid. I used to think it was a distorted perception brought on by social media and several 24/7 news channels. I mean, I figured there was some actual increase, but assumed it was negligible. But this graph suggests we're living in a whole new world.
Wow! That graph is shocking! Other graphs yield some interesting stats. Out of 2000 school shootings only ONE was in self-defense. So for every self-defense gun use, there were 1999 illegal uses with bad intent. I guess that ratio is acceptable in modern society so long as gun and ammunition sales rise?
it stems from the lack of respect for a tool, the .22 that used to ride around in the back of a pickup that little johnny knew to leave alone , became the handgun that was hidden and not talked about.
