Newtown Massacre

[Kamikaze_Badger]

I was, I just don't think it's applicable to this situation because it was one individual acting on his own. He took care of himself in the process and there's no following. It's next to impossible to determine who's going to do it next no matter how much it sucks. There's no identifiable enemy, and I don't mean that in the sense that they're not wearing uniforms. I mean that in the sense that there's no REALISTIC way to identify the people who'll do this kind of thing.

 

There's no "growing" trend. Yes this article is prior to Newtown, but the chart shows a pretty clear point:

Yes it's tragic that children died. Yes it's tragic that it happened in a school. Look at the numbers though. It's not on a rise, we're not at a higher threat for them. If anything the media is what's causing the problems by bringing all sorts of attention to these. I'm willing to bet that if these events weren't so inflated by the media, we wouldn't think it was a growing trend.

 

Now I'm going to play Satan's Advocate here and focus on the positives of this situation: It sounds like people are finally starting to give a damn about mental health. Maybe the benefit of all these will be the millions of lives improved by better funding for mental health services. Then again, people are going to want a target to attack, so maybe the mentally ill will have to deal with even more discrimination. Hm.

 

Maybe it's the meds I'm on, maybe I'm just that fucked up in the head and I'm a cold heartless bastard. This isn't as big of a deal as the media is making it out to be, nor is it as big of a deal as Americans want to try to make it out to be. Excuse me now while I climb into my asbestos suit.

[Andrewr05]

This isn't as big of a deal as the media is making it out to be, nor is it as big of a deal as Americans want to try to make it out to be. 

Agreed

 

Its a terrible tragedy, but life goes on. I feel for the relatives and such but the less coverage this gets the better.

 

Theres no one to try here, I feel even though the scumbag took the easy way out (suicide) its better he'll never get a trial because the media would go on for ANOTHER year about it.

[Fogel]

I agree, the media always blows things out of proportion.

 

While we had spikes in the past, I think it is very important to note there have been 7 mass shootings this year making it the most incidents in one year.  It could be argued 2012 is an outlier but in addition to 2012 it should also be noted the last few years have had more incidents then prior years when looking at the last 30yrs.  Six of the twelve deadliest shootings have happened since 2007.   So how many incidents do we need to have, at what severity level and for how many years until people think there is a trend?

 

And if you think it is just about the kids, the Newtown Massacre will rank Second Place (by numbers).

Source  (also has a more updated graph than yours)

 

Honestly I think the biggest part of the problem is the media and overglorifying (for lack of a better word) these events.  I think people are getting an idea in their head that if they are going to go out they might as well go out big.

[Kamikaze_Badger]

These are so few and far between that I don't think that have any significance. When it happens more often than other tragedies, it'll become a trend in my opinion. We've had various spikes over the course of years already, that's all I think this is.