Another Mass Shooting

An unfortunate reality of America is that we deal with mass shootings at an increased rate. One side claims racist rhetoric running rampant while others tout mental illness is the issue. I’m here to provide the opinion that two things are allowed to be true. The way I see it, there are multiple things that are at play that create the “perfect storm” that allows this to continuously happen. I’m going to try to speak about this from a complete logical standpoint because my emotions may misconstrue the message that I am attempting to get across. Please bear with me and remember, this is solely opinion based on what I have known to be true throughout the majority of my life.

Racist Rhetoric

The shooting in Buffalo is a terrible tragedy. According to the manifesto by the individual that caused this heinous event, he claims he was inspired by other mass shooters and the various white supremacist views that have been spewed all over the internet, specifically 4chan. As an African American male that was heavily into tech like subjects throughout his youth, I know the cesspool that 4chan can be if you look hard enough. We live in a free society and with all the good that comes with it we also have to be aware of the inverse as well. That being said, people that may not have had a voice or felt like their voice has been suppressed by their environment are given a platform to speak their mind. In theory it sounds great however not all opinions are made equal. Even with this post, I know there will be a group of people that would not like this opinion being posted on the internet and that is the reality of the situation. When you have people that feel like they are not being heard or respected, there is one of three things that may happen. They may change their views based on their environment, seek out like minded individuals or stay within their own opinion and die on the figurative hill that they’ve created with their beliefs. In the case of this individual, he found people that hold the same beliefs that he has. The issue with this is, these are individuals with warped world views and beliefs that are outside of reality. People that blame others for their shortcomings and downfalls. This is a pattern that I have noticed with many mass shooters. If we take out the gang involved shootings (because this is a point that people like to bring up because they think when people are upset about one subject they are fine with another, i.e., idiots), we typically have young white men upset at either women or a minority group and feel like they are the reason their lives are crap. Mix that with the media sensationalizing violent crimes, possibly mental illness, possible “brainwashing” from other people that share the same warped world view…we have that perfect storm I was talking about. But this may not be the case.

Mental Illness?

After all these shootings the individual is subdued safely, arrested and then the narrative is this person has a mental illness, they are a good kid, comes from a good family, I don’ know how/why they did this, etc. Again from the scope of an African American man, this is a slap in the face. Why is it so easy to subdue an individual with an assault rifle that was just shooting off but it’s difficult to subdue someone with no weapons. Do they believe that our skin color can be weaponized? Are we walking weapons of mass destruction? Actually this isn’t the reason for this post. Sorry I got carried away. But my point still stands. I actually believe that a good amount of these individuals do have a mental illness. In my opinion, albeit might be the only one that holds this opinion, if you can they should subdue these individuals. This is the researcher in my personality speaking. America has always been reactionary instead of preventative. This could have been avoided since last year yet nothing was done. The individual in question was hospitalized for making threats towards his high school and there was a concern that he may have access to weapons but that is a far as went. Now a year later, 11 black people have died, he’s arrested and now we are left with a repeat of the same history we deal with almost every year. Like I stated I do believe that these individuals may have a mental illness. These individuals need to be studied so that we can prevent this from happening in the future. However in the same regard, I want him to be tried and held accountable for his actions because even with a mental illness, a good amount does not impact your rationale for right and wrong. Why is it that certain men get so angry at women that they become outwardly violent? Why is it that certain races get so angry at other races for things that they have no control over? These are some of the questions that need to be answered to attempt prevent these things from happening. But this has to be across the board. The individuals that resort to gang like activity and other crimes, there is a level (in my opinion) of mental imbalance that needs to be discussed and talked about more often. Not just throwing them in a box of criminality because when you do that, it makes it seem that only White Christian Men can suffer mental illnesses.

I honestly don’t know the right answer. This is all opinion and my two cents on the subject. I’m sure there are other factors that come into play that led to this issue. However I feel like we ars a society have to begin to change our views on situations like this and with that it will change our views on other situations as well. I hope he is prosecuted to the highest letter of the law and I also hope he gets the help he desperately needs. I hope he and others realize that the only person that can be truly blamed for your shortcomings (in most situations) is of no one’s fault other than your own. We have to have honest unbiased conversations about these issues and actually listen to the people that know what they are talking about. We can’t let the media create the narrative for us. They are the reason for many of the, excuse my French, shitty situations that we are all in. Once we start doing these things we can look to an actual change in the world that would benefit everyone. But until then we will be dealing with this terrible situations. Unfortunate to say, aside from my regularly scheduled mental health posts, I’ll see you at the next unfortunate event.