I got to wondering about this the other day. On the one side, you've got all these people decrying how the world is going to hell and we've got to do something about it, but on the other... well, violent crime statistics in general have been going down since around the 1980s (or so I've heard). These two facts don't seem to match up properly in my head.
This got me to looking for older references to school shootings and by damn I immediately found a Wikipedia page on it. Although they've got multiple incidents listed for nearly every year since sometime in the 1800s, very few of them really fit the modern paradigm of somewhat indiscriminate killing... the first that came close to fitting was Charles Whitman in 1966.
I'm also curious as to opinions (and of course facts) about how much the widespread press coverage and general hooplah surrounding prior events might inspire some wacko to give it a go.
Anyway, I thought I'd share what little I've looked into and open up a discussion on it. This thread isn't intended for general gun control debate... feel free to pipe in with that stuff if you want (I won't really care) but for the record, I'll consider it a bit off topic and would prefer not to have a derail. At the very least, keep in mind that I am not personally advocating for either side's agenda in the gun debate. I would like to look at this rationally, and keep politics mostly out of it.
On the other hand, I AM particularly interested in putting the events listed into historical context... which might make some debate about the role and effects of guns in society -- and our societal attitudes toward them -- somewhat inevitable. Soo... the topic is sort of broad like that, and not precisely limited to the title, which was mostly just my starting point.
Here's the link to the Wiki page.
(eta) Sorry for the botched title. If a mod happens to notice replace the first "is" with an "of" please. AND if you feel like moving this to the History area, feel free... but I think it could belong here just fine.
(eta2) and then there's my usual compulsive minor editing after posting that I always do, of course. I'll try to stop now.
This got me to looking for older references to school shootings and by damn I immediately found a Wikipedia page on it. Although they've got multiple incidents listed for nearly every year since sometime in the 1800s, very few of them really fit the modern paradigm of somewhat indiscriminate killing... the first that came close to fitting was Charles Whitman in 1966.
I'm also curious as to opinions (and of course facts) about how much the widespread press coverage and general hooplah surrounding prior events might inspire some wacko to give it a go.
Anyway, I thought I'd share what little I've looked into and open up a discussion on it. This thread isn't intended for general gun control debate... feel free to pipe in with that stuff if you want (I won't really care) but for the record, I'll consider it a bit off topic and would prefer not to have a derail. At the very least, keep in mind that I am not personally advocating for either side's agenda in the gun debate. I would like to look at this rationally, and keep politics mostly out of it.
On the other hand, I AM particularly interested in putting the events listed into historical context... which might make some debate about the role and effects of guns in society -- and our societal attitudes toward them -- somewhat inevitable. Soo... the topic is sort of broad like that, and not precisely limited to the title, which was mostly just my starting point.
Here's the link to the Wiki page.
(eta) Sorry for the botched title. If a mod happens to notice replace the first "is" with an "of" please. AND if you feel like moving this to the History area, feel free... but I think it could belong here just fine.
(eta2) and then there's my usual compulsive minor editing after posting that I always do, of course. I'll try to stop now.
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