This will not be a popular post. I’m about to offend the most self-righteous portion of the on-line community. I’m going to do it with the truth.
I’m going to do it while talking about a subject without naming it directly, because naming it directly causes it to happen.
In two different areas, the most common influence for whether or not a specific type of act of harm is inflicted is whether or not it receives attention.
If it does, the technical term is “contagion.” While it happens more with adolescents, it also happens with adults.
As the New York Times observed:
When Marilyn Monroe died in August 1962, with the cause listed as probable suicide, the nation reacted. In the months afterward, there was extensive news coverage, widespread sorrow and a spate of suicides. According to one study, the suicide rate in the United States jumped by 12 percent compared with the same months in the previous year.
New York Times Article on Contagion
Two links to contagion in the topic that will not be named here:
Every time the subject that I will not name occurs, people decide that it is time to express rage against those they disagree with on related subjects, to seek to be pundits and glorify themselves and their opinions, to seek attention like ghouls fattening themselves on the slaughtered and to feast on the abattoir of the dead for their own emotional gratification.
[Yes. I can use poetic harsh language like everyone else does. When I use it, it just happens to be true as well.]
Instead, our response should be silence.
As to the offenders:
Let them be forgotten.
Let their names be blotted out.
Let them fall into silence.
Let them turn to nothing.
Let them die all deaths.
But we need to recognize contagion. We need to accept responsibility when we are part of contagion that causes death. And we need to review how self-righteous, how narcissistic we are. Are we the ones who walk away from Omelas or are we those who not only know of the horror, but relish our part in it?
Questions:
- What can we do to stop violence?
- When are we complicit in violence because we spread the contagion like a disease?
- What are your thoughts?
This post has no images. That is intentional.
Yes. I own a firearm. It is a single shot pistol with break open action. It fires .22 rounds. I can get up to six rounds a minute fired with it. It resides in a gun safe about a thousand miles from where I live as it is an inherited collector’s item. I’ve fired it once, maybe (my memory is hazy, I handled it briefly about fifty years ago).
Wheat & Tares 
Stephen, thanks for broaching a difficult subject after an absolutely harrowing day. The event you don’t mention occurred ten minutes from my hometown. I agree somewhat with some of what you say about naming/not naming. I think there’s a difference, though, between not naming a suspect and not talking about what happened. Talking about what happened, though it hasn’t led to any significant (or maybe any) change to our gun laws (and I recognize that gun laws are only a part of the picture), is still necessary if we really want to understand the whys of something happening and then, if we ever want to muster the social, political will to do anything about it.
Sadly, I don’t have any answers to your questions and I don’t want to use the deaths of seventeen people (so far) as a way to make any of my pet political points. I will make the observation that as a culture (American) and as a religion (Christianity/Mormonism), we seem to have a disturbingly high tolerance for violence and an apparent obsession (at least among many of us) with instruments of violence. I could now make a lot of intellectual rumblings about how much violence is part of our heritage, part of our scriptures, etc., but I won’t. I do, though, think that that kind of casual acceptance of violence is deeply ingrained in us and I don’t see that changing much and therefore, unless there’s a lot more legislative will, we won’t see much change. And that is heartbreaking, depressing and sickening. .
And some of the people who spread contagion are just not smart enough to be culpable.
Stephen, thanks for a thoughtful post about a difficult topic. I think your post has some correlations with mine from yesterday.
I understand that contagion is a real thing, and that horrible behavior can actually come and go as a fad. I have no doubt that the attention received by perpetrators of violence influences and even activates the potential in other perpetrators. On the other hand, I’m not convinced certain problems just go away on their own (I keep hoping internet nastiness is just a passing fad, but…). I think you have to talk about them. And you have to talk about solutions while there’s a chance there’s enough collective will to implement them.
But the way that’s done is just is important as doing it. A Facebook friend of mine posted her outrage and stated that if any of her FB friends were members of the NRA or were sympathizers, unfriend her now, because they weren’t her friends. I wonder how many of her gun-owning friends were influenced toward her way of thinking by such an aggressive, accusatory post? She was clearly angry and frustrated and apparently lashing out to hurt those she was powerless against. How much influence will she have in the future over those who simply unfriend her? My guess is that she simply increased the balkanization, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe rational discussion and compromise don’t yield results (I think she would argue this). Maybe demonizing and shaming people with contrary views is the best way to win elections and force your superior point of view on others (arguably this was a big component of every major social change in US history).
Personally, I don’t like it. I’m not convinced my point of view has ever been changed by somebody shaming me. I tend to dig in my heels. However, my mind has been changed by people I respect sharing their strong arguments in a respectful way. If defensiveness is an impediment to progress, then don’t make people defensive by attacking them.
A non-LDS church attended by a family member is remodeling their children”s area. Previously there was only one entry. Every child had a bar coded sticker with their name put on their shirt when they entered. No adults went back there unless they had background checks and leaders followed a two deep rule.
One idea is for the new area to have a ton of glass which would allow for parents and most anyone to watch their children without disrupting them. It was designed so that a child was never really alone to prevent abuse.
The other idea is that if an intruder attacks a concentration of children with rapidly deadly force , the attack usually only lasts a few minutes before it is stopped one way or another. Survival is a function of having places to hide. There would be many different solid doors and rooms and closets.Which way would you think is best if you were designing a children’s area in the church?
When we consider all the cases where adults supervising children at church (or school) have abuse them, then the glass walls idea seems best.. When we consider the recent contagion then the multiple doors seems best. But it is logically impossible to do both. Of course at the LDS church we have the least secure arrangement possible with a ring of classrooms around the periphery and windowless doors mostly and no background checks on teachers and frequent substitutions of teachers. But I digress.
Bulletproof glass.
How to stop a contagion is to immunize the population prior to its spread.
I’ve spent all morning pondering what I want to happen when it comes to situations like the one we’re not speaking about and here is what I’ve decided: I want violence and guns to only be portrayed in popular culture, media, and entertainment as a tool of wimps and idiots.
The lgbtq community completely reframed how they are viewed in our country in a very short time. If we can get enough people on board, we can do the same with violence and guns.
Stephen,
Years ago I heard a program discussing Louise Richardson’s work on terrorism. She summarized terrorist’s aims as: revenge, renown and reaction.
Since then, I have often thought of the contagion aspect of these types of incidents. Certainly it seems more common since the event that occurred
in Columbine CO. We also know suicide can serve as a contagion. I too, have thought perhaps we should refrain from posting the perpetrator’s picture or any “manifesto” left by the perpetrator. I appreciate that Anderson Cooper refrains from using the name of the perpetrator on his program. But, the coverage of the event becomes extensive and overwhelming. Does that in and of itself serve as a contagion? (however, law enforcement sometimes relies on publicity to gather more information).
When my kids were in high school, one night they had a meeting for parents including a psychologist which included a discussion of differences between adolescent males and females in how they respond to emotional events. We were told typically females express themselves verbally, while males react physically. They recommended not giving car keys to adolescent males when they are emotionally upset–instead try to engage them in a physical activity.
To do absolutely nothing or double-down on current strategies obviously isn’t helping.
We need new ways of thinking and different strategies.
Acknowledge the potential and real risk of lethal weapons in the home and in society (I would note UT laws allow religious institutions–including BYU to prohibit guns while public institutions like U of U are not allowed to prohibit guns on campus).
More research
Allow physicians to discuss all potential hazards in the house with parents–including firearms.
School meetings to educate parents about various parenting topics.
Raise the bar of who can own and/or carry lethal weapons. (pre-frontal cortex (impulse control/rational brain) doesn’t mature until around age 25)
Reduce capacity of weapons.
Make our schools safer–bullet proof entry doors? windows? (but how do we protect those coming to or leaving school?)
Reduce/limit exposure to violence. I do believe repeated exposure to violence/extreme violence changes the shock/tolerance effect.
(my husband had a small caliber handgun (no ammo) which we kept hidden from our children. Very occasionally he would take them to a shooting range as an outing. We also had a bb gun which they used occasionally under adult supervision).
Another way to deal with “contagion” is to drown people with numbers.
Here is a wiki site of an incomplete international list of school massacres-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres_by_death_toll
A quick and dirty summary of this data.
1900-59: 6 events, 58 deaths, 132 injuries
1960-69: 4 events, 33 deaths, 58 injuries
1970-79: 11 events, 64 deaths, 145 injuries
1980-89: 9 events, 43 deaths, 122 injuries
1990-99: 20 events, 146 deaths. 150 injuries
2000-09: 30 events, 532 deaths, 952 injuries *
So far this decade-
2010-2018: 25 events, 439 deaths, 320 injuries.
Projected 2010-2020 (plus 20% above)
2010-2020: 30 events, 525 deaths, 385 injuries.
One event in Russia in 2004 accounts for 334 deaths and 783 injuries.
*****
I think we can conclude the following:
1- This is not a new problem, it has been going on for over a century.
2. It is becoming much more severe since at least 1990 or before.
3. Has it leveled off? Hard to say. It is not getting noticeably less serious.
This would be far beyond me, but since there is quite a bit of geographical variability of gun control laws and gun ownership around the USA and the world, one might attempt to show a correlation- positive or negative, although that might be difficult because these school shootings are relatively rare events.Many confounding variables include many wealthy people own guns and live in communities with lower crime because it is associated with poverty. One thing is for certain, it has been illegal and extremely unacceptable for many decades to bring a gun onto school property, yet these tragedies continue unabated. The weekly grind of 12-15 murders in Chicago or the numbers and rates other places like New Orleans, Baltimore, St Louis might provide more statistically satisfying data on this subject, but there are so many confounding variables that both sides can quote data to their advantage.
One other conclusion, pretty obvious to me, is that what we are doing IS NOT WORKING! Maybe we should try something else.
Maybe endless arguments about the 2nd amendment are not working. Neither side is giving any ground.
I have one perhaps off-the-wall suggestion: Why not place a little pack of trained guard dogs in schools. They can smell gunpowder a mile away. They can be trained to attack and subdue. They are cheaper than hiring teachers, maybe not.
They could have frequent drills to the point these dogs get very skillful and a person could not even get a shot off before being swarmed by them. These drills could be recorded and placed on social media. The future perpetrators might decide to do something else less destructive.
Excellent post and comments. My heart hurts today. I am truly at a loss how to find any answers and any peace in my faith today. Why God? Is all I can summon. My husband is a retired disabled law enforcement officer. We have talked for hours last night and today on what is the solution. How do we start the changes that need to happen? Right now. We have precious grandsons..(as I’m sure we all have loved ones )we are worried for their future in this crazy world. Every side hurling insults at the other won’t get us anywhere. I’m angry . I want to scream at someone.
I hope no one is so naive to think “Good LDS members don’t have anything bad happen to them”, for 1 of the dead, and, 1 of the wounded in FL are LDS.
http://kutv.com/news/local/lds-church-identifies-two-of-its-members-among-victims-in-florida-school-shooting
As we saw yesterday, guns are a problem because of what is in the head and heart of the individual who uses guns to kill.
If we could take away all the guns, those with evil hearts, will still kill. They will find another kind of weapon. Terrorist have been using vehicles, bombs, and even acid to accomplish their brand of evil. Remember, Timothy McVeigh? He killed 168 people with a fertilizer bomb.
I hope congress will prevent a person with a history like Nikolas Cruz from buying any kind of gun, Mental health problems appears to be behind many mass shootings. I think its time for Congress to act. Mass shooting are not going to stop, If congress doesn’t act soon, future mass shootings are going to cause a public uproar so severe that it could result in greatly reduced or even loss 2nd amendment rights. It isn’t necessary for that to happen. Congress not taking action on guns will eventually cause more harm to 2nd amendment rights than anything else.
Seems an interesting suggestion to me to prevent gun ownership until at least 25, with a mental health assessment.
We have very strict gun law here, which seems helpful, and no it doesn’t stop knife crime which is on the up suddenly, but clearly there are going to be fewer victims than with automatic rifles.
I also think we live in a society where civil discourse is being actively devalued, and our politicians are happy to feed off our fear. I think the fear is contagious, and disempowering, and gun manufacturers are winning all the way.
All those poor, beautiful children and teachers…
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints held a vigil in Westerville Ohio for our fallen officers. We weren’t able to attend but our news did a live coverage of the service. It was lovely. I felt some hope returning. We are all Gods children. If we all stand together I hope we can fill the dark with light.