Psychopaths won't go away and simple answers won't work.

Incredibly in the wake of school shootings across the country there has been no comprehensive study to determine the cause of the phenomenon. It’s widely accepted that all of the school shooters are psychopaths who act without conscience or remorse but since psychopaths have always existed making up about one percent of the population, there has been no identifying element that explains the modern paradigm of inflicting mass casualties on the innocent.

Since true psychopaths are relatively rare in the population they are isolated and marginalized as individuals by the standard code of conduct of the typical population. The capacity for empathy in the psychopathic brain is wired in the default mode and is activated only voluntarily not unconsciously as it is in the larger community.

The psychopathic individual is able to switch off the self-preservationist reasoning that endows the normal mind to consider the consequences of its actions or the array of effects those actions will have on others. A single goal-oriented result without regard to repercussions or aftermath makes the psychopathic mind fearless it its mission.

Psychopaths make up the majority of violent criminals in our prison systems but it is only recently that they have begun to emerge as independent operators representing a group of like-minded individuals joined together to inflict lethal mayhem on gatherings and crowds.

The tool of choice to accomplish this mission is a currently a gun but removing a physical artifact from the public domain will not deter the psychopath who is kindled by modern technology and finds purpose and companionship on the ever increasing landscape of social media.

Nothing in modern society has triggered the spread of psychopathic carnage like social media that supports it with camaraderie and mass media that glorifies it with infamy. Technological advances in communication have left psychopaths virtually sitting on top of the world.

Going after law abiding citizens and taking defensive weapons out of the hands of the public will have the opposite effect it is designed to encourage. It could leave victims defenseless as they pursue their lives reduced to the anonymity of targets. Psychopaths won’t go away they will just change their tactics. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 with fertilizer.

The cultural and moral decay of our society is producing a perfect storm that energizes evil to an extent that is unprecedented. Feel good solutions and simple answers just won’t work.

Ray9 said:

Incredibly in the wake of school shootings across the country there has been no comprehensive study to determine the cause of the phenomenon. It’s widely accepted that all of the school shooters are psychopaths who act without conscience or remorse but since psychopaths have always existed making up about one percent of the population, there has been no identifying element that explains the modern paradigm of inflicting mass casualties on the innocent.

Since true psychopaths are relatively rare in the population they are isolated and marginalized as individuals by the standard code of conduct of the typical population. The capacity for empathy in the psychopathic brain is wired in the default mode and is activated only voluntarily not unconsciously as it is in the larger community.

The psychopathic individual is able to switch off the self-preservationist reasoning that endows the normal mind to consider the consequences of its actions or the array of effects those actions will have on others. A single goal-oriented result without regard to repercussions or aftermath makes the psychopathic mind fearless it its mission.

Psychopaths make up the majority of violent criminals in our prison systems but it is only recently that they have begun to emerge as independent operators representing a group of like-minded individuals joined together to inflict lethal mayhem on gatherings and crowds.

The tool of choice to accomplish this mission is a currently a gun but removing a physical artifact from the public domain will not deter the psychopath who is kindled by modern technology and finds purpose and companionship on the ever increasing landscape of social media.

Nothing in modern society has triggered the spread of psychopathic carnage like social media that supports it with camaraderie and mass media that glorifies it with infamy. Technological advances in communication have left psychopaths virtually sitting on top of the world.

Going after law abiding citizens and taking defensive weapons out of the hands of the public will have the opposite effect it is designed to encourage. It could leave victims defenseless as they pursue their lives reduced to the anonymity of targets. Psychopaths won’t go away they will just change their tactics. Timothy McVeigh killed 168 with fertilizer.

The cultural and moral decay of our society is producing a perfect storm that energizes evil to an extent that is unprecedented. Feel good solutions and simple answers just won’t work.

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You seem to be arguing two opposite positions - a person's lack of seeing the future consequences of specific violent actions and a desire to perform those specific violent actions specifically because of their future consequences. You started off well - that some (sociopaths?) refuse to consider an action's negative impact on others and care only about themselves (inflicting violence on others makes them feel more powerful and noticed).

IMHO, it is those that see their current existence as already suffering being (severely?) punished by society - making the punishment by society aspect of the future consequences of their violent actions either not be a deterrent or one that can be easily overcome by suicide.

Ray9 said:

Incredibly in the wake of school shootings across the country there has been no comprehensive study to determine the cause of the phenomenon.

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I'm not sure what you mean by comprehensive, but there are a great many studies on the psychology of mass shooters and what leads to that psychology--brain damage, early socialization and familial relations, etc. I came up with a few thousand such studies in my university library. I'm sure google scholar will link to the abstracts of at least some of those.

ashurbanipal said:

I'm not sure what you mean by comprehensive, but there are a great many studies on the psychology of mass shooters and what leads to that psychology--brain damage, early socialization and familial relations, etc. I came up with a few thousand such studies in my university library. I'm sure google scholar will link to the abstracts of at least some of those.

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Those studies do not address the new paradigm of a mass group movement of psychopaths to inflict harm facilitated by the internet and social media and rewarded by the notoriety granted by mass media. They exist as a major contributing factors.

ttwtt78640 said:

You seem to be arguing two opposite positions - a person's lack of seeing the future consequences of specific violent actions and a desire to perform those specific violent actions specifically because of their future consequences. You started off well - that some (sociopaths?) refuse to consider an action's negative impact on others and care only about themselves (inflicting violence on others makes them feel more powerful and noticed).

IMHO, it is those that see their current existence as already suffering being (severely?) punished by society - making the punishment by society aspect of the future consequences of their violent actions either not be a deterrent or one that can be easily overcome by suicide.

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They don't lack the ability to see the consequences they just don't consider them or give them any weight. The fact that psychopaths live on the inside looking out causes them to be perpetually on the outside looking in when it comes to conventional society. They don't relate to people with the ability to change places with them.

I doubt that psychopaths make up a majority of violent criminals in prison.

Ray9 said:

Those studies do not address the new paradigm of a mass group movement of psychopaths to inflict harm facilitated by the internet and social media and rewarded by the notoriety granted by mass media. They exist as a major contributing factors.

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I apologize for the late response, but I've been very busy and doing a little research on this topic on the side. This isn't my field, so I don't know for sure that I've been looking in the right places, but indeed, it does look like you're probably correct about this being a real thing that is recent and therefore not studied. I plan to try to engage my colleagues over in the sociology department to see if they might be interested in the possibility of studying the topic. Sociologists are always looking for fresh topics, and this seems to fit the bill. So, perhaps, if someone can figure out a way to do it, we'll get some study of this phenomenon going. Might do some good someday, and prevent future mass killings.

I just wanted to let you know my results, and thank you for the suggestion.

Ray9 said:

Incredibly in the wake of school shootings across the country there has been no comprehensive study to determine the cause of the phenomenon.

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You can thank the NRA for that one. They shut down pretty much all funding for any research into the use of guns in crimes years ago.

It’s widely accepted that all of the school shooters are psychopaths....

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No, it really isn't. Most school shooters are never diagnosed, they are usually killed or commit suicide first.

We should also note that by some estimates, 93% of psychopaths are already in the criminal justice system -- in "prison, jail, parole or probation." I've gotta say, it seems like we're kind of on top of that one.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4059069/)

Psychopaths make up the majority of violent criminals in our prison systems....

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Yeah, not so much. 16% of the prison/jail/parole/probation population are psychopaths. The real issue is that recidivism rates for psychopaths is very high, as they feel no regrets and repeatedly reoffend.

The tool of choice to accomplish this mission is a currently a gun but removing a physical artifact from the public domain will not deter the psychopath who is kindled by modern technology and finds purpose and companionship on the ever increasing landscape of social media.

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Sorry, but that's nonsense.

A psychopath with a knife can do a lot of damage, but will do far less than that same psychopath armed with an AR-15, multiple high-cap magazines and a few handguns.

Nothing in modern society has triggered the spread of psychopathic carnage like social media that supports it with camaraderie and mass media that glorifies it with infamy.

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Yeah, that's also total nonsense. Dozens of nations have extensive social media engagement by citizens, and don't have mass shootings or school shootings like we see in the US.

Going after law abiding citizens and taking defensive weapons out of the hands of the public will have the opposite effect it is designed to encourage.

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And again, more nonsense. There is no research whatsoever that shows how lax gun laws result in fewer school shootings. In fact, the US has a uniquely high rate of both gun ownership, mass shootings, gun homicides and gun suicides. The US is 5% of the world's population, and 30% of its mass shootings. Raise your hand if that correlation surprises you.

It could leave victims defenseless as they pursue their lives reduced to the anonymity of targets. Psychopaths won’t go away they will just change their tactics.

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Psychopaths won't be discouraged by an armed presence at the location -- as clearly shown by the Parkland shooting, which had armed security guards on site.

The cultural and moral decay of our society is producing a perfect storm that energizes evil to an extent that is unprecedented. Feel good solutions and simple answers just won’t work.

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Yeah, that "cultural and moral decay?" It's resulted in homicide rates dropping for decades. Teen pregnancy is down; divorce rates are down from the peak in 1980; drug use is actually down in the US (the problem there is that overdose deaths are up, because addicts are occasionally given fentanyl without being told).

Oh, and the number of both school and mass shootings has actually been pretty consistent for a few decades.

In fact, by a broad array of measures, 2017 was probably one of the best years in human history. Global poverty, illiteracy, hunger/famine, were all down. Diseases are better controlled than any time in the past. The number of interstate wars is down, and this has contributed to fewer people dying in wars as a percentage of the world's population than ever before. Information flows freely around most of the world, in a way unthinkable in 1950. There are certainly major problems, but that doesn't change the fact that in many respects, there has never been a better time to be alive.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/opinion/sunday/2017-progress-illiteracy-poverty.html)

What you see as "decay," the rest of the world experiences as progress. Maybe you should ponder that for a bit.