by Soraya Chemaly
December 17, 2012
As I listened along with the rest of the world to the unfolding horror of what transpired at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I was struck by the persistent lack of commentary and analysis discussing the fact that mass shooters are almost all angry, male and white. What will it take for us to have widespread, open, public dialogue about gender and violence in this country? About masculinity and identity? These are among the “hard questions” we’re inclined to ignore. Instead, as I listened to the radio and watched the TV, I heard media commentators repeatedly explain how rare this scenario is. How this community didn’t have a “crime problem.” About the psychological make-up of mass shooters. Law enforcement officers are looking for a motive. And people are asking, again, “Why did this happen?”
This is the wrong question. Mass murderers are an extreme symptom of a common, everyday problem. Yes, the risk of being terrorized by a lone, mass murderer is slim. But everyday people live with fear and terror in their homes. There is, sadly, nothing unique about men with guns in this country killing people every day. In the case of mass murders, the extreme symptom of this disaster, the question is, “Why did another angry, young, white man act this way and kill these people?”
This tragedy happened and will continue to happen because too many guns are readily available in a culture that is optimized for their tragic use, most often by unstable boys brought up to define themselves as men through violence, and taught from birth to expect control. Men with cultural entitlements to and expectations of power and privilege. Expectations, when not met and combined with illness, loss, depression and more, explode into uncounted tragedies every day. De-stigmatizing mental illness and regulating guns will of course help, but will be insufficient without inclusion of this dimension of the problem. In the case of Adam Lanza, yes, he had a mental health issue and had access to guns. But, unlike others with illness and access, he experienced the culture in a way that shifted his propensity into violent actuality.
Lanza’s mother’s guns, all properly licensed, were among the 270 million guns that can be found in the U.S. today. He was denied a gun in a local gun store earlier in the week because he didn’t want to wait the required two weeks. Our exceptional country ranks No. 1 in the world in guns/per capita, with 88 guns/100 people–far exceeding the second on the list, Serbia, at 58.2/100. There are countries similarly armed, but not similarly violent. As Ezra Klein pointed out in The Washington Post on Friday, “Switzerland and Israel have rates of homicide that are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States.” Of the 25 worst mass shootings of the past 50 years, 15 took place here. It’s a lie to say these events are rare.
Continue reading at: http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/12/17/why-wont-we-talk-about-violence-and-masculinity-in-america/
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