Insecure assholes are the gun industry's target market

[phantom power]

...and they are exactly the people who commit mass shootings.

Instead, your average mass shooting seems to be motivated by a personal vendetta, and it’s often an impulsive act.

This calls into question one of the favorite theories that has started to float around to avoid the discussion of gun control — that we can stop mass shootings by refusing to cover them in the media. That theory assumes that mass shooters are motivated by the thirst for attention and not giving it to them will discourage them. While it’s true some mass shooters are motivated by the lure of infamy or because they are terrorists who want attention for their cause, looking over this database shows that, in reality, your average shooter is just an asshole who had way too easy access to a gun.

I clicked around at random — really, truly, covered my eyes and everything — and after eliminating the ones with no suspect, here are the 10 I clicked in the Guns Are Cool list:

... a list of 10 stories about insecure assholes with guns ...

Again, these are cases chosen at random, excluding any stories where suspects had not been caught yet. Mass shootings, along with the similar crime of murder-suicide, are usually personal in nature and not the random or politicized shootings that come to mind when we think of “mass shootings.” They usually happen after very little planning or even at the spur of the moment. In nearly every case, the assailant is a man trying to assert dominance over others, whether they are rival gang members, a woman he’s trying to force into submission, or just some dude who said something nasty to him at a party. There are multiple victims because the shooter either had a problem with all of them, shooting them was a way to hurt the main victim (such as when shooters kill children to hurt the mother), or because they were bystanders.

...

Whether personal or impersonal, mass shootings share two common features in nearly all cases: An overblown sense of entitlement and way too easy access to guns. Easy access to guns is a critical reason for some of the more famous, planned out rampages, of course, but it may be an even more relevant factor with the everyday mass shooting. After all, your typical mass shooting is a hothead who just went off. The reason said hothead had a gun is because we live in a culture that’s swimming in them.

More than that, the gun industry directly markets to men who are insecure and have a will to dominate that finds expression in gun ownership. Unfortunately, those are exactly the same two traits that you find in hotheads who react to perceived slights by blowing their tops. In a country where guns are heavily marketed to the people who are most likely to mishandle them, we really shouldn’t be surprised that we have the mass shooting problem that we do.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/03/an_ahole_with_way_too_easy_access_to_a_gun_our_horrific_gun_problem_boils_down_to_entitlement_and_rage/

[Squinch]

1. The "don't cover mass shootings" ploy is just another version of "Move along, nothing to see here."

It's a ridiculous idea.

And yes. I tend to say "It's the guns," but you are right. It's the guns plus the assholes that buy them.

[Rex]

2. It is classic FUD.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt. Create millions of insecure people and tell them the only way to feel safe is to arm themselves to the teeth. And they do, because it works like a charm.

And Congress will not stop it, too much money flowing in from the gun lobbies.

[smirkymonkey]

3. "...the gun industry directly markets to men who are insecure and have a will to dominate

that finds expression in gun ownership."

That's it in a nutshell, I think.

[Eleanors38]

5. I thought there was a reason for all those pink gun stocks.

[Electric Monk]

4. k&r

[Eleanors38]

6. Too much pop psychology spilling outta da Saloon.