America Is Fine With Mass Shootings—as Long as They’re Not Perpetrated by Muslims
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-speculation-about-the-san-bernardino-shooters-is-a-dangerous-distraction/
By all accounts, up until the very moment he opened fire, Syed Farook, one of the two alleged perpetrators of America’s latest gun-slaughter, was what the gun lobby lionizes as a “good guy with a gun.” Farook, along with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, allegedly killed 14 people at his office’s holiday party in San Bernardino, California, on Wednesday—the 355th mass shooting on the 336th day of 2015. But the couple had had no previous contacts with the law, according to San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan. Neighbors and co-workers described Farook as quiet and polite. He had held a stable, middle-class job as a food inspector for five years. Patrick Baccari, who shared a cubicle with Farook, told the Los Angeles Times that the Illinois native and his family appeared to be “living the American dream.”
It remains a possibility that this was an act of Islamic terrorism. CBS reports that the couple had stockpiled 12 pipe-bombs and thousands of rounds of ammunition in their suburban home. But the fact that Farook shot up his co-workers wasn’t on the radar of counter-terrorism officials and that no group has claimed responsibility for the attack doesn’t appear to fit the pattern. Multiple overlapping motives for their rampage could be at play. Regardless of what motive ultimately comes out, the reality is that Muslims have committed only a minuscule fraction of the mass shootings in this country....
We know that our mental-health care system is indeed broken. But the gun lobby’s ubiquitous claims that fixing it will address the scourge of gun violence are merely a distraction from the real issue. Epidemiological studies show that the vast majority of the mentally ill aren’t violent. They tend to kill themselves at a disproportionate rate. Duke University psychiatrist Jeffrey Swanson told Health Day that people suffering from those kinds of mental-health problems are responsible for only 4 percent of the gun violence in America....
As of this writing, what set off Wednesday’s massacre in San Bernardino remains a mystery. But while mass-shooting incidents represent only a small fraction of all the gun violence in America, they’re nonetheless commonplace. And it seems that far too many Americans appear to be willing to accept a certain amount of bloodshed—as long as it’s not perpetrated by Muslims.
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