Social Media, Too Much information and the Lack of Common Sense Gun Laws

Henry David Thoreau once spoke about men leading lives of quiet desperation. But what happens when the desperation isn’t quiet anymore?

There’s a new normal in America. Mass shootings by young men, and almost all of them white. What has happened that these young men turned into homicidal monsters who are willing to kill innocent men, women and children? A scientific study once found that too many rats in a cage caused a multitude of problems, and like that study, I’m thinking the problem is that there’s too many of us rats in this cage.

I believe social media, the internet, too much information and the lack of common sense gun laws are the cause.

As a child, I dreamed of dying or disappearing, so my parents would miss me and feel bad about the way they treated me. Later, I was filled with teenage angst in part because I was not part of the in-crowd with the popular kids. I had few friends and was essentially invisible throughout my school years. When people hurt or bullied me, I imagined punching them and making them apologize. I never thought of killing my parents, grandparents or others to make up for my loneliness; I dreamed of being successful and showing up those others once I succeeded. I’ve read that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk were geeks and unpopular, and look what they accomplished.

I and my peers dreamed about finding a good job, getting married, buying a house, and living a life long enough to retire and enjoy grandkids. Perhaps joining the military like our fathers and/or grandfathers. Maybe opening up our own business so we were the boss. Our heroes were our older family members, other people in the community or the heroic characters on the big screen. My heroes were Paladin, Jim Bronson and Chang Caine, men who travelled the country helping people in need; prevailing over injustice, discrimination and hate. Each shunned money and fame. (It’s okay if you don’t know who I’m speaking about; it’s been a long time.) I wanted to be rich, but only so I could use my money to help animals and other people in need.

There was no internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and only a few channels on TV, which only aired from breakfast time to late in the evening. There was no such thing as a 24-hour news cycle, and we got our news from trusted personalities at 6 and 10pm who dispensed only information; not opinion. The only things instant in our lives were instant coffee, instant mashed potatoes, powdered milk, and TV dinners, and all of those were pretty disgusting. Instant used to mean not very good.

Today’s youth are bombarded by media which glamorizes the Kardashians, Real Housewives of Wherever and other shows where people obscenely flaunt their money and lifestyles. There’s no 9-5 grind, worries about the electric bill or finding a way to pay for the kid’s braces. Our youth now don’t look up to the man down the street who owns the hardware store or their parents and grandparents who have worked for generations or fought in the Great War; they look up to the latest Tik-tok, Instagram or YouTube sensations who are making millions as influencers producing nothing tangible and doing no discernable work of any kind. People who have struck it rich by getting today’s youth to subscribe to their channel so they might live vicariously through these so-called celebrities. Rap stars, social media influencers, sports figures, and other high-profile people who make massive amounts of money doing very little to no day-to-day hard work. People who live without apparent financial problems, cares or responsibilities, with no accountability or semblance of normalcy. They make their own rules and are not burdened by the issues which face the rest of us. Their biggest problems seem to be which party to attend, which new designer dress to wear, which supercar to drive today, or how to dress so as to shock the press and become yet more famous.

Nowadays, it’s about being famous for being famous. Get famous; get rich. No education, no hard work, no starting at the bottom. The youth of America look up to the famous and rich, because the world is your oyster when you’re famous and rich. It’s all about me, me, me; without any consideration for others.

I have to wonder if this is the motivation for this new generation of young shooters. Instead of buckling down and working harder under the pressures of life, it seems that they are giving in to their dark side and choosing to murder innocents in their quest to become more relevant.

When their lives are analyzed in the media after their crimes, we generally find they’re loners and societal outcasts, ostracized for their strange ways, and have a history of violent, anti-social or racist posts on social media. Are these shootings simply the next logical step in the twisted mind of these oddballs yearning to be famous, like all those influencers and celebrities on social media and the internet? Is the killing and terror just a perverted form of self-promotion in their lonely quest to fit in and achieve notoriety and wealth?

Social media and the internet have allowed young people to bully and publicly harass each other. Through the internet, the collective imaginations of millions of sociopaths, deviants and depraved loners can now share their warped fantasies and ideas. Young people who might instead have lead lives of quiet desperation now see that they’re not so alone; that someone else feels as they do, and through the internet find out about, share and are encouraged to commit these heinous acts of terror and violence. Too much readily available information has caused the once private problems of societal misfits to metastasize into the public cancer of mass shootings. As a society, we have glorified violence in movies and these young people have grown up with a thirst for violence. We are reaping what we sowed.

Perhaps the pro-gunners are right and this is a mental health issue. I am beginning to believe that guns are simply the most expedient way these social deviants see to achieve their goals of instant fame. I think that if there were no guns, they would use whatever means works best, like mowing down crowds of people with a vehicle, or fire-bombing crowded theaters and clubs, so as to cause the most death. They simply want to make a splash and become relevant and famous, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.

My right to own a gun should not be more important than an innocent person’s right to live. We need to pass some real meaningful measures to curb this horror. We need some common sense gun laws, and I propose the following:

1. Nobody under 21 can buy a firearm of any kind;

2. Nobody under 21 can possess or carry a firearm unless accompanied by a legal guardian;

3. A mandatory 90 day waiting period on all firearms;

4. Mandatory background checks by local, State and Federal authorities;

5. Mandatory social media background checks. Anyone found to have posted violent or racist drawings, threats or rantings is denied a gun for a period of 5 years, upon adjudication by a court of competent jurisdiction;

6. Mandatory firearm training and bi-annual recertification.

7. Mandatory secure storage (Gun safes) for all firearms in any dwelling in which any person under the age of 21 lives or visits.

None of these proposals restrict law-abiding citizens from keeping and bearing arms, and they just might save lives. If we can’t fix the craziness, perhaps we can control the crazy people’s access to firearms.