Non-oppressed group responsible for most mass killings

[SHRED]

Are white males responsible for more mass shootings than any other group?

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/newsweek/statements/byruling/mostly-true/

[JoeStuckInOH]

1. Would the mass shootings somehow be more "justified" if the perpetrators were oppressed people?

I don't see why it matters to call to attention or categorize mass shooters as generally oppressed or not. What's the significance?

[bettyellen]

3. Basically the least stressed group is having the most intense reactions against society- it is

Something to think about- what is society failing to teach white men- empathy? Coping skills? Something els?

[JoeStuckInOH]

5. Why assume thier actions are some sort of statement against how society treated them?

I would say that it's no surprise, given biochemistry and natural evolution, that men as whole engage in more violent behavior than women. Women tend to be more nurturing and men more adapt to physical confrontation... it's hard to suppress a genome shaped by millions of years of evolution with only several centuries of "civilization". Furthermore, looking at population demographics in America, whites are still the largest percentage of population - approximately 61.3%.

So I guess I'm not terribly surprised that white males make up the largest component of racial perpetrators for the most heinous crimes you can commit (mass killings). I don't think being more or less stressed has too much to do with it. In any population there is a small percentage of nutters that are ticking time bombs whether or not their mental problems are noticeable or not.

But to play devil's advocate (against my own arguments, lol) if there is a racial component to any of this, perhaps it is that minorities are more heavily scrutinized so minority nutters get "made" before anything catastrophically terrible happens. Whereas a white person with underlying psych problems gets looked over or ignored (via white privilege) until it's too late. But that seems s a stretch, even to me.

[bettyellen]

6. Well I disagree about the stress and taking it out on (segments of) society ....

And do think it's worth talking about in that context. Maybe privilege spoils some? Of course it's not every man, but they have an outsized effect on civil life these days with their terror. With all the chatter about terror in the last twenty years, white men are seriously unrepresented.

Interesting theory about POC being under more scrutiny. Can't agree with the biological determinism- same garbage people use to justify rape. It's a cultural problem too- much more common where it is tolerated. I do think we have a cultural problem where brutality and domination are too often celebrated. We need to expect better from each other.

[SHRED]

4. None of it is justified by anyone

I just find it ironic as hell that the demographic that rules this world does this sort of thing.

[Rilgin]

7. You do know that a democraphic is not the same thing as a person?

A sick deranged person did the vegas shooting with or without help and for a motive we can not be sure of.

Your problem is you see demographics and not people. To help you, please tell me how many "white males" there are and how many of them have done mass shootings. I will further help you,

Although I am not sure how accurate a simple google search says there are 233,000,000 white people in the US. Lets say that there are 100,000,000 males. Lets get rid of most of them as too old or young. and lets just make it 10,000,000 white males currently in the US currently. Plus of course more historically.

Now, how many mass shooters have there been in the last 100 years and contrast it with 10,000,000 people plus and tell me why talking demographics and talking about it as a characteristic of a demographic means anything.

Again to help. It has averaged about 2 a year in recent years.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/mass-shootings-have-become-more-frequent-the-1970s

Sick murderers are of all races but mass shootings are rare. It really is crucial to find out what causes killings whether its mass, bombing, serial, gang conflicts and how we can change it through social and law changes. Mass killings are just the most graphic and startling but the same can be said of gangster shoot outs and drive bys that kill collateral targets or serial killers who kill people without motive to kill that person.

Trying to isolate the demographic is to try to say that something about the 2 people a year who do mass shootings that does not cause the other 10,000,000 to do the same says more about you than about the demographic.

[angstlessk]

8. Serial killers are also mostly white males...it's their right!

So are most mass murderers...

The rest usually have knowable motives, money, territory, jealousy...then there is that religion thingy.

NONE are reasons...just motives.

Serial & mass murder motives often remain unknown, no matter the perpetrator.

[Irish_Dem]

2. White males threatened by a society evolving and becoming more civilized.

As females and non-whites gain basic human rights, and enter mainstream America, white males see this as a loss to them, in part due to the relentless GOP propaganda machine. Instead of realizing that when a society
allows all people to reach their full potential, it is a win for all.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I think an underlying factor that no one seems to be looking at is

that mass media in the form of television and movies often shows that the way to solve problems is to go out and shoot up someone or something. Violence is glorified in our culture. Couple that with the absurdly easy access to guns and you don't really need to search desperately for any other motive.

As for the fact that most of these things are perpetrated by white males, while they as a group are not oppressed, they often like to think they are. Witness the mocking of political correctness, the claims by the privileged white males in Silicon Valley that somehow their (god-given and natural) supremacy is in danger of being ripped away from them by the tiny number of women in their field. Or the outcries against affirmative action, as if (undeserving) women and minorities have stripped the (totally deserving) white men of their natural right to rule the world.

[Amishman]

10. Given that the country is 2/3rds white, I'd expect this to be true.

Weighting mass shooter race information against US demographic information, whites fall somewhere in the middle in frequency per capita. Interestingly enough native americans and asians jump to the top. This is using data from Mother Jones and the census, so I trust the data as well

Mass shootings aren't really a racial issue when you look at the data
(mass shootings follow US demographics more closely than murder overall)

however, it certainly can be said that it is a male issue