Is it me, or are there more mass murders and random shootings lately?

[PinkTiger]

I don't remember a time when we had so many random shootings like the ones at Wendy's in Florida, the mall in Omaha, and the killings of family members, etc.
Could it be the influence of Plluto?

[SheilaT]

1. It happens all the time.

It's just that for some reason you're paying more attention than usual. Also, sometimes random shootings simply don't make much news outside of the local community.

I suspect that if you spent some time doing a Google search you could find some numbers and statistics.

It's a little like emergency landings of airplanes. They literally happen every day, but almost never make the news. Then something happens that is all over the news, and for the next few days or weeks you read about every single minor incident, which makes it suddenly look as if air travel is unsafe.

[PinkTiger]

2. That's what I suspect, as well.

I think if we did a media analysis we would find out that this type of crime is actually common.
Of course, that doesn't make me feel better, LOL.

On edit: Founds some stats - apparently crime has gone down. And it doesn't look all that good for the Democrats, because when Bill Clinton was in office crime either went way up or it was more reported. Not sure.
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

[NJCher]

8. I don't agree with that at all

I don't think these kinds of killings go on and are just not reported. On the contrary, I think they are reported and that the reporting itself sets off other crimes of that type.

There are the famous spree killings (also other crimes, such as kidnappings and robberies) that took place in an 18-month period from 1933-34. That resulted in the rise of the FBI.

Now we have another wave of such crimes, which are known as "spree killings." I recall Evelyn Paglini, a psychic who I personally think is very good, predicted there would be awave of such killings and that there would also be "children killing children" and adults killing children.

There was another wave of killings in what? The 80s? These were the workplace killings, mostly at the post office, and led to the expression "going postal."

Here is where crime statistics are gathered: the National Incident Based Reporting System and the Uniform Crime Reports. The two systems differ in how they divide crimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Incident_Based_Reporting_System

So no, it's not just you, Pink Tiger, and it doesn't happen every day. For some reason we have a wave of killings, many of which are school killings.



Cher

[SheilaT]

11. Back when there were some

famous schoolyard killings (the one in Paducah comes to mind) it was commented in several places that school shootings occur several times a year, but almost never make national news.

I just checked Wikipedia for school shootings. Here's a link to the article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting

The day of the spree killing in Illinois, one news report (on NPR probably) mentioned that this was the fifth such shooting in two or three weeks -- can't recall the exact number of shootings nor the number of weeks. But I had not heard of any of the others. Neither, apparently, had anyone else I mentioned that to. Now that I scroll down through the linked article, I kind find the other ones:

Notre Dame Elementary shooting Portsmouth, Ohio, United States February 7, 2008
Louisiana Technical College shooting Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States February 8, 2008
Mitchell High School shooting Memphis, Tennessee, United States February 11, 2008
E.O. Green School shooting Oxnard, California, United States February 12, 2008
Northern Illinois University shooting DeKalb, Illinois, United States February 14, 2008

There's no Wiki article for the Notre Dame Shooting. But more searching reveals that a man shot his estranged wife in her classroom, then eventually killed himself. In Louisiana, a woman fatally shot two students then killed herself. In Memphis a student critically wounded another student.
Notice that was four previous shootings in one week. Om Oxnard, California, an 8th grader killed another student, apparently because the second student was gay.

Because not too many people were killed, those earlier shootings simply didn't make national news. And if you look at the entire list at the Wikipedia article, I think you'll be surprised at how often such things have happened over the years. Then click on the link to other notable school shootings, and you'll be shocked at how many there are. I stand by my point that these things (sadly) happen all the time.

[ricochetastroman]

3. could very well be

Mars opposite Pluto, yes, but many factors come into account....

hope peace comes soon!

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. I only know Hogue from reading a post today, but if he's right...

"PREDICTION: The next great social crisis in America, after poverty and racism will be sociopathic behavior arising from Media-imprinting. US culture begins to reap in 2008 the harvest of Cosmic Day's 36-year injection of media violence."

http://www.hogueprophecy.com/predictions2008.htm#predictions

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Just saw the US soldiers in Iraq video of the puppy tossing- do NOT watch if you have empathy.

This is the sort of thing that scares me pissless, and always has, about this world. I've huffed and puffed and tried to "fit in" regarding negativity in order to not find a similar fate, but I can't anymore. I am sickened at the cellular level.

[eilen]

9. I feel so badly for that soldier

what is in him that does that, that drives him to that action. How has war and the strain affected him to want to do this? His soul must be hurting so badly. This is a person in a great deal of pain.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. I don't believe that he, and his friends who thought it up and smiled for the camera

to watch later and even post to the internet, even know that they did something wrong. They're aren't on edge, they aren't stressed, they did that the same way a child kills a fly or turns a magnifying glass and the sun upon an anthill. They simply don't know any better. They don't yet have compassion within them. They are learning the war lesson, not the why war is wrong lesson.

[eilen]

12. You are only looking on the outside.

Do you think these young men came to Iraq with this ethic? I don't think so.

[mother earth]

6. Thanks for bringing that up, Peake, I too believe this is exactly

what is taking place. Not to mention there is a huge common demonominator of psych drugs that have horrible side effects (esp. in the young)---the unsuspecting take them for depression or other things & then they are worst off than they started out IMO. It is a well known fact that the youth have very real and more pronounced side effects.

[elleng]

7. Media hoopla

foments it.