New restrictions on semiautomatic firearms had been driven by concerns over mass shootings, but it remained almost impossible to tell if the law had any effect on crime. The U.S. remained average to above-average in the frequency and impact of what had always been unusual crimes. "Though rampage shootings are rare in occurrence, the disproportionate amount of coverage they receive in the media leads the public to believe that they occur at a much more regular frequency than they do," scholars noted before the law changed. Such incidents remained rare—and frustratingly horrifying—after the new laws passed. Few actual experts had held out much hope anyway. As one gun skeptic commented after researching various proposed policies, "the case for the policies I'd lobbied for crumbled when I examined the evidence... I can't endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them."
An especially troubling development is that political violence appears to be on the rise in a country where the seams are beyond frayed and where members of opposing political factions "despise each other, and to a degree that political scientists and pollsters say has gotten significantly worse over the last 50 years." A line appears to have been crossed in the minds of many Americans, and what were opponents are now enemies.
New elections loom, but nobody expects them to resolve much of anything.
80% train is great for as long as that lasts...I'm thinking more along the lines of Bracken's scenario...maybe tin foil hat is too tight?
Bracken's writing in pretty interesting. I also find Kurt Schlichter's red state/blue state model interesting.
While some find the help needed, grow out of it or adapt; far too many others attempt or commit suicide. Some are enraged enough to attempt to regain some misguided power by obtaining firearms and seeking revenge. Where do they seek revenge? The schools. Where their teachers, councilors and peers bullied and marginalized them. I’m not condoning or excusing these mass murderers. It’s my thoughts on root-cause analysis.
Connections to actual school shootings
The novel's plot vaguely resembles actual events that have transpired since the book's publication, to such a degree that the author is no longer comfortable with the book's being in print for fear that it may inspire similar occurrences ("[Rage is] now out of print."[1]) as it had already been associated with incidents of high school shootings and hostage takings:
Jeffrey Lyne Cox, a senior at San Gabriel High School in San Gabriel, California, took a semi-automatic rifle to school on April 26, 1988, and held a humanities class of about 60 students hostage for over 30 minutes. Cox held the gun to one student when the teacher doubted Cox would cause harm and stated that he would prove it to her. At that time three students escaped out a rear door and were fired upon. Cox was later tackled and disarmed by another student. A friend of Cox's told the press that Cox had been inspired by the Kuwait Airways Flight 422 hijacking and by the novel Rage,[2] which Cox had read over and over again and with which he strongly identified.[3]
Dustin L. Pierce, a senior at Jackson County High School in McKee, Kentucky, armed himself with a shotgun and two handguns and took a history classroom hostage in a nine-hour standoff with police on September 18, 1989, that ended without injury. Police found a copy of Rage among the possessions in Pierce's bedroom, leading to speculation that he had been inspired to carry out the plot of the novel.[4]
On January 18, 1993, Scott Pennington, a student at East Carter High School in Grayson, Kentucky, took a .38-caliber revolver that was owned by his father and fatally shot his English teacher Deanna McDavid in the head, during her seventh period class. He subsequently shot and killed the school's custodian, Marvin Hicks, and held the class hostage for 20 minutes before releasing them.[5] Just before the shootings he had written an essay on the book Rage and was upset that McDavid had given it a C grade.[6]
...
In December 1997, Michael Carneal shot eight fellow students at a prayer meeting in West Paducah, Kentucky. He had a copy of Rage within the Richard Bachman omnibus in his locker. This was the incident that moved King to allow the book to go out of print.[8]