Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and writing. It has been suggested to me to do something different with my story and I’m noodling the idea, and until I decide on that, my latest story is on the backburner. But enough about that. Today, I want to talk about the mass shooting in Maine earlier this week.
In Lewiston Maine, a man walked into the bowling alley and opened fire, killing eight people, and injuring more. He then went to a local bar and opened fire. In total, eighteen people died and thirteen more were injured.
The man then committed suicide. What is going on in our country where mass shootings are the norm?
This has me concerned. Mass shootings are on the rise. There’s speculation about the cause, of course. The experts are pointing at mental illness, but only 10% of the shootings can be attributed to this.
So, mental health doesn’t appear to be a key factor, but many of these shooters have experienced domestic violence which is a key factor. The one thing no one talks about. So, maybe we shine the light on this type of violence and somehow put an end to it.
During my research for this post, I found an extremely interesting article. Click here to read it:
https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/mass-shootings
The interesting part of this article is that all these shooters didn’t expect to come out of the situation alive. They either planned on committing suicide or were killed in the act by law enforcement. The theory is that these shootings are really suicides. So, does society focus on suicide prevention? Good question. I believe the answer is a resounding yes, but there’s more pieces to the puzzle. Until we can come up with a formula that works, we need to take care of unsuspecting victims. We need to protect them.
How do we protect them? Well, the short answer is limiting access to assault weapons until we figure the prevention piece out. I know easier said than done.
There was another interesting point in the article. The experts had conducted interviews of people who were planning on committing a mass shooting but then they changed their minds. What was the one factor that made them change their mind?
Human Connection
That’s right. One person claimed he was going to commit the act, but at the last minute he changed his mind because his friend’s mother baked him a pie. Does anyone else see the correlation here? Disconnection is a factor in mass shootings and suicides. So, as a society we need to make sure our young people feel connected in their families and schools, and we need to make sure our struggling adults feel connected in their communities.
I believe that’s the key right there, but how do we do it? If you have any ideas, leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my post. I appreciate you!
I’ve heard even smiling at a person thinking about taking their life will stop them for doing so. Human connection is a powerful force, Lisa. Well said, my friend!
Thanks for stopping by, Sharon. I appreciate your support. Good point about the smile. It doesn’t take much effort to make a connection, does it? 🙂
I think both limiting access to weapons and human connection are necessary. It’s often the ones who’re left out because of cliques, groups, etc who end up feeling cut off from society. They then think the world hates them and do terrible things. It’s always nice to check up on someone or listen to them, but the world’s a cruel place.
It is. Unfortunately. I wish it were a better place. I’m hoping we’ll be able to make changes as a society to fix this and take better care of our people. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it!
Well said, Lisa.
Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate you stopping by and sharing your thoughts. 🙂
You’re welcome.
This is a difficult subject to write about in a way that people want to read it, and also a difficult one for which to pose potentially lasting affirmative solutions. You’ve done an excellent job here of both.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate you’re kind words. Thank you so much for stopping by. ❤
Recently, at my kids’ public school, they had a mental health assembly from an organization called Sound of Silence. One of my kids came home and detailed the terrible litany of drug addiction, mental illness, and suicide that decimated the family that later started the organization. I guess that’s a start, right, talking about it. (While certainly limiting gun access.) I didn’t know about the suicide/mass shooting connection–I guess I should have figured. So thanks for enlightening me on that! I do think we’ve made some progress, as far as talking about mental health, in the past couple generations. I can’t imagine my grandparents even broaching the subject.
I hear you, Rebecca. It’s true we need to get the message out and make our kids more aware as well as educating parents. I do believe we need to limit access to weapons until we find a solution to help with human connection. I believe alot of this could be solved if we made an effort to connect more. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Rebecca! I appreciate you!