Mcface said:
You act as if criminals buy their guns from stores. They do not. They get them illegally.
The problem is the crime that makes up most of gun crime statistics is gang and organised crime related and that is quite separate from this type of spree killing that is so rare and infrequent it is like serial killers, we don't have any where near enough data to start plotting patterns.
The Times is already hosting spirited debate about whether Derrick Bird should have been allowed to have a shotgun and/or firearms licence when he had a conviction for petty theft (stole from his employer).
The thing is that is not a violent crime, the court didn't even see it as a serious enough crime to give any more than a suspended sentence. And it follows common sense, what part of nicking from your employer could POSSIBLY indicate you'd go on a killing spree many years later? Nothing. It is as irrelevant as the Columbine killers' music collection, though most likely everyone will obsess over it for years.
I think some consideration should go to Japan and China where any type of gun is EXTREMELY restricted, anything more than an airgun is essentially impossible to obtain, yet still so many terrible massacres there. With bombs, poisons, ramming trucks into crowds of shoppers, even immolating themselves on a commercial airliner bringing the entire plane down with them in one case. There are interesting parallels with "home grown" "Islamist" terrorist cells but that follows a fairly well understood pattern of radical-isation and propaganda.
The thing is there needs to be serious research into the mental health aspect of murder-suicides/spree-killers as clearly far too much of the wider understanding is poisoned by bias reporting by the media.
I've watch the news over the past few days and seen how the story has been twisted:
In an early interview of Bird's pub landlord she repeatedly stated how normal and friendly he was, how he was sociable and had friends, yet the reported kept trying to lead her into admitting he was a loner saying "Well these other spree-killers of Hungerford and Dunblane have
been described as loners and weirdos*, was Bird like that?"
*blatant Weasel Words there, no source, just spurious leading statement. And as the days have gone by it's clear the media have been fishing for the most spurious claims of anti-social behaviour from Bird, and all the voices closest to him stating he was "normal" have disappeared from the media's narrative.
Yes, some younger spree killers have expressed incredible aggression, but raw aggression like that is far from rare in teenagers/young-adults and far more common than spree-killings. I don't see the causal link.
I think the uncomfortable truth is there is nothing special about any of these spree killers, nothing about their lives that could have predicted this. people seem to be trying to paint a pattern to this, as if there was some logical reason for Bird to kill all these people but I don't think there is any logic, I think if Bird had been captured alive he would like other Spree killers they will simply rationalise away his actions. Spree killers often give reasons but they are so trivial and irrelevant they don't seem like reasons at all.
I think the answer is deep in the psyche, some mental aspect we simply do not understand and I think they key is understanding the same mechanism of people with spontaneous suicidal tendencies. If some people can develop an irrational urge to kill themselves... could the same mechanism compel certain individuals to want to kill all the people in their life with no even faintly rational reason?
The government talked about studying the mental health aspect of this but I think policing forces around the world are LONG over due for a thorough clinical examination of the motivation and causes of spree killings.
Britain has lead the way in other law enforcement practices, particularly a scientific approach to eyewitness testimony, we should lead the way in finally uncovering the real causes of spree-killing and most importantly: how to prevent them. Blanket weapon bans is a blunt solution that most likely will only be a stopgap.
