Is It Just Me or Have There Been More Shooting Rampages than Normal?

It seems like there are more attention seeking shooting rampages. Ya know, on a scale that will make the national news. :(

We see what the news media wants us to see . . .

Ephie,

I am an unfortunate news hound thanks to the wonders of the Iphone and its associated news apps. From what is reported, there does seem to be a rash of shootings occurring lately. But, then I stop and think - is it that there is really an increase of seemingly random gun related violence or is it just that fewer incidents are being reported on more? For instance, every shooting garners multiple articles and follow up stories and ancillary stories. One shooting can translate into over a dozen stories in a week's span. So it seems like a lot of shootings, but is only one.

I think, in society in general, that an unhealthy mind will latch onto these stories, see the seeming "glory" in the attention and launch into a similar trajectory of destruction. The end result being the "glory" of being reported on time and again. Would they have resorted to the same type of violence if the news was not agog with the agony of the last shooting? Maybe they are all connected through the hype of mass media. It would be interesting to see, if the news stopped reporting on shooting rampages if the number of rampages would decrease. Sociologically speaking, it would be interesting. But, sigh, it will never happen as good news does not a paper sell.

I do think that minds are that are leaning towards violence are susceptible to mimicking the violence that they read/hear about. Which can lead to a rash of similar crimes.

Aahhhh, I am way too over thinking things tonight.

I certainly *feel* like there are more of these tragic occurrences of late. It seems like there has been a spate of them, near-weekly, in the past few months or so. I'm too tired to do a Google search to confirm/ correct my feelings on this.

It makes my heart hurt, that there are so many people who view the deaths of others as some sort of solution to their problem. It's just senseless.

And thanks to Theresa B for the info about this morning's shootings. I've kept the radio off so Kiddo doesn't have to hear about it.

A little of both, I think.

I think that there are some folks who want an easy way for their fifteen minutes of fame. Go out with a "bang," as it were.

I heard someone say once, and the more I think about it, the more I agree, that part of the problem is 24 hour news. All of that time has to be filled with something, so we are hearing more about things that happen in areas we normally wouldn't hear about, and it is being reported more sensationally, to justify the "filler." For instance, last week, there was a "campus shooting rampage" at Texas A&M. No, there wasn't. School wasn't in session. A young man killed the constable, at the off-campus house he was renting, when the constable served him with eviction papers for not paying his rent (and injured two bystanders - apparently, the kid wasn't a great shot). The death of the constable (and the shooter) was tragic, but not exactly a "campus shooting rampage." I'll bet people pull guns on officials serving them eviction notices more often than we hear reported, but it was a slow news day, and it was at College Station.

If the Media stopped giving so much importance to such random, meaningless, nonsensical yet tragic shooting events, and moved them to beyond page number...I don't know...say 20, then perhaps lesser maniacs will be tempted to try and play psycho villains...
Not meaning to say victims are not important, but is splashing the news over and again all over the media, going to offer any better closure to their surviving families?
Sad business...:|

Nope.
People have been 'going postal' just about the same as always.
The news just jumps on it more quickly than they use to.
Time to turn it off - too much news ceases to be useful.