Mass Shooters: The American Hikikomori

Well ok maybe "hikikomori" isn't quite an accurate term for the problem plaguing America, but where a hikikomori goes on a killing rampage, the common thread is a disturbed individual in the center of it.

In light of the tragedy that happened in Connecticut, it's natural for humans to become extremely fearful and held in fear's iron fisted grip. Thing is though, emotions rarely, if ever, lead to a good decision. It's easy to go right for the obvious, "BAN GUNS!" or "ARM TEACHERS!" but while being fueled by emotions, while essentially running scared, people fail to take a deeper look at the matter.

We, as a people, have a problem. What is needed to solve problems is logical thinking. One cannot be emotional and logical at the same time.

That said, the time to feel is over, and the time to think is now.

These kinds of rampages aren't exclusive to America, they've happened in Europe and they've happened in Asia. Tools of destruction ranged from guns, to knifes, to a car driven into a crowd. Excluding the acts of terrorism, at the center of these rampages was a disturbed individual. The common thread isn't guns, but mental illness.



In the case of what has been going on in America, many frighted people are calling for the banning of semi-automatic firearms. However there is something to consider here. Semi-automatic technology is over 100 years old. The Colt Model 1911 .45 caliber handgun, is the "Model 1911" because it was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1911. Other repeating firearms such as the revolver and the lever-action rifle, aka the "Winchester rifle" are even older, having been in service with the Union Army in the Civil War. These shooting rampages happening on practically a yearly basis are a relatively recent thing. Yes there have been disturbed individuals going on rampages for quite some time, but not at these numbers we're seeing now.

First, let us define "rampage", here I will define "rampage" as a killing spree conducted soley for the sake of killing. Excluding acts of suppression/war, terrorism, crimes where the goal was something other than the killing, and assassinations.

When I reffer to "rampage" I refer to purely a killing spree, not connected to another crime such a bank robbery, where the main goal was to rob the bank and not just kill as many people as possible. I'll also differentiate "rampage" from terrorist incidents where there was a political agenda. In fact, most of the weapons out there are based upon designs that are decades old. The infamous AR-15, which seems to have surpassed the AK-47 in notoriety, stems from a design conceived in the 1950s.

Before we can ask the question of "How can we prevent another rampage?", we need to ask the question "What happened from 1900 (around the time semi-automatic technology was developing) to now, in our culture/society?

Let's set 1900 as year zero. 

The world is, quite frankly a pretty fucked up place, we'll be here all month if we looked at ever rampage world wide, so lets focus on the United States. The LA Times has an interactive timeline of the deadliest shootings and Real Clear Politics has a list of early rampage shooters.

The bloody legacy starts with Gilbert Twig in 1903 who used a 12 gauge shotgun and killed 9 people.

45 years later Howard Unrah went on his rampage killing 13 people with a German 9mm Luger semi-auto pistol. Unrah was said to be unemployed and became reclusive, living with his mother. He had been teased and harrassed and called a "mama's boy".

18 years later was when Charlie Whitman went up a tower. He was having troubles with family and had been on meds such as valium.

Another 18 years later James Oliver Huberty took an Uzi, a shotgun and a pistol and mowed down roughly 40 people at a McDonald's in 1984. He was a paranoid conspiracy theorist who called a mental health center prior to his rampage, however the center never returned his call.Hurberty left the house clad in fatigues and told his wife he was going out to hunt humans.


25 years later in 1991 we have George Hennard, who killed 23 people. Hennard was described as angry, unemployed, and hated women.

1999 saw the infamous Columbine Shooting.

Now picking up from this Think Progess timeline.

Eight years later saw Virginia Tech.

Now things start "ramping up"...

2008 saw two shootings.

2009 saw three.

2011 saw four shootings

Finally 2012, saw eight... EIGHT! Prior to 2008, there was never more than one shooting rampage in a year. From 1900 to 2008, 108 years, there were only 6 shooting rampages, each up to 1999 were at least a decade apart going by the info these timelines provide. There were more shootings in this one year than there were in the entire 20th century America. 

What is going on here, why the exponential increase in violence? If guns, and specifically semi-auto guns are the problem, then the number of shootings over the course of the past 112 years should be relatively consistent. This shows that something with society is changing, there is a deeper matter beneath all this. Some sort of threshold was crossed in 2008. Aside from 2010, 2007 was the last year to have only one rampage, and 2006 was the last year to not see one.

It may just be a coincidence, but I'll also point out that 2008 was the same year the economy took a dive.

As I've mentioned earlier a common thread is some kind of mental stress or illness. The two from Columbine were repeatedly bullied and ostracized.

Doug Williams had anger issues and gone though a bitter divorce.

Seung-hui Cho was ordered by the court to seek mental health treatment.

Jiverly Voong was said to have been frustrated at losing his job and being unable to find employment.

James Holmes had seen at least three mental health professionals.

The core of this problem, illness if you will, is a mental health problem. None of these rampages happened without a depraved mind at the core. It's that sick mind at the center of things that need to be addressed. If guns were the problem then Japan wouldn't have their stabbings, nor would David Attias have driven his car into a crowd and stumbled out yelling "I am the Angel of Death".

If we were to take the depraved mind out of the equation, then it wouldn't matter what is around be it an axe from a hardware store, a shotgun from the sporting goods store, a general purpose machine gun from a military armory, an F-15E from an air base, or the fucking battleship USS Iowa. There would be no will to use those things against another party.

But aren't there already places people can go to, to find mental health services? There are, but lets put aside the question of if there's enough. Lets say for now that there is enough to go around.

We're not left with the problem in America of how mental heath is viewed coupled with how masculinity is viewed. Men are supposed to be tough and stoic and a mental health issue is seen as some kind of weakness. That a person "can't hang" or "can't deal with life". There is a stigma behind it. Going to a mental health professional isn't viewed the same as going to the dentist or going to the doctor. If you're already ostracized to begin with, why would you go somewhere that might cause you to be ostracized even more?

In Switzerland and Israel the majority of households have an assault rifle, that is, a rifle with a detachable magazine, pistol grip, chambered for a medium powered cartridge and full-auto/burst fire capable. And yet they don't have the kind of shooting rampages that happen here. Why? What that tells me is that it isn't the gun, it's the culture.

This American culture/society itself is broken. It's a culture that would go as far to say as one that no longer has any empathy. "Fuck you, I got mine!" When you can't keep up for one reason or another, and it may not even be directly your fault, the requirements to be "accepted" grow even higher. Is it any wonder that people keep to themselves and later can't deal with the pressure anymore and snap?

Now if we add in the variable of expensive health care, and that some people can't afford to see a mental health professional, the number of possible perpetrators increases.

There's an insane level of what this culture expects from you. Women are expected to be super thin, with large breasts, anything else is fat or flat. Men are expected to be strong, tough and stoic, anything else is a "fag". Having a mental illness is something to be embarrassed of.

The mentally ill, the ostracized, the forgotten, they are America's hikikomori.