Culture of violence?

News Type: Opinion — Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:22 PM EDT

The events of today in Virginia and last week on the University of Washington campus have caused me to snap out of my day-to-day mental routines and take notice. Unfortunately, it's resulted in lots of questions and no answers.

A conversation with a co-worker today got me thinking a lot about the degree of violence in America. The horrors from the Virginia Tech campus were coming to light this morning when he asked, "What is it about America that causes these things?" His wife is from Europe and he's had conversations with his in-laws about these mass killings. They want to know why they keep happening in America because they just don't occur in America. He doesn't have an answer for them. Neither do I. Only questions and doubt.

Is there some undetected rage that is building up in us? Are Americans just not as close with their neighbors/friends/co-workers that they don't notice people behaving strangely? Do people just care less? Are we so busy that we can't stop to consider the plight of others? Is there less trust in law enforcement to investigate when people make complaints against others? Has the culture of guns rum amok in our country? Is our normally open society going to close up because of fear of these incidents happening again?

At this point, we don't have any facts on the gunman at Virginia Tech. From what I understand, law enforcement knows nothing about him. I hope that we find out soon who he was and why he did this. Perhaps any scrap of new information will provide something resembling an answer to those of us who care.

Hopefully, that's everyone.

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{"commentId":647701,"authorDomain":"msk7"}

Matt Kirchner

I don't know if there is an answer to the question of why these killings continue to happen in America. I do not know for sure, but one reason other countries might think America has a high murder rate could be that almost every night on local news there is at least one story about a murder. Violence graces our headlines in the media, and I think that is and even bigger question. Why is it that every time I turn on the news I see reports of violence when the rate of violence is decreasing? Oh, and the second amendment might have something to do with the easy access to weapons in this country. Maybe that needs to be looked into on a national level.

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#1 - Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:17 PM EDT

{"commentId":647702,"authorDomain":"lisah7"}

lisah7

You brought up a lot of good questions to think about. I think we have all been wondering similar things. What is going? Why is this intense rage/anger people are feeling being dealt with in horrific ways? The UW shooting hit close to us all, just having it be on our campus. Before I heard details I got a text message that morning saying there was a shooting in red square (obviously false). But, I immediately texted everyone I knew on campus making sure everything was okay. For a few minutes, I had no idea what was going on and was really scared for the people I love. Unfortunately, one innocent victim did die, but I can't imagine what the families of 32 innocent victims must be feeling. All the questions you brought up are very valid, I don't know that they'll ever get answered, but hopefully something can be done so that we aren't making it in the history books for more tragedies.

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#2 - Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:17 PM EDT

{"commentId":648422,"authorDomain":"mineko"}

mineko

I agree with Matt, I think a huge part of our popular culture is driven by violence - with certain freedoms come the liberty to say and do to a large extent whatever we want - at least in comparison to many other cultures. Does this mean that with more people saying what's on their mind, there are more pissed off people walking around ready to take it out on the world? And does this mean we deserve less freedom? Of course not. There are irresponsible people in every culture. Perhaps one reason we don't hear about violence in other countries as much as we do about our in is simply because we don't pay attention to other countries as much as we do our own. It's a well-known fact that very few Americans pay attention to international news unless it concerns or involves America in some way. But I'm sure violence is not an American phenomenon. In every culture, in every society, I'm sure there have been violent events that have wracked their country/community and grabbed everyone's attention. Perhaps it's just that we're not paying close enough attention to the rest of the world?

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#3 - Wed Apr 18, 2007 1:46 AM EDT

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KEN L

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Culture of violence?

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