A handyman recently told me that he was estranged from his teenage son because his ex wife agreed to pay half the cost of purchasing an M-15 semiautomatic rifle for the son as a graduation present if his father would pay the other half.
The handyman refused.
I thought of him Tuesday when a 15-year-old sophomore brought a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun to Oxford High School and in a matter of minutes had killed four fellow students and injured several more.
Good call on the part of the handyman, I thought.
Why Do Kids Want These Guns?
Then I wondered anew why teenagers want the type of gun used in 2017 in Las Vegas when Stephen Paddock, a 58-year-old gambler, killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds more who were attending a music festival.
Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, had an AR-15 type semiautomatic rifle in 2020 when he went to Kenosha, Wisc. and ended up killing two people in self defense.
It seems obvious to me that much of the problem lies in America’s culture, which is polluted by violent video games (i.e., Mortal Kombat, Splatterhouse, Grand Theft Auto) and easy access to semiautomatic firearms.
The massive industries that churn out violent video games and semiautomatic firearms are shielded from responsibility for mass shootings by federal and state laws and our court system. But parents are not.
Continue reading “Mass School Shootings: Who Is Responsible?”