Kerby Anderson

Mass shootings have many things in common. The perpetrator is an alienated young man who usually broadcasts his intent on social media. Instead of focusing on gun laws and mental health, we should focus attention on the psychology of the shooters.

David French writes about “The Lost Boys of American Life.” In his essay, he quotes from two authors I have discussed in previous commentaries. Robert Putnam is best known for his book, Bowling Alone, which addressed the crisis of loneliness when few were aware of these dangers. He then went on to write the book, Our Kids, which explained how kids in crisis grow up in relative isolation from children in healthy families.

The other author is Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote about the need to see all the school shootings together rather than looking at each incident independently. As I have mentioned in previous commentaries, he says the school shootings (and later, mass shootings in general) represent a form of slow-motion riot. Each new shooter lowers the threshold for the next.

His conclusion is ominous. “The problem is not that there is an endless supply of deeply disturbed young men who are willing to contemplate horrific acts. It’s worse. It’s that young men no longer need to be deeply disturbed to contemplate horrific acts.”

We know the profile and can almost write the script. “Is the shooter an alienated young man? Yes. Did he meticulously plan the shooting? Yes. Did he purchase the gun legally? Yes. Did he repeatedly broadcast his deadly intent on social media? Yes.”

The “red flag laws” haven’t been effective in the shootings in Buffalo, New York and Highland Park, Illinois. To stop these shootings, we need to be involved in the lives of these lost boys in America. To put it simply, we are our brother’s keeper.