- The United States, according to Lankford’s analysis, is home to just 5 percent of the world’s people but 31 percent of its public mass shooters. Even more stunning, between 1966 and 2012, 62 percent of all school and workplace shooters were American. At 90 mass shooters in less than 50 years, the U.S. has five times as many as the next highest country on the list (the Phillippines).
I would like to see data regarding available mental health services and mass shootings. It seems that in some of these cases there were points where the perpetrator could have been engaged and steered to different path. It's not clear to me where you can go in the US if you are feeling unstable. Of course, you could walk into a psychologist's office, but without insurance it's not really an option.
True. Why is it we cannot look past the fact that the guns (and other weapons) are tools by a very ill person? Too much of a focus on the guns before mental illness. Seems like this is more of a human services issue than a gun issue. What mental health services are available in other countries that we lack here in the US? Is there a correlation between mental health services to the general public and the number of shooting rampages? I'd venture a guess that more mental health available to the masses results in fewer mass killings.
The article is pretty well done, but the "American exceptionalism" mentioned in the headline is more the promise of the American dream than anything related to "A City on a Hill" or Manifest Destiny. It makes the headline stand out in a way the article fails to, which is disappointing from a major news outlet like the Washington Post.