As this is written, we've just had another mass shooting -- the second in a week in America. This one happened in a missionary school in Arvada, Colorado and almost immediately followed one in a mall in Nebraska done by a kid who had just lost his job and his girlfriend. What motivates someone to go into a crowded room and start shooting in all directions? "And all through those years, the same questions have been asked: What is it about modern-day America that provokes such random violence? Is it the decline of traditional morals? The depiction of violence in entertainment? The ready availability of lethal firepower? Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox blames guns, at least in part. He notes that seven of the eight deadliest mass public shootings have occurred in the past 25 years." (When guns have been more readily available)

BLAME THE GUN

Typically, a liberal college professor blames the inanimate object, the gun. But that doesn't wash. A gun cannot kill without being in the hand of a killer. If a gun were not available to the killer, he'd use a knife. Or a car. Or fire. Or anything else he can use to randomly kill. The availability of a weapon has nothing to do with the motivation behind mass killings.

WHAT MOTIVATES A MASS KILLER?

The next question is what motivates someone to kill indiscriminately and (often) kill him/herself? In many cases, investigation shows a general inability to deal with failure in life on the part of all the killers. Many of them are on the drugs school officials prescribe for "difficult students." Are these drugs responsible? Partly, I'm sure, because they can amplify the effects of failure.

SHIELDING CHILDREN FROM FAILURE

I put it down to today's tendency to "shield" children from failure. Such things as having sports events without scoring. Giving every participant a trophy for "participation," and nothing for winning (Which takes away the incentive to win). "Grading on a curve," where one ill-prepared student can bring down the scores of the entire group. Doing everything possible to avoid harming the "self-esteem" of the children. This causes those children, when they grow up and enter the "real world," to not know how to deal with the little failures in life: losing one's job; breaking up with a girlfriend or spouse; losing a business; and for children, getting bad grades, etc. We have to start allowing our children to experience the small failures in life, or they just won't be prepared to deal with failure and move on beyond it.

LEARNING TO DEAL WITH FAILURES

Everybody has failures in life. Abraham Lincoln failed many times before he was elected president of the United States. My own son has owned countless businesses, the most recent being the latest in a long line of failed comic book stores (each one going a little further before failure). But when one fails he learns from it and soon he's started on the next venture. His next venture is an Internet-based business marketing disguised self-defense items such as a cell phone stun gun or a pepper spray disguised as a pen. He may fail again. But he has been allowed to fail in his upbringing and I'm confident he can handle it. I don't expect him to come in my room some night and shoot me. And he is a licensed gun owner. Learning to fail is an important part of anybody's upbringing. If we don't, we will not know how to handle the myriad small failures in our lives and they will become major frustrations that may lead to violence.

ADDING TO THE DEATH TOLL

People who blame inanimate objects instead of life experience on the part of the killers are just adding to the death toll. The article linked here talks about laws made in Australia that basically outlawed all guns after one mass shooting and the fact that there has not been a mass shooting since. But what about the 300% increase in gun crime otherwise? I guess you can twist statistics any way you want if you just ignore figures that don't agree with your thesis. This article also talks about the Virginia Tech killer blaming others for his failures. I believe if you look closer at all the mass killers you will find someone who is "chafing" over his own failures in life and is blaming people in the group he selected as victims.

BLAMIMG OTHERS FOR FAILURE

That's the key. At Columbine (in Colorado), the killers blamed "the jocks" who "bullied them." But if you look further, it is not the bullying, but the fact that the "the jocks" who have accomplished something already in their lives while the shooters have not. This is failure, and the resentment for those who have not failed in their eyes. Yes, they were "bullied." I was bullied, too, while I was in school.. With my father's advice, I overcame it by simply teaching the bullies I was not to be "easy game" any more. I taught them that even if they did manage to beat me up, it would not be without a painful price to them. Soon, the bullying stopped (where I was concerned). Did I go out and kill a bunch of people? No. I taught my own bullies a lesson, which they learned. I ran into one of my bullies a few years ago (as adults), and we were quite friendly.

STOP SHIELDING CHILDREN FROM FAILURE

We have to stop "shielding" our children from failure. "Self-esteem" is not something we should strive for. "Self-esteem" is our own opinion of our talents and abilities, based on ignorance. "Self-image" is our own opinion of our talents and abilities, as well as our ability to accomplish what we try, based on past experience, learning, and learning from failure. "Self-image" then, is the true measure of what we are. It tells us truly what we are capable of and engenders "goal-striving," which is what is necessary for us to accomplish what we set out to do in life. Failure is merely information that we need a "correction in direction" leading toward our goals. Without failure while moving toward our minor goals leading to the main goal, we will not make it to the main goal because we might continue our movement in the wrong direction. I have a good "self-image" because I have not been "shielded" from my own shortcomings and have been allowed to fail. I have learned from that.