To the Editor:

The most recent despicable, senseless and tragic “mass shootings” (California, Texas and Ohio) and “mass stabbings” (California) are, once again, going to cause our society to look for answers as to why such events occur. They occur because we, as a society, have allowed irresponsible personal conduct to become the “norm.” There is very little accountability for anyone’s actions until a tragic event occurs. Early warning signs of inappropriate behavior are ignored because we don’t want to “upset” anyone.

They occur because of the degradation of personal and social values that allow some individuals to think they are more important than the other members of our society; and when they feel “wronged” that  they have the “right” to punish anyone , any time for their perceived plight.

They occur because of the violence in movies, TV shows, digital games,  “comic” books and the videos on the internet. These forms of “entertainment” include the unfettered use of handguns, rifles, knives/machetes. futuristic “ray guns” and any other device one could imagine, to do harm to the characters in those media. There seems to be a “hardening” to the sense of the “player” concerning the appropriateness of indiscriminately inflicting harm on others.

They occur because we have a societal problem, one that will not be easily solved and certainly won’t be solved by some “legislative action” (another  law). No one wants to hear this, but we will continue to have these mass shootings/stabbings until our societal values change for the better.

In the 1950s one could go to a Sears, JC Penney, or other such stores and walk out with as many guns as you could afford to purchase. There were no epidemics of mass shootings/stabbings during that time. We had different societal values then. 

I have urged our state’s congressional members to make sensible, meaningful decisions about the inevitable new (but will be mostly ineffective) laws that will probably be passed in order to show that something is being done by the  politicians to address our issues. Knee-jerk, emotion-based, politically-motivated new laws will not solve our problem.  

One area that would positively effect our mass shooting/stabbing situation is to greatly increase the funding for mental health services. We need a means for responsible people, i.e. the “village”, to identify those that exhibit destructive behavior, while retaining “due process” under the law.

I encourage everyone to contact your congressional members to inform them of your position on this matter. 

Tom Rodgers

Cullowhee