In the wake of the Las Vegas Shooting, controversy has amassed surrounding gun violence laws, reform, and registration. I am here to discuss something else. Many people are quick to blame mental illness as the root cause of such tragedy, as if it could ever be that simple. 18.2% of the total adult population will develop a mental illness at some point in their lives, and women experience a disproportionate number of these especially those such as depression and anxiety; however, this is not reflected in mass shooting statistics. A plurality of these mass shootings have been committed by men, a 98% male enterprise. Mass shootings are carried out largely by men, disproportionately white, and media does little to address this. What we have here is a "boys will be boys" phenomenon blown to epic and frankly sadistic proportions. It is expected that men will be the, for lack of a better word, "gunman". I want to state at this juncture that most men don't commit violent acts, most men know it to be weak and heinous in nature, it is not those men that this piece is addressing. When a shooter who identifies as a Muslim extremist attacks, it is deemed the fault of the entire religion, when a shooter is African American race is the first factor discussed, however when a white man is the shooter they are merely "a lone wolf", a perfect example of privilege being invisible. They are painted as an outlier when really they adhere to the in place system of extreme masculinity better than anyone. They are extremists in their own right, but ones that go unidentified and unchecked.
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