@JLeslie You do understand that most weapons are semi-automatic, right? And that even single shot guns can still kill people? Here’s a thought: why do these nut jobs target schools? Elementary schools? Because they know that it is unlikely that anyone there will fight back. Guns are not allowed in schools, the children are way too young to pose any threat of retaliation or resistance. And shooting up a school gains them fame. So think about why these are such attractive targets.
Ever hear of the Chardon High School shooting in 2012? It happened in Chardon Ohio. A 17 year old stole a gun (didn’t buy it) and killed 3, injured another 6. Know what the families of the Chardon HS students asked for? That the asshole NOT be named…that he would get no fame from the media. As a result, there was little coverage on that shooting. The kid did not get his 15 minutes of fame.
There have been instances where armed guards in a school have stopped the active shooter. But we don’t want to arm teachers (and train them) or have full time guards in the schools. So we don’t want guns in the schools and we don’t want to have people that could fight back. We’d rather leave it to police which delays response and allows the shooter to do more damage.
So it seems like we don’t want to look at the target to evaluate that. We don’t want to do things that could potentially deter or stop a shooting at schools. But we want to try addressing the guns (which is pretty much impossible at this point in our country) or the mental health angle (which you have, yourself, stated to be imperfect).
I have a great idea: let’s look at social things that influence these shooters. I already mentioned the fame aspect. What about violent video games or movies that they grow up being saturated with? What about music that talks about violence and racism? Again, violence is saturating our society, yet no one really wants to address any of that.