Why do people resort to violence?

I would like to do a mental experiment. I'd like to start at the end of a mass shooting, or maybe the point at which the decision is made to commit an act of violence, and work backwards.

Read from the bottom up.

Devil: Yes!

Person: This is it!

Person makes a plan to carry out violence. Uses the internet and other resources to gather information and equipment.

Devil: Go ahead, do it! I can show you how!

Person: There is no right or wrong! That is just what people say to control me! I need to make a statement! I need revenge!

Person: I doesn't matter if I live or die. My life is miserable anyway. What do I have to lose? I could go out with a Bang and people would be forced to understand how important my problems are. They would have to notice me!

Secular Culture: There is no God or afterlife. This life is all there is.

Conscience: But, killing innocent people is wrong!

Devil: That's right! Do something!

Person: They deserve to be killed.

Devil: That's right!

Person: Those people are the problem.

Devil: You should do something about this!

Person: This really pisses me off! I am going to do something about this.

Secular Culture: There is no God or afterlife. This life is all there is.

Person: I used to believe in God and that we go to Heaven or Hell when we die. But, that is just stupid!

Person develops an ideology based on news/social media, etc. The ideology becomes the person's world view.

Person watches news or views social media that is biased/amplified/skewed. Maybe the person plays violent video games or views pornography.

Person suffers confusion and wants to blame someone or something.

Something bad happens in a person's life, or a person is just not feel fulfilled or is frustrated by his current situation. That person may be somewhat isolated or does not have solid support system.

Click on this link to hear what a Harvard professor had to say: Clay Christensen

Here is what Bishop Charles Chaput says about mass shootings:

“The people using the guns in these loathsome incidents are moral agents with twisted hearts. And the twisting is done by the culture of sexual anarchy, personal excess, political hatreds, intellectual dishonesty, and perverted freedoms that we’ve systematically created over the past half-century.”

Chaput drew from his experience as Archbishop of Denver consoling the community after the shooting at Columbine High School. At the time, he buried some of the victims, and met with their families.

During his testimony to the U.S. Senate shortly after the Columbine shooting, Chaput spoke of “a culture that markets violence in dozens of different ways” that has become “part of our social fabric.”

“When we build our advertising campaigns on consumer selfishness and greed, and when money becomes the universal measure of value, how can we be surprised when our sense of community erodes,” he asked at the time. “When we glorify and multiply guns, why are we shocked when kids use them?”

Chaput also addressed the use of the death penalty and the legality of abortion as “certain kinds of killings we enshrine as rights and protect by law,” which creates a societal “contradiction.” This contradiction has reduced the view of human life, he said.

In 1999, Chaput suggested that America embrace a “relentless commitment to respect the sanctity of each human life, from womb to natural death,” and that he did not think the shooting at Columbine High School would be the last mass shooting.

“In examining how and why our culture markets violence, I ask you not to stop with the symptoms,” he said. “Look deeper.”

“Treating the symptoms in a culture of violence doesn’t work. We need to look deeper. Until we’re willing to do that, nothing fundamental will change.”

By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap. • Posted August 5, 2019