In continuing our lively discussion on gun control, one element we have not discussed is the factor of misogyny.

From the Handmaids Tale: “Someone once said men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them,”

Julie Bosman, Kate Taylor and Tim Arango, Aug. 10, 2019 N.Y. Times

• “The man who shot nine people to death last weekend in Dayton, Ohio, seethed at female classmates and threatened them with violence.”
• “The man who massacred 49 people in an Orlando nightclub in 2016 beat his wife while she was pregnant, she told authorities.”
• “The man who killed 26 people in a church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in 2017 had been convicted of domestic violence. His ex-wife said he once told her that he could bury her body where no one would ever find it.”

“The motivations of men who commit mass shootings are often muddled, complex or unknown. But one common thread that connects many of them — other than access to powerful firearms — is a history of hating women, assaulting wives, girlfriends and female family members, or sharing misogynistic views online, researchers say.”

“Most mass shootings are rooted in domestic violence,” Ms. Watts said. “Most mass shooters have a history of domestic or family violence in their background. It’s an important red flag.”

We know that most of the killers, if not all, are on psychotropic drugs, and that they are all males…and white. In our last installment, we talked about the emasculation of American males, and how that factor plays a key role in the escalation of violence. But perhaps underpinning this condition is a deep layer of misogyny, deeper than the manufactured racist hatred fueled by white supremacist web sites and manifestos that percolates in the minds of these killers, lying dormant until ignited by demagogues.

But let’s dig deeper. Between 1882 and 1968, 3446 Afro-Americans were hung, often for the crime of looking at a white woman, smiling at a white woman, being friendly to a white woman, looking cross eye at a white woman, helping a white woman—you get the picture. The murder of Emmitt Till symbolized this horrific, vigilante justice. The perpetuators of this violence were often poor, illiterate, forced fed a legacy of racist ideology, convinced that their fragile manhood, self-esteem, rested upon the subjugation and murder of people of color, as well as the suppression of women, similar to our mass shooters: both embraced a false ideology whose purpose was to preserve white privilege, white supremacy, and a white patriarchal social order. There was no greater sin than miscegenation. As part of that culture, women were cast as 2^nd class citizens, victims of terror and violence by their emasculated men/husbands. As with the mass shooters, both were ignited andmanipulated by demagogues, puppet masters who sought to keep their hands clean while placing the gun/noose into the hands of the manipulated executioners—the puppet masters being the plantation owners/NRA executives/elected officials who sought to preserve their money train/golden goose, even at the expense of the innocent, the children and the vulnerable.

Mass shootings are our modern-day hangings, both fueled by manufactured hate. Until we disable the disinformation infrastructure that infects our citizens, until we cleanse our land of psychotropic drugs, why can’t we remove military assault weapons, high capacity magazines, or gun stocks from the American arsenal? (I believe the Ohio shooter had 9 dead in 30 seconds.) Why are we putting our police forces at such a competitive disadvantage by sanctioning military type weapons? How many dead kids/citizens will it take for Republican representatives to finally so no? Or more importantly, when will Republican representatives stand up and say no to the NRA?

A friend of mine sent me this article about mass shooters and their misogyny, some of which was quoted at the beginning of this post. Please read: https://www.nytimes.com/…/mass-shootings-misogyny…

And yes, there will be a quiz.