It's always the same. There is a vast web of right wing extremists all linked together but we continue to treat them like lone gunmen. They're all linked. They're all reading the same books, on the same message boards, going to the same gun shows, etc...
Every year more and more lives are lost because we refuse to treat these people as the terrorists they are.
There was this "edgy" magazine I used to read that ran a letters from prison section from rightwing guys caught by the FBI before they did it. What I noticed about them is they always seemed to get on the radar by attending a meeting. Always shocked me because what are the odds the FBI doesn't routinely record and identify every single person showing up to those?
They always plant Nazi things and the like, and a copy of Catcher In The Rye, then go in and change all the online stuff, planting all sorts of Far Right stuff and backdating it all.
It's impossible to control people's thoughts. There's unfortunately always going to be people like this who become radicalized to the point of insanity.
There must be something else special about the US, compared to most countries, why here so often these radicalized people grab their rifle, walk into a public place, and start shooting.
You're on to something here. Just the modern vision of the "Second Amendment" which these people have contributes to so much gun violence.
Every other day I hear about people shot because the shooter though their car was being broken into, or that the victim was trespassing. Hello, dumbfucks? There is no state in America where you can kill someone to prevent trespassing or larceny and noone would like it if there were.
They think all of America was like some parts of the unincorporated, lawless west, where people really did open carry all the time. Meanwhile, there are numerous examples from the incorporated states and judicial districts of people being charged for open carrying without a valid reason; i.e., "I am out hunting," "I am a banker," I am a policeman," "I am a soldier," "I am a common carrier for hire," "I am transporting cargo that is free on board to the destination," "John Smith is after me for what I done to his sister," etc. If you open carried otherwise, it was a lawless shithole where nobody did legitimate business or it was a breach of peace. Respectable establishments would throw you out.
A lot of this fantastic romanticization is traceable to conservative media, which pushes this false imagery, literally so that regular people don't stop killing each other.
They forget that many of the old western towns had pretty strict rules about checking your guns with the sheriff and they'd come at you guns drawn to ensure your compliance
They think all of America was like some parts of the unincorporated, lawless west, where people really did open carry all the time.
Pretty much every town in the Old West with more than a dozen people had gun control. No "open carry" bullshit. You had to leave your gun with the sheriff when you entered town. Or you would be arrested / fined / whatever.
These are people who knew exactly what guns were and how to use them as tools. There's zero reason to walk around town with a gun, unless you want to shoot someone. Outside of town: go nuts.
Back on reddit I had tracked politically-motivated homicides (pretty close to all being right-wing) in a big write-up but I ran out of word count space and lost track of the sheer volume of shootings...