Have you ever stopped to observe the obvious, but not so obvious similarities between the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida, Sandy Hook, as well as several other shootings like Sante Fe High School and Virginia Tech?
It honestly never dawned on me, but every single one of these shooters were males. Why is that the case? Why is it only ever males that are committing the mass shootings?
That’s the question that author Warren Farrell asked in his recent book, “The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It”. He made the point that girls are growing up in the same environment as boys are. They’re playing video games, going to the same schools, suffering from the same mental health issues, yet they’re not doing behind any of the shootings.
Farrell pointed out that the leading factor in all of this can be traced back to one thing, coming from a “dad deprived” home.
This makes a ton of sense. I’ve long held to the view that fatherlessness in our country is the biggest factor in all of the crime that we are victims of. When boys grow up without their dads around, they don’t know how to become men.
I have a Facebook account though I don’t ever post anything. I mostly just use it to keep tabs on people I went to school with and occasionally talk to them. But I always notice that there are some people on there who just never grew up. They’re in their 30s and 40s and yet they’re still taking every photo with their tongue sticking out of their mouth or holding up a middle finger. It makes me wonder what it is that leads them to still have this sort of childish mentality.
And I’m by no means the only person who knows that fatherlessness leads to problems with crime. But it’s not even just that, Farrell notes in his book that being “dad deprived” is a leading factor in young men suffering from mental illness, addiction, and suicide.
He links the mass shootings in 53 developed countries to boys and men who lacked a father figure, and he specifically mentioned six mass shootings that have occurred in the United States in the 21st century.
“All six of those mass school shootings that have killed more than 10 people have been done by boys, and all six of them have been done by boys who have been ‘dad deprived,’ from Sandy Hook right on through to the Texas shooting,” Farrell said during a recent interview.
We’ve really got to do better as a society to take care of the boys in our lives. Even if you’re not the father, if you can have a positive influence on these young men, do it. Be that example, because they may not have anywhere else to look for that example.
Sources:
Epoch Times