One day this will change…

“Mother, mother there's too many of you crying. Brother, brother, brother there's far too many of you dying. You know we've got to find a way to bring some lovin' here today. Father, father we don't need to escalate. You see, war is not the answer for only love can conquer hate. You know we've got to find a way to bring some lovin' here today. Picket lines and picket signs, don't punish me with brutality. Talk to me, so you can see. Oh, what's going on…what's going on…”

Many of you may recognize those lyrics from Marvin Gaye. They are still relevant today. 

Another shooting in a school and a place of worship, both in the United States. When will it end?  

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, says that since 1992 there have only been four years in which hate crimes against a religion exceeded 20 percent of all hate crimes. Three of those four years were recent: 2017, 2016 and 2015. This is a disturbing and tragic trend. 

Since Sandy Hook in 2012, there have been 2,031 mass shootings. On December 14, 2012, a gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children, six adults, and himself. By June 12, 2016, when a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, led to 50 deaths, there had been 994 more shootings. Orlando was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history until October 1, 2017, when a gunman fired into a crowd at a music festival on the Las Vegas strip, killing 59. Then on February 14, 2018, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17. One of those was the daughter of my college classmate. It is real. I am attending our reunion next month. I am at a loss for words when I see him.

In those 2,031 mass shootings, at least 2,310 people have been killed and 8,445 wounded.

Since 2013, there has been only one full calendar week — the week of January 5, 2014 — without a single mass shooting. The longest respite was 11 days between January 8, 2013, and January 18, 2013, when no mass shootings were reported (according to the Gun Violence Archive).  So far in 2019, 128 people have been killed and 380 wounded in 106 mass shootings.

Here’s a fact that might shock you. Did you know that America isn’t just the most violent nation in the industrialized world — but an off the charts “extreme outlier”? Iceland is the world’s most peaceful society. Canada is the world’s 7th most peaceful. America is 94th out of 160 countries. A few miles north with similar language and lifestyle, but not society and culture. Canada is 7th ... we are 94th.

You could even argue that America’s one of the world’s most violent societies - wealthy or not. Its 94th out of 160. And yet, in America, extreme violence does not appear to really compel people to the point of change. We grieve with them for a day or two and take to social media about needing change, and then the grief seems to end. Until the next tragedy. Our extreme violence does not seem to motivate Americans as it does the the citizens of Quebec, Scandinavia, Australia, or Britain. Americans may shout and moan and shake our fists in the digital world, but do we truly make change?

The short answer is that we are a society where an unusually high number of people die violently, at least compared to other wealthy capitalist democracies. This has been true for a long time, and it remains true (even though far fewer people are now dying in the United States as the result of assault than at any time in the past 50 years - Global Peace Index).

So why is this happening in America. Well, no one has all the answers, but there has been research which shows some casual factors. A number of studies have concluded that a combination of factors leads to an increased risk of violent behavior such as: previous aggressive or violent behavior, being the victim of physical abuse and/or sexual abuse, exposure to violence in the home and/or community, being the victim of bullying, genetic (family heredity) factors, exposure to violence in media (TV, movies, etc.), use of drugs and/or alcohol, presence of firearms in home, combination of stressful family socioeconomic factors (poverty, severe deprivation, marital breakup, single parenting, unemployment, loss of support from extended family), AND brain damage from head injury.  

What does science tell us about the causes of violent behavior? From cureviolence.org, we know that science tells us that most behaviors – including violent behavior – are actually acquired or learned. Most of this learning is not intentional or classroom-based; rather, learned behaviors come from our hokes - modeling, observing, imitating, or copying (this is sometimes called social learning). Most of this social learning is unconscious – meaning behaviors are picked up without our awareness of it. Exposure to violence increases one’s risk of becoming violent, transmitting from one person to another in the same manner as a contagious disease. Think about the songs we hear, the movies we watch, the video games we play, and the neighborhoods in which they live. Neurological events mediate this contagion and there are additional physiological effects from both witnessing and trauma that accelerate the contagion. Social norms, scripts, and perceived social expectations further exacerbate this contagion by encouraging violent behavior to spread.

What all of this tells us is that violence is transmitted in the same manner as a disease. It has been said for a long time that violence begets violence, but it is just as tuberculosis begets tuberculosis, or flu begets flu, that violence begets violence. So can we stop the spread of this “disease”? The biggest thing that science tells us is that violence is not inevitable. We can create a world where violence, like the plague or cholera today, is a rare occurrence. There are scientifically informed approaches that have been refined for decades that can change unhealthy behaviors. It starts with societal changes. It is not things like guns or knives (although they do correlate) – it is about us and the societal norms we model and accept. 

When are we going to see enough? When are our headlines going to change? When are senseless killings going to end? When will we focus more on our culture and our society to start making fundamental changes? I do not have the answers, but we do have the facts.

“One day this will change, treat people the same, stop with the violence, down with the hate. One day we will all be free.” – Matisyahu.

Together. We. Win.