If I was making a list of the factors behind the rash of American mass shootings, many of them happening in schools, I would lead with ease of access to guns, mental illness and drugs. Additionally, I think our fear of being labeled “losers” in this all-or-nothing age is also a factor.

In Paula Young Lee’s Salon article about the U.S. epidemic of large-scale shootings, she tries to get at the confluence of non-access issues leading to the rampages. An excerpt:

Overall, gun violence is down, but rampage shootings are up. When asked, “Why does America lead the world in school shootings?” the former Associate Director the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Frank Ochberg, listed the following five factors: 1) bullying, 2) major mental illness, 3) violent role models, 4) drugs, and 5) access to guns. Read that list again. Think about it. Consider the order in which it is presented, because factors 1-4 presage the final decision, which is obtaining a gun. But sociologists frequently note two additional factors driving this phenomenon: 6) copycatting, which requires the media circus precisely because the model being copied, Columbine, is the one where the media changed the script, and 7) a distinctly American version of individualism.•