Following the horrific school shootings in this country, numerous articles have been written connecting mass shootings to fatherless boys and broken homes. Most of them are associated with Conservative media and their journalists. After reading the older article from Peter Hasson at the Federalist, I had enough with this garbage.
My thoughts follow…
It has long been widely accepted, that a broken home “can” (not “does”) increase the risk of troubled children, and later, as they grow older. This is not a groundbreaking observation.
The problem with author Peter Hasson’s article is that he is taking a small view of isolated cases and drawing over-arching conclusions about broken homes. Hasson writes as if the connection of fatherless boys demands attention regarding gun violence. He does so by grossly simplifying and extrapolating inconclusive data. That’s not just bad journalism. It’s irresponsible.
Further, he invests much of the journalistic privilege in his space, writing the same oppositionist dreck attacking or distorting other voices dissimilar to his. This does readers a disservice, and does nothing to address the real-life multi-faceted problem of school gun violence in America. It only perpetuates the political quagmire this country is stuck in.
Nobody with a straight face can possibly believe that fixing broken homes is the main focus to the horrific shootings. Likewise, no one can honestly state that gun control alone without improved mental health, community family resources, and law enforcement is going to fix things.
The particular brand of gun violence going on at schools is a problem of multiple factors. It can’t be approached with any one size fits all solution, or a single focus. It deserves honest discussion about factual causes, not theories, and clearly connected causative factors. It also deserves all voices to be heard, without name calling or marginalizing any of them.
Hassan could’ve penned an intelligent and realistic essay, had he recognized the true complexity of this crisis, rather than fixate, rather bizarrely, on the importance of a good marriage.
Related links:
Click below to read two articles which are thought-out, researched, and properly reasoned.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/saving-normal/201405/the-mind-the-mass-murderer
Click below to read Hasson’s article, and another low-end offering of Right Wing dreck:
http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/14/guess-which-mass-murderers-came-from-a-fatherless-home/
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-desperate-cry-of-americas-boys