Told You So...

One of the speakers, Mayor Jean Quan, said the gun violence that shook Oakland this week could occur anywhere in America.

"This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services," she said.

I wrote this seemed the case about the gunman in this most recent mass shooting, that he probably had a problem with women, especially in some official position or capacity.  That was an impression, because of the limited amount of information available, from a cross section of the media interviews with students and other people in his life.
That would have been a much more limited problem, had he not been able to get a gun to use to vent his frustrations and inadequacies on other people with deadly force and violence.
From MSNBC.com and the news services:
Report: Oikos University shootings suspect 'can't deal with women'
By msnbc.com staff and news services
One Goh, the former student accused of shooting dead seven people at a small Christian college in Oakland, Calif., was consumed by an inability to get along with women, according to a report. The 43-year-old Korean-American, who had been expelled from Oikos University for "anger management" issues, had been cooperative since being taken into custody after Monday's shootings but was "not particularly remorseful," Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He is expected to face charges from prosecutors Wednesday. About 1,000 people, including relatives and friends of the victims, gathered for a memorial service on Tuesday evening at the Allen Temple Baptist Church, where the congregation consists mainly of African-American and Korean-American worshippers. The service was conducted in both English and Korean.
Many of the assembled wept quietly with hands clasped and heads bowed. Flowers were laid at the podium, where clergy from different faiths offered prayers. Some mourners swayed and waved their hands in the air and wiped tears from their eyes while hymns were sung.
One of the speakers, Mayor Jean Quan, said the gun violence that shook Oakland this week could occur anywhere in America.
"This is America, where you can find a gun easier than mental health services," she said.
Oikos, founded by a pastor from South Korea, serves about 100 students in a single building and has close links to the Korean-American Christian community.
Oikos University shooting school catered to Koreans
Goh's former nursing instructor, Romie Delariman, was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle saying the student didn't fit in at a college where women make up the majority of the nursing faculty and student body.
Behavioral problems
Delariman described Goh as a good and eager student, but added, "He just can't deal with women. ... I always advised him, 'You go to school to learn, not to make friends.'"
The teacher disputed accounts that Goh had been picked on due to his imperfect English, characterizing his problems as behavioral.
"He can't get along with people," Delariman was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "If you say, 'How are you?' he'll say, 'Why? Don't I look OK? Did I do something to you?' "
Oikos University shootings: Gunman targeted administrator
Police on Tuesday said Goh’s intended target – a female administrator – escaped the shooting spree and remains alive.
Three people wounded by Goh were released from an Oakland hospital by mid-morning on Tuesday.
Goh surrendered at a Safeway grocery store several miles away.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

I have been curious as to why the gunman would surrender at a Safeway grocery store, a few miles away from the shooting.  It will be interesting to see what explanation if any is forthcoming about that aspect of the event.  Since the location of the gun is unknown, I'm expecting that law enforcement will try to reconstruct his actions after leaving and returning and then leaving again several times at the crime scene, as well as where he went with the stolen vehicle taken from one of the victims.
Did he go to the nearby grocery store to shoot some other people he felt had treated him badly, possibly other female employees?  It seems implausible he would confuse a security guard in a grocery store with law enforcement.  Or was this a random place for him to come to a stop, after his emotions played out from the shooting?  Had he intended suicide and then changed his mind?

Whatever his reasons for seeking out the grocery store to turn himself in, it seems clear that this is another instance of male lethal violence against women that is too often the case where firearm violence is involved, as is demonstrated in murders and murder suicides every day in this country.  The smaller numbers don't get the coverage that events like this do, but they should, in considering our firearm laws. 

Statistically, more guns equate to more firearm violence.  They don't equate to lower crime rates, especially as the weapon of choice in homicides.  But unlike most other weapons, the success of the violence is greater, is more deadly, with a gun than with other available weapons.

The frustrated, unhappy, maladjusted student who had problems getting along with people in the Virginia Tech mass shooting had a relatively easy time getting a gun, despite his mental health problems having been identified.  In the case of the schizophrenic Jared Loughner, or the mass shooter Anders Breivik, there were clear symptoms of full blown mental illness that were not identified before they systematically blew people away - literally, 'blew' in the case of the bombs in the Norway incidents.

We have a lot of people in this country who have 'anger issues' and poor impulse control.  Some of them even make it into public office:
‘Family values’ Hackbarth
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 at 3:45 pm
State Rep. Tom Hackbarth, R-Bethel, was stopped by police last week in the Highland Park parking lot of Planned Parenthood after witnesses observed a gun on his hip, according to a report by the Star Tribune. Hackbarth said he was searching for a woman he met on an online dating website who he thought was with another man.

Hackbarth, who was the author of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, is still married to his wife, although they are separated. Hackbarth had a valid conceal and carry permit at the time he was stopped by police.

and this from the CBS news:
Hackbarth was apparently on the hunt for his girlfriend whom he’d recently met online.
“She gave me some line of baloney, and I thought, ‘well, she’s fibbing to me.’ You could tell, and I thought, ‘well, I’m going to check it out.’ and I went there to see if she was around and her vehicle was not there. And I was just checking on her,” he said.
The police report says he may have been jealous about another man, which is something Hackbarth denies.
Police say Hackbarth exhibited the behavior of a stalker: angry, looking for a woman, with a fully loaded gun.
According to police records the incident happened on Nov. 16.
Local right wing bloggers and political operatives took the position that taking a loaded gun, while angry, and checking up on a woman you've met on line a few times, following her, spying on her, and sneaking down dark alleys to observe her secretly were not 'stalking behavior' where carrying a loaded gun was an added fear factor, particularly when the loaded gun included a spare magazine of ammunition, a map and binoculars.  At the time, this guy couldn't provide a name, street address, email address or phone number.........but he clearly knew where her house was.  It later turned out the woman had a name, and Hackbarth knew it, and appeared to have lied to police.  From KSTP at the time:
The tip caller told investigators the name of the woman Hackbarth originally gave to police was not legitimate and that the woman actually works at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and has a different name than the one Hackbarth gave to investigators. Police tell us they contacted the woman at the State Ag Department and she said she did not want to pursue the case. Hackbarth was also contacted by police and they say he told them he knew the woman at the Ag Department, but he was not looking for her the evening his loaded gun was taken from him. But we found the woman at the Ag Department lives only a few blocks from the spot where police confiscated Hackbarth's gun.
 
This is the politician in Minnesota who sponsored the right wing amendment to our state constitution to be put on the ballot in the November 2012 election, the introductory paragraph of which reads:
H.F. No. 131, as introduced - 87th Legislative Session (2011-2012) Posted on Jan 20, 2011

1.1A bill for an act

1.2proposing an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution, article I; providing
1.3that the right of citizens to keep, bear, and use arms for certain purposes is
1.4fundamental and shall not be infringed.

Given that someone like Hackbarth, while angry - as described by police - lies about what he was doing while armed with a gun, and who he was pursuing while carrying a gun, while in possession of a spare magazine of ammunition, and a map and binoculars, when I read about reports of domestic violence, murder and murder suicides for reasons of jealousy, or mass shootings like the one above by someone who has difficulties in his relationships with women...........I'm not really persuaded that a Constitutional Amendment is necessary, or advisable to make it easier, not harder, for people to carry guns.  It seems to make it far too easy for someone to evade law enforcement prevention of crimes like the one above, crimes like all the domestic violence using guns, stalking using guns.  Hackbarth, to be fair, goes on to specify "for the defense and security 1.10of the person, family, or home, or for lawful hunting, recreation, or marksmanship training "  as the legal purposes to which the amendment would apply.

But given our more lenient gun permit process, given the poor compliance with the NICS data base used for gun background checks, given the attempts to expand the Shoot First/ Kill at Will, Stand Someone Else's Ground legislation that would extend self-defense beyond the limits of one's home or other private property in a fixed location proscribed in the SCOTUS Heller decision, I'm not comfortable giving people like Mr. Hackbarth, or other people who act impulsively on their emotions, particularly jealousy or anger towards women, greater ease in obtaining and carrying firearms.
We have enough misogyny in this country, and God knows we have far too much of it especially on the political right waging a war on women. The right wing culture war appears to be an attempt to restore a new tradition of male dominance of men over women; to add more guns to the mix should not be part of that culture war.  It makes it too easy for someone to cross that line of control, especially when emotional stability and impulse control, are not in any way a criteria for either having a gun or carrying it with you in public places.  I'm not suggesting here that every man who simply acts like a jealous jackass as Hackbarth did is going to engage in a mass shooting because they're angry at people generally and a woman or women specifically.  But I am suggesting we have far too many people who act violently towards other people because of their emotions, and that firearms are more consistently fatal in those situations than almost any other weapon.  Women are disproportionately the targets and the victims.  We need less firearm violence, not more, as a civilized society.  The misogyny and culture war to dominate women is just the larger context to that issue.  More than that, we need to do more to keep dangerous people, especially mentally ill people, and people with emotional issues, anger issues, people with inadequate control of their impulses, from access to guns.