Why are mass shooting murderers always called Gun"Men"?

Probably because they need to save space since "scumbag that wielded a weapon that shoots" is too long, and "man" is a general term and shortened for "human" since it's not "huwoman".

Honestly, maybe yoga might have helped the kid in CT.

I like your thinking. Keep working the problem.

I don't have an answer myself to the questions.
I think evil exists. Always has and always will. 

I do wonder though, given that these murderers are always men,
where the culture might be failing in helping form men to live virtuous lives. 

Sexist.

DanielG - 2013-01-05 2:11 PM

TriToy - 2013-01-05 2:05 PM testosterone

Yeah, females tend to go into medicine and become "angels of mercy" or "angels of death" killers depending on what listing you're reading

Andrea Yates was a nurse!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Yates

OK, here comes a "back in my day" comment.

Back in my day, boys regularly took knives to grammar school.
No one cared. We took them out and played target throwing at recess and lunch.
Heck, even the Sisters (nuns) would join us sometime. 

No one ever stabbed anyone.
No one would have thought to even threaten that as a tease.

On our high school football team, half the team would take off one day from school each fall to go deer hunting.
No one cared. It was a ritual that was accepted as being good for boys to do.
As long as the players got back in time for practice, everything was cool. 

Teenage boys full of testosterone (football testosterone at that) were out  in the nearby woods
with shotguns and high powered rifles.

No one ever had a shooting accident.
No one ever came back to school and committed murder with the guns.
No one would even think about threatening that or saying something like a threat in jest.

Everyone had a maturity about using dangerous things
and used them with common sense. 

It's not like that anymore.

What happened?

None.
We were all too busy out playing at every available moment until the street lights came on. Then we came home, ate dinner, did homework, and fell asleep happily exhuasted.

True.
We had alpha men around, fathers, uncles, coaches, older brothers and cousins
who would teach us how to use dangerous things and would crack us upside the head if
we messed up with them. 

You missed the most prolific female killer of them all.  That chick named Jessica Fletcher up in Cabot Cove, Maine was notorious...you really think she had nothing to do with the hundreds of murders she helped "solve?"

On topic, I think gunman isn't alone in its old-fashionedness...I think I touched on this issue a while back in the manhole thread.  

Probably the same reason most of us use FireMan, MailMan, etc.  Just part of our vocab.

People don't like the term shooter either. 

I don't see gunperson catching on.

How 'bout Fire Arm Carrier Person? That covers the Fire Fighter and Mail Carrier angle.

Seriously, what's causing young men to do these things?
Did it always take place and we just didn't hear about it?
Or has something changed in the culture that contribute to bringing this all about? 

Maybe because over 90% of gun homicides are commited by males.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/gender.cfm

When I was 11 my friends mom would pack us a lunch to carry.  We took a shotgun each and .22 riffle and went and played in the woods behind the farm.  It's amazing we managed to go hike for miles, blast some birds and critters and still live to talk about it.

Oops in response to dontracey "back in the day" rant

And you didn't become a mass murderer.

(I bet there was a good chance the lunch even had Twinkies)

Possibly.  Look at media today versus 50 or 100 years ago.  Today it is instant and worldwide if the "story" is sensational enough.  Combine that with a larger population overall and you have a higher number of such events reaching our eyeballs, even if the percentage isn't.

I think you're on to something T. 

Why settle for the singular?  If God in schools = good, Gods in schools = even better!

...now, do we issue guns to these Gods......