The gun rights advocates just LOOOOOVVVVEE saying that gun violence isn't related to them, or anything they do with their guns.

Despite the fact that guns are legal and regulated, there are still approximately 25,000 gun related deaths per year in the US. No other democracy has those kinds of statistics.

So, since gun owners already have and exercise their constitutional right to bear arms, and the sale of guns is already regulated, just what in hell is causing 25,000 gun related deaths per year?

It is complex, but in terms of school related violence, it isn't about bullying alone. It is about a tremendous increase in the past 30 years of male violence, combined with an explosion in the easy availability of cheap guns.

Bullying has been around for forever, and while it provides easy, instant answers, is isn't a root cause of school violence. Cheap and easy access to guns hasn't been around forever though--it is a very recent phenomenon.

So is the upward spiral of male violence in every sector of our society a recent phenomenon--in schools, workplaces, homes, and in the broader community.

US society, like every other imperial power in history, is an extremely violent warrior culture. When imperial powers of the world have been in their ascendancy, and begin their decline, their societies have become increasingly violent. That was true for Greece, Rome, and Britain, just at it is now true for the US.

From cheap handguns bought on black markets, to smart bombs, cluster bombs, and nuclear technology being sold on black markets, our society is enamoured with guns and explosives, and we worship them in Sunday church services praising our mighty warriors in Iraq, as well as in our film, music, and video/computer game fantasies.

I listen to the boys who enlist in military service every spring, talk about how cool it is going to be to get their hands on these powerful weapons. How they won't have to tolerate ANYBODY telling them what to do or giving them any shit.

It is a culture of extreme machismo and cheap weapons that has produced the school violence crisis, just as it has produced the workplace violence crisis, just as it has produced the domestic violence crisis, etc.

This sort of violence is rooted in male anger and rage at not being able to control others. In the case of school violence it is directed both at peers and authority figures who are perceived as having more power than the perpetrator of the violence. In the case of workplace violence, it is directed at authority figures or colleagues who are perceived as having more power than the perpetrator of the violence. In domestic violence, it is the domestic partner or children in the home, who are perceived as challenging the power and authority of the perpetrator.

Females get bullied all the time at school, both by other females and by males. But they aren't the perpetrators of school violence. Males are. There are millions of boys who get bullied at school who never turn to violence.

Nope, there is no place to hang this one but on angry men and angry boys.