I'm not sure I believe that.
Cars crashing into crowds in London and people jumping out of the car to stab innocent bystanders - there's a reason why there are no trash cans downtown, and that's because the IRA used to put bombs in them. I remember when a bombing in London wasn't really "news" so much as it was just the cost of living in the city.
Members of Congress being shot? Been there. Done that before.
School shootings? Some are outsiders, but a lot of the time it's someone who goes to school there. It's "workplace violence", like UPS. Just younger.
I think we are hearing about it more, because the internet and 24 hour news cycles have made information more readily available. I think *how* it's covered has been amped up, not because the crimes are any more heinous than they were before, but because you need to scream things to get attention, in order to be heard over everything else.
I *do* think that things have changed. Because things always change.
But I also think that they've always been "this bad". Sometimes a little better. Sometimes a little worse. And that we learn from the mistakes and move forward - and then usually find a new variation of how to make that same mistake.
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A new variation of the same old thing can be found with the new topic, which is due TODAY: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/1023224.html