DAVID SWANSON, davidcnswanson@
Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is the director of World BEYOND War, a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace.
He said today: “Of course statistically virtually all veterans are not mass shooters, because very few people are mass shooters. But disproportionately mass shooters are veterans — at least 36 percent last time I reviewed the data. If we are going to take an interest in other demographic trends regarding this tiny group of people — their gender, mental health, criminal records, racist ideologies — we can take an interest in the fact that our tax dollars trained many of them to shoot. We can also notice that many non-veteran mass shooters dress, speak, and act — in the commission of their crime — as if they are participating in a military. There is a structural problem in training so many people to kill — including the recent killer on a New York subway — and a cultural problem in glorifying it. I’m looking at you, Hollywood.”
