Readers React: Nearly all mass shooters are men. Why is that?

To the editor: Articles on mass shooters rarely explore why they are almost always men. I have a doctorate in psychology and two published books on the subject, including a study of the difference between patrilineal and matrilineal societies and their different personality outcomes. (“America’s mass-shootings epidemic,” Op-Ed, Oct. 19)

Patriarchy, or “machismo,” permits and even promotes violent behavior. Boys are “cast out” of the nest at an early age for fear of their being feminized. A boy is taught to not cry, to be a “little man.”

Compare that with girls, who can wear jeans, climb trees and even learn to be engineers. There’s no pressure to be a “little lady” anymore.

There’s great freedom for girls but repressive pressure on boys. Many males do not handle this pressure well and feel isolated and rejected and have a need to “get even.”

June Stephenson, Rancho Mirage

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To the editor: Mark Follman is technically correct, but he still misleads us when he writes that gun violence claims more than 30,000 lives annually in the United States. It gives the impression that all these deaths are homicides, which means the overall murder rate would be higher yet.

A quick fact check unmasks this. In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 16,238 homicides, 11,068 of them by firearm. Only when suicides and accidental shootings are included does the total number of gun deaths reach 30,000.

In no way do I intend to dismiss the tragedy of any of these deaths, and no,

I’m not a member of the National Rifle Assn. or by any stretch a “gun lover.” But Follman and others do a disservice to their cause when they present incomplete or distorted statistics.

David J. Brackney, Whittier

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To the editor: Follman notes that guns kill 30,000 people in the U.S. annually. And nary a peep is heard.

Can you imagine if those were 30,000 U.S. deaths from Ebola every year? The roar would be heard from shore to shore.

Elizabeth Keranen, Bakersfield

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