Here’s How Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Us In So Many Ways
Part of the lethal toxic mix is how the gun industry and the NRA have cultivated a culture of gun-powered macho power fantasies.
After every mass shooting — and sadly, there are so many that we have become numb to them — there’s an inevitable combing through the shooter’s past to see what could have motivated him.
We learned a lot about Omar Mateen, who shot up an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub called Pulse in 2016. His ex-wife describes a man who was controlling and abusive. A colleague says he was always using racial and sexual slurs and “talked about killing people all the time.” Both his ex-wife and his father describe him as homophobic. He was clearly fond of guns, having not one, but two concealed carry licenses. He was investigated by the FBI in 2013 for making threats to a coworker.
Stephen Paddock, who killed nearly 60 people at a country-western concert in 2017, also loved guns, amassing several dozen. He was a massive gambler who loved freebies but was rudely unwilling to tip waitresses. He dressed down his girlfriend in public for no reason, and was described by people who knew him as rigid, uncompromising, arrogant, and entitled.
