Over the past several decades, women have emerged as innovators in technology and leaders in business, becoming power brokers in nearly every facet of society.
All, it seems, except one.
“Men have been responsible for each mass shooting in America this year, widening the appallingly large violent crime gap that already exists between men and women,” said Dr. Lawrence Thornburg, a University of Maryland criminologist. “This isn’t a particularly great sign of equality.”
But American attitudes toward the murder gap are improving.
A poll Dr. Thornburg conducted found that nearly 80% of Americans are receptive to the idea of a female mass shooter, a 4% improvement from 2015, although just 19% said that it should be a woman of color. Dr. Thornburg says the results show that Americans have come to accept both men and women as potentially violent criminals. “Overall, we see a tremendous amount of excitement among all Americans toward reaching this milestone.”
While attitudes have changed, the question of experience lingers.
“What qualifications would a woman need to possess to become a successful mass shooter? People generally want someone with a previous history of violence, someone who was on an FBI watch list. It’s no longer a question of, ‘Do Americans want a female mass shooter?’ They do. It just needs to be the right one,” Dr. Thornburg said.
Special interest groups have taken a keen interest in turning the dream into reality.
Equipping women for success in the fight for violent crime equality has been the lifelong goal of National Rifle Association spokesman Jeffrey Sparks, who says that America is ready for a woman to shatter the glass ceiling with a semiautomatic rifle. Sparks leads an effort from the NRA to arm all female children with .357 Magnums at birth before they receive a complimentary AR-15 on their 18th birthday.
“Ideally, this lays the groundwork for a woman to one day kill dozens, hopefully hundreds. I think a lot of Americans will be excited to see something so historic,” Sparks said. “No one will forget where they were the day they found out the first woman shot up a daycare center. I hope I’m lucky enough to be there, so my grandchildren will know their grandad was on the right side of history and the wrong side of the gun barrel.”
Until then, Sparks recommends that Americans send their thoughts and prayers to women of all ages after each male-dominated mass shooting so they don’t lose sight of the goal.
And that goal is now within reach. Women around the nation have rallied at the prospect of becoming a historic mass shooter by using #MeShootToo on social media. As more women speak out about their dreams and grow the mass shooter movement, Angela Ryerson, a professor of Sociology at Michigan State University, believes the country is on the precipice of violent crime equality that will have widespread impacts.
“It’ll mean so much to me, my mom, my daughter – countless women – when a woman finally picks up an AK-47, sprays bullets indiscriminately, and says, ‘Time’s Up!’” said Ryerson.
