I had a friend ask why don't they shoot the shooters? 

They get away w it in a sense, a long drawn out court process and many years behind bars doesn't seem nearly an adequate punishment... 

There are many who attack guns as the reason & cause.. They shock w the most awfully impressive statistics.  I'd like to believe & feel that I understand their concern and  rather just appeal to fix the problem... The heinousness of these attacks on our society, also tempts me to do it by any means...  Impose strict a religious code, have armed guards everywhere or even bar firearms period. 

Regardless of your beliefs, i am fond of our god given right to use logic...

So when i say lets use a scientific approach..  I don't mean to imply there is no creator.  Rather  I mean that simply, i will not be swayed by bias... See scientific method..  I have much to say on this important topic, however i am once again limited to time constraints so to make this brief...  To those who say guns were at fault, logically speaking: handguns have been around for over a hundred years, including automatics and even tommy guns, that were notorious for mob style warfare way back when..  The fact is mass shootings were never a weekly occurrence until the last maybe ten years and steadily climbing.  When i was a kid Columbine was a rare tragedy influenced by kids striking back at their bullies.  These days adults are seemingly pissed off at the world and hope to make it even worse for everyone by shooting people who have nothing to do w the problem.  Now this will sound awful but speaking as a cynic, why don't they shoot someone who has caused misery to people?  I by no means am supporting vigilantes because i am a firm believer of due trial and as our great forefather said:  Its better to let 1000 criminals go free then have 1 man unjustly imprisoned or executed.  Im just saying, if they've given up on life anyway and are ready to sacrifice their own in a GTA like rampage... Why not do something cool, like rob a hostess truck and just dump thousands of Twinkies and jo jos into the street or better yet try an armored truck and just throw money everywhere..  It seems like a more logical approach to me. 

So if guns were even more available in the 90s and there weren't nearly as many mass shootings... What has changed?  Ive thought about it, I am still unsure, copycat syndrome may be partially to blame... 

My guess is:  we didn't have a narcissistic group of people in power ready to do anything to attain their goal...  Once again it seems to go back to, if THEY blew up their own building and freely killed they own people to pass a set of laws that allow them to monitor everyone and restrict personal freedom etc & got away w it... They may freely believe that they can continue to do so.