There are a few outliers - Dylan Klebold being one of the most well-known. His parents were pacifists who didn't believe in owning guns. But he lived in a mostly white, conservative area where most of his friends owned guns, so he was still able to access them fairly easily. Also, if there was any small mercy, it was that Klebold was a lousy shot. He got a gun he thought looked cool when it actually had a tendency to jam very easily.
But so many others I can think of, especially recently, the young men were raised in almost rabidly pro-gun households. I will never understand how the Sandy Hook shooter's mother did not see the danger of giving him free access to guns. It's not even that I think she needed to suspect violence, because he had no known history of violence - but she was HIGHLY aware that he had suicidal ideations. My best friend is a therapist who works primarily with teenagers and college students, and she says by far the hardest conversations when one of her clients is suicidal is when the parents own guns. Parents will agree to hide or lock up virtually anything else. Pills, knives, you name it. But ask them to either remove the guns from the home or keep them in a safe the kid can't get access to, and all too often she meets extreme resistance. There's just something wrong here. The fixation on guns to the point where it is common for a suicidal child's therapist to not be able to get through to the parent on why having guns in the house is not an awesome idea...that's a sickness.
