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Is senseless violence unstoppable?

November 26, 2025

Ron Cuff

By Commander Ron Cuff, U.S. Navy Retired

Charlie Kirk and I grew up in the same town and attended the same schools. I met and spoke with Charlie at Turning Point USA headquarters about a year ago. He was killed on Sept. 10 by a disturbed individual who may or may not have been on drugs. We will never know, because we have not received a toxicology report on the suspect. What we do know is that the suspect’s roommate was a drug user.

After 28 years of military service, I know this: An enemy that we don’t know or understand cannot be defeated. The enemy—irrational random violence, now claims innocent lives almost daily.

The military confronts disasters like this head on. For example, if an airplane crashes, the military doesn’t just mourn the loss and move on. Exhaustive investigations, analyzing every piece of data—including toxicology—and the findings are shared publicly. This approach revolutionized both civilian and military aviation safety, reducing fatalities by over 95% since the 1970s.

We are having debates about violence prevention—gun policy, mental health funding, substance regulations, social services—but we’re ignoring the critical facts.

When someone commits an act of random violence, (usually a male in his 20’s) we fail to collect and analyze key data points that could inform evidence-based solutions.

Concerns about privacy and civil liberties certainly deserve consideration. But we can collect anonymized, aggregated data that protects privacy while still providing the population-level intelligence we need. We do this for traffic fatalities, infectious diseases, and other public health challenges. Why not do this with random violence?

Random violence is a problem requiring sophisticated Military/ NTSB style post-incident analysis. We must ascertain the role of various substances (legal and illegal) in triggering violence. Drug use can cause severe psychosis and schizophrenia, leading to irrational violence.

We also lack comprehensive data on other possible contributing factors: access to mental health services, economic stressors, exposure to trauma, social isolation levels, and yes—the presence or absence of positive adult male role models in our young men’s lives.

Some will argue that we should focus on structural inequities, healthcare access, and systemic reforms. Others emphasize individual responsibility, parenting and community support. The truth? We need to attack this problem on all fronts. Accurate data will tell us where our priorities should be. This isn’t about assigning blame—it’s about solutions.

Let’s start asking relevant questions after every act of random violence.

– What data was collected, and what is missing?

– What patterns are emerging across similar cases?

– Which risk factors were present, and which protective factors were absent?

– What is the plan to prevent this from happening again?

Let’s demand legislation requiring data collection—including mandatory toxicology testing. THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, which is strongly linked to psychosis, must be included in every test. Toxicology results must be made available to public health officials, policymakers and most importantly, the public at large.

In the meantime, let’s do what we know works. Research consistently shows that adult male mentorship of adolescent males reduces violent behavior and drug use. Whether through formal programs like Big Brothers or informal community involvement, men need to be present in boy’s lives. More men must teach or volunteer at schools, coach teams, and mentor youth.

We cannot make excuses. The oft heard comment, “I blame the parents” is a rationalization for inaction. We are all in this together. We can’t control parents, but we can all set a good example. We men can teach, coach, and mentor. And we must.

Ron Cuff is a Templeton resident. He served 28 years in the U.S. Navy as a carrier pilot, flight instructor, commanding officer, and test pilot at the Pt. Mugu Pacific Missile Test Center testing and evaluating Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles. He has dedicated 15 years to preventing drug and alcohol addiction through the Safe Launch initiative that he co-founded in 2010.

 


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No, it is not, to put it simply. What’s senseless to you may not be senseless to those who believe harm to others will gain them points, as practiced in gangs and with faithful followers of the Quran.


1

These are serious issues and to dismiss these very cogent points do not help. The bottom line is the lack of strong male role models and the introduction of very powerful THC products is very problematic. Rather than “shooting the messenger” let’s agree that we have serious issues with some young males and females who are trying to find their way. Violence by young Males will accelerate if we don’t understand what’s at work here. We all need to understand and realize that this is a very real problem being faced by our young and complicating it further is Social Media and Smartphones. Thank you Mr Cuff for speaking to this issue. Our future society will succeed or fail depending on how we address many of these challenges and your friends and families safety may depend on it going forward.


23

“When someone commits an act of random violence, (usually a male in his 20’s) we fail to collect and analyze key data points that could inform evidence-based solutions.”


You can find over 4,400,000 references on Google Scholar to studies that talk about “risk factors for violence”. The above quote is just absolute nonsense.


The CDC publishes mounds of information on “risk factors for violence.” https://www.cdc.gov/youth-violence/risk-factors/index.html


So what in the heck are you even talking about


-15

The research is very clear:

✅ Environmental factors generally come first. Substance use usually follows.

Here’s the causal sequence supported by the majority of criminology, psychology, and public health studies:

1. Environmental Factors Lay the Foundation (First)

Environmental and social conditions shape:

impulse control

emotional regulation

responses to stress

worldview

tolerance for aggression

These factors typically begin in childhood and early adolescence.

Examples:

Trauma

Neglect

Unstable family environment

Exposure to violence

Peer norms

Poverty or marginalization

Low school attachment

Lack of adult guidance

These shape the baseline risk before substances ever enter the picture.

2. Substance Use Enters Later and Amplifies Risk (Second)

Most young men begin experimenting with alcohol or drugs after environmental patterns are already set.

Substance use:

lowers inhibitions

increases impulsivity

heightens emotional reactivity

encourages aggression in those already primed for it

But very rarely does substance use turn a psychologically stable, well-supported young man into a violent offender.

In fact:

Substance use mostly exposes the violence that the environment has already conditioned.

That’s why breaking down violence without considering early-life environment leads to bad explanations.

But there is a feedback loop

Once substance use starts, it can:

worsen environmental conditions (legal trouble, school failure, job loss)

embed someone in a high-risk peer group

reinforce aggression as a coping mechanism

So the sequence often becomes:

Environment → early behavioral problems → substance use → amplified violence

This creates a cycle that becomes harder to break with age.


11

While I agree with many of your points, especially male mentorship, I think it’s pretty easy to ascertain why we have so much gun violence in this nation: we have too many guns. In Europe, where guns are strictly controlled, there are 22 times fewer incidences of gun homicide. And in Australia, it is 33 times less. I have been to both places and I don’t see that their young males are in a different situation than ours. They have violent video games, mental illness and many of the other pressures of modern life. Yet they don’t run around shooting each other. Every once in a while there are stabbings or car attacks, but those are few. The difference is that the U.S. simply has too much easy access to firearms—more than one for each man, woman and child in our nation. The fact that this will not change any time soon makes me skeptical that more thorough investigation will alter the situation.


-16

50-60-70-80 years ago, we had much, much easier access to firearms, along with violent cowboy, war, and gangster movies prevalent at theaters and on TV. Yet, you would be hard pressed to find “mass shootings” or deadly gang violence dominated by the availability of firearms. You could by guns and ammo at hardware stores, from neighbors, practically any sporting goods store, and Police auctions with no questions asked. I,as a young lad, bought .22 ammo at Thrifty Drug stores on my way home from 6th Grade.


You can, though, easily correlate the availability of illegal drugs, prescriptions for “ADD”, “ADHD”, “out of control” kids since prior to 1960 (before the autism label was a thing), the “turn on, tune in, drop out” culture, and the beginnings of soft on crime judges and lawyers, that created the environment that allowing nefarious activity, and willful ignoring of violent behavior, is the answer to criminal punishment.


6

According to a quick internet search, “The number of guns per capita in the United States has increased dramatically over the last 60 years, with the rate skyrocketing from an estimated 1,130 firearms per 100,000 people in 1960 to over 7,000 per 100,000 people by 2021. The U.S. has the highest rate of per capita firearm ownership in the world, with more than one gun for every American.”


0

And, if you take away suicides and justifiable homicide (self defense and Police actions), our “world ranking” on firearms murder per capita, is barely in the top 100. In the USA, yes, firearms are common. Yet our overall murder rate is fairly low (murder, not homicide).


The USA is about 5.75 per 100,000.


In Mexico, where guns are severely and heavily controlled, the murder rate per capita is 24.86 per 100,000.


It’s not the availability of guns. It’s the criminal will to use them. Punish the criminal, not the law abiding.


2

The bottom line is thaf homicide rates, after peaking in the 1990s, are down to whqt they were in the late 1960s. Clearly you cannot blame a broken family for the actions of Kirk’s murderer, so it must be the marijuana? Give me a break


-23

Also aviation safety amd random violence are vasrly different things so I fail to see how the process for fixing the former can suxcessfully be applied to the latter.


-24

Access to sophisticated weapons and extremist high-profile personalities have got to be at an all-time high though.


3

Sophisticated weapons? Seriously? You really went there?


Fists and blunt objects, kill more people each year than long guns (rifles AND shotguns). CDC and FBI numbers, not mine or the NRA.


CDC: Over 3 million deaths in America every year. ALL homicide does not rate in the top 10 of reasons.


In 2023~


Less than 5% of ALL firearm involved homicides used long guns (rifles and shotguns).


976 people were killed by fists, feet and the use of blunt objects–


–677 were killed by rifles and shotguns of all types.


Charlie Kirk’s killer, used a rifle made over 100 years ago. I suppose it was sophisticated for World War One though.


You’re barking up the wrong tree, Pony boy.


19

BOOM!


(not from a “sophisticated weapon”)


Another smooVe takedown Army.


-2

This is an argument for, wait for it …..traditional nuclear families. Nooooo! The very institution the left blames for all the world’s problems. When our economy has been wrecked by free trade agreements, deindustrialization, and the dumping of cheap plastic garbage from China here, why would any man start a family he cannot afford to support? My late father left my sister and I at 13 only to go to prison a few years later for 8 years. I thank God for my 3 year enlistment in the US Army for getting me ready for life and providing money to attend and graduate college. If men and boys are to be helped, provide upward mobility and jobs with living wages.


31

Why would one use the example of the killer of Charlie Kirk for such an argument, since Tyler Robinson grew up in a traditional nuclear family? I do agree that economic opportunity does help reduce crime though


-12

Did Tyler Robinson really grow up in a “traditional nuclear family?” He grew up in a family whose faith is based on a book written in the 19th century that claims native Americans are a lost tribe of Israel. This religion was chased from the Midwest all the way out to Utah. Is it any wonder Tyler Robinson finally freaked out? Tyler Robinson grew up in a family that were members of heretical cult. Nice try though.


5

Suggesting people who only use marijuana and have thc in their system takes away any credibility of this article. Why ignore alcohol and all of the people killed from alcohol related incidents? Which is way more than from people who smoke weed.


1

This certainly is a HUMONGOUS subject! You have to look at root causes of problems, and what actions would be more impactful in addressing the causes. A great deal of the unrest we are experiencing is due to self-worth and economics — people having challenges getting and keeping jobs and not progressing in pay scale, has a profound impact on frustrations of life. When people do not feel that they are useful to society, it eats away at satisfaction with life, sometimes leading to anger with the world. Add to that the devastating impact of social media on wellbeing — seeing people who “have it all” doing desirable and fun things, and you aren’t, digs away at wellbeing. A strong part of this situation is having a difficult childhood — if you don’t have loving and caring parents who help you learn about life, then you are at a great disadvantage to people who do have a good upbringing. And in today’s society, if other people do not listen to you or criticize you, this can have very damaging impacts on a person’s feeling of self-worth. If you are able to study the people who cause problems, look at their youth and background.


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