America: A Culture of Violence?

I came across the following story in the National Briefings section of the LA Times on May 9, 2009:

"Four off-roaders shot; couple held A couple has been accused of opening fire and wounding four people, including a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, who they mistakenly thought were trespassing on their property near Dayton. The victims, who were off-roading near a residential area about 40 miles northeast of Houston, were struck with shotgun pellets late Thursday after stopping their vehicles near the Trinity River so the children could go to the bathroom, said Liberty County Chief Deputy Ken DeFoor. Police said Sheila Muhs, 45, fired once with a 12-gauge shotgun, then handed it to her husband, Gale, also 45. DeFoor said Sheila Muhs called 911 and told the dispatcher, 'They're out here tearing up the levee, so I shot them.'

The Muhs are charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Donald Coffey Jr., 7, was in critical condition after being shot in the head. Patrick Cammack, a friend of the boy's father who was driving a separate vehicle, was also shot in the head and in critical condition."

The story--at an admittedly anecdotal level--helps to support the view that there is something unusual about American culture. It is a culture where at least some otherwise normal people (but probably not an inconsequential number) believe that it is appropriate to shoot at a family, including two small children, because they were "tearing up a levee" (instead of, say, calling the police or simply yelling at them to stop).

Culturalists might tell us that such actions cannot be considered rational, because they are fundamentally based on a particular process of enculturation that shapes people's views and perceptions of what is appropriate or inappropriate behavior. Does this prove the cultural perspective? Certainly not. But if we could find that such attitudes and perceptions shape the behavior of a significant part of the American population (especially in relation to other societies), we may be on to something.