Sounds cruel, but this is what happens when you "empower" nerds.

Once upon a time, these outcasts simply were outcasts. They lived alone. They were sad. It was tragic, but it was self contained.

Then some bleeding heart decided that outcasts shouldn't feel like outcasts, they should know that their feelings mattered, and they were entitled to be happy.

Then, when the REAL WORLD doesn't live up to the to the "you're good enough, smart enough, and dog gone it, people like you" line of bullshit they'd been fed, they lash out.

The difference is, NOW they have enough self respect to think they deserve to take out other people too. They think that their suffering had worth, or value, and that some cosmic, karma bill should be settled. They don't just accept their loneliness as part of life, they've been promised something else by well meaning idiots, and now they're pissed instead of just sad.

THAT is how you get school shooters. By promising losers that someday it'll all work out for them and telling them that, even though they're pretty much total failures at "society," they still have worth and value and deserve to be loved and respected.

If you're told you deserve something, or you're entitled to something, it's only FAIR to seek retribution when it's denied to you.

No one is entitled to respect, or love, or sex, or success. No one has inherent worth (beyond a basic, basic, minimal level) to people who don't already know and love them. The world does not work that way. Promising kids otherwise is setting them up for major, crushing, disappointment when they understand how hopeless things really are and that they've been lied to.

This problem is entirely of our own making. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," and all that.