Nearly all mass shootings are committed by men. Why isn’t masculinity a bigger part of the debate?

Conversations around gun violence in America tend to sidestep one element that nearly every mass shooting since 1966 has in common: the role of masculinity in grooming the shooter. 

Video producer Nicki DeMarco and her colleague Erin Patrick O’Connor have been studying the connection between guns and definitions of manhood to try to figure out why men overwhelmingly commit these acts. Researcher Scott Melzer told them, “When we expect boys and men to be dominant, powerful, in charge, to not give in – we’re coaching them, training them to commit violence when they feel like they’ve lost control.”

When Elvis Presley took the stage at International Hotel in Las Vegas in July 1969, it was his first time performing in nine years. 

His 57-show run at the International would punctuate a comeback that would become the last stage of his career, launched after a decade of poorly received movie appearances. 

“Cosmically, we always associate him with Vegas,” reporter Geoff Edgers says. “The jumpsuits. The handkerchiefs. There’s something about that whole slick, glittery, Vegas look – that Cadillac rolling down the Strip – that we now associate with Elvis.”