Culture of Shootings , "Thoughts and Prayers" But No Solutions

That I don't prioritize trusting you as a source.

 

Will never happen.

 

That would actually be the easy part. Removing the arms would be far more difficult.

 

You are saying pretty much the same thing as me, except you think guns should be taken away, and I do not. I think the gun violence needs to be solved first, meaning the root cause of the violence, not the symptom that is the pulling of the trigger. If the guns are just taken away, then I think the illusion will be a reduction in misery, when in reality nothing has changed, we are just less aware of the misery people feel. It may sound perverse, but I think the occasional massacre lets us know that we have societal problems here that need to be fixed. I'm definitely not saying that the deaths are a good thing, just that it keeps us aware that we have work to do.

 

guns will never ever be removed from American society, 1. They are constitutionally protected. 2. You will never have the support of all but 12 states to agree to it which is the requirement to amend the constitution. 3. A majority of democrats let alone republicans are not for gun control despite what the media tells you. The police are not for it, the military is not for it. Gunownership is never going away.

 

Sorry. I reacted too quickly. "easy for criminals to obtain in Sweden," you said. Yes, I think you're right.

 

No that’s an incredibly difficult task. Even if you got all but 13 states to agree, the legal challenges would ultimately defeat it.

 

and it would still be easier than actually removing the guns from those that have them.

 

Yet we see shooters LARPing what they see on TV, in the theater and in video games, and who do you think has been peddling, normalizing and glorifying that violence?

Many of them are unfit for the military, which should never serve as a dumping ground for the social problems our government facilitated and was warned not to facilitate by Senator Moynihan 56 years ago.

So, which is it? "That I can agree with" or "Nonsense"?

Everything Moynihan predicted has come true, and despite the fact that fire arms have been ubiquitous in this country since it was a hodgepodge of European colonies in the late 16th and early 17th Centuries, gun violence didn't become a problem until recently.

Why is that?

Some thing or some things have happened recently and what could they possibly be?

I can immediately point to two things - the myriad failures of the social welfare programs that were enacted in the 1960s and the explosion in mass media that emerged around the same time.

 

If it were the movies or games causing the violence then the violence would be far more widespread. it would not just be a handful of people since there are millions of people that watch these movies and play these games. Grand Theft Auto 5 alone has sold more than 140 million copies, but we do not see a million people LARPing what they see in the game.

 

I understand what you are saying and I certianly agree with you that the root cause of gun violence needs to be addressed and fixed even more than the gun itself. There are two problems with that, however. FIRST: The moment you start talking about curing poverty, racism, unemployment benefits, etc. most Americans start harping about Communism (the idiots!) and they don't want to hear anything about any kind of equality. SECOND: Just reducing guns (or eilimiating them) might not stop crime but it most certainly will reduce the rate of homicide. So if banning firearms alone isn't enough to stop violent crime, it is a step in the right direction.

 

We're never going to land on Mars either.

 

It suggests your priorities are in the wrong places, which suggests to me that you're not serious about solving this problem.

 

But in GTA the goal is to be able to go into the clothing stores and buy whatever you want for you character to wear.

 

Pardon me for jumping in, Josh, but even if the guns vanished the violence would continue unabated. As you correctly noted, gun violence is merely a symptom of a problem that many people and at least half of our political leadership refuse to address, much less solve. This has become another third rail in American politics.

 

or

Gun Free Zone = Kill Box

 

Haha, I've definitely run into that myself with my ideas about changes that need to be made in terms of sustainability. It's a process, probably a long and slow one. We'll get there eventually.

But, I'll still have to disagree with taking away firearms being a step in the right direction. I think keeping personal firearms for self defense is necessary until the societal problems are fixed. Same end goals, different route I guess.

 

That's what I am saying. What I mean is that instead of mass shootings, there will stabbings, bludgeonings, people run over with cars, etc etc. Stuff which is far less likely to make the news than a mass shooting, so the overall illusion will be the reduction in violence when in reality nothing has changed. Thats what I meant.

 

Like I said, the same games are popular around the globe, but only US has this issue. Why?

Being unfit is no excuse in Israel, Switzerland, Finland etc nations where everyone serves, so why should it be an acceptable excuse in US?

I agree with one point, and disagree with the next.

We already covered that.

We covered it. Single mothers raising kids, or practically no one raising them. Many become outcasts in the society, and become angry and resentful towards others to a point where they want to destroy them.

Already covered. Media is same around the globe, and welfare is even more abundant in Europe, but they don't see these problems. Do you really think 'welfare' is designed to keep people from killing each other?

 

We're never going to make landing on Mars a constitutional or natural right, either.

 

Got ya.

 

At the same time, over a hundred people die on our nations highways, each and every day. It is no less the cost of living in liberty than anything else. What draws us to these types of shootings is the weight of the malice involved. And malice can obviously not be addressed thru regulations. From acquisition to use or application, our firearm liberty is flush with regulations. So the question is, what kind of people are we. And how or with what values do we raise our children and conduct ourselves. Will government restrict or remove speech and language so as to spare us the poisonous fruit of deceit. Should we then be exhorted only to hear the word spoken by our government, thinking and speaking nothing for ourselves for the cause of safety, doing only as we are instructed. Okay everyone, don your blinders and walk off yonder cliff.

 

You will have an easier time getting Americans to agree to send someone to Mars than to disarm.

 

So it is your impression that this "basic knowledge" is known by only a few, huh? I only ask because you treat it like an end-all fact that everyone has missed.

Because you think amending it would be equivalent to the "government breaking the Constitution". Those are your own words.

If "years of life experience" is the rule of thumb of understanding then you're at a disadvantage because I am 18 years older than you and I've actually seen more of both life and the world than you.

You can believe all you want but we're not in that business. What you or I believe will happen today means nothing. We are talking about what is both possible and legal .... and the consequences of it. Let me put it straight for you: I am telling you what could cure American violence by legal means. You are telling me it is impossible (it sounds like that is what you are saying) and you are completely ignoring the benefits of curing violence. My purpose on this thread is to look at the possibilities and the results of them in a positive vein. I don't see what your purpose is other than claiming there is no solution. Tsk! Tsk!

 

Hell yeah, I'm all for going to Mars and furthering space exploration. Not disarming though.