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The Gun Violence Archive reports that there have been 406 mass shootings and 10,723 gun violence deaths (excluding suicides) in the 🇺🇸 United States so far in 2023.
grim figures so what can be done?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/us-surpass...y?id=101588652
Probably nothing. It's fine to depict shootings in wall-to-wall Police dramas over there but if the crack of someone's @rse appears during a scuffle on the Jerry Springer Show it has to be pixellated.Quote:
Originally Posted by MOZZER2
I think with all these discussions it's worth everyone broadly agreeing on two things;
1 - America's gun laws are ridiculous
2 - They won't change and we have to respect they are a part of life there and even if they weren't, so many millions are in circulation that they would continue to be used for decades
Upon accepting that I think it has to focus on trying to limit the most serious weapons, ie the military grade ones. This still allows people to maintain weapons for hunting or for 'protecting their family' etc with less likelihood of them being used for mass murder.
But the other thing we have to accept is that even a pistol is perfectly capable of being used in mass shootings and these things simply did not happen with such frequency in decades past.
So we have to look at changes in society, economies, family make ups, relationships, how people talk to each other and express themselves, what people do with their time, what has the internet and mass communication at home done?
The reality is that as humans we are interacting less. We are not hearing opinions and ideas as much, not learning about each others lives not talking as much, not giving notes and receiving change as much, not sitting next to each other on the bus as much, not consuming media collectively as much. There is an epidemic of loneliness. We are encouraged to live our lives through apps, to interact online, to meet people online, there is very little tolerance of human frailties and we just aren't as good a society as we once were. We have less respect and decency and it understanding, despite progress in some areas such as LGBT rights etc, I think we live in far less tolerant and far more anxious times.
In most countries this is manifesting itself in loneliness, depression, anxiety and general unfulfillment. Add access to guns and you have a toxic mix.
So yeah, for me, it's about guns, but it's about society too and just saying ban guns doesn't cut it. We need to think deeper and we also need to look at ourselves, not just the United States
Agree with your point one, but not point two. If, as you say, there is general agreement that America’s gun laws are “ridiculous”, ,then given that they are, in effect, killing machines, anything that indulges the use of them in the manner they can be used in America is ridiculous as well. While agreeing that the media’s glorification of guns has been a factor at times and that the internet makes it easier perhaps for a potential killer to go “over the edge”, there were shooting sprees of the type that, thankfully, you only see very rarely over here in America well before the days of the internet - to repeat, if the gun laws are thought to be ridiculous, then they should be tackled head on, not indulged like they are currently.Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesWales
Ah the one subject I think most posters on here agree about.
There's no hope for the Americans when it comes to guns. They are woefully ignorant and uneducated about how things work in other countries without guns.
When speaking with gun nuts they will say things like 'well the UK doesn't have guns and people just use knives instead'. You then explain that their murder rate is about 5 x higher than the UK, they will reply 'well we have 5x the people of the UK'. It's jaw dropping stupidity.
The fact that there are bullet proof backpacks and some classes basically have bunkers (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...hool-shootings) is saddening.
Young people there are fed up with guns and with many issues it's going to take time for the old guard to release their grasp on many areas of society before improvements can be made.
"They are woefully ignorant and uneducated " I think you quote that at anyone that has a different opinion than you - or accuse them of living in Ely - like that is some form of insult.
Anyways - I have 2 old school friends - one lives in San Diego and doesnt carry a gun - the other lives in Carolina - and does have a gun at home. They both think they are in the right.
I would rather go to San Diego than Carolina.
you get the same disparity over here, TV shows are far more likely to feature violence than sex, yet (thankfully) most people will experience far more sexual encounters than violent ones in their day to day lives.Quote:
Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie
I literally have no idea what you're talking about there snowflake.Quote:
Originally Posted by pipster