The 2nd Amendment Verses Mental illness

Originally posted by Blue_Jay33
So some might be reading this and say, "yeah there are tons of crazy's out there, that's why I need a gun, and I need to carry it with me" And thus the cycle is perpetuated, as the person thinking that might be sane today, but a month from now, maybe they are the crazy one, because of something that has happened.

Exactly.

reply to post by Guenter


I agree about the cell phone thing, which is why mine is off unless I need to hear from someone but that is a choice people make. I think your view of the past is a bit skewed. Like today, most people in the past lived in urban cities and most were living hand to mouth with no safety net to catch them when they fall. The middle class is a post WWII occurrence. Are there any modern examples of sweat shops in today's society? Think of city life for the average person in 1912, the smells, the crowded apartment buildings, the job you went to with zero safety regulations or workmens comp if you are injured just so your family can have one more meal each day and a roof over their heads. I could go on, but I think I am presenting a mental picture that makes my point. Do you think we in the US have more stress in our life than the average person living in a city in India? That person in Indias life is closer to what life was like for the average person in the US 100 years ago.

Originally posted by CranialSponge

Originally posted by Blue_Jay33
So some might be reading this and say, "yeah there are tons of crazy's out there, that's why I need a gun, and I need to carry it with me" And thus the cycle is perpetuated, as the person thinking that might be sane today, but a month from now, maybe they are the crazy one, because of something that has happened.

Ok, so what does the gun have to do with that? could he not just as easily snap and mow people down on the sidewalk with his SUV? In an armed society if he uses the gun, someone puts a round in him and he is forgotten. The problem is NOT too many guns or too easily accessed guns, the problem is not enough and not enough people going armed in there daily life.

And the more people that have concealed guns, it's true they can stop others from doing bad, but then others could take their guns too. Teenagers know mom keeps a small gun in her purse, they take it. Let's say the average Joe/Jane is noticed at the food store carrying a gun, somebody wants that gun, they follow them in a crowd and then when they are alone at there car they smash something over their head knocking them out, and there gun is stolen.

The answers are not that easy, some say increase it so everybody can carry, others say no ban them all.
When neither of these is the issue, but rather developing self-control, and having a moral society, and that isn't happening right now.

As for having it better or worse now, I think if a person coming from a solid middle class family and then having to achieve that yourself in life, puts tremendous strain on a person, as the middle class got wiped out by polices that took wealth from them and gave it too the 1%. When they had a decent and fair life before, now they live in constant frustration, this creates emotional turmoil that can build for years. Most are able to keep it under control, others can't. It's different than India if you were born into poverty, I think you learn to cope with it at a very young age. Adults aren't as good at adapting to a poorer lifestyle. Poor coping skills

Originally posted by billy82269
reply to post by Guenter

 

I agree about the cell phone thing, which is why mine is off unless I need to hear from someone but that is a choice people make. I think your view of the past is a bit skewed. Like today, most people in the past lived in urban cities and most were living hand to mouth with no safety net to catch them when they fall. The middle class is a post WWII occurrence. Are there any modern examples of sweat shops in today's society? Think of city life for the average person in 1912, the smells, the crowded apartment buildings, the job you went to with zero safety regulations or workmens comp if you are injured just so your family can have one more meal each day and a roof over their heads. I could go on, but I think I am presenting a mental picture that makes my point. Do you think we in the US have more stress in our life than the average person living in a city in India? That person in Indias life is closer to what life was like for the average person in the US 100 years ago.

I was not reffering to the average discusting crowded indistrial revolution issues. When I talk about less stress i a simple sun-rise to sun-down existence. Even now historians begin to take a closer look at the medeval times and even the dark ages. with beginning to undertstand that the general "sanity" of the human mind was at a better state. Our stress of today is a stress of "not needed" things. Personally I am more a beleiver of the preagricultural societies and share with the likes of Jarod Diamond and similar, that our real problems began with the invention of agriculture. Naturally this is a thread(s) of another nature. I spend a lot of times in developing countries and dispite the poverty I noticed among the poor an inherent happiness and absence of stress. Yes it is a basic hand to mouth existence. However past these basics they worry little. Its when we begin to worry about the less "visible" things, the keeping up with the Jonses when the stress begins to hit. Look at any given reality TV show concerning "flipping a house" or other renovation projects. As the clock ticks down .. The very culture of our western society to "Race it...". The dead line pressures in business and so forth. Plus the daily changing technology. How many baby boomers today need the help of their children already o do a simple task as setting up a dvd player, a new cell phone or so. Inventions and progress had always happend. But as before from one invention to the next took a generation or more. But any new product gradually entered society. And the learning and adaptation was a natural one. Just a few years ago I watched a documentary about the f-22 raptor fighter. The testpilot that supervised the Flight simulator for the public was stunned. There came 14 yo "video trained kids" and "flew" the f-22 like they were seasoned pilots, while he himself as a seasoned test pilot had a hard time getting used to the "new stuss" - as he admitted. Yet he had trained from the ground up on the f-4 to the f-16, f-18 and so forth and yet a 14yo "nintendo boy" flies the damn thing better than him. The generation conflict. and the inability to pass on from old to young. We now have entered a time in whiche we teach from young to old.- a total reversal of the way knowledge is passed on.
Additionally and in no society other than the usa is personal mobility so predominant. In most industrialized nations you move 2-3 times in your entire life. Most americans I know telling me their lifestory read like the road map of the usa. Born in city A, moved to B at age 6, at 12 to C, at 16 to D and so on and on and on. How can we have stability if every few years we have to make new friends? Wher can we put roots down? Where do we get stability?
We are a social animal after all, but unlike the sardines swimming in schools of 10,000's or more we are a species best comfortable with about 200 people as a core group. How can we find identity in a towm of 50,000 even? Why is it that so many small farm towns have their solid "family feuds" betwee 2 families? Because these towns are already past the 200 peple limits. And then you enter these sleepy back places and see a town divided among family loyalty. Even apartment buildings are "anti social" because of 20 units lived in it is 20 different families we have nothing in common with.
The problem of stress is not just a single bad hair day. Its entire culture of a modern capitalist go getter society. Sure I love our modern medical achievements. Sure I do not want to go back in time where they do my teeth raw or amputate a leg with hardly more comfort but a glass of whiskey. The whole thing is not even so much a question of guns, drugs or so, it is a question of so many issues that we have to discuss them like sititng in the centre of a piechart working it by piece