US Firearms and Todays Society

I mentioned it in the other thread, and wont directly link it but wikipedia only shows like 22 mass shooting from 1980-89, now it seems like we have one weekly, what has changed since 1990?

So what changed, I kinda agree with vNex92, social media has wrecked the mental health of our young people and is probably playing a part in this problem.

I own several and not once have they run out of the house all screwed up on whatever and shot anyone. It’s amazing how inanimate objects don’t do that.

originally posted by: Freeborn
a reply to: DBCowboy

Very true and I agree with most of that.

But why has the gangsta culture become so popular and prevalent?
What can be done to change that?

Not token schemes that achieve nothing lasting but robust policies that affect people's day to day lives and that provide a genuine alternative to the gangsta culture and associated #e that so many feel there is no other option.

Short answer?

A respect for life.

But that begins at home.

originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: olaru12

So criminality isnt a choice.

I get what youre saying in regard to economic status seems to be highly proportional to the percentage of crime but to say theres no choice doesnt make sense

I know it's hard to understand the psychological devastation and rage that poverty engenders. If it wasn't for my blessed mentors I would have been an outlaw.

I know it's a broad generalization but imo the underlying cause of todays violent culture is the disparity between rich and poor; and it's getting wider every day.

American culture is a violent culture....look at our hero's, all violent people...Poets and artist are geeky nerds, and sissy boiz. We idolize violent men, not intellectuals.

You reap what you sow......................

Maybe there could be an elective for firearms training in high school. Have prop guns for safety of course but at least give kids an option to learn how to carry/use a gun responsibly. I think that would be a great idea.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Apathy.

Now hear me out here, its a survival mechanism. Having instant access to all thing past and present, instantly. Being judged and rated in lifes even most mundane things have reinforced and increased.

In turn, we mold these people to be mere emotionless husks, capable of atrocities.

Yes, MSM and social media likely have been the cause.

a reply to: olaru12

Obviously there are socio-economic factors that contribute to the high number of gun related killings.
As an outsider looking in I don't see any real attempts at addressing the massive gulf between the wealthy and not-so-wealthy. Your political system simply will not allow it.

I don't know enough about it but its pretty apparent to anyone who takes more than a cursory glance at things that your whole political system is broken. (Don't get me wrong, the same applies here in the UK and most other countries as far as I can tell).

a reply to: JinMI

How about I play a different Devil's Advocate this time?

Brace yo'selves, I'm not going the obvious Blame Teh Guns route th -- someone get the smelling salts (or a burger), that wasn't an earthquake, DB fainted, oops.


Inappropriately timed humor aside here, we are always glossing over a very important source of social decay here.


#ty parents made & reared these #ty shooters, they didn't poof forth from the aether fully grown.

I think its high time we look at the ages of the parents of most shooters and ask ourselves something that appears to be rooted there:
WTF were the Boomers & oldest Xers fricking doing back then?? The neighborhood instead of parenting?

a reply to: olaru12

I know it's hard to understand the psychological devastation and rage that poverty engenders.

Born and raised dirt poor. Many a day and months incarcerated in my younger years. Tell me more.

.

I dont deny there is correlation between economic status and crime. You implied that there wasnt a choice and thus my question.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Why is there such a sense of alienation and why does this all to often manifest itself in mass shootings?

Very deep and complicated questions.

Why is there such a rise in mental health illnesses?
Is there a statistical correlation?

You make some really interesting and I think relevant points in your post.

Fixing root causes isn't really a thing today, it requires a degree of openness and honesty most are incapable of....for various reasons.

a reply to: Nyiah

Parents aren't allowed to beat the # out of their brats any more.

a reply to: Nyiah

Surely cant be dismissed.

Those parents of the kid who shot up his school over on the other side of the state were facing charges.

Perhaps this is the way?

However at what point in adulthood is a parent still responsible from raising a #ty human regardles?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Nyiah

Parents aren't allowed to beat the # out of their brats any more.

Dont think I as a Millennial have not noticed the drastic downslide in greater social decorum in the absence of physical attention-holding correction methods over the past 20 years.

Kids today get away with atrocious # that even the school bus driver would have pasted them for & NOT been ripped by the parents back in just the 90s. Because once upon a time, having a feral animal for a child was actually considered humiliating.

a reply to: Nyiah

My oldest once talked # to me and I slapped the taste out of his mouth.

He got uppity and said he was calling the cops.

I threw the phone at his head and asked if he needed help dialing 911.

The cops showed up.

Both vets.

They chewed his ass up one side and down another.

It was glorious!

Aaaaaand he has never killed anyone.

a reply to: JinMI

also did you know that one of the first gun laws ever passed, was every bodied male

equip themselves with a musket, bayonet and belt, two spare flints, a box able to contain not less than 24 suitable cartridges, and a knapsack

also it required that said musket be,

and that from and after five years from the passing of this Act, all muskets from arming the militia as is herein required, shall be of bores sufficient for balls of the eighteenth part of a pound; and every citizen so enrolled, and providing himself with the arms, ammunition and accoutrements, required as aforesaid, shall hold the same exempted from all suits, distresses, executions or sales, for debt or for the payment of taxes.

that's best i can figure, between .60 and .70 caliber. Different charts are saying things that i've looked at. leaning towards .69 cause i remember reading about french muskets in late 1700's the being .69 and their musket balls weighed 1/18 of a pound.

never was real good at math and i just go by what the box says now.

So it was plain to see you didn't show up with the weapon you bought with some pea shooter.

Militia Act of 1792,

a reply to: JinMI

I see it as a public health issue.

a reply to: Nyiah



Everyone wants to be a badass and everyone knows the quickest way to be a badass rich or poor big or small.

And in a essentially violent culture....this is what you get.

You reap what you sow....Galatians6:7

a reply to: JinMI

I think its pretty obvious there are many things that contribute to the high numbers of mass shootings and gun related killings. And unless core issues are addressed they will continue.

As things stand it is too easy for people who for whatever reason feel inclined to commit horrendous acts like occurred today to gain access to guns.
What you have at present isn't working.
Whether that is people not enforcing current legislation and procedures correctly or whatever I don't know.

But something needs to change to limit the availability of these weapons to those inclined to kill.
I have no idea how you can do that....that's something for you guys to work out.

Then I'd suggest you start addressing core issues - that would be something of a novelty for modern day politicians to consider.

Its getting late this side of the pond.
🍻🍻

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: JinMI

As talked about, we need to start punishing criminals.

We've an entire subculture that's "busting caps with their 9's". They glorify gun violence.

Gun violence is not cool, it's not hip. It's not fun. I've spent my entire adult life working in and around the medical field, much as an EMT-I. I've seen it first hand.

I was a military biomed, I've seen it first hand.

The blood, the screaming, the gore, the nightmares.

Those that continue to use firearms in the commission of crimes need to be punished.

We need to stop treating these shooters as "victims of their culture" and start public hangings.

Not an EMT or any related field...but everything else you said.

People need to communicate and enjoy our commonalities and stop focusing on superficial differences.

And if you need to have it out, square up, toe to toe, head high and fight it out with no weapons. Winner buys the next drink.

Guns are a cowards way out.

We also needs to take responsibility for our own actions. Own it when we screw up, fix the damage done, and learn so we don't make that mistake again. But that won't happen as a nation until the majority of the citizens live that way. Unfortunately today, it is much easier to play the victim.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: JinMI

I see it as a public health issue.

precisely!! A mental health issue....