[Red_Army]

Anchorage doesn't have extreme weather or abject darkness, but it does have alcoholism in spades. It's colder than southern california, but the midwest is way colder than Anchorage and the darkness here isn't that much different than the northern lower 48.

Hunting rifles are also not the weapon of choice for murder.

I don't think you can point to any one thing to explain violent crime here. Alaska has a history of being a place for runaways, outlaws, and people generally fleeing legal troubles elsewhere. Alaska is also a place where people work seasonally and get big sums of cash at a time, which is often spent on booze and drugs. Speaking of drugs Alaska is the big dirty for people selling drugs. Heroin and coke are work like 5-10 times as much up here so dipshits from wherever like to come up here with weight and make their play. I doubt this works very often, but it does increase the amount of drug addicts who contribute to violent crime. Transience is another part of it I think. A lot of people live here in order to make money for a period of time with no intent on making a home here. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't, but it contributes to a nihilism that disrupts typical small town community.

As I type this I realize I could go on and on. Anyway expect a gangster rap album from me soon.

[Kaiserschmarrn]

Bless these guys.

Men are always the worst and the best.

[Jeliza-Rose]

It's basically mental illness...again. At some point, the hippy Baby Boomers have to realize that believing everything they saw in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is not a good reason to end institutionalization of the mentally ill.

At some point, maybe liberals will realize it is the right thing to do.

Yep, it's alwayz duh libralz...

Oh wait...

http://www.povertyinsights.org/2013/10/ ... elessness/

tl;dr...
Over 30 years ago, when Reagan was elected President in 1980, he discarded a law proposed by his predecessor that would have continued funding federal community mental health centers. This basically eliminated services for people struggling with mental illness.

~~~~

And as for "gun regulation laws don't stop people from killing each other so why bother" (aka rightwing logic)
-- sooooo, why bother with any laws, people keep breaking them.

[blackjack21]

Yep, it's alwayz duh libralz...

Oh wait...

http://www.povertyinsights.org/2013/10/ ... elessness/

tl;dr...
Over 30 years ago, when Reagan was elected President in 1980, he discarded a law proposed by his predecessor that would have continued funding federal community mental health centers. This basically eliminated services for people struggling with mental illness.

~~~~

And as for "gun regulation laws don't stop people from killing each other so why bother" (aka rightwing logic)
-- sooooo, why bother with any laws, people keep breaking them.

Your case for anarchy aside, the attempt to blame Reagan for homelessness arose because they knew even at that time that the mentally ill would end up homeless. The de-institutionalization remedy following the Stanford Experiment and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest was a liberal swan song that went very badly--not unlike the AIDS holocaust that followed gay liberation. Yes, California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 1972 was bi-partisan in that it did have a Republican co-sponsor and set the tone for mental health de-institutionalization. Republicans were happy to shrink the size of government with the mental hospitals emptying out. However, it was a decision to let schizophrenics, non-criminal psychopaths and addicts run rampant that has given us today's situation. Right-wingers do not have a problem with institutionalizing people.

The idea that this started in 1980 when Reagan became president is ludicrous. Please educate yourself before replaying easily debunked 80's era Democratic party propaganda.

By the way, the shooter in this case used a Glock 45, not an AR-15. Gun control is in effect in California and it didn't help one bit in this case. It is another example of a person who was on the police department's radar, but the current political-cultural milieu tells us to leave the mentally ill undisturbed until they do something terrible.

[Zagadka]

"By far the largest state has more shootings"

He had the gun legally. Dunno what you are getting at.

[Pants-of-dog]

Mass Shooting in Los Angeles, CA.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-lb-864- ... story.html

Occurred in the state with the strictest gun laws:

https://www.deseretnews.com/top/1428/0/ ... -laws.html

Yes.

It is as if there is something else about US culture that makes mass shootings so common there, and that gun laws are not the only factor.

I am just going to mention that the ten states with the strictest gun laws, according to that article, are:

California
New Jersey
Massachusetts
New York
Connecticut
Hawaii
Maryland
Rhode Island
Illinois
Pennsylvania

States With Highest Crime Rate:

California Ranks #2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U ... crime_rate

No, that is not what your link says.

You linked to a list of cities, not states.

And Anaheim, California is second on that list simply because the cities are in alphabetical order. If you look at the violent crime rate numbers for Anaheim (or LA, where the shooting actually occurred), you will see that many other US cities have higher violent crime rates.

California is actually ranked 43 out of 50 for gun death rates:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 359395002/

The states with the lowest numbers of Firearm deaths per 100,000 people are:

50. Massachusetts
49. Rhode Island
48. New York
47. Hawaii
46. Connecticut
45. New Jersey
44. Minnesota
43. California
42. Maine
41. Washington

California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Rhode Island all appear in both lists.

[Crantag]

POD just owned this dumb thread. He did so graciously though.

[B0ycey]

"By far the largest state has more shootings"

He had the gun legally. Dunno what you are getting at.

I believe VS thinks their is some Irony here. Although there isn't. It just means the state with the strictest gun laws are still not tough enough to prevent shootings. Although as guns are as common as mud in America, I think that ship has sailed a long time ago.

[Rancid]

Almost like it would be helpful if mental health patients could get medication and treatment from some national, freely available healthcare system.

Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

[One Degree]

POD just owned this dumb thread. He did so graciously though.

No, he didn’t. Like all statistics they don’t tell you everything. These are deaths by firearms. The most common cause is suicide. Obviously guns are chosen more often in areas where they are more available or more acceptable. Just because people in California might choose to poison themselves instead of shoot themselves tells you nothing about guns.

[Crantag]

No, he didn’t. Like all statistics they don’t tell you everything. These are deaths by firearms. The most common cause is suicide. Obviously guns are chosen more often in areas where they are more available or more acceptable. Just because people in California might choose to poison themselves instead of shoot themselves tells you nothing about guns.

This whole thread was fraudulent.

8 out of the 10 states with the strictest gun laws are among the 10 states with the least gun murders.

California is on both lists (and indeed first on the former).

I don't expect you to be sharp enough to follow POD's post, though.

I have a policy on this forum. Hindsite, Blackjack, and Finfinder, I never read.

You, VS, and that one guy with a Pinochet avatar I occasionally read. I read you a little more than the last two, but that's more because the last two are conspiracy nuts, not worth the time usually, and you come off as a somewhat decent person about a third or a fourth of the time.

You though don't seem capable of understanding a rational post.

POD pretty much ended this thread though. You are just treading water.

[One Degree]

This whole thread was fraudulent.

8 out of the 10 states with the strictest gun laws are among the 10 states with the least gun murders.

California is on both lists (and indeed first on the former).

I don't expect you to be sharp enough to follow POD's post, though.

I have a policy on this forum. Hindsite, Blackjack, and Finfinder, I never read.

You, VS, and that one guy with a Pinochet avatar I occasionally read. I read you a little more than the last two, but that's more because the last two are conspiracy nuts, not worth the time usually, and you come off as a somewhat decent person about a third or a fourth of the time.

You though don't seem capable of understanding a rational post.

POD pretty much ended this thread though. You are just treading water.

I understand. I am confused how your posts are informative and rational half the time and then totally biased the other half. Your refusal to read alternative opinions here explains that. I didn’t deny his statistics. I just said they don’t really explain anything. Arguments about gun control are based upon making connections that don’t necessarily exist. People in California are not the same as people in Alaska or Montana. You may as well compare Buddhists to ISIS.

[Rancid]

Bless these guys.

Men are always the worst and the best.

Cucks!

MGTOW for life!!!

[Crantag]

I understand. I am confused how your posts are informative and rational half the time and then totally biased the other half. Your refusal to read alternative opinions here explains that. I didn’t deny his statistics. I just said they don’t really explain anything. Arguments about gun control are based upon making connections that don’t necessarily exist. People in California are not the same as people in Alaska or Montana. You may as well compare Buddhists to ISIS.

You speak words without saying anything of meaning.

Good job on that.

I'll give your recommendation that I tune in to Fox News more often a solid miss.

[One Degree]

You speak words without saying anything of meaning.

Good job on that.

I'll give your recommendation that I tune in to Fox News more often a solid miss.

Let’s assume the average person in California has been raised in a more pacifist culture. They would likely choose to run and hide from a threat and maybe call the police.
Now, assume a person in Alaska or Montana is raised in a more aggressive culture of ‘let’s do this’.
You would expect more people to be killed in Montana or Alaska even if the gun laws were identical.
So a difference in gun ownership may not be the determining factor. Human behavior is seldom so simple to pin down.
Arm every Quaker with an AK 47 and see how well your theory holds up.

[Crantag]

Let’s assume the average person in California has been raised in a more pacifist culture. They would likely choose to run and hide from a threat and maybe call the police.
Now, assume a person in Alaska or Montana is raised in a more aggressive culture of ‘let’s do this’.
You would expect more people to be killed in Montana or Alaska even if the gun laws were identical.
So a difference in gun ownership may not be the determining factor. Human behavior is seldom so simple to pin down.
Arm every Quaker with an AK 47 and see how well your theory holds up.

Or we could just arm the Finnish.

I think the Finnish are among the most armed in Europe.

The data presented by @Pants-of-dog actually are evidence of gun laws being effective, whether you like to admit it or not. (Clearly, it goes against your flavor of the month ideology to do so).

I've long known that Alaska was the state with the most gun deaths, and also the state with the most guns (per capita for each).

I did a stint in the Alaska fishing industry, so I've lived in Alaska. I've argued on these boards that it's inhumane to deny an Alaskan with a minor felony a gun, as he may face down a bear in the woods, or on his snow machine (that's one that I'd certainly want to turn over to local government--a man in Anchorage, this doesn't so much apply to. A man on Kodiak Island on the other hand? It does (and many more places in Alaska).)

All things in politics worth talking about are nuanced. But I've been in lands of strict gun control for the past 10 years, save for a 2-year stint in America. It's safer in these lands of strict gun control, despite the fact that it is so hard for some people to admit.

And that's not suggesting that the US should become like China (where I'm currently sat); indeed different things work for different places (like California and Montana). The simplest fix I know would be to make the US like China, actually. It might mean more bear maulings, though.

Getting off track, as that's really not the point, and never was.

The point was that POD exposed the lies in this thread, and that was really the extent of it.

As an aside, I'm looking forward to getting back to the US for a bit and seeing my brother, so that we can bust out the firearms and see if we can't shoot some game birds.