[Morgan Le Fey]

Headline: Mine

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Actual BBC Headline:

Gun deaths in US and what the numbers tell us

Gun violence is a fixture in American life - but the issue is a highly political one, pitting gun control advocates against sectors of the population fiercely protective of their right to bear arms.

We've looked into some of the numbers behind firearms in the US.

Mass shootings on the rise

There have already been dozens of mass shootings across the US so far this year, with California experiencing two of the most high-profile in January.

Figures from the Gun Violence Archive - a non-profit research database - shows that the number of mass shootings has gone up significantly in recent years.

In the last three years there have been more than 600 mass shootings - almost two a day on average.

While the US does not have a single definition for "mass shootings", the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. Their figure includes shootings that happen both in homes and in public places.

The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in 2017, killed more than 50 people and left 500 wounded. The vast majority of mass shootings, however, leave fewer than 10 people dead.

How do US gun deaths break down?

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries of all causes during 2020, the last year for which complete data is available.

And while mass shooting and gun murders generally garner more media attention, of the total, more than half were suicides.

In 2020, more than 19,000 of the deaths were homicides, according to the CDC. The figure represents a 34% increase from 2019, and a 75% increase over the course of the previous decade.

The data also shows nearly 53 people are killed each day by a firearm in the US.

That's a significantly larger proportion of homicides than is the case in Canada, Australia, England and Wales, and many other countries.

How many guns are there in the US?

While calculating the number of guns in private hands around the world is difficult, the latest figures from the Small Arms Survey - a Swiss-based leading research project - estimate that there were 390 million guns in circulation in 2018.

The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.

More recent data out of the US suggests that gun ownership grew significantly over the last several years. A study, published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, found that 7.5 million US adults became first new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021.

This, in turn, exposed 11 million people to firearms in their homes, including 5 million children. About half of new gun owners in that time period were women, while 40% were either black or Hispanic.

Who supports gun control?

Despite widespread and vocal public outrage - often in the wake of gun violence - support for stricter laws fell last year, although a majority of Americans are still in favour, according to polling by Gallup.

57% of Americans surveyed said they wanted stricter gun laws, while 32% said they should remain the same. Ten percent surveyed said laws should be "made less strict".

The issue is extremely divisive, falling largely along party lines.

"Democrats are nearly unanimous in their support for stricter gun laws," another Gallup study noted, with nearly 91% in favour of stricter gun laws.

Only 24% Republicans, on the other hand, agreed with the same statement, along with 45% of Independent voters.

Some states have taken steps to ban or strictly regulate ownership of assault weapons. Laws vary by state but California, for example, has banned ownership of assault weapons with limited exceptions.

Some controls are widely supported by people across the political divide - such as restrictions governing the sale of guns to people who are mentally ill or on "watch" lists.

Who opposes gun control?

Despite years of financial woes and internal strife, the National Rifle Association (NRA) remains the most powerful gun lobby in the United States, with a substantial budget to influence members of Congress on gun policy.

Over the last several election cycles, it, and other organisations, have consistently spent more on pro-gun rights messaging than their rivals in the gun control lobby.

A number of states have also gone as far as to largely eliminate restrictions on who can carry a gun. In June 2021, for example, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a "permitless carry bill" that allows the state's residents to carry handguns without a licence or training.

Similarly, in April last year Georgia became the 25th in the nation to eliminate the need for a permit to conceal or openly carry a firearm. The law means any citizen of that state has the right to carry a firearm without a licence or a permit.

The law was backed by the NRA, and leaders within the organisation called the move "a monumental moment for the Second Amendment".

Highlights:

* Gun deaths in the US have been on a major upswing since the pandemic began
* Mass Shootings are *almost an American Phenomenon.
* Institutional Gridlock and entrenched political positions have led to ZERO meaningful responses in preventing "The next one".


No one asks, Why does the US create mass shooters?

1. Society is a joke and mass shooters know it, and say "fuck it".
2. US "Culture" is largely banal and meaningless. It's also a "Bully Culture" and victims of that are often scarred for life from it. Scars breed violence.
3. Families are isolated from one another relative to other times in history. This reduces necessary human support systems for those experiencing "stressful" or otherwise mental health-related crises.
4. Widely available guns, whether legal or illegal with few controls and no political will to suggest the situation is abnormal and is easily fixable in all other countries.
5. A lot of people simply enjoy the carnage and don't want it to stop.
6. The gun lobby spends a shitton of money lobbying Republican members of Congress. While they give to some Dems, it's one of the few Lobbys that is far more specific to one party than the other. (Most will pay both sides so they win either way).
7. Democrats all or nothing approach is more harmful and negates chances for real compromise amongst less well-paid non-NRA Republicans.

[QatzelOk]

No one asks, Why does the US create mass shooters?

1. Society is a joke and mass shooters know it, and say "fuck it".
2. US "Culture" is largely banal and meaningless. It's also a "Bully Culture" and victims of that are often scarred for life from it. Scars breed violence.
3. Families are isolated from one another relative to other times in history. This reduces necessary human support systems for those experiencing "stressful" or otherwise mental health-related crises.
4. Widely available guns, whether legal or illegal with few controls and no political will to suggest the situation is abnormal and is easily fixable in all other countries.
5. A lot of people simply enjoy the carnage and don't want it to stop.
6. The gun lobby spends a shitton of money lobbying Republican members of Congress. While they give to some Dems, it's one of the few Lobbys that is far more specific to one party than the other. (Most will pay both sides so they win either way).
7. Democrats all or nothing approach is more harmful and negates chances for real compromise amongst less well-paid non-NRA Republicans.

This is a very interesting list, but I'd just like to address the first three points because they're related and are especially close to my heart.

1. Society is a joke and mass shooters know it, and say "fuck it".
2. US "Culture" is largely banal and meaningless. It's also a "Bully Culture" and victims of that are often scarred for life from it. Scars breed violence.
3. Families are isolated from one another relative to other times in history. This reduces necessary human support systems for those experiencing "stressful" or otherwise mental health-related crises.

Families are isolated from other families by car culture, suburbia and mass media. This has lead to the death of the community, and the last three generations of North American suburbanites were not properly raised because there was no community to raise them.

The banalness and superficiality of the **culture** that rushed into the suburban vacuum... is called "mass media."

And the bully culture is a mirror image of the behavior of the World-Cop abroad, who finds himself celebrated for bullying smaller nations that can't defend themselves.

[Rancid]

@Morgan Le Fey,

agree on all 7 points.

Point 8 is that pro-gun crowd also has an all or nothing approach. I used to frequent pro-gun forums (I am a gun owner). I got tired of them, because it's a very militant attitude these people have. A common phrase you will often see written and uttered by these people is "NO COMPROMISE"... yes, they post that in caps too.

Point 7 and 8 means we are in a complete deadlock on this. Thus, we continue to see the mass shootings with no meaningful steps taken in any shape or form. Not just gun restriction but also analysis of American society itself, and how it makes (mostly young males) feel isolated. How somehow our society makes young males very resentful of society at last... hence why they take up arms against it. I think many of these young males are lost and confused and don't know how to deal with it.

[Patrickov]

@Rancid

Maybe mercenary groups should hire or even sponsor these people to go to Ukraine and blast their way to the Kremlin, and then profit from whatever loot they bring.

[QatzelOk]

Maybe mercenary groups should hire or even sponsor these people to go to Ukraine and blast their way to the Kremlin, and then profit from whatever loot they bring.

For school-age adolescents, the very idea that "Team America" can kill whomever it wants to for whatever reasons..." has got to be an influencing factor in creating school shooters.



If Team America doesn't like Russia, it shoots up Russia's neighbors or gets its neighbors to shoot up Russia. A high school senior likewise might decide that he doesn't like "girls who talk down to guys" in much the same way that Team America doesn't like "other currencies being used for oil transactions."

And if some redneck hick decides he "doesn't like libtards..." he might decide to hobble together a coallition of the willing and get some fast justice from the barrel of a gun.

It all fits. If you follow trends as a culture, you will follow imperialism as a trend as well. Or fascism, or whatever other atrocious behavior the state normalizes.

[Rancid]

I don't like a pushover woman either, but I also don't like a woman who thinks she is a man. I like a woman who is feminine. You know, a woman who is a woman.

Of course, I want my woman to be feminine as well. That said, and I may be confounding terms because I don't know the right words here, but I don't want crazy feminine women. Maybe calling this "too feminine" is the wrong phrase for this point I will make. Let me know if there's a different word for this. Here's what i mean.

For school-age adolescents, the very idea that "Team America" can kill whomever it wants to for whatever reasons..." has got to be an influencing factor in creating school shooters.



If Team America doesn't like Russia, it shoots up Russia's neighbors or gets its neighbors to shoot up Russia. A high school senior likewise might decide that he doesn't like "girls who talk down to guys" in much the same way that Team America doesn't like "other currencies being used for oil transactions."

And if some redneck hick decides he "doesn't like libtards..." he might decide to hobble together a coallition of the willing and get some fast justice from the barrel of a gun.

It all fits. If you follow trends as a culture, you will follow imperialism as a trend as well. Or fascism, or whatever other atrocious behavior the state normalizes.

You give America way too much credit.

[Tainari88]

@Morgan Le Fey,

agree on all 7 points.

Point 8 is that pro-gun crowd also has an all or nothing approach. I used to frequent pro-gun forums (I am a gun owner). I got tired of them, because it's a very militant attitude these people have. A common phrase you will often see written and uttered by these people is "NO COMPROMISE"... yes, they post that in caps too.

Point 7 and 8 means we are in a complete deadlock on this. Thus, we continue to see the mass shootings with no meaningful steps taken in any shape or form. Not just gun restriction but also analysis of American society itself, and how it makes (mostly young males) feel isolated. How somehow our society makes young males very resentful of society at last... hence why they take up arms against it. I think many of these young males are lost and confused and don't know how to deal with it.

Time to invest in human relationship building activities.

Get those young folk off the computers and off gun shit thoughts and get them having fun, and doing fun stuff and being listened to.

They should be involved in things that bring joy to their lives. And without any undue financial hardship for their families.

Also girlfriends and real sex is a mitigating the rage factor. HAHA.

Just make sure they have birth control. That means the uber religious have to stop worrying about condoms and pills. Let people not get pregnant and have sex with protection that way you avoid all the shootings. These young lone wolf males with no girlfriends are a danger to civilization.

[Morgan Le Fey]

Time to invest in human relationship building activities.

Get those young folk off the computers and off gun shit thoughts and get them having fun, and doing fun stuff and being listened to.

They should be involved in things that bring joy to their lives. And without any undue financial hardship for their families.

Also girlfriends and real sex is a mitigating the rage factor. HAHA.

Just make sure they have birth control. That means the uber religious have to stop worrying about condoms and pills. Let people not get pregnant and have sex with protection that way you avoid all the shootings. These young lone wolf males with no girlfriends are a danger to civilization.

What Eurasian Males have destroyed BiPoc women will heal.

[JohnRawls]

Headline: Mine

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Actual BBC Headline:

Gun deaths in US and what the numbers tell us



































Highlights:

* Gun deaths in the US have been on a major upswing since the pandemic began
* Mass Shootings are *almost an American Phenomenon.
* Institutional Gridlock and entrenched political positions have led to ZERO meaningful responses in preventing "The next one".


No one asks, Why does the US create mass shooters?

1. Society is a joke and mass shooters know it, and say "fuck it".
2. US "Culture" is largely banal and meaningless. It's also a "Bully Culture" and victims of that are often scarred for life from it. Scars breed violence.
3. Families are isolated from one another relative to other times in history. This reduces necessary human support systems for those experiencing "stressful" or otherwise mental health-related crises.
4. Widely available guns, whether legal or illegal with few controls and no political will to suggest the situation is abnormal and is easily fixable in all other countries.
5. A lot of people simply enjoy the carnage and don't want it to stop.
6. The gun lobby spends a shitton of money lobbying Republican members of Congress. While they give to some Dems, it's one of the few Lobbys that is far more specific to one party than the other. (Most will pay both sides so they win either way).
7. Democrats all or nothing approach is more harmful and negates chances for real compromise amongst less well-paid non-NRA Republicans.

@Rancid

Numbers can be subverted and this is what the pro-gun lobby does in the US actually. So pointing numbers is kinda useless in US.

So the better example is that gun ownership and gun purchasing should not be done through Walmart. Countries can have large gun ownership and guns per 100 people but they don't necessarily have to have mass shootings. So basically stop selling guns through Walmart and put severe checks on gun ownership and gun usage and gun storage with enforceable penalties which will slowly but surely solve the problem.

[Rancid]

Numbers can be subverted and this is what the pro-gun lobby does in the US actually. So pointing numbers is kinda useless in US.

I didn't post those numbers.

So the better example is that gun ownership and gun purchasing should not be done through Walmart. Countries can have large gun ownership and guns per 100 people but they don't necessarily have to have mass shootings. So basically stop selling guns through Walmart and put severe checks on gun ownership and gun usage and gun storage with enforceable penalties which will slowly but surely solve the problem.

Agree.

That said, what difference is there to buying a gun at a Walmart, and say a Cabela's outdoor world?

The guns I own, I got through online dealers (they ship to an authorized license holder that will perform the background checks before releasing the gun to you), and Cabela's. I don't think that buy from those sources versus Walmart would make a different in much of anything.

I guess what I'm saying is, the focus on Walmart seems useless to me. I think we just need to be more strict on who is allowed to buy. Raise the buying age to 25 for example. Actually, I think it should be 31. It's clear that males in particular don't have a fully developed brain till around the mid to late 20s. This won't eliminate shootings like this, but will reduce them dramatically, I'm sure.

Aside from that, mental health mental health mental health. We do a shit job of taking care of people that are emotionally distressed. We have a society that is also creating a lot of mentally distressed people. We need to understand and address this as well. This is the bigger problem to tackle. If there are no guns, people can still resort to other weapons like bombs. The dude even setup a trip wire bomb near my job.

We had a serial bomber in Austin just before covid. Man was I paranoid. Dude was sending bombs to random people around town.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_serial_bombings

[Morgan Le Fey]

So basically stop selling guns through Walmart and put severe checks on gun ownership and gun usage and gun storage with enforceable penalties which will slowly but surely solve the problem.

Pretty strongly agree with this. To be honest, you could almost sloganize this as a (in the US) liberal's gun ownership ethic, and in this case, I see nothing wrong with it. It's really not Walmart though. Walmart has begun to limit what it sells to hunting rifles, and no handguns, for example.

However, despite my quibbles with your choice in outlets, your point is valid. If not Wal-Mart, then Dick's Sporting Goods, if not a Big Box Store, there are thousands of local non-franchisees nationwide. The issue in a nutshell however is exactly as you describe it.