What to do about the mass shootings in the US

[SheWolf]

I agree. I'm sick of having frightened kids in my classroom.



You realize there are people on both sides that hate the government, right? This isn't just a "right-wing" problem.



Solution?

Are you scared as a teacher

 

[Mach]

I hope the refusal to show pictures or name the perpetrator(s) like in that (New Zealand?) recent outside-the-U.S. shooting is something that becomes widely adopted.

 

[Daisy]

There is absolutely nothing that can be done.
People have been killing each other since the beginning of time.

Well, don't you have a sunny outlook?:2razz:

 

[SheWolf]

For the last few years it has largely been a domestic radical right wing problem. I know of very incidents with American leftists committing these mass murders.

Solution? We need a society where guns are vilified and hated and very very rare despite being legal. No other way around it. We have to drastically reduce the number of firearms in this country and greatly restrict their use.

Nothing else will be as effective.

Is it just me, or does it seem like we had less guns about 10 years ago? The amount of guns we have does seem to be a big issue... very concerning... I think there are too many.

 

[Outlook]

For the last few years it has largely been a domestic radical right wing problem. I know of very incidents with American leftists committing these mass murders.

Solution? We need a society where guns are vilified and hated and very very rare despite being legal. No other way around it. We have to drastically reduce the number of firearms in this country and greatly restrict their use.

Nothing else will be as effective.

How will you reduce firearms?
Take away guns from people that illegally own them. What about all the illegal guns on the street? Over 60% of shootings are committed by illegal guns.

 

[Mach]

There is absolutely nothing that can be done. People have been killing each other since the beginning of time.

What's your evidence that absolutely nothing can be done? WE have the body of evidence since the beginning of recorded history, that laws do in fact change behaviors. Thatt cultures do in fact change behaviors. That's really the underlying Republican message of the past 20 years isn't? You are all helpless, just let it happen. Sounds like utopia.

 

[SheWolf]

The biggest breakdown leading up to what we see now is not firearms, or video games, or mental healthcare, it is the destruction of the traditional family, and I do not mean one mother one father family, but the actual traditional multi generational family. In much of the world and still practiced in europe asia south america etc the family unit consists of large multi generational families.

In much of the world homelessness mental illness poverty etc are deemed family problems with the families duty to take care of their own. Here the family unit seems to focus on on spouse and children, and even then to a lazy to care much about that. How many mass shooters would be mass shooters if family intervention existed, or had people care enough to notice a problem insead of ignoring it until it boils down to suicide or even a mass murder.

I agree with some of what you’re saying, but I also think mass shooters probably kill for a variety of different reasons. I think some of them are really angry, angry at society, and stressed, and snap. I think some of them want fame, some revenge, some motivated by hatred of groups, etc.

 

[Waddy]

Every culture has social norms and social taboos. Japan is a blade culture, and suicide is also common. America is a gun culture. We are also very tribal. And we have a long history of massacres of people we don't like. And now we add that many people feel entitled and when things don't go their way, they blame others for their shortcomings. They blame others for their unhappiness.

Gun bans won't work here. We're much too tribal. And when guns aren't available, or the wacko wants to up the numbers, they turn to bombings. ala Tim McVay, Boston, 9/11. Every culture is different. It is what it is.

 

[OldFatGuy]

We're all tired of them - we all want them to stop.

So what should we do to stop them? This is a multiple-choice, public poll. Please add any other comments in the thread.

Keep them from being glorified in the media, imitators won't be inspired.

 

[truthatallcost]

Is this a call for an end to capitalism?

Capitalism in America worked the best during the period spanning roughly 50 years, from post war 1946-early 2000's. Then two things happened- we allowed pharmaceutical companies under the guise of capitalism to push dangerous drugs upon society, which has killed some half a million Americans in 20 years, and put many millions more into a permanent state of severe dysfunction. While this was occurring, American capitalists were looking to create a global economy of consumers, which resulted in a bit of a modern gold rush mentality- the future be damned, I want my riches today.

I can't argue with you on the issue of runaway greed from capitalism helping to contribute to the current problems. In fact, I was going to post a story before I was suspended detailing the nearly 2 million jobs lost because of private equity firms who cannibalize previously sturdy American companies on a routine basis now.

I'd like to hear your ideas for solving this problem.

 

[Mach]

I speak from personal experience...taking action for a mentally ill family member who is possibly a danger to himself or others takes an act of congress to get help for him...

On a personal note, I'm sorry to hear, tragic. On a reasonable debate note, why are you raising irrelevant anecdotes? I have personal experience the opposite of yours...so what? What's with this victim attitude...oh no, we can't change anything, throw hands up in the air? Just let it happen, I heard that before.

 

[Outlook]

What's your evidence that absolutely nothing can be done? WE have the body of evidence since the beginning of recorded history, that laws do in fact change behaviors. Thatt cultures do in fact change behaviors. That's really the underlying Republican message of the past 20 years isn't? You are all helpless, just let it happen. Sounds like utopia.

CT and CA have the toughest gun laws in the nation. The laws didn’t protect the kids at the school in CT.
Which gun laws changed behavior?

 

[Daisy]

On a personal note, I'm sorry to hear, tragic. On a reasonable debate note, why are you raising irrelevant anecdotes? I have personal experience the opposite of yours...so what? What's with this victim attitude...oh no, we can't change anything, throw hands up in the air? Just let it happen, I heard that before.

Truth is now the victim attitude......I think not...to get an adult committed for treatment is nothing short of an act of congress...that needs to change...

 

[Mach]

How will you reduce firearms?
Take away guns from people that illegally own them. What about all the illegal guns on the street? Over 60% of shootings are committed by illegal guns.

You aren't sure how we as a society could remove guns from society?

 

[Outlook]

Well, don't you have a sunny outlook?:2razz:

I’m a realist. There is a percent of pure evil in this world.
What’s your solution?

 

[Beowulf]

We're all tired of them - we all want them to stop.

So what should we do to stop them? This is a multiple-choice, public poll. Please add any other comments in the thread.

We should make killing people illegal.

 

[Outlook]

You aren't sure how we as a society could remove guns from society?

Enlighten me.

 

[Mach]

Truth is now the victim attitude......I think not...to get an adult committed for treatment is nothing short of an act of congress...that needs to change...

Sounds like a challenge, I'd just give up right?

That you claim to "speak the truth" through a personal anecdote, is absurd Elivra.
Imagine if I told you an anecdote in the opposite. What then? The tools you are using to figure things out are not the right tools.

There are any number of ways to intervene other than the "getting someone committed".

 

[Daisy]

I’m a realist. There is a percent of pure evil in this world.
What’s your solution?

Well, if you really wanna know, I think Jehovah's kingdom is the only solution...

 

[Mach]

Enlighten me.

By finding and destroying them. That's my first guess, do I get a prize?

 

[beerftw]

I agree with some of what you’re saying, but I also think mass shooters probably kill for a variety of different reasons. I think some of them are really angry, angry at society, and stressed, and snap. I think some of them want fame, some revenge, some motivated by hatred of groups, etc.

There are many motivations, but if you look closely almost all of them are suicidal, choosing a different means of suicide that involves victims as well. When it comes down to it in many cases those who are suicidal are just hoping that someone will care about them. When family life is scarce and society is too busy with themselves to care about others, many who are suicidal who could have been saved end up not being saved, and some end up going down extreme paths, like choosing to take others with them in a mass shooting or doing the same while backing some extreme ideology just so they could feel they had a place to fit in.

Family is not just your mother and father and immediate children, there should be aunts uncles grandparents great grandparents cousins etc looking out for you, as well as your friends, when society stops having a tight bond of looking after their own, it falls apart as it moves towards selfishness and the prospect of me myself and I rather than the idea of friends family and mutual respect.

 

[Beowulf]

For the last few years it has largely been a domestic radical right wing problem. I know of very incidents with American leftists committing these mass murders.

Solution? We need a society where guns are vilified and hated and very very rare despite being legal. No other way around it. We have to drastically reduce the number of firearms in this country and greatly restrict their use.

Nothing else will be as effective.

Do you mean banning the possession of guns? Is that what you're saying the state should do?

 

[Mach]

Well, if you really wanna know, I think Jehovah's kingdom is the only solution...

I'm glad committing someone is difficult, for your sake.

 

[Daisy]

Sounds like a challenge, I'd just give up right?

That you claim to "speak the truth" through a personal anecdote, is absurd Elivra.
Imagine if I told you an anecdote in the opposite. What then? The tools you are using to figure things out are not the right tools.

There are any number of ways to intervene other than the "getting someone committed".

lol...

 

[Mach]

I think not making your posts so personal is the right thing.

If someone knows a family member who is unstable, and they know from their close and love-driven ties to them they are at the tipping point would you reccomend they:
1. ignore it because freedom.
2. intervene because they love them.