American needs to fight against terror closer to home

[josil]

And focus their energy on teenage boys who seem to be causing terror frequently by shooting us schools. Supermarkets etc etc.

What never ceases to amaze me is somehow these shooters manage to escape the stereotypes that others ethnic groups find it impossible to shake off.

RIP to those dead ok the latest massacre in the US.

The US needs to fight against terror and start with those close to home.

I am going to split hairs here as this goes into two separate issues. Gun related injury and gun related crime.

In the context of this thread and what I was talking about gun crime and in particular mass school shootings. Those numbers you cited, while absolutely correct, include accidents and suicide, which make up a large majority of all gun related deaths.

Those are two different issues which require different approaches to solve.

But they aren't really different issues, are they? Mass shootings happen because of easy access to guns. Fatal ccidents involving guns happen for the same reason. And I suspect that at least some of those suicides wouldn't happen if the means of killing yourself didn't come so easily to hand.

Totally agree that the time for strict gun control has long passed in the US - Sandy Hook showed that. Modifications can be made to laws but the idea that everyone will just hand their guns back as as unrealistic as expecting everyone to be given their own gun for personal protection.

A key thing that has to be addressed is what “makes” a young male (because let’s face it, the majority of them are) carry out such an act. There are always signs, no one jumps from regular guy to mass murderer in one easy step in the same way that men who rape and murder usually have a history of “minor” sex offences like indecent exposure.

I’m not saying it is all about mental health but there are always patterns of behaviour in these cases so why isn’t money being spent to try and look at how to help and support disenfranchised young men and prevent more of these atrocities?

I am in no way trying to excuse the actions of these men and boys by saying “poor them, they just need more hugs”, but I refuse to believe that some kind of intervention earlier in their lives wouldn’t have had the potential to stop things escalating so far.

It's just bloody awful. I like living in the USA actually and my area is so different from what many Brits imagine the USA to be like. It's just so frustrating as a majority of Americans do want to tighten the laws and ... the politicians just won't. Meanwhile the police seem to have done a terrible job so how can we expect more security theatre to improve a thing?

(Also I should have said "laxer" not "stricter"! Oops.)

Are there more or fewer gun crimes/ any crimes in areas where the police have been defunded?

I’ve just read that the husband of Irma Garcia, one of the teachers killed in the attack, has died from a reported heart attack. They have 4 children aged 12-23.

My heart breaks, again, for this community.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz the suggestions I am seeing on Twitter by gun nuts involve actually physically locking kids into classrooms, not just buzzing people in at the front gate.

Ted Cruz suggests only having one way in or out of schools. That does not sound like good fire safety planning to me.

Ted Cruz is a complete asshat and I cannot stand him, but I think what he is suggesting is implementing doors that you can get out of easily but not into.

No small part of what we are seeing and struggling with, is with the extreme polarity, and not just in politics, but a polarized population in general is that any ideas at all are being solely judged on the person who says them, so if my guy says 'it', no matter what 'it', it is the only way, but if the other guy says 'it', no matter what 'it' is, it must be wrong, and we must do the exact opposite.

Not really that different, the solution is still to make it more difficult to access firearms, particularly the most dangerous ones.

The reason that states with stricter gun laws are no safer than those without is simply that it's very straightforward to just drive over the border and buy one there. That's why action needs to be at a Federal level.

Defunding the police has happened in news headlines, not in reality. So it's not a factor.

@Valeriekat - is your Utah data re gun deaths in total or per capita/adjusted for population differences? If you check out this link Utah does not fair well at all re gun deaths when adjusted for population. everytownresearch.org/rankings/

@DdraigGoch - I agree that federal legislation is the best way forward because our state borders are very porous. But even with guns traveling from less restrictive states to stricter ones, the data shows that gun deaths are lower per capita in states with stricter gun control laws.

So if you look at gun deaths for every 100,000 people - the rate of gun related deaths in Illinois is far lower than the rate of gun related deaths in Mississippi. You can check out the link I posted above if you are interested.