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8
Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious · 07/05/2023 11:54

It's incredibly dangerous there and I wouldn't want to visit. You wouldn't be safe anywhere there. From schools, to churches, to shopping centres, you'd always be at risk.
America can solve this problem by making gun ownership more strict and stop relying on an amendment made years ago for the right to bear arms. Some guns should never be for public use, there is absolutely no need for the public to have them.
I have become desensitised to the shootings, but it does make me feel incredibly sad and I wish for the America citizens sake, things would change.

ScreamedTheLyrics · 07/05/2023 11:55

WallabyWay · 07/05/2023 11:18

Some odd replies. There’s many people, even in states like Texas, that aren’t pro gun, including my family and friends. The remedy certainly isn’t in their hands.

Exactly. Americans are not some gun loving homogeneous mass. I know many who campaign against gun laws but their power is very limited. I have a friend from Texas who is a gun owner and even he is very much in favour of much tighter restrictions and does what he can to draw attention to the issue, but again just like people in the U.K, laws won't change overnight, no matter how much people want them to.

Exactly.

I also have family there. They feel quite powerless. But it’s their home. 😔

Travelfan2021 · 07/05/2023 11:57

This reply has been withdrawn

Removed at poster's request due to privacy concerns.

TheGoogleMum · 07/05/2023 11:58

Youngest victim was 5 :( its hard to understand this behaviour at the best of times but killing innocent young children? So awful. PP are right thought I live in the UK there's nothing I can do. I wish America would do something about it.

throwaway201809 · 07/05/2023 12:05

I just accidentally saw footage of some of the victims on Twitter - it wasn’t behind a sensitive content thing or anything, just the footage. I can’t believe that’s allowed on Twitter. Their poor families, I hope they don’t stumble across it.

America needs to do something about their gun and mental health issues, it’s a very dangerous mix

Lampzade · 07/05/2023 12:07

Ifailed · 07/05/2023 10:53

I'm afraid that the USA as a country doesn't want to do anything to prevent these terrible events, and there is very nothing that I, living in England, can do about that, so I just try and ignore them now.

This

Annoyingwurringnoise · 07/05/2023 12:13

The US clearly think this level of human collateral damage is acceptable in exchange for them being able to freely own firearms. If they found it unacceptable they’d collectively do something about it, but they don’t. I’m fed up of hand ringing about this, it’s their choice and they have chosen it.

Hopedun · 07/05/2023 12:13

This is exactly my view on this. Lots of other issues to be more upset about.

Hopedun · 07/05/2023 12:14

Sorry meant to quote @Ifailed

JamSandle · 07/05/2023 12:15

I really love America but the constant gun violence has put me off of visiting.

JamSandle · 07/05/2023 12:26

Just read that the shooter had been deported from US four times. How the hell did he manage to get back undetected?

midsomermurderess · 07/05/2023 12:36

They wash over me now. I have run out of emotion for them. This is how they choose to live. It's bewildering, it's fundamentally uncivilised. But this is them. They are deaf to the rest of the world on this. One always has to state the blindingly obvious on this site, so I will. Not all Americans, their political system, the choices it allows.

Crikeyalmighty · 07/05/2023 13:16

@Undertherock I don't disagree with you on that either. I think circumstances in those areas breed the kind of mentality that we are seeing.

SoftCoeur · 07/05/2023 13:50

Undertherock · 07/05/2023 11:50

The influence of the NRA in high level politics is one part of the problem. In a culture where power is intrinsically and inextricably linked to money, no politician can afford to go against the NRA.

Very Large parts of the US (particularly in mid west and south) are still semi third world, full of trailer parks, food stamps and falling down shacks…. Usually frustrated, undereducated , illiberal morons- the kind that blindly followed Trump

And despite knowing that Trump’s appeal to the hopeless and impoverished is the bedrock of his popularity, the media and establishment continue to ignore these people’s genuine need by dismissing them as idiots and morons.

Trump spotted the gap in the market and set out to gain the vote of people who felt they had no representation at all, people who were disenfranchised came out to the polls.

It only further entrenches peoples loyalty to dismiss people, who have always been ignored, as idiots and their leader as a moron. Trump may be scum but he has a political genius. There’s still a gap in the market though for someone with the genius to see the underclasses AND possess a moral compass.

The problem is that the US has form for shooting those kinds of presidents.

Thank you for replying to that post far more civilly and articulately than I would have done.

dudsville · 07/05/2023 14:44

I'm impressed by anyone's capacity to continue feeling anything about this. I feel despondent, hopeless, about all the world's suffering and stopped watching the news long ago. It's not something I'm proud of, but the feelings associated with being aware of things outside of my control was too much.

MyFaceIsAnAONB · 07/05/2023 14:46

There were 3 mass shootings in the states yesterday sadly. It’s not really news anymore unfortunately! Crazy country.

BeginningToLookALotLike · 07/05/2023 14:58

I don't want to visit at the moment. Plus it is awful to hear about all those overdose deaths from street fentanyl. Apparently this is the leading cause of death among the 18-45s in America.

Florenz · 07/05/2023 15:07

How come America has these illegal drugs that never seem to come over here? Crystal Meth a few years ago and now Fentanyl.

Neededanewuserhandle · 07/05/2023 15:20

Itdoesnthavetobejusrol · 07/05/2023 11:01

Michael Moore's doc 'Bowling for Columbine' made man years ago attempted to find out why there were so many mass shooting in the US. It concluded that the main difference between US and other countries was the 24 hr news constantly creating a culture of fear and threat. Other countries with similar lax gun laws (Canada) do not have a homocide problem on the scale America does. It was fascinating and chilling. The US has the biggest shooting problem in the entire world - even bigger than the middle east and South America where gins ownership is rife.
And they think they are 'civilised'.

I thought the point of Bowling for Columbine was (with the clue in the title) that the education and welfare system is so fucked that Bowling was considered part of the kids education, and the lad's Mum never saw him because due to the compulsion to work she had two jobs, both with a long commute and shitty wages for long hours. No-one had any time or cash to take an interest in kids who were going wrong.

Snugglemonkey · 07/05/2023 15:24

NowMyBedsheetsSmellLikeYou · 07/05/2023 11:12

Some odd replies. There’s many people, even in states like Texas, that aren’t pro gun, including my family and friends. The remedy certainly isn’t in their hands.

Its very sad, these people matter, children caught up in this, they matter. It’s awful to not care. There a lot of normal people that don’t want guns.

I do not think it's awful not to care. I cannot care anymore. I cannot care about something that looks so unlikely to change. It is like North Korea. What happens there is totally appalling, but similarly beyond our control. You can only care so much about unfixable things before you drown in a tide of despair.

TizerorFizz · 07/05/2023 15:32

I have visited the USA on many occasions and always felt safe. You would more likely be killed in a RTA here than in gun crime there as a visitor. So it’s a tiny tiny risk.

However, Americans don’t trust each other. South Africans don’t trust each other either. They keep guns to protect themselves. I think they are mad but, having talked to gun owners in the USA, they really see it as the ultimate self defence. The biggest issue is what guns they own, how many, and mental health. They do see gun ownership as a right snd usa politics isn’t set up to change anything.

I also find it odd that people who worship God, in the Bible Belt for example, have no qualms about killing people. It seems very Old Testament. It’s not a world I inhabit or even understand. It comes down to being scared. Society there needs to change to remove this and reduce gun ownership,. Removing certain guns from sale would be a start but they will still circulate!

dreamingbohemian · 07/05/2023 15:42

I agree that a lot of gun owners are terrified in a kind of deranged way, and I would say that Fox and other extremist media have a huge role to play in this. They broadcast things all day that are meant to terrify people.

You can see this in the latest spate of shootings -- a black teenager shot when he knocked on the wrong door, a car of young people shot when one of them tried to get in the wrong car, basically people just freaking out and having a gun nearby.

It's like half the country has lost its mind and the other half is stuck in the asylum with them, it's awful.

Jonei · 07/05/2023 15:45

It's like half the country has lost its mind and the other half is stuck in the asylum with them, it's awful.

Yes.

BeginningToLookALotLike · 07/05/2023 16:10

Florenz · 07/05/2023 15:07

How come America has these illegal drugs that never seem to come over here? Crystal Meth a few years ago and now Fentanyl.

It is already here, unfortunately, but as it is usually made in Mexico I suppose it is harder to smuggle it here. I don't know about crystal meth.