USA Gun Culture

[MrsSkylerWhite]

Can’t quite believe what I’ve just seen on the UK news. Over 200 mass shootings in the US this year.
Just, why?

I know :( I just don't get it. I came to find the chat but only found your post? Amazed the boards aren't full of it! Or did I miss it?

lifesabitchandthenyoudie · Today 18:40
I know :( I just don't get it. I came to find the chat but only found your post? Amazed the boards aren't full of it! Or did I miss it?“

thanks for replying, was feeling a bit lonely 🤣
also, biggest cause of death in under 18s in the US gun shot wounds. Why isn’t this being shouted from every rooftop and serious research being commissioned?

Because too many powerful Americans hold their gun fetish to be more important than other people's lives.

Indeed. Why, though? I just don’t understand.

Though actually not just powerful Americans. Everyday mums and dads, who keep loaded weapons in bedside drawers and car gloveboxes. It blows my mind.

I live in the US (in a state with decent gun control legislation and a low rate of shootings). I haven't replied to any of the threads about shootings and Texas because tbh the whole thing is so upsetting and I honestly can't argue about it because it is just awful.

But the answer to why is follow the money. 95 per cent of americans - including gun-owners - want restrictions on gun ownership. But the gun manufacturers are making too much money, funnelling it into the NRA and from there to (mostly) Republican politicians who are mostly votes for sale with no interest in actual leadership or governing. What is most depressing about this paralysis and the likely repeal of Roe v Wade (while the majority of americans want abortion to be legal as provided for by RvW) is that the institutions of government are now actively promoting the (in the case of guns -the insane) wishes of the minority over the majority.

We emigrated more than 20 years ago. We know many emigrants like us. We've had a great life in the US, health care has been fabulous, schools are great, never been the victim of a crime, lovely neighbours, never saw a gun except in the holster of a cop, really vibrant communities including engaged local government and just great neighbours. But I've asked nearly every immigrant I know would they move to the US now (instead of when they made the decision 20 plus years ago) and they all say no.

Glad to get this thread going. I’m likely not going to add much very useful as I’ve had a few lemonades... but my main reason for looking was because I have family there who have fallen well down the rabbit hole. I just don’t know how to talk to them! I mean, DD comes out with the ‘how many deaths have been stopped because the others had guns and shot him’ type thing. But then she says that their little boy got hold of the gun in the safe one time 😳. WTAF do you say to that?! I get that it’s all about the money. But surely the people have a brain? I’m at a loss. X

As to the WHY:

1.The US has had a very rich, very powerful organization called the National Rifle Assocation. They originally started as a minor group to teach gun use and gun safety, but a few decades ago started muscling in to claim a different interpretation of constitutional rights. They have had a huge budget, and have "bought" most of the Republican lawmakers. They are funded by gun manufacturers. They cleverly deflect blame by claiming the problem is mental illness.

2.Gun laws are regional in America, and some areas like the idea of a cowboy kind of gun mentality. In general, a lot of men associate guns, and violence, with "manliness."

3.I'm not positive, since I have no basis for comparison, but I suspect that American television and movies showcase guns more than in other countries.

By the way, the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is just one very specific sentence about guns, but in my opinion almost everyone misunderstands what it says.

By the way this might be of interest:

A Timeline of Failed Attempts to Address U.S. Gun Violence
By Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater
For more than a decade, as mass shooting has followed mass shooting in the United States, Democrats in Congress have proposed gun restrictions to try to prevent the next tragedy, hoping that the fresh outrage and anguish of another massacre would finally yield some consensus. Each time — after gun massacres at concerts, grocery stores, a Bible study and, most wrenchingly, elementary schools — they have failed amid Republican opposition.
Here is a look at a decade’s worth of failed efforts in Congress to address gun violence after mass shootings.
news.yahoo.com/timeline-failed-attempts-address-u-175203410.html

MsAmerica
the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is just one very specific sentence about guns

The Second Amendment reads
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

It doesn't actually mention guns at all, and it is worth remembering that guns are not the only sort of arms people may bear: there are also swords, axes, mines, longbows, crossbows, halberds... All of these certainly existed when the Second Amendment was written, whereas automatic rifles didn't until about a hundred years later.

(Yes, I have been part of an SCA equivalent in my time.)

It's also worth considering that such things as M777 howitzers and javelin missiles are "arms" well, that's what they are called when people are talking about the invasion of Ukraine and I don't think even the most rabid gun-nuts advocate every civilian in the USA having the right to bear those.

The crossing-out was not intended, there.

It's all about the money and the fact the NRA are so in bed with the Republicans too. I have family over there who are doing everything in their power to get out now. The gun violence against African American men in the US is shocking.

We all know what the answer is, the dog on the street does, but whether it will ever come to fruition remains to be seen. It's very sad as I bloody love the US, I feel very at home when visiting the US and would have loved to have emigrated there someday. It's awful to see what it's becoming/become.

Australia used to have similar issues. Then they tightened up gun ownership laws and now they don’t.
It really is that simple.

It’s too awful looking at that image of the killer and thinking what children might face.

And adults not preventing it.

I couldn’t take living there (and I have done previously so I know what the day to day is like) just on principle. I couldn’t deal with the reality of allowing gun crime in schools to that extent.

As long as people in the USA think this is an acceptable Christmas card the shootings will continue .
This is an actual card sent by an elected representative in the place the latest shooting took place. It is unbelievable

MThingG has asserted that it is all Biden's fault for having refused the right for teachers to be armed. All it takes to stop bad guys with guns, apparently, is good guys with guns.

Which worked so well in Uvalde...

Someone has apparently discovered that during a recent mass shooting in a department store there were at least twenty-five armed people present, not one of whom shot at the killer.