No, we're not banning guns because that requires a Constitutional amendment, not going to happen. We couldn't pass an amendment making 06/21 Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.
But to those of you with this facile "BAN" argument, I have a couple of questions. Why wasn't this shit happening when I was a kid? EDIT: By "this shit", I meant mass shootings.
You could order whatever the hell you liked from the Sears catalog. LOL, I have a pump shotgun that was sold in Western Auto stores. You could ride around with long guns mounted in your truck window. And yes, you could get an AR-15 in the 70s.
Only way I've seen laws become more permissive is regarding conceal carry. (I can argue both for and against this.) On every other front, more restrictions.
So what's up? Not an easy question, I know. It would take a shelf full of books. We don't know what happened here, but does it really matter to attack this issue case-by-case? It's happening. It didn't used to happen.
I'll say it 100 times more, America doesn't have a gun problem, America has a culture problem.
Why wasn’t this shit happening when I was a kid?
It was. Gun homicides were even worse when you were a kid
I think this is about where it's important to remind people that the 24-hour news cycle is a relatively recent phenomenon. Many of us grew up in an era where the news played for an hour a couple times per day. One can hardly understate the impact this had on "the news".
To keep it short and on-topic:
The news used to almost exclusively feature big news stories because there wasn't time to cover everything. Local news would have smaller, local interest stories. Individual crimes mostly made the news when they were especially noteworthy.
Now, news stations need to find anything to fill an entire day. This is how we went from journalists reporting on big stories to commentators "reporting" on every little thing ad nauseum.
This has led gun crimes to receive a lot more national attention than they would have previously.
That's a good point. Perhaps we were just ignorant to how bad everything was back then. I honestly don't know.
Got some backing on that? What I really meant to address was mass shootings, but I'd look at evidence either way.
aka our gun "culture" is pathetic. it seems people don't realize there are other countries that have a culture of guns and they don't have as much issues.
Why wasn't this shit happening when I was a kid?
I think mass media made terrorist acts more appealing. However this appears to be just normal american degeneracy enabled by idiots with guns.
We are agreed! I stick to liberal or unbiased gun content, and that's not hard to do. But I'm well aware of all the macho, kill 'em all, Punisher logo type bullshit out there.
Maybe that's partly what I'm getting at? Just seems like guns were a tool when I was a kid. Nothing to puff one's chest about.
As to mass media, yeah, shit really seems to have gone off the rails after Columbine. Maybe that's my age and life experience talking, but I don't remember much of anything before that.
Sure, there was Charles Whitman unloading from the Austin clock tower, but that was news precisely because it was so unheard of.
America doesn’t have a gun problem, America has a culture problem.
Oh, I'd say both.
I guess you're being downvoted by young people that can't relate.
Back in the day it was big news if there was a shooting, and it generally only involved 2 people. People did indeed drive around with rifles on full display. Yet few people were ever shot. Maybe in Detroit or Chicago etc but for the vast majority of the country it was unheard of.
Times have changed. Mental health has declined. Everybody is depressed, frustrated, overworked and underpaid. I think such things can lead to violence. People are straight up losing their shit in this country.
No, we're not banning guns because that requires a Constitutional amendment, not going to happen. We couldn't pass an amendment making 06/21 Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.
But to those of you with this facile "BAN" argument, I have a couple of questions. Why wasn't this shit happening when I was a kid? EDIT: By "this shit", I meant mass shootings.
You could order whatever the hell you liked from the Sears catalog. LOL, I have a pump shotgun that was sold in Western Auto stores. You could ride around with long guns mounted in your truck window. And yes, you could get an AR-15 in the 70s.
Only way I've seen laws become more permissive is regarding conceal carry. (I can argue both for and against this.) On every other front, more restrictions.
So what's up? Not an easy question, I know. It would take a shelf full of books. We don't know what happened here, but does it really matter to attack this issue case-by-case? It's happening. It didn't used to happen.
I'll say it 100 times more, America doesn't have a gun problem, America has a culture problem.
It was. Gun homicides were even worse when you were a kid
I think this is about where it's important to remind people that the 24-hour news cycle is a relatively recent phenomenon. Many of us grew up in an era where the news played for an hour a couple times per day. One can hardly understate the impact this had on "the news".
To keep it short and on-topic: The news used to almost exclusively feature big news stories because there wasn't time to cover everything. Local news would have smaller, local interest stories. Individual crimes mostly made the news when they were especially noteworthy. Now, news stations need to find anything to fill an entire day. This is how we went from journalists reporting on big stories to commentators "reporting" on every little thing ad nauseum. This has led gun crimes to receive a lot more national attention than they would have previously.
That's a good point. Perhaps we were just ignorant to how bad everything was back then. I honestly don't know.
Got some backing on that? What I really meant to address was mass shootings, but I'd look at evidence either way.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/ft_23-04-20_gundeathsupdate_3-png/
every stat in every city. this is one of those "so common it doesn't need citations"
However, that is just "gun violence". Mass shootings specifically - those I believe have been on a dramatic increase.
As in before, lots of individual murders. Now, lots of mass murders.
Guns are the culture problem.
No. They are a big part of the culture's problems. Let's not pretend other problems, like widespread spiteful hate, aren't part of that same culture.
Fixed the headline for ya.
aka our gun "culture" is pathetic. it seems people don't realize there are other countries that have a culture of guns and they don't have as much issues.
I think mass media made terrorist acts more appealing. However this appears to be just normal american degeneracy enabled by idiots with guns.
We are agreed! I stick to liberal or unbiased gun content, and that's not hard to do. But I'm well aware of all the macho, kill 'em all, Punisher logo type bullshit out there.
Maybe that's partly what I'm getting at? Just seems like guns were a tool when I was a kid. Nothing to puff one's chest about.
As to mass media, yeah, shit really seems to have gone off the rails after Columbine. Maybe that's my age and life experience talking, but I don't remember much of anything before that.
Sure, there was Charles Whitman unloading from the Austin clock tower, but that was news precisely because it was so unheard of.
Oh, I'd say both.
I guess you're being downvoted by young people that can't relate. Back in the day it was big news if there was a shooting, and it generally only involved 2 people. People did indeed drive around with rifles on full display. Yet few people were ever shot. Maybe in Detroit or Chicago etc but for the vast majority of the country it was unheard of. Times have changed. Mental health has declined. Everybody is depressed, frustrated, overworked and underpaid. I think such things can lead to violence. People are straight up losing their shit in this country.