Quote (thundercock @ 16 Feb 2021 09:05)
I don't know the number but I do know that it would help a lot in this country. There are certainly other variables in play (including the gun laws). It would also help if the media didn't glorify the events. The evidence that the media via contagion is pretty compelling. However, I think any sort of regulation to prevent the media from reporting on said events would be wrong.
If you banned guns completely in America, you'd still have the issue of angry folks wanting to take revenge on society for whatever reason. Would there be less deaths? Absolutely. Guns are efficient tools for killing which is why we use them in war. But are we just saying that some number of revenge deaths are acceptable? Should we not also try and get to the root cause of the violence? When some lunatic drives into a crowd of protestors, do we just say "well, hardly anyone died so let's move on?"
Lastly, I think you'd have a difficult time convincing a lot of libertarians/conservatives that mass shootings are even a PROBLEM. They'd rather accept the social risks by having their gun rights and call it a day. Freedom always comes with a cost.
oh, don't get me wrong. i fully agree that mental health is a factor, and a quite important one at that. it's crucial to address that issue as well - but as you've pointed out yourself before, many of the people who are quick to exclusively blame mental health as the culprit in order to protect their precious guns are the same that oppose introducing better (mental) healthcare.
what i'm saying is that mental health problems are an issue you have in literally every single country, most of which DON'T have additional mental health experts at schools to address bullying and social media use - and as i've pointed out before, schools are unfortunately not the only popular venue for mass shooting events anyway. my point is that guns are the one factor that really distinguishes america from its peer countries, and anyone unable or refusing to connect those dots is either retarded or dishonest.
btw, i also agree on the media part, but there's this other pesky amendment that most gun nuts pretend to value so much, which prevents them from going down that road. i personally wouldn't mind a kind of self-restriction of media in that regard though - there is a similar agreement for suicide of non-celebrities, and it'd certainly help not to make mass murderers famous - but it's just ratings gold, so what can you do?
lastly, "freedom" is a very malleable term. defining it seemingly exclusively by largely unrestricted access to firearms is a uniquely american right wing perspective. many of your peer countries enjoy considerable more overall freedom (i've posted the various rankings before, they are easily "researchable" via google) - and the general idea behind that narrative has been PROVEN wrong over and over, as private firearm ownership did literally NOTHING to prevent the massive curtailing of individual freedoms and rights in america, and actually lead to a state that deals with its citizens much more brutally and harsher than most of your peer countries.
Quote (Santara @ 16 Feb 2021 12:16)
Humor me. Use capital letters to start your sentences.
As you said, there's bad faith here. On your part as well, so why engage you? This is the example you set just a few posts ago. So, now it's shift this discussion to topics with a better foundation in rhetoric?
not the first time you got bamboozled by british english (if memory serves me right, even the same exact word, most definitely something with 'ou' vs. 'o' though), and i'm sure it won't be the last time, lol.
obviously i can't force you to engage with the argument, i just wanted to point out that claiming
mass shootings had "virtually nothing" to do with gun laws and "everything" to do with mental health is an extremely asinine and obviously biased take from someone who'd most definitely oppose any measure that lead to a mental healthcare program capable of severely limiting mass shootings while keeping gun law as is, and who clearly values barely restricted access to firearms over the lives of innocent people.
just to inb4 the pearl clutching regarding what i just stated: i am sure that given a magic button to immediately stop all mass shootings, you'd push it. i'm not suggesting you positively enjoy innocent people being killed, what i'm saying is that you simply value your toys more than innocent lives - at least as long as the victims are someone else's kids and families. some people simply don't learn the easy way, and to be fair, some not even the hard way...