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Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

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Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#381

Post by zionic »

Aeolun wrote: post #353
chmod600 wrote: post #340

An otherwise informative article, but using the term "military-grade" seems out of place. The term has little meaning. You could call socks "military-grade" as well, and the only meaning that it really conveys is that it was cheap and barely functional enough to win a contract. And AR15s are cheap. A lot of plastic and aluminum. You could say that's a problem, if you want. But that line of argument doesn't seem to le…

I think in this context it is used more to refer to something that ‘has functionalities that no civilian would ever need’.

No post body was provided.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#382

Post by scollet »

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #84
devmunchies wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> actual problem as i mentioned in another comment, male violence is largely a product of no fathers or strong male figures present.

are children of lesbian parents incarcerated at a higher rate?

Parent is sexist, but masculinity can transcend gender which is still incorrect for their... "point".

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#383

Post by bogomipz »

onesafari wrote: post #59
freediver wrote: post #2

I sincerely hope this does not descend into a flamewar. We can't have discussion about this in an intellectually stimulating way in congress, we can't have this discussion in the media, we obviously can't have this discussion on social media so HN is the last bastion of hope. It is a multi-faceted problem with a lot of complexity. The fact stands that USA has a school shooting problem [1] unlike any other country in…

The root cause may be bullying and ostracization combined with the media contagion effect. This is a repeating pattern. Bullying: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/25/uvalde-texa... The gunman in Tuesday’s elementary school massacre was a lonely 18-year-old who was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a fraught home life and lashed out violently against peers and strangers recently an…

There's a paper that was presented at an American Psychology Association conference on the media contagion effect. I think this might actually be the original study. It mentions "Profiles of shooters indicate that they are often socially isolated and suffer a pattern of ostracization or bullying, yet they tend toward narcissism."[1] It also mentions that these three traits - depression, social isolation and pathological narcissism are largely intertwined.

[1] https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/media-contag...

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#384

Post by scollet »

wolverine876 wrote: post #312
a_square_peg wrote: post #221

Maybe slightly off-topic, but I think this is a part of a larger trend of a declining empire - its inability to solve problems that have already become non-issues in other societies. From big issues like healthcare to small stuff like getting rid of pennies, I'm amazed at how the US is beholden to special interest groups under the guise of democracy and freedom, as well as its exceptionalism. One can see this in dysf…

We don't need complex theories. It's as simple as a political party opposes action on gun issues. The solution is to vote them out.

No post body was provided.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#385

Post by chmod600 »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #73
jonp888 wrote: post #40

As a foreigner, I do not see it as productive to seek any explanation or expect any reaction when yet another news story like this comes along. It's clear that this is the way Americans wish to live, and it is their perogative to do so.

As a foreigner, I have an impression that americans can buy a gun at 18, but cun buy a cigarette at 21. Maybe I’m wrong, but still... Call me an “old-timer” but I do think you could use better psychological tests before letting them buy a gun.

A 16 year old was effectively an adult not so long ago. Today, an 18 year old is a child.

We should just move the age of majority to 24 or so. Guns and voting would start there. Vices and contracts would be some sliding scale.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#386

Post by Spivak »

jstream67 wrote: post #324
krnlpnc wrote: post #79

What if guns were treated similarly to cars? Mandatory training, License w/ renewals, registration w/ renewals, insurance mandatory, yearly inspection mandatory, etc. Personally I feel people should be able to defend themselves while at the same time deterred from stockpiling and accessing mass casualty capable arms.

Nobody was talking about reducing access to cars after that guy ran over a ton of old folks in Kenosha a couple months back. In fact no one is talking about it at all as he does not fit the correct political narrative

Literally everyone was talking about it, making exactly the same point you are now. People parroting this take was basically all of social media for a week.

You’re not uncovering some logical inconsistency in liberal logic any more than “oh you’re pro-life, but you support the death penalty hmmmmmm” does for conservatives. This shit spreads like wildfire because it sounds like a gotcha but it relies on putting words in someone else’s mouth and then calling them a hypocrite for something they didn’t say.

If you can’t come up with a single good faith argument for why someone might want to restrict guns but not cars then you don’t really understand the opposing stance and you’re not equipped to actually have this debate. Being able to articulate the opposing stance in a way the other side would agree with then explaining why you believe it’s wrong is the only way to not talk past one another.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#387

Post by coinbasetwwa »

Aeolun wrote: post #369
bifrost wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you are suggesting is illegal. Its illegal to license a right. We shouldn't penalize the hundreds of millions of legal gun owners in the US because we're unable to catch psychopaths before they kill people.

> We shouldn't penalize the hundreds of millions of legal gun owners in the US Yes. Yes we should.

Weird flex but okay

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#388

Post by tshaddox »

bifrost wrote: post #87
krnlpnc wrote: post #79

What if guns were treated similarly to cars? Mandatory training, License w/ renewals, registration w/ renewals, insurance mandatory, yearly inspection mandatory, etc. Personally I feel people should be able to defend themselves while at the same time deterred from stockpiling and accessing mass casualty capable arms.

What you are suggesting is illegal. Its illegal to license a right. We shouldn't penalize the hundreds of millions of legal gun owners in the US because we're unable to catch psychopaths before they kill people.

Is it illegal to require licenses for explosives and fully automatic weapons?

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#389

Post by Aeolun »

School-Cotton wrote: post #322
jonp888 wrote: post #40

As a foreigner, I do not see it as productive to seek any explanation or expect any reaction when yet another news story like this comes along. It's clear that this is the way Americans wish to live, and it is their perogative to do so.

> It's clear that this is the way Americans wish to live That’s not clear at all. The US has more anti-gun-violence activists than anywhere else in the world. There is some amount of friction, different in each country but not zero anywhere, between “what people want” and “what is the law”. Do you think North Koreans prefer living under a corrupt dictatorship? Why don’t they just make the dictatorship illegal? That’s…

If enough people actually cared about this, then you’d have people marching on the capitol, like after a certain president was not re-elected.

If people haven’t gotten motivated enough after literally decades of this shit, I find it really hard to blame the law.

Re: Mental illness, mass shootings, and the politics of American firearms (2015)

#390

Post by paulcole »

School-Cotton wrote: post #337
paulcole wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To change or "rewrite" the constitution trying to deal with this subject could dissolve the US. As an American, this is a risk I’m willing to take.

Okay. In practice, how do you plan on achieving this? What steps can we take to “rewrite the constitution” (other than an actual revolution overthrowing the current political system, which… would require guns and even then would probably be impossible)

There are literally very clear steps to amend the Constitution. It’s not like Steve grabs a pitchfork and YOLOs his way to no second amendment.

> An amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, or, if two-thirds of the States request one, by a convention called for that purpose.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-governm...

It’s not as rare as you might be imagining. The last amendment was finalized in 1992.

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