321–330 of 412 posts
And after debating gun violence all week with my friends in the wake of the 4th of July shooting in Highland Park I made an example of Japan and it’s low gun violence. Now this happens. Crazy stuff still happens in Japan but it’s usually a knife or ax. But guns and Abe are on another level.
My take is that gun violence has several different categories, and gun control only helps some of them (such as accidental, or emotional, spur of the moment shootings), but doesn't prevent any premeditated ones. It will not stop people like the one at 4th july, nor those school shootings. Unless the gun control laws completely outlaw civilians owning guns - which i dont think will fly. The root cause of gun violence…
> It will not stop people like the one at 4th july, nor those school shootings.
Proper gun laws could definitely prevented the 4th of july shooting. Have you seen the guy's picture and background? No way in hell that he would have gotten a legal gun in Belgium. Same for most school shootings.
The solution is very simple: don't let aggressive and crazy people buy guns.
> Solve those societal issues
Or you need to accept that your society will have aggressive and crazy people, and make laws accordingly.
US always thinks black and white. Either everyone can buy a gun, or nobody can buy a gun. There seems to be no grey zone in between? Same for mass shootings, either you have them or you have 0, also no grey zone. Maybe you could try to prevent most of them? Like most sane countries?
You need a driver license to drive a car, seems logical. But in US, anyone can walk into a store and buy a gun with bullets. Absolutely bonkers in these times.
Like I said, I'm a gun owner. So let me tell you what I have to do to get a gun, to give you an idea how other countries work.
First of all I need a reason to own a gun, and "defend my home" is not a valid one. "I shoot for sports" is a valid one. In that sense, we don't have an NRA organisation, we have a Sport Shooting Organisation, which actually wants to have proper legislation with restrictive licenses.
So first I need to subscribe myself into a shooting range. I can't have any convictions, my doctor needs to approve I can handle guns. The shooting range itself also judges if they want a person like me in their club (=is this person going to be handling guns safely?). I can tell you there are no members in my club who have tattoos in their face.
For 3 months I can only shoot air guns. After 3 months, I can apply for a firearm. Again, no convictions, doctor needs to approve, all adult people in my house need to approve. Then you need to pass a theoretical and practical exam. Theoretical also includes gun laws, where to store guns, how to transport them, etc. After that is done, you can send the documents to the government, they have to approve it. After they say yes, they send your dossier to the local police, and a cop will come by to check where and how you store your guns (stored away from kids, bullets separate, not easily accessible, ...). After that person approves, it goes back to the government and you get your license. If any of the people in those steps says "no", you don't get your firearm. This application takes months.
Then, once you have your firearm, every year you need to prove you at least went 12 times to the shooting range, and have a clear criminal record. Every 5 years your doctor needs to approve. When you want to buy another firearm, do the whole thing again. Also, cops can come by any time and check where your guns are stored.
Do I like to do all of this every year? No. Do I prefer that over my neighbour owning a gun and no clue how to safely use it? Yes. Do I prefer that over any crazy idiot going to the shop and buy a firearm and bullets? Hell YES!!!!
What is the result? Compare the gun violence results of Belgium with any US state the size of Belgium.
The site is giving me 404. Btw. shooter used home made (shot)gun, so I guess we should ban steel pipes and wood to play it safe.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2022-07-08/former-j...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My take is that gun violence has several different categories, and gun control only helps some of them (such as accidental, or emotional, spur of the moment shootings), but doesn't prevent any premeditated ones. It will not stop people like the one at 4th july, nor those school shootings. Unless the gun control laws completely outlaw civilians owning guns - which i dont think will fly. The root cause of gun violence…
Sorry, but why would a complete ban on citizens owning guns, unless for very special cases not severely curb gun violence?
Plus, a complete ban on civilians owning guns is very unlikely to ever happen in the USA.
And after debating gun violence all week with my friends in the wake of the 4th of July shooting in Highland Park I made an example of Japan and it’s low gun violence. Now this happens. Crazy stuff still happens in Japan but it’s usually a knife or ax. But guns and Abe are on another level.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My take is that gun violence has several different categories, and gun control only helps some of them (such as accidental, or emotional, spur of the moment shootings), but doesn't prevent any premeditated ones. It will not stop people like the one at 4th july, nor those school shootings. Unless the gun control laws completely outlaw civilians owning guns - which i dont think will fly. The root cause of gun violence…
One very concrete action that requires no political will, would be for the media to stop giving a platform to the shooters. If any would be shooter clearly sees that their message will go unheard, that they will die in anonymity, I think that could deter at least some. Your point stands though, that the issue is societal.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s aways complicated to look back at economic policies and come out with simple summaries, but the picture is in my opinion a tad darker than described. He was a pretty polarizing figure and “Abenomics” is used more as a cynically jab than praise in most public interventions we hear. For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abenomics#Results
Any economics policy will have winners and losers.
So yes, he basically froze who would be the winners and losers for the span of his policy, and low income people didn't feel great about it.
I have my gripes yet still think he was a more decent PM than many previous ones. It's really sad it comes down to an assassination in the end.
[0] https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/gdp-growth [1] https://wid.world/country/japan/
And after debating gun violence all week with my friends in the wake of the 4th of July shooting in Highland Park I made an example of Japan and it’s low gun violence. Now this happens. Crazy stuff still happens in Japan but it’s usually a knife or ax. But guns and Abe are on another level.
My take is that gun violence has several different categories, and gun control only helps some of them (such as accidental, or emotional, spur of the moment shootings), but doesn't prevent any premeditated ones. It will not stop people like the one at 4th july, nor those school shootings. Unless the gun control laws completely outlaw civilians owning guns - which i dont think will fly. The root cause of gun violence…
Not all premeditated attackers are equal in motivation and ability. Make the obstacle high enough, some people will still make it over, others will either lack the motivation to scale it or the ability to do so. Lower the obstacle, and suddenly that later group gets over it too.
"Premeditation" just means the attacker intended to do the act before-hand. The degree of preparation involved varies widely. Some premeditated attacks are the fruit of weeks, months, even years of preparation. Other premeditated attacks are triggered by a recent stressor, sometimes only days old. Gun control can make a big difference to the odds of the later kind of premeditated attack, but makes little difference to the odds of the former kind.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s not how gun buy back programs work. Hint they don’t and never have. It’s the same as what happened to that town that tried to solve their rat problem by paying people to bring rat heads. Some enterprising townsfolk started breeding rats.
Gun Buybacks were incredibly successful in Australia after the Port Arthur Massacre and now we have f*ck all gun violence. Funny that.
Last time I've checked we had around 60000 gun related deaths every year.