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

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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

#71

Post by seiferteric »

bitwize wrote: post #33
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…

Australia has had three mass shootings since 1996. The USA has had 52 mass shootings in April of 2021 alone. If it's such a "complicated issue", why did the frequency of mass shootings in Australia drop to negligible levels after they took the simple step of enacting a comprehensive gun ban? Ban. The. Guns. It's that simple.

Ah yes, get 2/3 of the states to agree to amend the constitution, so simple. I was just thinking how we could solve climate change by banning all cars and making everyone vegetarian, so simple!

Edit: Okay I realize my comment was a bit flippant. It is a pet peeve of mine when solutions are proffered like this that don't take into account the many obvious difficulties in actually making it work (political, social economic etc.) as if nobody has thought of this. Sure, many people would love to ban and confiscate all the guns, but due to politics there is a 0% chance of that happening in the US, so it is not "simple".

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

#72

Post by tomrod »

rco8786 wrote: post #52
KerrAvon wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a multi-faceted problem with a lot of complexity It really is not. There are too many guns available, too easily obtained, to too many citizens who have not been properly indoctrinated with a sense of civic responsibility, let alone trained in the proper ways to handle a gun. The answer isn't to throw more guns at the problem or to blame inadequate mental health facilities. It is to reduce gun availability. A…

Basically this. No other country comes remotely close to the US on availability and ubiquity of guns.

Indeed. The causal model is simple and two factor: motivation, and access to firearms.

If we reduced access to firearms, we can still work the motivation angle in a lot of ways, but have overall reduced gun violence. Other countries show that the offset increase in violence through other means would still be lower than current death rates.

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

#73

Post by EugeneOZ »

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.

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

#75

Post by astrange »

650 wrote: post #19
lastitude wrote: post #12

Quoted post unavailable.

Are you saying this is nature/genetic or nurture/environment?

Environment isn't "nurture". If you were born in the 70s your parents weren't intentionally giving you lead poisoning and lowering your IQ and making you prone to violent crime; it just happened on its own.

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

#76

Post by greatwhitenorth »

India has 4 times the population of US and I've never heard or read about a school shooting or a mass shooting. There is way worse poverty, mental illness, lawlessness, corruption at every level in India. The only difference is easy access to guns. Not sure why it's so difficult for gun worshippers in US to understand this.

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

#77

Post by akomtu »

bitwize wrote: post #33
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…

Australia has had three mass shootings since 1996. The USA has had 52 mass shootings in April of 2021 alone. If it's such a "complicated issue", why did the frequency of mass shootings in Australia drop to negligible levels after they took the simple step of enacting a comprehensive gun ban? Ban. The. Guns. It's that simple.

If we give up a right every time someone commits a crime using this right, soon we'll be left without rights. The next obvious target is speech: it's often used to incite violence at scale, and strict speech control would prevent that. But I'd rather live in a free country and accept the risks.

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

#78

Post by KerrAvon »

bifrost wrote: post #50
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take social media activity into account during background checks. Increase the age to purchase to 21. 1 month waiting period. I'm a gun owner btw. I also wonder what interesting things would happen if in order to own a gun you must drill with a militia.

The age restriction is illegal, just ruled on by CA Supreme Court. Social Media activity check is a violation of the 4th amendment. You can't tax or gate a right by requiring someone to join a militia.

The ruling you're talking about was not the CA supreme court, which would be unlikely to rule that way. It's a federal appeals court; it was a politically motivated 2-1 decision. https://news.yahoo.com/californias-under-21-gun-ban-23182808...

Checking your activity on social media during a firearms background check is not a violation of the 4th amendment.

You can certainly enforce the second amendment militia requirement, although it will require a vast different SCOTUS than the one we have now.

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

#79

Post by krnlpnc »

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.

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

#80

Post by bifrost »

condercet wrote: post #68

It is not fair to place the blame for this epidemic of violence squarely on those suffering from mental health issues. Mental health issues are distributed globally, but the gun violence problem is not. People who suffer from mental health issues are tremendously more likely to be victims of violence, rather than the perpetrators. These individuals already suffer from tremendous discrimination and hardships in their…

If we're going to talk numbers - most gun deaths involve gang/drug activities. The real numbers once you remove suicide and gangs all point to mental illness and DV/Violent individuals.
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