If only there was something we could do...

[J. Barron DeJong]

40 mass shootings in a year, not so bad. Oh, wait….



https://twitter.com/bmaz/status/1618...6p8CxsIhfos9ew

[byates1]

You watch tv? Huh.

[SumJongGuy]

It's the price of freedom... By "freedom" they mean the ability to purchase and hoard enough weapons and ammo commit mass mayhem just in case some day you decide you want to.. 'MURIKA!

[Bunion 2020]

< than 2 per day so there is that.

[ex-powderbroker]

< than 2 per day….

so far

[byates1]

I think it has more do w people than guns. Humanity is fracturing and crumbling. Disintegrating.

The news needs views. Tv won't exist in a decade. Outrage works, feed it to ppl. Stoke division.

I see a lot of despair in my travels. A lot. And I'm in white ski towns.

There are no answers. Like abortion, homelessness.. unanswerable.

I'd say the best way to solve mass shootings is to be wealthy and move away from poverty and cities.

Hope that cheers you up.

[mcphee]

^when you’re sucking your own dick like this, does it feel like you’re getting your dick sucked or like you’re just sucking a dick?

[byates1]

^ just offering a rosy perspective on the topic keyboard warrior. Am I to assume your big girl panties are in a bunch?

[Cisco Kid]

No, you're just stirring shit. And you're nutz.

[::: :::]

“If people are the problem, why would you let them have guns?” - Socrates

[Mazderati]

Thought that was Plato.

[::: :::]

Oh, yeah, that’s right…from The Republic, Chap 6: Public Health & Safety

[boltonoutlaw]

Reminder that this data ONLY mentions "mass shootings" and that murders of three or less are unmentioned and have become normalized. Fuck this place

[riser4]

Reminder that this data ONLY mentions "mass shootings" and that murders of three or less are unmentioned and have become normalized. Fuck this place

And don't forget suicides.

[SumJongGuy]

It has more to do with people making it easier for people to get deadlier, more destructive killing equipment than people were allowed to have back when America was "great".

[TBS]

And don't forget suicides.

And don’t forget, most of these mass shootings are a form of suicide…

[Bunion 2020]

Lot of different kinds of shootings from schools to work places to social gatherings to gangs. One common thread, easy access to firearms.

[::: :::]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/o...e=articleShare

let’s try to bypass the culture wars and try a harm-reduction model familiar from public health efforts to reduce deaths from other dangerous products such as cars and cigarettes.

Harm reduction for guns would start by acknowledging the blunt reality that we’re not going to eliminate guns any more than we have eliminated vehicles or tobacco, not in a country that already has more guns than people. We are destined to live in a sea of guns. And just as some kids will always sneak cigarettes or people will inevitably drive drunk, some criminals will get firearms — but one lesson learned is that if we can’t eliminate a dangerous product, we can reduce the toll by regulating who gets access to it.

That can make a huge difference. Consider that American women age 50 or older commit fewer than 100 gun homicides in a typical year. In contrast, men 49 or younger typically kill more than 500 people each year just with their fists and feet; with guns, they kill more than 7,000 each year. In effect, firearms are safer with middle-aged women than fists are with young men.

We’re not going to restrict guns to women 50 or older, but we can try to keep firearms from people who are under 21 or who have a record of violent misdemeanors, alcohol abuse, domestic violence or some red flag that they may be a threat to themselves or others.

There is one highly successful example of this harm reduction approach already in place: machine guns.

It’s often said that machine guns are banned in the United States, but that’s not exactly right. More than 700,000 of these fully automatic weapons are in the United States outside of the military, entirely legally. Most are owned by federal, state or local agencies, but perhaps several hundred thousand are in private hands. With a background check and permission, members of the public can buy an Uzi submachine gun or a mounted .50-caliber machine gun made before 1986 — even a grenade launcher, howitzer or mortar.

To buy a machine gun made before 1986, you need a background check, a clean record and $200 for a transfer tax — a process that can take several months to complete. Then you must report to the authorities if it is stolen and get approval if you move it to another state. To buy a machine gun made after 1986 is more complicated.

None of this is terribly onerous, but these hoops — and stiff enforcement of existing laws — are enough to keep machine guns in responsible hands. In a typical year, these registered machine guns are responsible for approximately zero suicides and zero homicides.

So let’s begin with a ray of hope: If we can safely keep 700,000 machine guns in America, we should be able to manage handguns.

Alcohol, tobacco and cars are obviously different from firearms and don’t have constitutional protections — but one of the most important distinctions is that we’ve approached them as public health problems to make progress on incrementally. Historically, cars killed more people each year than firearms in the United States. But because we’ve worked to reduce vehicle deaths and haven’t seriously attempted to curb gun violence, firearms now kill more people than cars: [graph]

[basinbeater]

Guns are the number one cause of death for children in the United States.

[::: :::]

For those who can access it, that Kristoff OpEd is a pretty thoughtful address on harm reduction as public health policy
It is worth reading the whole thing.
He promotes not stigmatizing gun owners and accepting that guns aren’t going away, but nevertheless identifies ways to reduce violence that have already shown effectiveness in different arenas around the US (not the world)

[riser4]

Don't combine your felonies: https://www.wcax.com/2023/01/26/nh-p...-trucker-i-93/

[leroy jenkins]

I realize this is a thread basically about gun control, but in terms of availability to firearms, nothing much has changed in the last year or few months. Why then are mass shootings skyrocketing? What are the other factors? Obviously the world is a more stressful place, but what else is going on?

I get the current topic of discussion is a harm reduction approach to prevention, but what about the underlying causes of the increase? Regardless of your stance or feeling about guns they aren't the driver of this.

[::: :::]

I realize this is a thread basically about gun control, but in terms of availability to firearms, nothing much has changed in the last year or few months. Why then are mass shootings skyrocketing? What are the other factors? Obviously the world is a more stressful place, but what else is going on?

I get the current topic of discussion is a harm reduction approach to prevention, but what about the underlying causes of the increase? Regardless of your stance or feeling about guns they aren't the driver of this.

you answer your own question:

"nothing has changed"
[consider that guns continue to be available as needed to anyone]

"obviously the world is a more stressful place"
[agreed that this can lead to conflicts]

"but what else is going on?"
[consider a ramped up rhetoric around rural/urban conflicting values and ramped up outrage media promoting 1) molon labe (come & take them) & 2a militant advocacy; and 2) solving conflicts with guns as they are easily accessed (militia, cosplaying Red Dawn at Black Lives Matter protests, road rage, personal vendettas, police shoot/first ask later public interactions, sending armed citizens to small towns to protect against busloads of Antifa arriving with bricks, etc, etc)



Consider also that, in this current media world with promoted/perceived increased crime and danger, there has not been a documented increased defensive use statistic -- one would think that would bubble up if it actually became a thing, especially with the inflated patriot media. Instead, we have:
- right wing attacks on infrastructure;
- plots against governors;
- attack on congress;
- increased mass shootings;
- attacks on AAPI during COVID;
- rise of militia into legitimatized public political discourse;
- citizens showing up to "protect" events with firearms (elections, school board mtgs, etc.)
- ANTIFA becomes a thing;
- etc.


you should try to read that article -- it acknowledges a number of gun owners' concerns in a seemingly reasonable way (excepting the regulation part, which I would like to think reasonable gun owners can acknowledge once they stop freaking out about gun bans & roundups)

[::: :::]

I realize this is a thread basically about gun control, but in terms of availability to firearms, nothing much has changed in the last year or few months. Why then are mass shootings skyrocketing? What are the other factors? Obviously the world is a more stressful place, but what else is going on?

I get the current topic of discussion is a harm reduction approach to prevention, but what about the underlying causes of the increase? Regardless of your stance or feeling about guns they aren't the driver of this.

leroy

maybe reconsider guns not as a driver, but an accelerant
the ease of access and ease of use make them uniquely suited to quick & substantial mayhem

goes back to the "if people are the problem, why let them have guns?" question...




it is continually stunning that otherwise reasonable people people cannot acknowledge the fundamental lethality in public spaces in this repeated public discussion. The utterly irrational fear of gun roundups and bans prompts zero compromise.

[SumJongGuy]

it is continually stunning that otherwise reasonable people people cannot acknowledge the fundamental lethality in public spaces in this repeated public discussion. The utterly irrational fear of gun roundups and bans prompts zero compromise.

I'm good... Do something about that other guy... You don't need to take mine away but you should have taken theirs way before they snapped.. says person sitting on top of an INSANE amount of killing power