Appreciate it - thanks. Unfortunately, it seems that so many parents just do not care. When my son comes homes and tells me some stories, I really cannot believe it sometimes…
2 Likes
It’s definitely a complicated topic and memories are very unreliable gauges of death rates over time. As this chart shows the rate really hasn’t swung a large amount one way or the other since the late 60’s.
I’m just glad I’ve lived in the very low gun death rate region since the 60’s (MA/RI).
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm
And I grew up in a country where guns weren’t allowed outside of shooting clubs - they were kept in a safe in the club - and even the police on the street didn’t carry guns, each division had a few armed officers who roamed the area, but the guns were locked in a gun-safe in the car until an incident occured… There was little or no gun crime. Criminals would get guns, but if the police met someone with a gun, they knew they were a criminal.
Guns were used in bank robberies and in gang wars. The number of shootings was very low, because hardly anyone had a gun.
I now live in a country with very tight gun controls, but gun club members can keep the guns in a gun safe at home and transport them to and from the club. Due to the lax borders, it is easier for illegal guns to get into the country, but again, anyone caught with a gun in public is a criminal. But the police here are armed.
The total number of shots fired last year fired by all the police in all states was less than the shots fired in the Sacramento shooting a couple of years ago.
I have no problems with you being pro gun, but I am glad that I have the choice to live in a country that doesn’t allow guns to be carried in public.
2 Likes
I have mixed feelings on violence due to media, games, etc.
I remember long before video games, kids playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians…all the time! So now, they play them on a screen. Is it really that different?
I think we are just made so much more aware of any violence due to 24/7 reporting and I also think many crimes from the past were much more silent…rape, abuse, etc. we are now encouraging reporting of crimes and media is making us more aware of them.
One area that has changed is mass shootings. They were extremely rare in the past. Is it due to changes in society or changes in guns being able to rapid fire? Would a public shooting in the past have become a mass shooting today due to the available guns or because today the get their fame on all the media? I don’t have answers but I do think answers are out there. We just don’t like were the answers might lead. I’m not anti gun ownership. I own guns. I live in the West. To start banning all guns is ridiculous, that horse left the barn long ago. But, I’m not against some restrictions either…IF…,big if, they are proven to help, not just restriction because it makes congress and us feel better.
Finally, I’m also not sure what social media has influenced. I don’t think we can blame it as a cause but does it have an effect? Not sure.
2 Likes
Social media has definitely contributed to the radicalization, narcissism, and lack of empathy that underlies a lot of the violence we’re seeing today. We’ve always had sociopathy and anti-social behaviour, but there were never these platforms that so effectively incubate/weaponize/glorify these actions to the present extent.
1 Like
Those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. The biggest mass murder at a school?
This is probably the only thing I’m going to contribute to this thread because frankly it’s doomed to being locked and or deleted. But this was before video games.
45 people killed, 58 injured by a man angry about taxes.
2 Likes