American has ineffective gun control solutions. I don’t think they can copy paste solutions from elsewhere because they have a unique situation and culture.
They also don’t have the political will to implement the changes required to actually move forward on this issue.
Here’s the thing. A gun ban won’t fly in the US. There are a lot of Americans that are literally willing to die on that hill. Maybe an “assault weapon” ban, but how do you define an “assault weapon” so that the law isn’t just meaningless, or on the other side of that coin so broad that it bans guns that they didn’t intend to ban?
Then there is the problem of banning sales doesn’t remove them from the people who already have them. When AKs and uzis and what not were banned in the 80’s people were allowed to keep the ones they bought pre-ban. Not to mention that pistols are just as deadly in a small space. Has everyone forgotten the Virginia Tech shooting?
Last but not least. None of these solutions do anything about the real root of the problem. Mental health, and quality of life are both abysmal in the US. When people are having a mental health crisis in the US there aren’t many, if any choices for treatment. That mixed with the fact that we are more divided than we’ve ever been as a country, and MANY other factors. Way too many to list here are all part of our quality of life score. Which last time I checked our QOL score put us just above South Korea and China. I bet South Korea beats us soon.
There was a time not that long ago when mass shooings didn’t happen all the time. People were generally happy, and as someone who has been alive long enough to see the change. Today is a totally different world compared to 30 years ago.
One last change that a friend and I were talking about the other day. When he and I were young. Guns were an adult thing. My dad had some guns. I didn’t know where he kept them. These days though guns seem like a status symbol. You see people’s Christmas cards with their whole family, and all of them are holding guns. It’s kind of weird and macabre.
From my understanding seeing the ripple effect happen here in Canada, politics, religion, social issues, economic issues and the like. It seems there’s more of a shift to more extremist (as in, pushing further to one side or the other, not as in violently extreme) ideologies on all sides, and everyone is getting more and more fed up, angry, and loud.
I think that is about the best explanation anyone can give. When I was younger like 90’s there was this overwhelming sense of “even if I don’t agree with what you want to do. I still support your freedom to live the life you want to live.” Now it seems like both the left and right have gotten like you said “more fed up, angry, and loud.” Both sides seem more intolerant.
Nonsense. The only extremists in the US are the Christian Nationalists who are actively undermining the foundations of liberal democracy. If there is “extremism” outside that, it’s people putting their foot down in rejection of this incipient fascism.
Like I clarified, extremism in the sense of being pushed more and more strongly to one side or another, not in the traditional sense of extremism. I don’t think it can be argued that there has been more of a shift towards needing to identify fully and totally with one ideology or another. While I do agree that “centrism” in the states is inherently right-leaning on the political scale, there seems to be a lot less people who fall in any kind of central view at all and it seems to be you follow the entire left or right ideology fully or you’re not truly accepted as one of them. Additionally there is a huge push towards loudly professing and identifying with your views as well as not being accepting or at least cordial of people with opposing views. I’m not casting positive or negative judgement on either side on purpose and trying to be objective about the situation in this case.
American has ineffective gun control solutions. I don’t think they can copy paste solutions from elsewhere because they have a unique situation and culture.
They also don’t have the political will to implement the changes required to actually move forward on this issue.
Here’s the thing. A gun ban won’t fly in the US. There are a lot of Americans that are literally willing to die on that hill. Maybe an “assault weapon” ban, but how do you define an “assault weapon” so that the law isn’t just meaningless, or on the other side of that coin so broad that it bans guns that they didn’t intend to ban?
Then there is the problem of banning sales doesn’t remove them from the people who already have them. When AKs and uzis and what not were banned in the 80’s people were allowed to keep the ones they bought pre-ban. Not to mention that pistols are just as deadly in a small space. Has everyone forgotten the Virginia Tech shooting?
Last but not least. None of these solutions do anything about the real root of the problem. Mental health, and quality of life are both abysmal in the US. When people are having a mental health crisis in the US there aren’t many, if any choices for treatment. That mixed with the fact that we are more divided than we’ve ever been as a country, and MANY other factors. Way too many to list here are all part of our quality of life score. Which last time I checked our QOL score put us just above South Korea and China. I bet South Korea beats us soon.
There was a time not that long ago when mass shooings didn’t happen all the time. People were generally happy, and as someone who has been alive long enough to see the change. Today is a totally different world compared to 30 years ago.
One last change that a friend and I were talking about the other day. When he and I were young. Guns were an adult thing. My dad had some guns. I didn’t know where he kept them. These days though guns seem like a status symbol. You see people’s Christmas cards with their whole family, and all of them are holding guns. It’s kind of weird and macabre.
What are you divided about?
From my understanding seeing the ripple effect happen here in Canada, politics, religion, social issues, economic issues and the like. It seems there’s more of a shift to more extremist (as in, pushing further to one side or the other, not as in violently extreme) ideologies on all sides, and everyone is getting more and more fed up, angry, and loud.
I think that is about the best explanation anyone can give. When I was younger like 90’s there was this overwhelming sense of “even if I don’t agree with what you want to do. I still support your freedom to live the life you want to live.” Now it seems like both the left and right have gotten like you said “more fed up, angry, and loud.” Both sides seem more intolerant.
Nonsense. The only extremists in the US are the Christian Nationalists who are actively undermining the foundations of liberal democracy. If there is “extremism” outside that, it’s people putting their foot down in rejection of this incipient fascism.
Like I clarified, extremism in the sense of being pushed more and more strongly to one side or another, not in the traditional sense of extremism. I don’t think it can be argued that there has been more of a shift towards needing to identify fully and totally with one ideology or another. While I do agree that “centrism” in the states is inherently right-leaning on the political scale, there seems to be a lot less people who fall in any kind of central view at all and it seems to be you follow the entire left or right ideology fully or you’re not truly accepted as one of them. Additionally there is a huge push towards loudly professing and identifying with your views as well as not being accepting or at least cordial of people with opposing views. I’m not casting positive or negative judgement on either side on purpose and trying to be objective about the situation in this case.
Mostly that around 30% of the population actively wants to turn the US in an authoritarian Christian Nationalist state.