Gun violence the cost of Freedom to Bear Arms?

[JEDI]

just as hate speech is the cost of Freedom of Speech?

 

[Jaskalas]

To a degree, yes. Though our society suffers various ills that exacerbate the problem.

Anyone living in social isolation may be prone to fits of rage and violence without anyone knowing. Teens growing up in the hood without parents, who raise themselves, belong to families of drugs and violence and make inner cities a living hell. Our nation's diversity creates social strife and challenges, where people are more likely to act out in violence to express racial, ethnic, and cultural differences.

America is a melting pot turned bitter and divisive. Where teens are often thrown into a school system that chews them up and spits them out, and I'm not even referring to the education. Where both parents work and children are left to fend for themselves in a dog-eat-dog world.

There are potential societal reforms unrelated to guns, which would help reduce and mitigate the occurrence of random acts of violence. Methods of addressing isolated teens, inner city crime, and cultural differences. I don't know what those would be, but discussions on the subject may yield a few options.

 

[Anarchist420]

gun violence, but not much difference in violence overall because rapists use sharp objects and other people would too.

 

[Jhhnn]

just as hate speech is the cost of Freedom of Speech?

'Fraid so-

 

[marvdmartian]

Don't blame the guns, blame the society. Our country has decided that we need to stop teaching children right from wrong, not hold them accountable for their actions (or inactions), not ever make them responsible for anything. Ever.

Add to that parents who are so busy trying to beat the Jones', or simply make ends meet (and that's IF they're even part of their child's life), and we have created a permissive society, that tells children that they deserve everything they want, and can never do any wrong.

Then reality hits. Life intrudes, and shows them that mommy & daddy were full of shit. But since they never learned to deal with adversity, they have no idea what to do, and lose their minds. Add the bonus of so many kids being labeled "ADHD", and doped up throughout school, and you're cookin' with gas, now, baby!

Being a child of the 60's and 70's, I can tell you that we had plenty of guns and ammunition available to us. Hell, plenty of kids in my neighborhood had .22 rifles that they grew up with, and access to more powerful firearms at home, in dad's gun cabinet.....that I guarantee, you knew where the key was located (I did!). But we also had morals we were taught, and rules we were expected to live by......and, most importantly, we had punishments that we knew we would get, if we broke those rules. We actually had repercussions for our actions, that we knew would be enforced. That's sorely lacking in child rearing, these days, and it shows.

Most importantly, we had parents that we knew loved us, and supported us. They wouldn't necessarily cover for us, if we screwed up.....but they would make sure we learned the hard lessons we needed to learn, then make sure that we knew we were still loved. That kind of parenting is a rock that kids can build their lives on, and become normal, healthy, productive members of society. Unfortunately, if we look at most of these nut jobs that decide to make everyone suffer for their misery, we find out they're from dysfunctional homes, and lacked even basic parenting as they grew up.....and then we shake our heads, and wonder how they got so screwed up in the head.

Sorry to say, but it's not the guns. It's the society that is to blame.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

You can't crazy proof the world. Doing so would undermine the fabric of our nation's Constitution in favor of attempting to protect us from outlier individuals who in the end will find a means and a way to enact their will. For example 13 years ago some nut on the same campus Santa Barbara campus drove his car into a car into a group of people killing 4 of them. He was later arrested and sentence to spend the rest of his life in a mental institute. Nevermind that California has some of the most draconian gun laws on the books but somehow that didn't matter did it? If someone is irrationally intent on causing harm to others they will do so unless others take notice of their actions and put a stop to him/her.

 

[TheVrolok]

'Fraid so-

Good, and accurate, comic.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

Good, and accurate, comic.

Remove gun violence and insert terrorist acts like 9/11 and suddenly that comic is left justifying government actions like the Patriotic Act, Gitmo or other draconian big government measures as the fear laden, knee jerk reactionary logic is the same when it comes to the desire to curtail the 2nd amendment.

 

[jackstar7]

Remove gun violence and insert terrorist acts like 9/11 and suddenly that comic is left justifying government actions like the Patriotic Act, Gitmo or other draconian big government measures as the fear laden, knee jerk reactionary logic is the same when it comes to the desire to curtail the 2nd amendment.

Is it the pictures that are tripping you up? Because you're clearly reading it wrong.

 

[Dannar26]

Just keep bringing up entitled kids, downplay morality, and make sure to ban everything that offends anybody.

Hell, it's been working so well so far, why not just double down?

 

[Subyman]

Is it the pictures that are tripping you up? Because you're clearly reading it wrong.

Not really. You can place just about any issue in that comic to trivialize the argument made for it. Replace owning a gun with owning a ladder. Replace deaths from mass shootings with people falling and dying off a ladder.

412 people died falling off of ladders in 2000 in the US.
151 people died in mass shooting in 2012 in the US.

 

[Dannar26]

No side "won." There's just no logical way available to society to stop all this. It's not like there's some really great solution just waiting to be siezed, but darn it all, those stick-in-the-mud conservatives just happened to put their feet down.

The left has no answers. The right wants to avoid the inevitable damage the left's posturing may cause.

 

[jpeyton]

It's a small price, and we've made progress on making it even smaller. Gun homicides have dropped something like 50% over the last two decades.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It's definitely a breakdown in society. I grew up in the 50's. My generation had greater access to guns and knives than any generation since. Range safety was taught in public hs. Almost all boys carried pocket knives. No one ever went on a killing spree.

America is no longer a melting pot. We are a loose collection of disparate peoples in an isolationist society. We don't know our neighbors. We don't want to know our neighbors. We all want to be left alone. Kids want their parents to leave them alone. We create ever larger schools with permanent police forces because parents don't want to take responsibility. These huge schools encourage isolationism. The cycle repeats.

Kids are by definition, immature. Without parents and society even talking about, let alone enforcing, moral and ethical standards, society will continue to disintegrate. We will have more horrific stories of kids killing kids.

 

[Jhhnn]

Like the duck said- the debate is over & the pro gun forces won. Nobody's taking your guns. So get over yourselves & stop with the paranoid raving, stop letting paranoid fruitcakes like Wayne LaPierre speak for you.

It only gives anti-gun forces cause for alarm, you fools.

 

[Vic]

No. Gun violence would exist with or without the freedom to bear guns.
Laws, by themselves, do not change people's behavior.

 

[MongGrel]

It's definitely a breakdown in society. I grew up in the 50's. My generation had greater access to guns and knives than any generation since. Range safety was taught in public hs. Almost all boys carried pocket knives. No one ever went on a killing spree.

America is no longer a melting pot. We are a loose collection of disparate peoples in an isolationist society. We don't know our neighbors. We don't want to know our neighbors. We all want to be left alone. Kids want their parents to leave them alone. We create ever larger schools with permanent police forces because parents don't want to take responsibility. These huge schools encourage isolationism. The cycle repeats.

Kids are by definition, immature. Without parents and society even talking about, let alone enforcing, moral and ethical standards, society will continue to disintegrate. We will have more horrific stories of kids killing kids.

+1

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

It's definitely a breakdown in society. I grew up in the 50's. My generation had greater access to guns and knives than any generation since. Range safety was taught in public hs. Almost all boys carried pocket knives. No one ever went on a killing spree.

America is no longer a melting pot. We are a loose collection of disparate peoples in an isolationist society. We don't know our neighbors. We don't want to know our neighbors. We all want to be left alone. Kids want their parents to leave them alone. We create ever larger schools with permanent police forces because parents don't want to take responsibility. These huge schools encourage isolationism. The cycle repeats.

Kids are by definition, immature. Without parents and society even talking about, let alone enforcing, moral and ethical standards, society will continue to disintegrate. We will have more horrific stories of kids killing kids.

I remember teens driving to school with shotguns in racks and no one thought anything of it. Guys often went hunting after school. No one got shot. No one had a stroke. Nothing bad happened. Now? Fear! Sadly you are right about the causes. There was a lot done wrong, but this society looks to crush any commonality instead subsisting an "embrace of diversity" which really means oppressive conformity. No wonder we suck.

 

[cyclohexane]

No. Gun violence would exist with or without the freedom to bear guns.
Laws, by themselves, do not change people's behavior.

Australia banned guns in the 1990s and mass shootings plummeted. So yes, laws do change behavior.

 

[squarecut1]

Guns may make it easier but really there is a sickness deep inside at the core of our society. You cannot not feel that

 

[Vic]

Australia banned guns in the 1990s and mass shootings plummeted. So yes, laws do change behavior.

Yeah, now the psychos use arson instead of guns.

 

[sandorski]

Everyone knows there's a Downside, where's the Upside?

 

[jpeyton]

Australia banned guns in the 1990s and mass shootings plummeted. So yes, laws do change behavior.

Comparing an island nation of 24 million with a population density of 7 people per square mile to a nation of 318 million with a density of 89 people per square mile. Two countries with vastly different histories, cultures, and demographics.

 

[jpeyton]

Everyone knows there's a Downside, where's the Upside?

Pew pew pew.

 

[Jaskalas]

Everyone knows there's a Downside, where's the Upside?

Pew pew pew.

Self defense, when the police are 20 minutes away.