This shit with the latest school shooting is pissing me off.
After everything spree shooting there's talk about gun control.
This time however the right is taking the moral high ground and claiming that's it's just wrong to bring it up so soon. While I can understand where they're coming from, I call bullshit.
If the perpetrator was brown these same people would be up in arms over border control.
So no. You don't get to play the moral high ground card here.
Personally, I think we should all revert back to double action revolvers and bolt action rifles. You still get your guns, but would limit the damage one can do.
There's most definitely a societal aspect. We're the top country for spree shootings. The gun culture here is borderline absurd. We're taught through media from a young age that guns can be a solution to a problem. Combined with our glorification of these perpetrators.
I don't believe there is a simple black and white solution. It's far too ingrained in our culture.
Deranged people have always existed, but the access to military grade hardware is a newer aspect.
Now the 2nd amendment argument certainly muddles the water. As there's good reason it exists.
I think it's time to have a serious discussion about a solution. Sadly everything is so politically charged it's damn near impossible.
Absolutely agree that there is room for discussion. And you may not believe this, but military grade weapons have always been available. And an AR-15, for instance, the big villain here, is nothing more than a semi-automatic rifle that has been publicly marketed for well over one hundred years. You could take every AR-15 tomorrow, but you've done nothing. There are hundreds of military or civilian rifles or shotguns that are identical in characteristics, many far more powerful.
Now I'm not smart enough to know what really needs to change, but I know for sure that nothing the government can pass as far as legislation is much in the way of an answer. As I said, it's problem with society, and how we've evolved from the days of my youth until today. Is is violent TV and film, video games, social media, who knows, but somewhere along the line society has devalued life in general. The problem is, we can never go back, that's for certain ... but arguing that it's all one thing or another ... or one political viewpoint or another ... just further divides us, it does nothing to find a solution. That's a big part of the problem right there. We've divided ourselves into armed camps right and left, and there is no middle ground. That's a big thing that's changed over my lifetime ... people no longer listen to one another, it's their way or the highway. There no longer is compromise for the better good. Sorry I have nothing more of value ... but to me, it's society itself that needs to change.
Amazing response, I'm so jaded from voat that elegant responses still astound me.
I've fired an AR-15 before and have looked into buying one, I'm not a total stranger to gun culture itself, though not quite as experienced as you are. There are hundreds of weapons with comparable killing power, so I can understand that the discussion centered around that particular weapon is pointless. That gun is a meme by this point. While civilians have always had some military weaponry available, for the first 150 years or so, it was far too expensive for the average person to be able to afford. Since the advance of semi automatic weapons the efficiency of putting lead down range and cost have both dropped dramatically. $500 gets me a decent high-point carbine and hundreds of rounds of 9mm.
I have really nothing to retort with your second paragraph as I completely agree with basically every point. People are so afraid of admitting they're wrong that they'll just bunker down despite any evidence. And it's no longer just on touchy topics like does god exist? But every single thing now, it's ridiculous.
There's got to be a solution somewhere, the rest of the world has tried different methods to varying success. What is it, like Norwary requires everyone to own a gun, and Australia outlawed them all. Those are two extremes that we could never accomplish.
What has changed in the last forty - fifty years to turn us into a society that allows this to happen?
Yes, what cultural philosophies took root in the sixties that could have led to this? /s
The counterculture types of the sixties were weird, but they were still at heart a product of their upbringing. They consciously rejected a lot of the stuffy discipline imposed on them by their parents, but had enough moral foundation that the peace and love commune thing kinda worked. Things fell apart, I think, when that generation (including the ones outside hippie culture but were strongly sympathetic) had children of their own; the movement was not well-equipped to raise kids with much sense of self-control or responsibility.
Explain please what new form of gun control would have stopped this shooting?
What we have here is a societal problem far more complicated than a single issue. What has changed in the last forty - fifty years to turn us into a society that allows this to happen? Guns have always been there ... it's people who have changed ... I call BS on those who think there is a simple solution that will solve this.