• RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    …with ready access to guns.

    So much commentary here focusing on societal ills, but even in other countries with lots of poverty and shit social services they don’t have individuals committing random mass murders like us because they don’t have a collection of high capacity personal arms. There’s plenty of people in other countries that have commonality with his life, yet they don’t commit mass murder. Yeah, shootings do happen elsewhere…but not like in the US, and the difference is access to firearms.

    • LazyBane@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In the UK knife crime is a big issue for those in poverty or those in struggling cities. Having access to weapons of course increases risks of people dying ot those weapons, but removing guns isn’t going to just convince everyone trying to lash out to just lie down and suffer in silence.

      I don’t live in a contry with civilan access to guns, and I don’t live in a situation where I feel the need to protect myself with weapons, so I’m not gonna stake a claim in the gun control debate. But if you ban every weapon ever conceivable, without addressing why people are becoming violent to begin with, people will just result to using their own hands (or perhaps more realistically, going above the legal means. Like with Shinzo Abe’s assassination).

      • PizzaMan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        At least with a knife, you can’t mow down a room full of people. Here in the U.S. dozens of people can be killed in a short time by a single person due to guns. We give them out like candy.

        Both access to guns (force multiplier) and the underlying issue (poverty, lack of social mobility, etc) need to be addressed.

          • AzureKevin@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It is about the weapon. If someone wanted to inflict a lot of damage, they would use bombs. That has happened several times in the past but doesn’t compare to the number of mass shootings. Why? Because guns are simply just plentiful and easy to get, and too many apologetics keep allowing them to be plentiful. It really is that simple. Yes it doesn’t fix society’s underlying issues but that is a MUCH harder problem to solve than simply getting rid of (as many) guns (as possible), or at least not just allow so mamy people to own them willy nilly.

            The goal is to drastically reduce the number of innocent lives being taken ASAP, not to argue about weapons or social ills or all of this other nonsense.

            • Jeremy [Iowa]@midwest.social
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              1 year ago

              Because guns are simply just plentiful and easy to get, and too many apologetics keep allowing them to be plentiful.

              You seem to be close to a moment of understanding here but not quite getting it. You seem to recognize that there are other tools available to affect such disastrous outcomes we’d be doing nothing to address, but to also pretend that there’s no indication nor chance anyone would use any of these other tools.

              You seem to recognize the futility of the whack-a-mole game while recognizing its existence.

              Yes it doesn’t fix society’s underlying issues but that is a MUCH harder problem to solve than simply getting rid of (as many) guns (as possible), or at least not just allow so mamy people to own them willy nilly.

              It really isn’t. How much effort do you believe will be required to bring about an amendment to the constitution of the United States?

              How much less effort will be required to bring about simple legislative changes? By simple comparison of the two vectors of change, one of them is unquestionably easier than the other. Spoiler: It isn’t undoing the 2nd amendment.

              Interestingly enough, you seem to double-down on the previous recognition the problem - pressures toward mass violence - would be left unaddressed but with the vast majority of options for mass harm still very much present and ignored.

              The goal is to drastically reduce the number of innocent lives being taken ASAP, not to argue about weapons or social ills or all of this other nonsense.

              Which is more effective: A change which is quite impossible to bring about, or a change which can be brought about with some difficulty and compromise?

              Which is more effective: A change which removes one of unbounded options to bring about a given end, or a change which reduces the count of people seeking to bring about a given end with any tool available?

              We both know you know the answer.

            • Jeremy [Iowa]@midwest.social
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              1 year ago

              If only there were other factors which could impact the highlighted systemic issues… perhaps Canada’s notable single-payer healthcare system, social safety nets, etc. impacting the desperation and providing help?

        • LazyBane@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That not the point. Ideally we just wouldn’t have people doing this to begin with, right?

          • hswolf@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            He typed It poorly, but I think his point was: Try to kill 30 children in a school with a knife.

            If the person wants to kill, they will kill, but a gun (a big gun even) will make this task, orders of magnitude easier.

              • hswolf@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The point isn’t If it’s bad or not, of course it’s all bad.

                But If I had to notify 30 families of their deceased parents over 1 family, the choice is obvious.

                You are right the guns won’t shoot anyone by themselves, but they’re very much an easy access to whoever wants to mass kill people.

                Trying to solve people’s heads is a long term effort, and taking away guns is a short term bandaid. The thing is people are dying Now, you need to save people now, while simultaneously trying to solve the root problem.

                If you’re thinking only talking to people Now, will help anyone, we’re in for many more kill streaks

                  • Ookami38@sh.itjust.works
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                    1 year ago

                    This same sentiment is echoed in the tech community around AI artwork and it’s, frankly, silly. You cannot blame a tool for being misused. You can say that only certain people should have ready access to a tool, and there are strict rules for the use of a tool, but at the end of the day, the tool bloody exists, saying “hey, can we just not use the tool, guys?” doesn’t work. Fix the people who have the most likelihood of misusing the tools, prevent access to the tool from unqualified people, and otherwise just accept that misuse is the price of advancement, as unfortunate as that is.

                  • hswolf@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    You make it sound that changing peoples minds are a super easy task compared to removing guns.

                    I for one am saying that both things should be done at the same time.

                    Lets end this here, you’re trying to poke flaws in the person you’re discussing with, instead of being civil and analyzing the problem, I pray that neither of us pay no stab tax, jesus.

      • Sodis@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, you treat the symptom, but in an effective way. It’s called mass shooting, because so many people die, when guns are involved. You do not have this, if there is someone trying the same with a knife. Banning guns is a band aid during the time necessary to fix the underlying problem.

          • Sodis@feddit.de
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            1 year ago

            There will still be kids slipping through. They also say it themselves:

            Too often in politics it becomes an either-or proposition. Gun control or mental health. Our research says that none of these solutions is perfect on its own. We have to do multiple things at one time and put them together as a comprehensive package. People have to be comfortable with complexity and that’s not always easy.

            • Jeremy [Iowa]@midwest.social
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              1 year ago

              There will still be kids slipping through. They also say it themselves:

              Indeed.

              So, what’s more effective?

              Reducing the scope of those seeking to commit such atrocities to a small fraction of those now, or hoping for improvement via symptom whack-a-mole?

    • frippa@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If you want to ban guns you need to ban metals and CNCs, will buying a CNC require a gun license and a clear criminal record?

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Always the extremes with you, trying to make everything zero sum or a binary choice. There’s no room for reason and moderation if your go-to is pounding the table with the nuclear option every time.

        • frippa@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I’m saying, if you prohibit somebody from buying a gun, I’d they’re really dedicated they can easily build it themselves. Do you ban steel because 0.0001% of the population could bypass gun restrictions?

          • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Keep trying bro. Again, the hyperbole. There is no perfect solution. No, you don’t enact absurd bans. But you don’t make perfect the enemy of good enough by saying an imperfect solution isn’t an acceptable solution. I’m not interested in discussing your CNC or steel hyperbole.