matthewr
spɹɐʍʞɔɐq spɹoɔǝɹ ɹnoʎ sʎɐld
Which would be a reasonable observation if Americans were on average not bothered by these events, or reacted to them in ways that were markedly different from people in other societies.
Charleston church shooting
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Which would be a reasonable observation if Americans were on average not bothered by these events, or reacted to them in ways that were markedly different from people in other societies.
russel
./_dazed_and_confused
How would the London rioters behaved in 2011 if they were all armed.?
monkfish
pfm Member
If they had any sense they would have shot the cameras.
maxflinn
pfm Member
Well to be fair these kind of mass shootings have been happening for decades but they still won't ban guns.
maxflinn
pfm Member
Perish the thought!
maxflinn
pfm Member
Lee T
pfm Member
"Mentally ill" careful, you need to be much more specific if you don't want to insult people with mental health issues.
I am yet to find any mental health issue that confirms someone will carry out a massacre of any magnitude so your comment needs amending I feel.
Mentally ill does not allude to killing people in this horrible manner
boneman
pfm Member
The Constitution can, and has been, amended many times. The Second Amendment states
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
This idea actually came from Britain as did most of the legal structure in the US. Personally I think it is an amendment that is completely out of step with modern society. It has never been changed because of M-O-N-E-Y which is par for the course of many things that are harmful in society.
Isn't this precisely why they fight so hard to keep their guns ? I don't believe the line "to protect us from a future potentially corrupt Government" for a minute.
PaulMB
pfm Member
Thanks for enlightening, Boneman. But surely the M-O-N-E-Y can't be the only, or even the basic, explanation for why a nation, or rather a collection of states, who are so active in passing laws to protect their citizens can't restrict gun sales. Or how comprehensive state health care can seem abhorrent, for that matter. I know that some states are much more restrictive than others. I remain baffled.
America, after all, is by definition the nation that wants to do what is "right" and "just."
Where have you been living for the last 15 years ?
PaulMB
pfm Member
sean99
pfm Member
Why doesn't America change ? Because it's a plutocracy. The federal government doesn't legislate based on the wishes of the majority of Americans: it takes its marching orders from the very wealthy, and guns are big business. The electorate get their voting orders from a media controlled by big business. The TV news reports on the Charleston shooting have focussed entirely on the racial angle of the crime, with no mention at all that it was also a crime enabled by gun ownership (credit to Obama for pointing this out though)
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/princeton-scholar-demise-of-democracy-america-tpm-interview
original article here:
http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/...testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
The vast majority of Americans support much stronger background checks on gun purchases, and I'd hazard a guess that nearly 50% would be happy to see gun sales banned altogether. The other 50% are too dim to understand that gun ownership makes them less safe.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150603123948.htm
The reason these policies are not enacted is because of the financial and political clout of the NRA: a lobby group for arms manufacturers.
I think if there were serious campaign finance reform, such that politicians actually had to care about the opinions of the electorate, you'd see a very different country emerge.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/princeton-scholar-demise-of-democracy-america-tpm-interview
original article here:
http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/...testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
The vast majority of Americans support much stronger background checks on gun purchases, and I'd hazard a guess that nearly 50% would be happy to see gun sales banned altogether. The other 50% are too dim to understand that gun ownership makes them less safe.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150603123948.htm
The reason these policies are not enacted is because of the financial and political clout of the NRA: a lobby group for arms manufacturers.
I think if there were serious campaign finance reform, such that politicians actually had to care about the opinions of the electorate, you'd see a very different country emerge.
Steven Toy
Accuphase newbie
Completely fair. The US is a nation not its individual states. The fact that the death penalty is allowed anywhere on its soil marks it down as an uncivilised nation.
Could a Federal law not be passed to ban it across all 50 States?
boneman
pfm Member
Yes it is a nation however the fact that many states vote to not allow it means that a large portion of the country does not support it.
Yes a federal law could be proposed to outlaw it. I'd like to see that but you would need buy in of the majority. My point was that you are damning millions of people in the 20 states that do not allow it and that is unfair.
Lastly if you use your definition of 'uncivilised' that must mean that the UK was an uncivilised nation all the way up until 1998 because, although the last execution happened in 1968, it was legally permissible until 1998.
boneman
pfm Member
I disagree. I think a big mistake people make today is that everything is all so complex. Human nature is the same as it always has been and I really do believe something as simple as money can be the basic explanation.
Precisely. AIPAC run Middle East Policy, the NRA run Gun Control Policy, Insurance Companies run Health Policy and the Koch Brothers run Environmental Policy !
gordon
self-righteous, but never right
just to add to what sean99 said, gun ownership has declined in the US, and is at an all time low. http://www.newsweek.com/us-gun-ownership-declines-312822.
PaulMB
pfm Member
Probably also because a new generation of would-have-been outdoorsmen, who would once have been shooters, are now spending their lives sitting in front of a computer. I wonder if this decline is more marked in "defence" or in "sporting" weapons.