Is it time to talk about guns?

It’s relevant because the 1950s were a different time in many ways and the insanity of the lethal weapon barrage wasn’t present. 30 round magazines and bump stocks are a lot more related to school shootings and mass shootings than gun clubs. But it would be mistake to equate the 1950s and 60s leave it to beaver culture as a time of less social violence because of school gun clubs…..it wasn’t. It’s just today those who perpetuate social violence are insanely well armed.

 

Violent crime were less in the 1950's compared to today. People do not seem curious at all about deterioation of culture. Plenty of violence today with fists only.

 

I think people see our average of two school shootings per day as a function of easy access to high capacity weapons and anxiety. In terms of culture it’s not quite that clear. Again, we had separate drinking fountains in the 50s. Open bigotry was part of the culture of that time. Women couldn’t get a credit card on their own. There were no rights for lgbqtia. We just closed Japanese internment camps.

 

Unfortunately there are signs of open bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, and even aggression against Asian folks increasing these days too (though that might've died down now that the pandemic has waned--correct me if I'm wrong), at least in utopias like Florida.

 

its true - I’m sure there are lots of reasons for this but I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that this happens at the same time that we insufferably romanticize the time where those behaviors were socially acceptable

 

That's always been my thought and for blaming it on mental illness, but so many have opposite opinions, I'm willing to try anything at this point and even though some of the areas with the strictest gun laws have some of the largest gun crimes.

 

I think that’s a tough argument to make and one you cannot make definitely. America has by far the most guns in the world and by far the worst gun violence

Almost all kids killed worldwide by guns are murdered in America, where gun violence is the leading cause of death for children 1-19. Is your contention that it more people had access to guns - in a country with a mental health crisis and with a “deteriorating culture” that gun deaths for kids (2 school shootings per day is the average) will go down?

 

Unfortunately, that gun access ship has sailed a long time ago...and taken the pier and the port with it.

 

That has to be a truism as well and can't imagine trying to disarm a civilian fighting force of at least 1,000,000 strong.
Even if you would isolate it to semi-auto weapons only or for limiting their magazine capacity, it seems to be an impossible feat.

 

My 76 year old brother recently told me the same thing. They would actually use the school football field for the target practice area.

 

It is unfixable and all we can do is learn to live with it. It's a circular argument with people on both sides that are right.

 

Single bolt action .22 shorts for target practice is less than a bb gun in today's standards.

 

It’s not just violence toward others. The vast majority of suicide attempts without a gun do not result in death while the vast majority of suicide attempts with a gun do

 

Except, I believe our real Civilian fighting force is sitting quietly in the background across America's farmlands and other places.
Also for thinking this to have been a prime concern among Japanese Generals, with thoughts of evading America after Pearl Harbor.

And for really wanting to, is probably a much larger task in itself, than for going to the moon.

 

It ain't the farmlands shooting varmints with their shotguns we need to be concerned about.

But anyway, a circular argument to which there is no solution. We put a man on the moon with the computer power of a 15 year old iPhone and calculators.

I have an idea. Treat bullets like cigarettes. Put a big ass tax on them to support victims of gun violence. Nobody is going to stop buying them, no matter the cost, like cigarettes. Eventually the black market will dry up.