It's a combination though isn't it? The last thing you need in a toxic bullying environment is easy availability of guns. — Baden
It is a nasty combination and one that can be reduced by responsible gun owners keeping their firearms locked up, securely held and our children properly trained in what to do when they see a gun, how to handle it and who to notify if you stumble across a firearm. — ArguingWAristotleTiff
But many gun owners aren't responsible. Is there a way to force them to be so short of threatening to take their guns off them? — Baden
The American obsession with guns is not behavioral. What's behavioral is the epidemic of bullying in middle and high schools. This Texas kid is yet another example of someone who was teased, belittled, and ostracized, not only by classmates, but by staff and teachers, as well. And if the one report I read is correct, then the shooter picked who to shoot, sparing those students who were likely kind and didn't bully him.
Being a millennial myself, and having experienced all sorts of different schools in several states, I don't see a gun issue when shootings like the Texas one happen, I see the effects of bullying and the utterly toxic and psychologically warped environment that is now the prevailing habitat in schools across America. It's pernicious, and I've seen first hand how most students aren't willing to be better or to check their own behavior and how it affects others. The world's just a fucking joke and a meme to kids of my generation, and the consequences of their actions have no bearing on their behavior. It's sickening to me, and I get tired of seeing people blame guns and Nazis and whatever else when there are some seriously fucked up shit going on schools and other places that contribute hugely to people doing even more terrible things. — Buxtebuddha
You do not need to be a gun, or even explosives, collector to be dangerous to your kids. Most parents are careless with house cleaning products that are poisonous or flammable. Lots of parents don't have child protection locks on doors to places that can be harmful to kids. — Sir2u
But I would like to ask how many of these mass murderers used their family's guns to kill people?
I know that there have been many accidents and murders with the house protection weapon caused through carelessness or ease of access. But mass murders usually acquire their weapons just for that purpose and most families have no idea they have them. — Sir2u
But many gun owners aren't responsible. — Baden
Is there a way to force them to be so short of threatening to take their guns off them? — Baden
It's a crap shoot Baden — ArguingWAristotleTiff
Except bullying isn't an epidemic exclusive to American schools. In fact, boys ages 11-15, in nations such as Canada, Switzerland, France, and Ireland have reported being bullied more often than boys in the USA. The only epidemic exclusive to the USA is the virulent obsession with guns. — Maw
But in your eagerness to blame everything save for the weapons themselves — Maw
"Ban guns" may sound easy, and there are many measures we can and ought to take — Buxtebuddha
It's a combination though isn't it? — Baden
Yes — Buxtebuddha
This is precisely the toxic masculinity that we often speak about on the Left, and women have every right to fear for their lives over it. — Maw
Also the shooter literally had images on Nazi symbols on his now deactivated social media accounts, so it seems weird that we can't literally blame Nazism when the proof is in the pudding. — Maw
Toxic masculinity is a horseshit and repulsive idea employed by sexists like you who want to make predatory and abusive behavior singular to the male sex. A creep is a creep, but if you want to fit people into your own perverted categories, go right on ahead, just don't expect people to take you seriously when you do. — Buxtebuddha
Yes, I'm sure Pagourtzis reads Mein Kampf, speaks fluent Bavarian German, has blonde hair and blue eyes, owns a Nazi Party membership booklet, yodels from the Alps, hates every Stein in the world... — Buxtebuddha
Ah, so when confronted with statistics that are at variance to your armchair analysis, those surveyed must simply be liars. — Maw
That's the precisely type of absurd obtuseness I've repeatedly come to expect from you, Buxtebuddha. I guess the real epidemic here is that boys in various developed countries are lying! I did read your post - a vexing experience as usual - and it's filled with indigent scrutiny including bullying — Maw
some strain of millennial nihilism — Maw
dismissive — Maw
apathetic — Maw
A) ignores the indisputable fact that the preponderance of guns is the only correlative answer as to why American gun violence far outstrips that of other developed nations — Maw
B) misses the point entirely, because gun violence is not reducible to school shootings, but is an every day occurrence in America. — Maw
Let's be clear: toxic masculinity does not preclude the fact that women can be also abusive, predatory, or creepy. These are not exclusive phenomenon. But you are hopelessly clueless if you cannot acknowledge the extremity of toxic masculinity in practice, including Isla Vista, his imitator, and now the recent Santa Fe shooting. — Maw
Ah, so any modern form of Nazism is innocuous, because it needs to fit a certain stereotype in a certain time period that not even Hitler himself measures up to. Breathtakingly brilliant. — Maw
I've come to the conclusion it's more of a cultural thing though and isn't going to change in the foreseeable. — Baden
What kind of a right do you think it is, and how do you think that right works?You're telling me that you don't think freedom and protecting said freedom is a right? — ep3265
Hello! What planet are you on? Or, why aren't you on the road even as we speak protecting yourself, and presumably the rest of us, by using your gun on the folks who bring you these tyrannies. And who do you think authored the tyrannies you name?An example of a tyranny I would rebel against would be one that redistributes my wealth to the poor, invades my right to privacy, and throws me in jail without habeas corpus. — ep3265
Sure, but this is not a right for an individual to own a gun. If you think it is, do some more reading. If' you're convinced it is, then you're the victim of a fraud. See two links to two videos I posted above, one with Chief Justice Earl Warren and the other with (?) Stephen Breyer. If you think any right in the Constitution is absolute, then you don't fully understand the document (see video of Justice Souter speaking at Harvard).which is why the right to bear arms is written in the constitution — ep3265
What kind of a right do you think it is, and how do you think that right works?
Or, why aren't you on the road even as we speak protecting yourself, and presumably the rest of us, by using your gun on the folks who bring you these tyrannies. — tim wood
Sure, but this is not a right for an individual to own a gun. — tim wood
If you think any right in the Constitution is absolute, then you don't fully understand the document (see video of Justice Souter speaking at Harvard). — tim wood
I noticed the references provided for statistics referred mainly to crimes. A lot of gun violence is not the result of a crime. — tim wood
Anything about these numbers strike you as interesting? — tim wood
Yes, they have, they are. Not that they're all atrocities. They're part of the air we breathe, which is perhaps why you don't even recognize them.Because none of these atrocities have been realized. — ep3265
I was thinking civil right or natural right. Human right... what's that?I don't really understand that question. I think it's a human right, as do most Americans. I think it works because of the standards of living in America. — ep3265
Three words: individual, person, people. They're not the same; they don't mean the same thing. And are you a well-regulated militia?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. — ep3265
You must be referring to crimes which involved gun violence. I was referring to the violence that a gun causes, whether in a crime or not. You might want to take some time and research the meaning of the word "crime."Um, yes it is. Gun violence is by definition a crime. — ep3265
More egregious than they really are? And it's not a price we pay for freedom; it's the price we all pay, some more than others, for a lunatic license.The news media over blows things out of proportion to make certain crimes seem more egregious than they really are, and even though they are very sad and devastating, it's our price for freedom. — ep3265
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