(05-27-2022, 08:05 AM)Lucky2Last Wrote:

(05-27-2022, 12:24 AM)captivating Wrote: There are countless things that could be done. But they depend on the appetite for change. The facts are that enough people don't want change, which is absolutely fine.  But these same people shouldn't pretend to be shocked when these shootings happen.  Worse is when they offer hollow thoughts and prayers.

What do you want them to change? There are 400 million guns in this country. Your odds of being killed by one after you take away suicides and accidental deaths is astronomically low. Even when you include them, your odds of dying to them are less than getting hit by lightning. If you just take schools and school shootings, the odds are so incredibly rare. I don't have the data on this last guy, but every other school shooter was on some kind of behavioral drug. The problems in this country are largely cultural. We have no identity. We have no shared sense of purpose. We rely too much on chemically castrating our children. Maybe the solution IS more thoughts and prayers. Not just when people die, but in general. We need to fix the hate and apathy, because that is causing this problem.

Some excellent points, especially on the abuse and misuse of behavioral drugs and the lack of cultural identity.  The 400 million guns is often raised, typically in a "well the problem is too big to fix now". Why is there a need for people to own self loading rifles and handguns? Why do people need guns in the first place? And be brutally honest about the need for guns.  Write a list of reasons from most important to least important and draw a line where the need isn't strong enough. I'm not asking you to publish it. Just to think about where you think the need ends and then what type of gun meets that need.

As I have said before, change wont happen and you know what, that's fine.  But people like Ted Cruz can stop deflecting and pretending the problem is someone, something or somewhere else.  Or, more pointedly stop pretending that easy access to unnecessary guns isn't a contributing factor.  If a State wants to allow such easy access to guns, then this is going to happen.

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