I try not to be a conspiracy guy, but it is odd that there are 4 times as many mass shootings under democratic Presidents. Either the economy/messaging is such that it encourages this type of behavior, the feds are not policing it as well, or it's just a HUGE coincident that these things escalate when a Democrat is in office.

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(05-27-2022, 11:29 AM)captivating Wrote:

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

There are more guns in this country now, but access to guns was significantly easier until the mid 80's. Now, less households have guns than ever before, and they are harder to acquire. However, those who do own guns tend to own more than they used to. Even still, this problem is on the rise. We need to do a better job with our children. 

I can give you plenty of reasons for owning guns, but I will do it later. I am feeling pretty sick.

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