(05-30-2022, 04:38 AM)captivating Wrote:

(05-29-2022, 12:01 PM)The Drifter Wrote: This is why we have so many mass shootings.

A witches’ brew in the cauldron:

— an anti-God philosophy being preached in kindergarten through 12th grade, and in college

— teaching generations that humans are just intelligent animals

— pop culture promoting nihilism (nothing matters)

— self-worship

— overly sexualized young men who become frustrated and blame the world for their celibacy

— violence in all media, music, video games, TV and movies

— unwillingness to institutionalize the mentally ill

— delusions of fame and grandeur

— removal of shame as a form of personal constraint

— and, from a previous gun owner, the ubiquity of firearms in the hands of unstable volatile psychopaths

The result: armed nihilistic psychopaths spurred on by self-loathing, hatred for society, and vengeance in their cold, dead, Godless hearts who willingly kill the most innocent for revenge and fame.

The thing is, every country has violence in the media, delusions of fame, self worship, mental health issues, disenfranchised and/or bullied young people, every other thing that can contribute to people wanting to kill themselves and/or others.

The difference is, availability of guns. The USA is the only country that has more guns than people.

You can try and blame everything and everybody else.  But you are looking right down the barrel of the problem but you chose not to see it.

We're also a pretty big Country population wise and we're either spread out in the middle of nowhere or crammed into cities along the coast lines. This is my biggest complaint and pet peeve when it comes to anybody wanting to compare our Country to any other Country. For example, Norway/Finland/Sweden came up in this thread earlier about their guns per person ratio, whatever. 

Population of USA - 329.5M
Population of Norway - 5.5M
Population of Finland - 5.5M
Population of Sweden - 10.2M

We have cities more heavily populated than some of these entire countries. New York is nearly twice the size of Norway and Finland alone by population. Sweden has 2M more people in it as a Country than New York does as a City. Then you start getting into places like Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, etc. 

It's too complex to say "Well, X can do it, so, why can't we?" and there's a lot of things that people don't want to face and hear about our "Melting Pot" compared to the rest of these, whether you like it or not, it's a fact, predominately one race countries that don't have to deal with a quarter of the racial tension, division and political nonsense that we have to stomach in our own country. Not to also mention, they live in much harsher climate conditions than we do and thus probably rely and see people as more of a commodity rather than an enemy. Especially during the winter months. 

You're also assuming every country has this or every country has that. Have you been to those countries? You can quickly look at Norway on Wikipedia and get a broad picture of what they're like. Norway is nearly 93% white, nearly 75% of their population identifies as Christian, with 68% dedicated to the Church of Norway alone. Less than a quarter of their population at 21% identifies with no religion. The rest being 3% as Islam and less than 1% as Other. 

Lastly, my other problem is this. Everybody on either side of the political aisle lives and dies in and by extremes when it comes to our laws. Especially when it comes to arms and the right to protect your home and especially when it comes to your own flesh and blood and your right to choose what is or is not fit for you as a human being in society. 

I get it. I don't lean left nor right for this particular reason. As I believe the only answer is somewhere in the middle of all of this left Vs. right nonsense that's been going on for far, far too long now in this Country. It quite honestly needs a huge enema and a rebirth of political reformation. Honesty and fairness to be injected back into Society. With no blue bloods and their money from the corporate or global mogul class telling us common folk that have to put our kids in these schools and shop day to day in these diversified areas that they helped politically toxify decade after decade and generation after generation. 

That much I do know. While our country may be deeply rooted in our right to bare arms. The way the media paints this out to be is that we're all demons with an itchy trigger finger. The problem is not the gun. The problem is our Society and the way that we've allowed our lives to be ran by people who simply do not care about you, or us, or our children. There's no sense of community here anymore. I see it in my neighborhoods and I see it when I go out grocery shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. We're not really "human" to each other anymore. It's more like automatons, glued to their phones or tablets or laptops. Completely isolated in their own little bubble or on a social forum. 

It's gross. The availability of guns is not the issue in this case. The issue is that people had their heads so far up their [BLEEP] they couldn't see this coming from a mile away even though the kid gave off clear cut warnings and early enough signs that he was going to do this. Society and the people around him [BLEEP] failed and because of that we lost a lot of innocent children. This is what I mean by we can do better. People need to be held accountable in these positions and they need to really think and react when faced with these circumstances. It all could have been avoided. 

Do I think a gun would have changed the outcome of this scenario? Maybe. I hate to say this. But, people are [BLEEP] evil. Not only evil, but, very clever when it comes to killing people. That kid could have just as easily walked into that school with a homemade pipe bomb, a long knife or blade of some sort, a gallon or two of gasoline and a lighter, a small rifle or shotgun that doesn't have any semi automatic capabilities or fully automatic capabilities and still achieved anything he wanted that day kill count wise. 

If you think I am full of [BLEEP]? Again, since people like to throw numbers out there, you can do this yourself by the way, there's plenty of countries that don't have availability or access to guns and yet they have seen some pretty horrific [BLEEP] happen at a mass level. Look at the Osaka School Massacre in Japan. List goes on and on. 

USA:
1987 - Former airline employee was disgruntled. Shows up and kills 43 people by simply hijacking a passenger plane and crashing it. 
1990 - Happy Land Social Club. Burned down to the ground by an angry ex-lover where his former girlfriend worked. 87 people killed. 
1995 - Oklahoma City Bombing - 168 people were killed with 600 more injured. 
2017 - New York City truck killing. 8 people killed with 11 injured on a bike path. 

Outside USA:
2004 - Spain - 192 deaths with 2000+ injured via Bombing. 
2005 - Great Britain - 52 deaths with 784 injured via Bombing. 
2008 - Japan - Car ramming and stabbing - 7 deaths, 10 injured. 
2014 - China - Car ramming with 6 deaths and 13 injured, same year, again in China, Mass Stabbing - 31 deaths, 143 injured..
2015 - Germany - Plane Crash - 150 deaths. 
2016 - Belgium - Bombing killed 21 people and injured 180. 
2016 - France - Car ramming kills 86 people with 434 people injured. 
2016 - Japan - Mass Stabbing leads to 19 deaths and 45 injured. 
2017 - Great Britain - 22 deaths with 250 injuries via Bombing. 

We have a societal problem in general. Mass shootings are often skewed in this country as well count wise because all it takes is 2+ to be clipped and it counts as "mass" yet that doesn't factor in that it's typically over gangs, family disputes, love triangles or neighborhood conflicts. Jacksonville, FL comes off as a damn warzone on paper, until you break down the location and realize there's like three or four gangs here that I had NO CLUE about until I started digging into it. 

Check this out if anybody's interested. Nearly 5.7M views since being uploaded a year ago. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyIO3B5EFpM

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