Are school shootings simply the result of capitalism?

[tonni]

I was attempting to leverage Africa by Toto's recent surge in popularity into a joke.

In the wake of this failed attempt at humour, I'm gonna take some time to do the things I never had....like have funny jokes.

The worst part is that I understood the reference, and I thought it was funny, but then I thought "What if this guy seriously thinks I bless the rains of Africa? It's sherdog."

How did it become more popular? Stranger things?

 

[Prokofievian]

The worst part is that I understood the reference, and I thought it was funny, but then I thought "What if this guy seriously thinks I bless the rains of Africa? It's sherdog."

How did it become more popular? Stranger things?

South Park - the member berries episode, I think.

 

[Neph]

I get what you’re saying and it’s a valid argument, I just disagree with the premise that Gun control will bring the US murder rate anywhere close to in line with the rest of the world.

As I pointed out earlier, the rest of the world has had the luxury of a comparatively minuscule murder rate even BEFORE they instituted gun control.

Then consider that countries who instituted gun control recently saw no better murder rate declines as the gun happy US. This calls into question the idea that gun control had any effect on murder rates.

Then consider that there are more guns in the US than people, calling into question whether it’s even possible to ban guns at all.

And lastly, remember that today’s buzz word in the American gun control crowd is “assault weapons” which account for about 1 to 2 percent of gun homicides. Their entire policy prescription is based on the preferred gun of mass shooters, as opposed to what would actually have a marked effect on murder rates.

I agree it's a huge task, but the size of the task shouldn't stop people from trying. I don't believe that a gun ban is what is really being proposed but rather some basic sanctions and safeties put in place such as:
1) don't give guns to the criminally insane
2) don't give guns to people who have past violent criminal histories
3) don't give guns to people on terrorist watch lists

As for Assault Rifles I think they are just the low hanging fruit. I don't want to get into the technicalities of definitions but we all broadly know what kind of things they are talking about, and those semantics are just to try and dissuade real conversation. Assault Rifles are low hanging fruit because they are surely not for self defence and they have the capacity to kill the most amount of people in the least amount of time. They are a weapon of warfare, not self defence.

I can't imagine there will be any significant success for at least a generation, the whole culture of guns is far too much to be realistically changed quickly. In addition the slow changes to gun ownership will take a long time to filter through as there are huge stockpiles out there and some narrow minded people will point out the next gun tragedy as if the system doesn't work. Fuck those people, they have a small mind and an unhealthy agenda.

This is a uniquely American problem and the hard questions have to be asked. A uniquely American love is for the gun...

 

[The Penetrator]

To read the arguments of gun lovers.... i mean... one guy seriously asked should we also ban swimming pools cause people die there too... jeeeesus christ...

 

[Tiny]

In life theies always going to be haves and have nots...i mean how the fuck do you stop that?

“Hey dude stop trying more than the lowest denominator or else!”

My blame goes to doctors over perscribing mood altering drugs. Because they get kick backs by big pharama

 

[Tiny]

To read the arguments of gun lovers.... i mean... one guy seriously asked should we also ban swimming pools cause people die there too... jeeeesus christ...

Let me ask ya a question as a former “ban guns solve everything” person...

We now live in a world where people get into trucks and plow into crowds...

If someone wants to kill lots of people, its likely gonna happen.

So my argument now is why are people getting to that point that they want to kill lots of people?

Figure that out and you solve the problem.

 

[Tiny]

In so far as you specifically mean American Capitalism, as that in some part, large or small ties into American culture. There is clearly something rotten in American culture that's causing young men to do this at exorbitantly higher rates than most other cultures.

Yes, access to guns for individuals with strong homicidal or suicidal ideations is a problem, but it's not THE problem.

Addressing gun access to homicidal people is a Flintstones band-aid that you're slapping on an axe wound.

There is some serious issue, or more likely, combination of issues in American culture that is leading to this outcome.

Big pharma

 

[Throttlehead]

In life theies always going to be haves and have nots...i mean how the fuck do you stop that?

“Hey dude stop trying more than the lowest denominator or else!”

My blame goes to doctors over perscribing mood altering drugs. Because they get kick backs by big pharama

And the NRA gets kickbacks from gun manufacturers, then the NRA gives the money to politicians that will make law to sell more guns. How the hell could this kid buy a AR-15 at 18years old, yet he couldn't buy a handgun till 21, not to mention he was in and out of mental therapy. The GOP cowards cant even ban bump stocks, or get universal extended background checks, terrorists on no fly list can still buy guns. One of Trumps first executive actions was to reverse Obama's on mental people not being able to own guns. The NRA has blood on their hands. Gun stocks will go up today as usual.

3% of the people in USA own 1/2 the total number of guns, only 25% own guns, 15% are hunters. Its a very small loud minority, the NRA, gun makers, that are running the show. But tribal and partisan people follow along just like they planned.

 

[The Penetrator]

Let me ask ya a question as a former “ban guns solve everything” person...

We now live in a world where people get into trucks and plow into crowds...

If someone wants to kill lots of people, its likely gonna happen.

So my argument now is why are people getting to that point that they want to kill lots of people?

Figure that out and you solve the problem.

I dont think banning guns would change much, i just found the strawman arguments hillarious, perticulary the one guy who proposed ban on swimming pools...

Also i think equating trucks, knives, forks and other things that have uses like driving or eating but can also be used to hurt people, with guns wich have one purpose only that is to kill ( or practice killing, if you will ) , as effective as possible, is also pretty retarded...

My opinion is, main reason USA is where its at atm, is the infinite company growth model, where a company makes 100 billion making guns, selling prescription drugs, locking people up, feeding people, or whatever, but needs to make 105 billion next year in order to stay relevant on the stock market, cause stagnation is bad for business... Consequences of that model is that now you guys have more guns than people, 60% of population on perscription drugs, millions locked up, overfeeding, over consuming, and all those numbers are just gonna keep growing. You guys put the dollar above everything else, and mock everyone else for not having same ammount of dollars as you, even though half of your profit is made by hurting your own people or invading other countries...

Infinite corporational growth = infinite decay of humanism

 

[oldshadow]

What did we give up "hurr durr freedums"?

No, we just don't have adults who think being able to play with their toys (penis extensions, cause that's all they are you insecure cucks) is worth a few dozen dead kids per year.

You sound like a 15 year old trying to make some point he has no clue about.

We have already talked about our 2nd amendment and then there is the 1st amendment (freedom of speech).

 

[oldshadow]

We think its worth it. Aussie here. You guys can do whatever you want but we think its weird like your tipping culture, lack of metric system

Which is fine and it's your country you make the rules .

Some things l like about the way you do things but mostly I like our way, but this is where I was born and raised.

I love traveling and respect my host when I am there but I love home best as they say.

 

[RerouteToRemain]

We didn't actually "ban guns" you know.

Forced registration, outlawing different types of guns and then forced confiscation sounds like banning guns to me. But no, they didn't ban all guns. They have pushed to ban lever and pump guns in the past couple years as well.

 

[Ruprecht]

Forced registration, outlawing different types of guns and then forced confiscation sounds like banning guns to me. But no, they didn't ban all guns. They have pushed to ban lever and pump guns in the past couple years as well.

Registration is not a ban and already existed pre-'96. The "push" to ban the Adler shotgun was just media kafuffle, largely resulting from the attention guns get here after you lot have your latest mass shooting. There's been no push against the Remington pump action rifles (about the only ones available). Pump action shotguns and semi-auto rimfires are essentially restricted to primary producers and land owners, there's been no change there (there are ways for others to get a class C licence, so really it's just bureaucratic hoops). Semi-autos (centre-fire) weren't outlawed, but heavily restricted to professional shooters (for pest control, class D licence). There was a buyback, no forced confiscation in the sense of someone coming to take the guns. If you "lost" your existing registered firearms you had to sign an affadavit to that effect.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

First, social media platforms and the internet would theoretically exist in a non capitalistic landscape -- as would people having more time to view them - psychotropic drugs could be more prevalent in a demand side society because people would have access to them without needing the funds to do so.

And every developed world with high standards of living employs capitalism and materialism (take it youve never been to Switzerland) and they dont have the prevalence of school shootings.

lol


Glad to see it didn't take long for this to get pointed out.


Crazy people that want to commit acts of violence for whatever reason against other people will always exist. And they will always find ways when they've made up their twisted minds to carry these acts out. Whether thru guns, bombs, knives, poison.. whatever.


These defective products live and breath on every continent, exist within every country, and all walks of life -poor, rich, middle class.. Crazy is not exclusive or loyal to any specific political ideology, social structure, or religion. It's most common element is humanity.


Good luck.

 

[MassDistortion]

99.999999% of AR15s are used for shooting paper targets at a range, so I guess that's their primary use.
I think the statistic is 300 people +\- every year in a country of 320,000,000 are killed by one.

yeah it's just a testament to how powerful the media is in swaying people. 325 million people / millions of ar15's; 300 people killed by rifles(and not even necessarily by ar15's. Medical negligence is responsible for 300k deaths a year. Let's ban doctors. Cigarettes and second hand smoke kill 535k people a year. Let's ban cigarettes.

 

[RerouteToRemain]

Registration is not a ban and already existed pre-'96. The "push" to ban the Adler shotgun was just media kafuffle, largely resulting from the attention guns get here after you lot have your latest mass shooting. There's been no push against the Remington pump action rifles (about the only ones available). Semi-autos weren't outlawed, but heavily restricted to professional shooters (for pest control). There was a buyback, no forced confiscation in the sense of someone coming to take the guns. If you "lost" your existing registered firearms you had to sign an affadavit to that effect.

A forced buy back is essential confiscation.

 

[Roaming East]

mass shootings the result of capitalism? Dumbest thing ive read all week. Wasteland this bitch.

 

[Ruprecht]

A forced buy back is essential confiscation.

Essentially, but usually the compensation was above resale value. That's a lot different to just having the guns confiscated.
People were happy to hand in clapped out old .22s at the rates offered.

 

[RerouteToRemain]

Essentially, but usually the compensation was above resale value. That's a lot different to just having the guns confiscated.
People were happy to hand in clapped out old .22s at the rates offered.

I guess that's a plus. I've read about some voluntary ones here and in other places offering like $100-200, wouldn't even cover the cost of the triggers I use.

 

[DespicablePeep]

Absolutely, yes. You'll take heat for the suggestion by people who can only make direct causal analyses, but tangentially it absolutely is related to capitalism: the capitalist forces that lobby the government against the interests of its people and prevents more fluid attempts at policy making re gun violence prevention, the capitalist forces that pursue and accomplish the state-sanctioned sale of millions of firearms to known terrorist states, the capitalist forces that fetishize weapons to sell movies, toys, and video games, the capitalist voices that insulate the spread of death from ethical concerns of those wielding the machinery, etc., etc.

Simply the result, perhaps not. But partially the result, undoubtedly.

Our own short comings are never ours, Its always the "system".