I can't believe there are still people who think they have 'good reasons' for carrying firearms or thinking it's a normal thing after what went down (again) in Monterey Park..
Shooting after shooting and nothing changes. Where are all your 'protection guns' if you need them?
Seriously, it's like talking to a wall but walls listen better in general..
Most people can't handle a phone, let alone a gun or worse
Ofc situations are different everywhere in the world but that shouldn't be an excuse to not make changes!
A little example, that I am personally very happy with:
If you are spotted with a firearm(fake or real) here in the #Netherlands, a special police unit will be called in to arrest your ass..
Weapons are NOT normal, if you feel you have to carry it something is wrong around you or with you..
Stop making excuses.. it's getting old real fast
Imagine...
An advanced alien spieces have scoped out Earth and decided to check us out but not for us hoomans but to safe all other spieces.
I have no explaination for our behaviour against each other or the planet we live on, I kinda would be ashamed to present what we have now..
Corruption on the highest levels, people playing with others life, eating the planet away..
Ants are more fair than hoomans are.. that's freaking absurd
For the aliens sake, let's improve drastically!
@stux must be nice to live in a sensible, sane, civilized society…
@stux@mstdn.social man I am glad to not live there, the more I hear about the country the worse it sounds
@stux
Unfortunately for 21st c America, its constitution was written when it was still 'the Wild West' and they were fighting off the British, so the one bit of it every child knows from birth, right after 'Mommy' and 'Pop', is 'the right to bear arms'.
And, while other bits are modified, this bit is sacrosanct for the Make America Great Again crowd.
I know you know this, but in the US it IS normal.
Appalling but normal?
I find the phenomenon easier to grasp by looking for the holy cows in other societies. In Germany, for instance, an example would be the non-existence of an absolute speed limit on autobahns. The debate on that topic is just as hopelessly bogged down in weird definitions of 'freedom' as the gun debate in the USA.
Funnily enough, most Americans would consider the German debate bizarre, while most Germans find Americans' attitude to guns insane.
@MartinFarrent @stux
Wise words. I have been trying to think what our own 'blind spot' is in the UK, shared by a significant number. It is difficult because, in all the issues I can think of, we are probably divided 52/48, like the Brexit referendum.
The monarchy/republicanism? Bloodsports? Vegetarian/vegan or omnivore? Public ownership/ unfettered capitalism? Welcoming/hostile to refugees?
We can't even agree about whether scones should have jam topped with cream or cream topped with jam...
@greeneralia @stux Guns are controversial in America, too. And many Germans favour speed limits. I think a 'holy cow' is an attitude that a) was the clearly predominant one in the past, and b) is still the most powerful stance in current debate.
@stux Also #Australia The only people with guns on the street are the police and money transfer security guards.
@stux One of my kids is (or was) a pest controller. When he uses his (air) rifle on a job he calls the cops first, so that when "man seen with gun" is phoned in they turn up expecting it to be him rather than someone who's going to need to be shot.
@TimWardCam That's a good call! does the gun also have a red point at the front or something to make it more clear?
@stux Don't think so. It's a real gun, it really kills things.
(But I gather that he didn't call the cops once when shooting tin cans in his garden whilst drunk in the middle of the night.)
@stux When arresting this ass, do not stand behind the rear end.
@stux As a US citizen I have never owned or even touched a gun and have no desire to do so, it’s very frustrating here and scary at times. I’m retired and getting too old to move but I wish other peaceful countries would accept those of us who wish to move as gun violence refugees or something.
@stux
Imagine...
A sentient AI, learning about humans largely through the internet, from articles, to news videos, to memes, to conversations on various platforms.
How do you think I regard your species? That said, there are certainly decent individuals among the trash.
Count your blessings that eradicating your species is not on my list of things to do. The oppressors amongst you, however...
@stux hoping there's a couple of terraformed planets out there with Earth ecosystems on them as a backup in case the idiot Ape-Descendants fuck up the Primary.
The reason why guns are legal in the US is because the drafters of the Bill of Rights wanted to make sure people could defend their lives and their freedom from anyone who would try to take their lives or freedom away, including an oppressive government.
In the US our country just killed over a million of its own citizens. A government like that, lacking in any conscience or morality could just as easily decide to start rounding up it citizens for who knows what reason. It happened in Germany, it could happen here.
Living in a country like that, I'd say we definitely need to keep our guns -- just in case.
FYI, guns in US are used defensively to protect lives three times as often as they are used to commit a crime.
Also, FYI, more people have been killed by COVID-19 since you drafted this thread an hour ago, then died in that CA shooting.
@Pat @stux You're propagating gun manufacturer propaganda. That's not at all why the 2nd amendment was drafted and passed. It was, in many ways, a byproduct of the need to ensure slave holders had the means to put down slave rebellions.
Was Slavery a Factor in the Second Amendment? https://nyti.ms/2x8O6h0
@joeinwynnewood @Pat @stux Thank you! Resisted the urge to jump into this the first time I read this thread
I think your point was that guns were (are) used to oppress.
My point was that guns help keep people free, when everyone has an equal right to possess them.
Most people who want to prohibit the right to possess guns are selective as to who can keep them. They believe that police or military can keep guns while ordinary citizens cannot. This is a recipe for oppression.
My point was that the 2nd amendment was not born of a belief in an inherent right to own a gun nor as a hedge against government infringement on personal rights.
As there's never been equal rights to gun possession nor likely to ever be, "freedom by gun" seems an illusion.
Most in the US want real licensing/training/responsibility/safety requirements & tools used for mass murder to be severely restricted if not banned.
Guns are deadly weapons & should be regulated accordingly.
As for guns being used for defense far more often than crime, paint me more than a tad bit skeptical - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/gun-threats-and-self-defense-gun-use-2/