I’m a liberal and I definitely think we need tighter restrictions on guns in the U.S., but people today seem to have forgotten that we’ve had essentially the same gun laws for forever
Sure but the same party that works so hard against increased legislation for gun control gutted our mental health infrastructure and votes against funding and rebuilding it at every opportunity. They aren’t interested in solving either end of the problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_Health_Systems_Act_of_1980
https://sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html
This last one is a ddg search - you can just pick which article you want to read about Republicans voting against mental health funding.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=republicans+vote+against+mental+health+funding
You’re missing my point. Mental health issues aren’t the primary problem when it comes to firearm violence and deaths. Republican resistance to laws that attempt to address mental health issues deserves pointing out, but not so much in this context, because that’s not the main issue at hand. Liberals can be commended for attempting to do something about the problem more than Republicans are, but what I’ve seen of their views on the topic indicates to me that they too are missing the point. The problem isn’t guns or severe psychiatric problems; there’s a cultural element that no one (including Democrats, for some reason) aren’t willing to address. Until we identify and focus on the actual problem, no progress will be made, because we’ll just continue to fight about stuff that isn’t that relevant.
there’s a cultural element
Yup, it’s the sick concept of firearms culture, where holding a weapon becomes a character trait and the right to military arms is somehow necessary to protect one’s home. It’s fucking deranged.
You’re missing my point.
Sorry, and thanks for claifying.
there’s a cultural element that no one (including Democrats, for some reason) aren’t willing to address.
Is that cultural problem something other than “a good chunk of gun owners fetishize their guns and the 2A itself to the point where preserving those things matters much more to them than the fact that we’ve now traumatized a generation of kids with active shooter drills, and death by guns has become the top killer of children” - because I can certainly agree that this is a cultural problem, but can’t begin to imagine what we’d do about it that doesn’t involve changes to our gun laws.
Clearly empathy and logic hold no sway with folks who feel that way sooo…
While I do think gun fetishism contributes, the vast majority of gun fetishists aren’t shooting up schools, and many people who are really into guns are also really into gun safety.
If I had to point a finger at any one cultural contributor, I’d say it’s actually mass shootings themselves and the way our society has reacted to them in the past. These are always (understandably) treated like major tragedies, but people always want to know what was going on with the shooter, why they did it. There’s ironically this huge outpouring of empathy (not sympathy) for the shooter, and these are often people who were very isolated and alone prior to their rampage. I think a big part of the reason we’re seeing the rate of these mass shootings increase is that other loners are seeing that going out in this manner draws attention to whatever their personal cause was. So, it’s a suicide method, but one that makes it likely people will finally start paying real attention to the issues the person felt plagued by, which is obviously attractive for a suicidal person.
The reason I don’t think mental health issues are that relevant, despite what I just said, is that most suicidal people wouldn’t even dream of going out in this manner. For those who do, I think there’s other factors that make them prone to going out violently. Having problems with society and disliking the direction of cultural change is a big one, for example. There’s a reason most mass shooters are conservative–traditionalism is on the way out in many respects, and a lot of people aren’t happy about it.
Outside of mass shootings though, I also think there’s a different kind of gun fetishism prevalent in poor, urban, cultures—and as much as people may not like acknowledging it—predominantly Black communities within those contexts. Some branches of rap have glorified guns and thug culture in general, and I do think this has contributed to the prevalence of gun crime in the U.S.
There are certainly many more cultural aspects that are relevant, but I think those are some of the strongest contributing factors.
