Gun culture in the US

[jyng1]

I was thinking of sharing a story about a guy at work being an example of why women are less safe with guns in the home than without and then thought Madrigal would probably get mad at me if I shared it. Let's just say highly emotional breakups, shotguns and alcohol don't go well together...

I was also talking to a 501 today who left NZ when he was two and moved with his family to Brisbane. He's of Samoan heritage and his whole family is in Australia (grandparents 'n all). He's about 20 and has no one here; all his family and friends are in Brisbane and he has no support. He speaks like an Australian, he acts like an Australian, he was educated in Australian schools and he has no memory of New Zealand yet they kicked him out for us to look after. He was asking about having his criminal record wiped after seven years and if he could do that whether they'd allow him back. I told him it was an immigration issue so probably not.

He found out about video visits today so I was helping him get that organised. Poor little cunt.

[djm]

The middle east is safer than the U.S. my bro... https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... n-violence

This is a very male-centric view.

I have a gun pointed at my head three times in the Middle East and once in Africa, never had it happen in the US. Also have to agree with Starla also, it is not great being a woman in much of the region.

[jyng1]

The middle east is safer than the U.S. my bro... https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... n-violence

This is a very male-centric view.

I have a gun pointed at my head three times in the Middle East and once in Africa, never had it happen in the US. Also have to agree with Starla also, it is not great being a woman in much of the region.

Cool anecdote bro.

[djm]

Cool anecdote bro.

First time it happened was in Yemen when I got into a political argument with a local Warlord on his mango farm. His bodyguards all raised their AK47s, which was bad form as I hadn't started it and was armed only with a pencil.

Anyways I am not very macho, and the less guns I have to encounter the better! I still find it very odd seeing people sat in bars open carrying in the US, don't think I will ever get used to it. I prefer living somewhere where the only time you would see a gun is at a pheasant shoot.

[Utisz]

I always post this video in these threads about shootings, but in this case it seems particularly pertinent given that the two events were so close together:



Seems like an easy (and yet impossible) way to reduce mass shootings: localise the media coverage and make it as bland as possible.

[starla]

I always post this video in these threads about shootings, but in this case it seems particularly pertinent given that the two events were so close together:

Two? Does VA beach not count? I suppose that was a more run of the mill American shooting, not a crazy lone gunman killing strangers. Though the one fatality was apparently just a lady in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Seems like an easy (and yet impossible) way to reduce mass shootings: localise the media coverage and make it as bland as possible.

I've always felt this way about terrorist attacks. You don't terrorize nearly as many people if nobody knows about it, and the cause doesn't get any airtime.

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Seems like an easy (and yet impossible) way to reduce mass shootings: localise the media coverage and make it as bland as possible.

I've always felt this way about terrorist attacks. You don't terrorize nearly as many people if nobody knows about it, and the cause doesn't get any airtime.

But you gotta chase those sweet ratings, though. Nothing sells like a sensational story.

[Roger Mexico]

I still find it very odd seeing people sat in bars open carrying in the US, don't think I will ever get used to it. I prefer living somewhere where the only time you would see a gun is at a pheasant shoot.

For the record, this isn't actually normal behavior here. People who do it want it to be seen as an act of political protest against gun control (though I suspect its effect on many people is the opposite of what they intend), and it's therefore not something you'd see many people doing very often, unless you happen to be in a place with an unusually large number of unusually motivated political gun nuts.

Most states have laws that restrict "concealment" of weapons (typically, you need a personal license to do this, with some states placing burden of proof on the applicant to demonstrate a special need for the weapon while others will hand out licenses to anyone who asks for one as long as nothing in their background specifically disqualifies them), but the wording of these laws often make them technically inapplicable to situations where someone is carrying a gun that, due to size or some other factor, is immediately obvious to everyone around them.


A few years back, certain gun-rights activist groups came up with the idea of conspicuously "open carrying" in places no one else would normally bring a gun to, in the hopes of "normalizing" the concept of having armed randos in one's vicinity while out in mundane public places, and convincing the rest of the general public that it's not something they should feel any anxiety about.

(Which, again, doesn't seem like a well thought out plan to me, since many or perhaps even most people are likely to feel more anxious about guns when they know there's a gun in their immediate vicinity than they would otherwise... but I digress.)


So it's not like it's an actual American custom to lug the weight of a rifle around with you on all of your daily errands for no particular reason.

It's something that a small number of people do as a political publicity stunt--though I''d guess that in some cases the real motive has more to do with being cheeky, and bothering other people on purpose, as opposed to a misguided attempt to reassure them, or make any substantive point about public policy beyond "Neener neener, Molon Labe."

[starjots]

Gun culture is a thing now and so many people have invested a significant portion of their identity into it that I doubt anything will change in my lifetime. "If I want to, I can kill somebody just by squeezing this trigger." That's how I see it, a fantasy power that substitutes for actual power.

Practically speaking, I believe in self defense, I just don't believe in lethal self-defense in most situations. And John Q Public is right in pointing out the cops aren't going to be there in time to save you most of the time. There should be more effective alternatives for non-lethal force. I keep a war club behind the front door, but if someone really decided to come for me, I doubt it would do much good.

[jyng1]

Practically speaking, I believe in self defense, I just don't believe in lethal self-defense in most situations.

The self defense that isn't... Two thirds of U.S. gun deaths are suicides and most of the rest are probably spouses and children.