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You tell me for I have said I am rather clueless here.
For me there is one obvious BIG difference in American culture compared to similar countries....gun culture.
I'm not an advocate of taking guns away. I have said it a million times, I am naive when it comes to the technology and will not pretend I know which guns should or shouldn't be controlled and what the impact could be either way.
I'm an advocate for dialogue.
Whether or not folks want to address it - the one defining characteristic is the history of guns in this country.
It most definitely may be because of its prominence as an issue in The Constitution.
That's okay
AGAIN - not advocating any specific gun control measures, advocating for the acknowledgement of the issue and a real dialogue.
In the late 70's the NRA completely changed its focus to more political agenda. Over the years it has evolved to the point where the NRA will not even address anything related to even a discussion about the gun culture in the USA...for fear of losing access to guns.
Understandable given that some folks rant and rage about taking away all guns from citizens.
I can't think of any other defining factor that is different.
I don't know what the solution is. Some say the answer is for more people to have guns, for our schools shopping malls -- every place people gather to be secured by armed guards/police. Some say it is controlling access to some guns.
Mental health issues are an issue but as they relate to access of guns.
Universal background checks -- I don't know -- what kind of red flags will there be?
Lots of questions, unknowns but we can't even have the conversation because both sides have folks who have drawn lines in the sand.
Causation is tough to prove; however, I would argue if you add a whole pile of cultural phenomena together it makes the barriers for moral resistance to “evil” much less.
Violent music, video games, movies, culture. Add that with massive amounts of depresssion, anxiety, social decay, isolation, guns, decay of family structure, loss of religion or moral foundation and you have the recipe to a bunch of people willing to do almost anything.
I’m a libertarian aethiest and I value personal liberty above all so the right to partake in any of these things is important. However so is personal accountability and responsibility which goes hand and hand with freedom. For some reason those points are never reconciled or focused upon when we talk about our problems.
The video game ruckus is yet another moral panic. These games have been shown to improve a number of mental skills, and there is no evidence they cause violent behavior despite repeated studies looking for a correlation.
Violent music, video games, movies, culture. Add that with massive amounts of depresssion, anxiety, social decay, isolation, guns, decay of family structure, loss of religion or moral foundation and you have the recipe to a bunch of people willing to do almost anything.
Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen significantly since peaking in the 1990s. How you explain this in light of your conjecture?
Do you honestly believe video games cause people to kill others?
Video games are designed and distributed around the world. If they have any influence at all there would have to be another reason they have a disproportionate affect on the USA.
I'm so sick and tired of whenever there's a shooting or whatever, all these old people that have no idea what they're talking about like to blame video games, like after Columbine they pointed out how the shooters liked to play DOOM. It's not even a liberal/conservative issue as all of them like to blame video games for people behaving badly, like in '93 it was the democrats who had hearings and criticized violent video games, and mortal kombat.
Well, if the whole issue is "it causes people to be violent" shouldn't we ban sports? How many times after a sports game have crazy drunken sports fans went out burning cars, getting into fights, rioting etc.? All the time! But it's the video games that are the problem...sure.
I just hate how they always want to throw their 2c in things they no nothing about.
It is not old people who do not understand video games, OP. This is the NRA and the Republicans pulling out the tired old mental health and video game violence excuse. It was and is the expected and transparent deflection from the issue of guns.
If we frame the issue as one of mental health or exposure to violence, we delay actions related to addressing the primary tool of these assaults—guns. "Oh gosh look over there, its video games and mental health...its not guns."
It is time for our political officials to put aside lobbied interests and focus on the evidence—mass shootings occur, and guns make these atrocities all too easy and frequent. Our politicians need to look toward gun reforms now and take action. Such reforms should include a ban on assault weapons, ban on large-capacity magazines, universal background checks and close those loopholes, stiffer licensing laws, red flag laws, and lifting of all Federal restrictions on gun violence research.
Last edited by corpgypsy; 08-10-2019 at 10:08 AM..
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