• Not sure what this instances views on “advocating violence” are, so I’m trying to explain it as non-violently as I still can:

    Americans want gun control. That’s not up for discussion. It’s an absurd majority.

    However, as long as it is “only” school children and ordinary civilians dying, Republicans will not change their stance on gun control in the slightest. The people who are responsible to fix this are the only group that is not at any risk of getting shot. They are so absurdly protected that they will never be on the receiving end of a barrel, and therefore, do not care.

    And to make matters worse, the Republicans dictating the supreme court, who will block anything that could possible address this problem, not only cannot be voted out, no, they literally have to die before they can be replaced.

    The only people who could fix the gun murder issue are the ones not dying because of guns.

    • I dont think you are advocating for violence, but there was a shooting at a Congressional baseball game and it didnt push the Republicanw towards passing legislation to control guns at all. It is extremely disturbing how little of a fuck they give.

    • Hell and that’s a Fox “News” poll, so that would likely have their own flavor of bias trying to make it as much in their own favor as possible.

      I don’t see this as advocating for violence, more as pointing out how a specific group of people only care about things that personally affect them so they currently don’t care about the issue.

      Hell the NRA cared about gun control when the Black Panthers started advocating for buying guns back in the day. Why? Because they saw it as a personal threat to their well-being.

      • Hell and that’s a Fox “News” poll

        That’s why I instantly saved it to my phone. This picture has such a high value in “discussions” with gun freaks.

        I’m working for a NATO countries’ military, am a frequent poster and avid follower of NonCredibleDefense, own weapons myself, know a lot about their inner workings and history, but even I am not even remotely as crazy as those people.

        Then again, I do own several weapons but advocate that my government pass laws to take them away. Guess I’m kind of a paradoxical outlier in this matter.

          •  Grayox   ( @Grayox@lemmy.ml ) OP
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            1 year ago

            I used to be an avid gun owner till my father used one of his guns to take his life, he carried one his whole life to protect our family, and it ended up causing more harm than any mugger or home invader ever could imagine. If you ever have suicidal ideations please leave your firearms with a trusted comrade till you get help. I had ideations almost my whole adult life and thought i could resist them till the day I died, which was technically true, but not in the sense I thought. I pawned my guns, shortly after his death, and haven’t had those ideations since. The vast majority of gun deaths are self inflicted and get swept under the rug by families and the news.

            • I agree whole heartedly that if you have suicidal thoughts you shouldn’t own firearms. It’s a recipe for disaster if you do. And if you have those thoughts you should seek help. There’s people in your life who will miss you dearly when you’re gone, even if you don’t think so.

              And I’m sorry for your loss, I know how hard it is when someone you care about commits suicide. I’ve known 4 people who have. Though none of them used firearms to do so I’ll never forget them.

              Personally I’ll never own pistols as I’ve had too many bad experiences with pistols. The why is a bit of a doozy.

              Trigger warning Child Abuse, Breaking and Entering, and Attempted Murder.

              On a number of occasions my dad held a pistol to my head screaming at me to tell him where his drugs that he had already done were. He did this a lot to my siblings and I before he finally got clean. I still refuse to speak with him as there’s just too much pain there. My siblings tell me he’s a lot different now, that he’s back to the way he was when they were young, but I’ve only ever known him as the abusive drug addict that he was.

              Him and some of my other relatives are why I own firearms really as a number of them have said that they “can’t wait to get the order to hunt people like me in the streets.” And one went to prison for kicking my door in to try. That was when that relative found out I was a gun owner. They didn’t get shot, we just patiently waited for the police to arrive while they sat in my entry way.

      • That their local representative was anti-gun control before this shooting affected his own local area, only proves your point more. That he changed his opinion is a good thing, but too little too late.

        Very impressed that he publicly came out to accept responsibility for the Maine shooting with his previous opposition to gun control though, and is now advocating for it.

        Unfortunately, it may take several shootings in all the representatives’ and senators’ home towns that are in opposition to actually flip them (even then, it wouldn’t change many of their minds, unless it actually personally affected them), and the country shouldn’t have to suffer that. It likely will literally take a constitutional amendment to prevent the supreme court from overturning any legislation enacted (or at least stripping it down to become fluff legislation with little meaning, or effect).

  • I know people who are left leaning democrats and they’re for gun control. But gun control doesn’t solve the problem entirely.

    The problem is the entire culture around guns and toxic ‘me and my gun and my truck’ self sufficiency culture in the US and the lack of a social net.

      • The National Guard is not well regulated? Im gonna wager your definition of well regulated is a body in which nothing bad ever happens, which is not what well regulated means, that’s called perfection.

        If the national guard isnt considered well regulated then nothing is, and clearly the writers of the bill didnt intend for ‘well regulated’ to be an impossible standard. So if well regulated is going to mean something it didnt mean from the authors then that phrase no longer has bearing on the right, and shockingly enough the US Judicial system agrees with and upheld that.

        This was a shooting by a member of a well regulated milita. That phrase or organization structure is not a magic spell that stops crime. The authors would have written ‘crime free’ instead of well regulated if that’s what they meant.

        • If a memeber of said Militia can spend 2 weeks in a psychiatric ward for hearing voices in his head telling him to shoot up the said Militia he is a part of and still keep the means to carry out the will of said voices it isn’t well-regulated, sorry not sorry. The term Well-Regulated doesnt automatically mean it is going to be regulated.

          • Here’s the thing though:

            can spend 2 weeks in a psychiatric ward for hearing voices in his head telling him to shoot up the said Militia

            They can’t, it is already a federal law that people who are IVC’d (this guy) are prohibited purchasers and they are supposed to take the guns and input that into NICs, but someone didn’t do their fucking job. Has nothing to do with the weekend warrior militia branch of the US military either, that applies to everyone, federally, as it is a federal law.

          • Between active and reservists there are well over one million national guard memebers. The crimes of one of them hardly imply that the regulation is not good. Mistakes are possible, and considering he was let out of the psych hospital is it impossible to think the mistake even could have come from the profit driven org who makes the absolute thinniest proft margins from mental health care? What about the police, did they not also drop the ball, they could have seen this coming, this person was known publicly for his gun lust and extremism. Or is all the blame only on the one orginazation that makes your opinions the most correct looking?

            • Mistakes are possible

              Yeah, mistakes like american gun laws. In related news, this year, a soldier from Germany’s National Guard did not go on a killing spree. Nor did a soldier of the French National Guard.

              IT IS THE GODDAMN FUCKING GUNS

              • A French cop went on a mass shooting in 2017. In 2020 an ex soldier in france went on a shooting. Sure it wasn’t this year but acting like this doesn’t happen elsewhere is wild. In fact the chances that the shooter is in a well regulated legal organization are higher elsewhere since the other people dont even have guns like that. So I assume Frances gun laws are a problem for you too since they cant stop their Law Enforcement from doing this?

            • There is plenty of blame to go around, the problem is systemic. Putting the blame on one institution makes it a scapegoat, we need publicly funded mental health care as much as we need gun control.

              • we need publicly funded mental health care as much as we need gun control.

                While the US definitely needs publicly funded (mental) health care, it will not address the gun issue. It doesn’t matter if a country has public health care or not, what matters for gun related deaths is either a) number of (civil) guns or b) (civil) war.

                Do not give into gun nuts in this regard. Do not agree that the US needs both. The US needs exactly and only one thing when it comes to gun deaths: Fewer guns.

        • If the national guard isnt considered well regulated then nothing is

          Ignoring the fact that this is obviously a false dichotomy… Have you ever served in the guard or active duty military? The guard especially from certain states, is usually known for being an unorganized shit show. Active duty has its obvious issues, but they also have a lot more control over their personnel, including who they keep and promote.

          In the guard, as long as you show up for roll call and pass your test you’re pretty much promoted until you want to leave. Which is why the last few military pr blunders were committed by officers or NCO in the reserves.

          I doubt you would find many people who served in the reserves that would claim they were well organized or well regulated.