Absolutely correct that ending gun culture is the only way to stop bullshit like this, and that it would take several generations to start producing meaningful impact.
Only problem is that a whole huge chunk of Americans DO NOT want to end gun culture, and instead want to increase the number of guns, mass shootings, and gun fetishization. So, that’s what we’re going to get, unfortunately, no matter how many classrooms get shot up.
“Police report that the gunman was 10 feet tall and shot lasers out of his eyes” is the kind of thing that the news media just reports as fact.
Can’t remember if this has been posted in the thread, but the last report I heard said he didn’t actually have body armor
I don’t know. I’m tired of the “one weird trick” magical thinking. Personally I’ll be supporting the most anti gun people there are. There’s not even a real anti gun conversation in this country. Worrying about specific policy when we can’t even talk about banning guns is putting the cart before the horse.
It won’t be easy, but this sort of gun culture did not exist in the 80s. I think at the earliest it started in earnest in the 90s with the anti government militias.
Literally never going to happen. Loser dads take so much pride in teaching their sons how to shoot. It’s like their greatest joy in life.
This article is from the 1970s.
Like all American stupidity, it has been around for decades to centuries, it’s just all been made worse by Fox News and then Facebook. You can’t go back to the way it was in the 80s because you can’t undo propaganda that easily, nor can you delete the internet and the way it broke the brains of a critical mass of the population.
to be clear, i’m advocating for a “yes and” approach to gun control
as in “yes, guns should be banned or severely restricted in the long term, and we should also pursue other restrictions in the short term”
i live in new york city, which has fairly strict gun control laws for usa#1, but i bet they could be tighter
there’s also a lot to do at state level, and probably some will to do it after the buffalo shooting. for example, you need a permit to buy a rifle in NYC but not elsewhere in the state. that seems like a pretty obvious thing to change.
ultimately federal action is needed because it’s pretty easy for guns to flow across state borders. but local and state regulations still seem to make some type of difference.
This kind of hatred and anger culture didn’t exist to this degree up until the last ten years or so. To Republicans, hatred and anger are like an art form. It’s their entertainment. It’s fueled by FOX News and social media, and it’s going nowhere.
If someone isn’t anti gun they are pro child murder. That is a factually true statement.
I’d be real careful about ripping cops for being clueless or lying until more stuff comes out. It’s not lies per se, but info that gets quickly disseminated is often confused and wrong.
What are the real differences between these dads and the ones that play call of duty with a 7 year old?
Weird take. Police lying to cover their asses is about the only thing more American than mass shootings. Hopefully they were wearing body cams that weren’t mysteriously turned off so we can get the real story.
There’s an incredible amount of confusion about what happened still. They’ll very likely be some sort of idiocy, but we still have no clue what happened yet
Obviously 7 is too young to be playing those games, but there is a clear difference between video games and real life gun lust. And regardless of when one’s children start playing video games/violent video games, parents need to be sure they understand the difference between pretend and reality.
Sample size of one, but my son’s favorite VR games are ones that involve realistic gun play. He knows the ins and outs of lots of guns from these games. But at the same time, he also knows that it’s just a fun game and he has no desire to use guns in real life. I don’t really emphasize the differences any more since he’s 13 and has a brain in his head, but when he started playing violent games, I was sure to talk to him a few times to make sure he understands that violence stays in the video game world.
And now we play Fortnite together.
Sample size of one, but my son’s favorite VR games are ones that involve realistic gun play. He knows the ins and outs of lots of guns from these games. But at the same time, he also knows that it’s just a fun game and he has no desire to use guns in real life.
Hasn’t this normalized violence, however? He knows the ins and outs of lots of guns? … it’s not that it’s the same as “real life gun lust,” but I think the normalization is a big part of what makes the gun lust possible.
Maybe, but as has been pointed out many times these video games are played all over the world yet mass shootings and epidemic gun violence are uniquely American problems.
At least in this one instance, no. Fantasy and reality are completely separate things and real-life guns and violence horrify him.
EDIT: He’s a very interesting kid. I think a lot of his enjoyment of games like that (and to clarify, he’s not obsessed with these games, they just happen to be his favorites in the VR realm - his favorite game in general is Terraria) comes from his appreciation of creativity and, for lack of a better term, “art.” He’s amazed at what game developers can do and in this case, it happens to be realistic gun physics and what-not. In TV and movies, he’s not into crazy action movies like a typical 13-year-old. He’s attracted to creativity and writing and if there happens to be violence (say, Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul), then that’s just part of the story.
I assume the answer is yes, but have mass shootings increased with the increased ubiquity of social media? I said earlier that we need to change the gun culture in this country, but it seems part of the equation is also somehow reducing anger and hatred and so much of that comes from rampant bullshit on social media.