marthalies posted...
Mental health is definitely the main thing. Just because someone has no documented history of having mental health issues doesn't mean they don't.
If someone thinks that shooting up their school, a mall, their place is employment, etc., is a healthy response to the problems and stressors they are facing in life is not in a healthy mental state. Regardless of access to guns, that person who thinks violence is the best course of action needs help. They aren't coping properly with the same issues that all of us face daily without lashing out. That is very clearly a mental health issue.
And yet, again, this is a very uniquely American problem, whereas mental health issues are far more universal.
Mental health is a red herring put forward mostly by conservatives who don't want to address the elephant in the room ("It's the guns, stupid!").
The idea that anyone who "lashes out" is mentally unwell simply isn't true. That logic would be just as applicable to other crimes. Wouldn't anyone who "lashes out" by killing a single person, rather than a group, also be mentally unwell by your definition? Or even someone who just violently attacks another person?
Not everyone who is violent is mentally unwell; some are simply evil.
OhhhJa posted...
I think mental health is definitely at least a huge factor. Mental health and substance abuse are bigger problems in the US than at least most of the developed world. But acting like guns aren't also the problem is disingenuous at best.
I mean, don't get me wrong, improving mental healthcare is a laudable goal. I'm just pointing out that it's not going to solve - or even appreciably reduce - America's issue with shootings (both the mass-murdery kind and the more garden variety variants).
Unadulterated posted...
Yeah, none of that would ever happen nor be 100% possible in the real world. Nobody would allow that.
Other countries have done that, and quite successfully at that.
Unadulterated posted...
Bad guys would still get them.
How exactly do you think "bad guys" get guns? By buying them from the magical "bad guy gun factory"?
Of course not - they get them either by buying them from legal dealers in areas where gun regulations are lax (if they don't have a criminal record - and a lot of mass killers don't) or by stealing them from legal gun owners.
Reducing the amount of legal guns in circulation also reduces the amount of illegal guns, because the amount of guns entering circulation goes down. Australia is an excellent example - their firearm homicide rate dropped by 70% (!!) after they tightened their gun laws and instituted a buyback program.
Unadulterated posted...
Of course there are dumb suckers that want a gift card lol Why should a good guy that owns a gun give away one of his freedoms?
Because some people have the self-awareness to realize they are not the only people in the world and their actions and willingness to tolerate a legal regime that facilitates crime carry consequences greater than them. In most of the world, people consider not just their rights but the responsibility those rights entail.