What in the HELL Is Wrong With Us?!

@SW-User Right. They should buy their own.

@Theseus This is not what I meant. That mental woman bought a gun and shot a kid. She should’ve never had a gun in the first place

@SW-User Agreed, but the gun isn't the problem. For two people a boxcutter would have been suffient.

The problem is the nutter. What can we do to weed out, treat and, if necessary, confine the nutters before they do wicked shit like this?

@Theseus The gun in itself might not be a problem but when it is given to the wrong persons then it becomes a problem.

@SW-User So we're back to the same question? What can we do to weed out, treat and, if necessary, confine the nutters before they do wicked shit like this?

@Theseus Easy answer, don’t give them guns like it’s a toy.

@SW-User We're already agreed on that, but how can you tell nutter from normal?

@Theseus I feel there should be at least some kind of psychological tests that need to be done in order to have the right to own a gun.

@Theseus / @SW-User
If there were fewer firearms in circulation in general, there would also be less firearms that risk end up in the wrong hands. No matter how it's turned around, weapons are made to be lethal, and they risk killing when in the hands of anyone.

There are stats showing there will be more killings by firearms where there are more in circulation, not that should be surprising at all.

@Theseus The only effective predictor of violence is a history of past violence, which means that wholesale dragnets and witch-hunts of "nutters" are ineffective.

@SW-User What kind? Who administers it? Who establishes the criteria for normal versus nutter?

@Theseus Psychiatrists

@SapphicHeart Here's the problem. In America today there are FEWER guns in circulation than at any other time in our history, and those which are in circulation are concentrated in the hands of fewer people. (Don't take my word for this. Check the stats yourself.) I was born in 1977. When I was a kid the parents of almost everyone I knew had guns. Usually two or three each. Now, almost no one I know owns guns, but the ones who do own five or ten.

@Theseus
Could you please provide me with sources thank you.

@SapphicHeart These will get you started. You're gonna need a note pad, a pen and some time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/249740/percentage-of-households-in-the-united-states-owning-a-firearm/

@SW-User Liberal psychiatrists or conservative? Private or government employed?

Yes. I'm serious. Even clinicians are biased, and if we're going to give them the power to deprive others of their human/constitutionally guaranteed rights, we need to have answers to these questions.

@Theseus Governement employed.

@Theseus In this country, owning firearms is a privilege, not a right, and I like it that way.

@SW-User Yep. It should be a privilege and not a right. If you want to own a gun you should prove that you are responsible enough to carry that gun and that you’re aware of the consequences and risks. Seriously, it’s not a toy. It’s a tool made to kill 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Theseus
Quoting your first source; United States. According to the Congressional Research Service, [b]as of 2009 there were roughly twice as many guns per capita in the United States as there were in 1968[/b]: more than 300 million guns in all.

Your second source might hold statistics however, I'm not sure which ones or where to look for them. Your link only sends one to a landing page.

Your third source; doesn't exactly confirm your claim. Not even if looking isolated at the percentages of households owning one or more firearm. Aside it doesn't give a total number of firearms in circulation as we don't get any average number of firearms per household in these statistics.

Let me introduce you to a chart though that might confirm that fewer own guns however, there will be more firearms in circulation:


To get back to my point about numbers of firearms in circulation, there will be more deaths by firearms that are suicides than homicides.

Here's a video that presents some interesting slides explaining what some of the issues are that USA is facing around its gun culture.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX4qUsgHa4Y]

@SapphicHeart the video is so interesting! I like how they also mentioned suicide. Cause it’s true, guns don’t give a second chance.

@SW-User
Right, and it's something totally missing in all the talks about gun control and regulations. The numbers are scaring, but there's no real lobby that brings these facts to peoples perception. All the talks around gun control and regulations are based on emotional porn, like this post. It's horrible that something like it happens, but the fact is the more guns in circulation, the more deaths by guns we will see.