How do we curtail gun violence?

[Zombie_Pundit]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Maybe the issue isn't guns.

As a student preparing to enter the work force, I am forced to question what has gone wrong in the psyche of those my age to force them to take the lives of their peers and often of themselves. Perhaps it is the overstimulation of media and technology, the desensitization occurring through violent video games, the “maybes” and “whys” span an endless list explored by many.
Regardless of the reason, it is time for something to change.
Perhaps the strategy of approaching this situation should shift from questions of gun control toward a military strategy to end a war. Perhaps the conversation between students, parents and school administrators must be constant about the state of our adolescent mental health.
The Civil War left the city of Atlanta in ruins. Despite the 200 years of technological progress since this war, I wonder what, if any, moral progress has been made.
The question must become — do we wait for another mass shooting, or wait for our generation — like Atlanta and the soldiers — to simply be gone with the wind?

Voices: Are college students in the middle of America?s next Civil War? | USA TODAY College


See why I didn't want this discussion in my thread?

 

[PratchettFan]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

I think that while there is certainly gun violence here, that it is blown way out of proportion. The chances you will be involved in such violence, unless your lifestyle is such that you increase your odds, is very small. You are in far greater danger on the roadways.

There are no proposals to curtail the issue that will have any impact upon it. If one is ever proposed, one that actually will have an affect beyond allowing some politician some face time on TV, then I may have a different perspective. Until then, I would much prefer to be free than to have illusionary safety.

 

[TemplarKormac]

How do we curtail gun violence? We don't. On one side you have the armed assailant, who kills with a gun. On the other, you have a citizen who owns a gun, who can capably defend themselves with one.

Our mental health system is one of the biggest causes of mass murder. More often than not you have people who snap and in a blind rage kill a bunch of people with a gun.

 

[Zombie_Pundit]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

I think that while there is certainly gun violence here, that it is blown way out of proportion. The chances you will be involved in such violence, unless your lifestyle is such that you increase your odds, is very small. You are in far greater danger on the roadways.

There are no proposals to curtail the issue that will have any impact upon it. If one is ever proposed, one that actually will have an affect beyond allowing some politician some face time on TV, then I may have a different perspective. Until then, I would much prefer to be free than to have illusionary safety.

The US homicide rate is between 4 and 5 in 100,000 as a nationwide average. That's actually rather high compared to the rest of the world. Palestine has a similar murder rate.
Automobile fatalities in the US in 2012 were 10.8399 per 100,000
So, what if you are growing up in Detroit? Through no fault of your own, you are simply an American citizen smack dab in the middle of Detroit. In that hypothetical, would you be more concerned about the murder rate?
The chances of getting murdered there is 54.6 in 100,000; less than living in Venezuela, but twice as high as Brazil. You gave a much greater chance of getting murdered than dying in a car accident in Detroit.

 

[PratchettFan]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

I think that while there is certainly gun violence here, that it is blown way out of proportion. The chances you will be involved in such violence, unless your lifestyle is such that you increase your odds, is very small. You are in far greater danger on the roadways.

There are no proposals to curtail the issue that will have any impact upon it. If one is ever proposed, one that actually will have an affect beyond allowing some politician some face time on TV, then I may have a different perspective. Until then, I would much prefer to be free than to have illusionary safety.

The US homicide rate is between 4 and 5 in 100,000 as a nationwide average. That's actually rather high compared to the rest of the world. Palestine has a similar murder rate.
Automobile fatalities in the US in 2012 were 10.8399 per 100,000
So, what if you are growing up in Detroit? Through no fault of your own, you are simply an American citizen smack dab in the middle of Detroit. In that hypothetical, would you be more concerned about the murder rate?
The chances of getting murdered there is 54.6 in 100,000; less than living in Venezuela, but twice as high as Brazil. You gave a much greater chance of getting murdered than dying in a car accident in Detroit.

Still a very small chance of it happening to any given individual. So you have identified a problem. We can argue about the extent of the problem but the issue that remains are the solutions. As I said, I am willing to consider any proposal that will actually do something about it. So far, I haven't heard any.

 

[LiberalMedia]

Our mental health system is one of the biggest causes of mass murder. More often than not you have people who snap and in a blind rage kill a bunch of people with a gun.

Agree. The absolute most obvious first step to take is banning at least one fifth of this country from ever owning a weapon of any kind, including Teabaggers and anyone critical of President Obama and his administration. Science agrees with me on this one.

Sources:

Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms | Psych Central

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is characterized by the frequent occurrence of at least four of the following behaviors:

often loses temper
often argues with adults
often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests or rules
often deliberately annoys people
often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
is often touchy or easily annoyed by others
is often angry and resentful
is often spiteful or vindictive


Negativistic and defiant behaviors are expressed by persistent stubbornness, resistance to directions, and unwillingness to compromise, give in, or negotiate with adults or peers. Defiance may also include deliberate or persistent testing of limits, usually by ignoring orders, arguing, and failing to accept blame for misdeeds.

Usually individuals with this disorder do not regard themselves as oppositional or defiant, but justify their behavior as a response to unreasonable demands or circumstances.

Mental Illness And Gun Ownership | Guns & Ammo

The former U.S. Surgeon General estimates that 20 percent of Americans suffer from some type of mental illness. How would mental illness be defined?

Such a broad definition could easily be applied to more than 20 percent of the population. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), the bible of the mental health profession, even lists cigarette smoking and coffee drinking as mental illnesses.

Even Speaker of the House John Boner has seen the light:
Boehner says there's 'no question' mentally ill shouldn't have guns | TheHill

“There’s no question that those with mental health issues should be prevented from owning weapons or being able to purchase weapons,” Boehner said at a Capitol event.

 

[Manonthestreet]

A little while back, I wrote something on the research of Andrew Papachristos, a Yale sociologist not long out of Chicago, on the small social networks of Chicago homicide. In short, how much of fatal violence in Chicago is contained within a comparatively small group of people, who are themselves linked by crime. Chicago Gun Violence: Big Numbers, But a Surprisingly Small Network | Chicago magazine | Politics & City Life April 2014

 

[PoliticalChic]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

I think that while there is certainly gun violence here, that it is blown way out of proportion. The chances you will be involved in such violence, unless your lifestyle is such that you increase your odds, is very small. You are in far greater danger on the roadways.

There are no proposals to curtail the issue that will have any impact upon it. If one is ever proposed, one that actually will have an affect beyond allowing some politician some face time on TV, then I may have a different perspective. Until then, I would much prefer to be free than to have illusionary safety.

And the majority of gun deaths are suicides.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

How do we curtail gun violence?

With a comprehensive mental health program in conjunction with a fundamental change in American society and culture where violence is no longer perceived as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Unfortunately it’s easier to identify the appropriate solutions than to implement them.

 

[PratchettFan]

How do we curtail gun violence?

With a comprehensive mental health program in conjunction with a fundamental change in American society and culture where violence is no longer perceived as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Unfortunately it’s easier to identify the appropriate solutions than to implement them.

Not even beginning to address the problem. Mental health is just the cure d'jour. This is not a mental health issue. Cultural certainly. This country was built by people who used guns to live and that has been passed down. Our ancestors were pioneers, not serfs. But the primary problem is economical. Too many people with too few options. Until you solve that, you are going nowhere.

 

[Zombie_Pundit]

How do we curtail gun violence? We don't. On one side you have the armed assailant, who kills with a gun. On the other, you have a citizen who owns a gun, who can capably defend themselves with one.

Our mental health system is one of the biggest causes of mass murder. More often than not you have people who snap and in a blind rage kill a bunch of people with a gun.

Mass Shootings only account for 1% of gun related deaths. I would never advocate that we ignore mass shootings. I would only ask that we address the 99% problem as the priority.

 

[Zombie_Pundit]

There has been a lot of talk about mass shooting incidents.
What I see in that talk are many people stricken by shock and grief and who have the means to make their voice heard. Very little is said about homicides among our poor.

Gun violence in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Deadly mass shootings have resulted in considerable coverage by the media. These shootings have represented 1% of all deaths by gun between 1980 and 2008.​

The United States has a murder rate on par with Thailand.
List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of those murders, of the ones for which the FBI received weapons data, 67.5% involve the use of firearms in 2010.
FBI ? Expanded Homicide Data
The vast majority of homicides with a firearm were committed using a handgun, not an assault weapon. Most of these guns used in these homicides are obtained on the black market. The black market is fueled by the unregulated secondary market.

What are your thoughts on gun violence in America?
What are the proposals to curtail this secondary market and make a dent in the 99% of gun violence in our country?

I think that while there is certainly gun violence here, that it is blown way out of proportion. The chances you will be involved in such violence, unless your lifestyle is such that you increase your odds, is very small. You are in far greater danger on the roadways.

There are no proposals to curtail the issue that will have any impact upon it. If one is ever proposed, one that actually will have an affect beyond allowing some politician some face time on TV, then I may have a different perspective. Until then, I would much prefer to be free than to have illusionary safety.

And the majority of gun deaths are suicides.

Suicide is not homicide. The murder rate is somewhere between 4 and 5 in 100,000 depending on the source. The majority of murders are committed with a gun.

 

[dilloduck]

Considering the demographics and the general state of the human condition we should be grateful that we don't have a lot more.

 

[LiberalMedia]

How do we curtail gun violence?

With a comprehensive mental health program in conjunction with a fundamental change in American society and culture where violence is no longer perceived as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Unfortunately it’s easier to identify the appropriate solutions than to implement them.

Not even beginning to address the problem. Mental health is just the cure d'jour. This is not a mental health issue. Cultural certainly. This country was built by people who used guns to live and that has been passed down. Our ancestors were pioneers, not serfs. But the primary problem is economical. Too many people with too few options. Until you solve that, you are going nowhere.

You are one of the few people who has realized this. If we're going to get serious about stopping mass violence, we must regulate the murder industry much more tightly. The Wrongpublican goal of a completely deregulated economy just isn't working, and hasn't worked, and will never work. We need more federal laws regulating the murder industry if we are to rein in these killer-barons and stop them from running amok.

 

[dilloduck]

With a comprehensive mental health program in conjunction with a fundamental change in American society and culture where violence is no longer perceived as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Unfortunately it’s easier to identify the appropriate solutions than to implement them.

Not even beginning to address the problem. Mental health is just the cure d'jour. This is not a mental health issue. Cultural certainly. This country was built by people who used guns to live and that has been passed down. Our ancestors were pioneers, not serfs. But the primary problem is economical. Too many people with too few options. Until you solve that, you are going nowhere.

You are one of the few people who has realized this. If we're going to get serious about stopping mass violence, we must regulate the murder industry much more tightly. The Wrongpublican goal of a completely deregulated economy just isn't working, and hasn't worked, and will never work. We need more federal laws regulating the murder industry if we are to rein in these killer-barons and stop them from running amok.

oh the drama----there is no murder industry.

 

[Zombie_Pundit]

How do we curtail gun violence?

With a comprehensive mental health program in conjunction with a fundamental change in American society and culture where violence is no longer perceived as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Unfortunately it’s easier to identify the appropriate solutions than to implement them.

Not even beginning to address the problem. Mental health is just the cure d'jour. This is not a mental health issue. Cultural certainly. This country was built by people who used guns to live and that has been passed down. Our ancestors were pioneers, not serfs. But the primary problem is economical. Too many people with too few options. Until you solve that, you are going nowhere.

Cultural, Psychological... Is there a difference between these descriptions of the problem, really? If there is, forgive me for thinking the difference a bit semantic.

Let's look at a success story: Washington DC
First the numbers:
Crime rate in Washington, District of Columbia (DC): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers statistics
Murders down from 239 to 88
So what changed?

I think people and their situations account for much of the homicide rate. Yes, that seems obvious, but it needs to be stated plainly that a mix of a harsh impoverishment with easy access to guns on the black market is from whence the gun violence flows. This is a two prong problem.

It is said that victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan. There are a number of policy decisions to which this reduction is attributed. Improving the ability of the DC police to respond to violent crime, community outreach, gentrification, new jobs... some even credit improvements to the schools.
I think all of the above. All of the above indicate an improvement in opportunity, a shift in culture(psychology?) and a more component city government.

But no one is crediting gun control. That does not mean gun control is evil. That simply means that gun control alone does not solve a problem this massive. The problem has two prongs.

The murder rate in DC is still high, and is likely to remain high so long as the second prong of the problem exists, which is easy access to illegal guns. We cannot ignore that problem. The illegal guns need to be removed from the street.

 

[LiberalMedia]

Not even beginning to address the problem. Mental health is just the cure d'jour. This is not a mental health issue. Cultural certainly. This country was built by people who used guns to live and that has been passed down. Our ancestors were pioneers, not serfs. But the primary problem is economical. Too many people with too few options. Until you solve that, you are going nowhere.

You are one of the few people who has realized this. If we're going to get serious about stopping mass violence, we must regulate the murder industry much more tightly. The Wrongpublican goal of a completely deregulated economy just isn't working, and hasn't worked, and will never work. We need more federal laws regulating the murder industry if we are to rein in these killer-barons and stop them from running amok.

oh the drama----there is no murder industry.

From the conservatard morons who brought you Holocaust Denial and Denial 2: I Don't Watch the Weather Channel, comes the all-new flat out rejection of reality that's sure to leave you in stitches--Denial 3: Murder Doesn't Exist!

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Anyone that advocates we lose rights over a problem ( all firearms deaths even MUCH smaller number for mass shootings) that effects .0001 percent of the population is insane.

 

[sameech]

according to the ABA, the vast majority of people in the US charged with murder are represented either by public defenders or court-appointed private counsel. In other words, it is directly linked to poverty.

The republicans refuse to support most poverty initiatives and the democrats refuse to make any substantive changes to existing failed programs because they keep the recipients on the hook of voting for them. Until the GOP comes up with realistic alternatives to existing programs, or poor people stop voting for the democrats, nothing will change.

The best choice is to go after all guns because the political pressures on both sides against it might cause enough ice to break for some water to get through. I wouldn't hold my breathe, but until we completely rethink and retool these programs so that there are fewer gaps and fewer people being allowed to live their entire lives cradle to grave without ever having to support themselves, there is nothing that can be done to stop the violence or the murdering.