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[–]fred_red_beans 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think the premise that guns are responsible for violence is wrong. It is people and their actions/reactions that are the cause of violence.

According to the CDC, the leading causes of death in 2016 were:

  • Heart disease: 647,457
  • Cancer: 599,108
  • Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
  • Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
  • Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
  • Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
  • Diabetes: 83,564
  • Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672
  • Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,633
  • Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

I think focusing on the tool used to commit acts of violence is an absolute distraction from the human conditions that are actually fostering the violence in the first place.

Take school shootings as an example. There are many who think that the availability of firearms allows the circumstance to happen that many people are killed by a lone person. There are many other options to kill people, a bomb would be one, chemical attack could be another, etc.

In my opinion those who want to focus on the tool and not the conditions are afraid to accept and take any responsibility for the conditions that exist to foster an individual to such extremes. They don't want to look at the fact that our public schools do very little to foster human communication, understanding, and caring for each other. Kids are sent into these institutions to learn how to jump through all the hoops, shut up, sit down, and do their homework. There's little to no time to learn about themselves and how to interact with their peers. Just look at the current state of "adults" in the US and the utter lack of communication, name calling, false assumptions of bias, bickering, and bullshit. Today's adults act like children.

I don't believe there will be any progress in this regard until people are willing to look themselves in the mirror and question their world view.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

People tend to respond to spectacle more than solid information. Glorification and exaggeration of an event plays a very fragile and unethical role.