Gun laws in USA??

[think positive]

hehehe, how did anyone keep a straight face!

now scroll down to the hammer nutjob!!!

[Pies4shaw]

A half-step forward and two steps back:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-24/us-senate-passes-gun-safety-bill-supreme-court-loosens-limits/101181200

[think positive]

Gees I hope they don’t have an ADHD epidemic

[stui magpie]

The amount of sugar in their diet, no one will be able to tell the difference if they do.

[David]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/01/08/richneck-elementary-school-shooting-newport-news-virginia/

[stui magpie]

A 6 year old kid who would take a gun to school and shoot their teacher has some issues going on

[David]

I mean yeah, maybe? That's not my takeaway here. Plenty of kids have issues, and most six-year-olds will have a lack of understanding of life and death and cause and effect when it comes to lethal weaponry. (In this case it sounds like the kid brought the gun to school as a toy or to show off to fellow students, and only shot the teacher when she tried to take it off him.)

The real and profound "issues" here are with a country where it's within the realm of possibility for a situation like this to arise, but I guess that's stating the obvious. Reading stories something like this from America is like a nightmare where you can see a monster chasing you but you can't run – except, I guess in this case it's someone else who is being pursued. As an outsider, there's really no option but to sit back and witness the spectacle in all its banal horror and predictability from a safe distance. Indeed, the impossibility of anything changing for the better is a key aspect of the spectacle itself.

If you're an American and you don't like the possibility of being fatally shot in any place at any time for any reason, your only option is to emigrate, if it's within your means. It's certainly what I'd be doing if I lived there.

[Pies4shaw]

^ Yes. It's hardly relevant whether or not the 6 year old had "issues". It's very simple: if you don't have a dysfunctional system in which 6 year olds have access to guns, it really wouldn't matter what "issues" the 6 year old has. It may be that in 20 years' time, with appropriate socialization, the 6 year old might become a serial killer and be capable of taking people out with piano wire - but at the moment, what you have is a physically-ineffective, vulnerable young person (howsoever angry) who would be otherwise entirely incapable of taking down a primary-school teacher. The gun (or, if you prefer, access to it), not the 6 year old, is to blame.

[David]

To follow on from that, the additionally bewildering thing for me (apart from the incident itself, which is of course appalling) is that there seems to be a genuine line of questioning in various news reports as to whether the child can be charged. The short answer seems to be "no", at least in the state in question (which raises the question of whether there are American states in which six-year-olds can face criminal charges!), but it's utterly surreal that the topic could even be broached to begin with. I suppose, for some, it really is as simple as "guns don't shoot people; bad children shoot people".

[Pies4shaw]

^ Although many crimes are the responsibility of the individual perpetrator, only a culture predicated on apportioning blame and absolving the deadly weapon industry of responsibility could even ask that question. Naughty, bad or evil psychopath, as the case may be, this is so clearly an example of a systems failure that it requires considerable mental agility to blame the child in any relevant, criminal sense. Presumably, the parents have some accessorial responsibility for the availability of the deadly weapon - but even that’s beside the point.

[stui magpie]

According to the article, at the time of writing they didn't know where the kid got the gun from. If he got it from home, his parents or guardians are in grief because the laws of that state requires gune to be kept safe from anyone under 14.

Interesting about charges, again according to the article, they don't have an age of criminal resposibility, just a test which you would think a 6 year old would surely fail so therefore can't be charged.

People forget that prior to Port Arthur and Howard changing the laws, there was no registration of firearms and no requirement to lock them up. I don't recall any 6 year olds taking dads .22 to school. The child psychologists will be working overtime with this kid.

You can't "blame" a gun for what someone does with it. Yes, a 6 year old should never have been able to access a loaded handgun, so someone is culpable there.

As far as being scared of being shot in the US, it's not something that you think about. Walking around in the US the only time it even registered with me was in Texas where I saw signs outside the baseball stadium saying no guns allowed.

update, apprently the gun belonged to the kids mother and the kid resisted "arrest"
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/09/us/newport-news-virginia-shooting-monday/index.html

[think positive]

Scary shit.

Bored last night and flicking, came across a movie called Fallout, it had the lead or most famous dance mums student, Maddie init soi started watching while eating dinner. Starts as an average teen movie, and then you hear a gun shot, then another...it goes on to show the fallout for survivors. It should be shown in US schools, homes, etc.

When I did a photography daily challenge a couple of years ago someone posted their child kinder backpack, complete with a bullet proof shield....

Will it ever end? Maybe individual states need to take control. Illinoise wouls be fucjed.


51 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year


Now look at this

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

[What'sinaname]

No, it wont end as once you strip away suicides, gang related homicide, mental illness, you'll find the number of gun related deaths is no where high enough to justify removing 300+ million guns.

[David]

Why would you remove those from the equation? I don’t get it.

[stui magpie]

It's a shit sandwich, there's just too many guns out there and the concept that every second person has a legal handgun is �$%$ed.

The justification is there to take action, but will and culture won't allow it.

The argument tht if you ban guns only bad guys will have them holds so true in the USA. A gun buyback just wouldn't work, people would stash them for self defence.