bigray wrote:so does the US need to take a look at the health care system before looking into ways of controlling guns?
This, interestingly enough, is one of the more insightful points brought up in this thread.
I don't think it's possible to ignore the fact that if it's very easy to get weapons, more people will likely use those weapons against each other. I mean, if we're just talking about the number of guns and people, that's something that makes sense, right? In a country like the United States, we have both a shit ton of people, and a shit ton of guns. So, are our shit ton of gun deaths the inescapable result of that?
The truth of the matter is, the United States doesn't do anything to help our mentally ill until they've committed some sort of crime. There's nothing to stop these people, until they've already hurt someone else. That's why our prison population has something like 5 times the mentally ill when compared to the non-prison population. And we have a huge prison population, world.
Anyway, if I'm saying anything here at all...it's that some common sense gun restrictions aren't a bad idea. They might deter some people from getting a weapon that would use it to harm someone else. But when we're talking about avoiding massacres, we have to address the mental health issue.
Because, honestly? Taking guns away from a drunken guy about to shoot some motherfucker over a game of pool, or some very paranoid redneck just out to "defend his property" will save some lives. But the only way to really solve a problem is to address the root of it, and when we're talking about avoiding mass murders, the way America handles the mentally ill needs to play a role in the discussion.
