I think you're looking at it the wrong way. The lack of news coverage is not an indication that the situation is not "so damn bad". You seem to be blaming "the media" for "cranking up" a minor issue when in fact the situation has been "so damn bad" for a very, very long time but the media hasn't been reporting it. Try to remember that the media is not a source of news at all. It merely makes reports from the source .... if they think it's worth it.
Yes, it's amazing how the presence of a gun can make anyone become a mass murderer.
Because I'm a gun owner, I have to fight my bloodthirsty urges constantly; it's only my extreme self control & astonishing willpower that stops me. That's what guns do to people.
The trouble is...familiarity breeds contempt. Because guns are so easily available, people are rather cavalier with them. There have been several incidents when guns have been fired accidently, resulting in the deaths of innocents.
I'm assuming you don't have any gun knowledge. Just a FYI: Guns don't fire accidentally. Idiots fire guns accidentally. You may have heard during a court trial "The gun just went off while he was cleaning it." That's a defense attorney doing his job, which is to defend his client who intentionally committed murder or unintentionally committed murder while he was intoxicated & played with his gun & pulled the trigger without checking if the gun was loaded (again; an idiot).
What most people seem to avoid admitting/understanding is that in the U.S. there is a hero-worshipping element to the vast majority of citizens. This might be due to an inferior educational system but is certainly embellished by the dog-eat-dog social structure of the country. Anyway, it is common knowledge that many try to overcome their inferiority complex by either the fist or by the gun. In the day to day scheme of life this means not only being intimidating but to also "stand your ground" in the face of intimidation ------ real or imagined. So there Joe Q. stands and he's being challenged. Is he going to do the sensible thing and be a "coward"? Pulling the trigger doesn't require much effort.
That is EXACTLY right.
Correct! Zimmerman, for example, would never have confronted Trayvon Martin without a gun.
What about the toddler sitting in the shopping cart at Walmart? Took his Mom's gun out of her handbag and shot her?
Perhaps the problem isn't so much the "hero-worshipping" but the hero deficiency we have in our country today. We're deprived of something so many of us crave, and I'd have to put myself in that category.
Exactly. the child pulled the trigger - just as any toddler would do with any gun, thinking it's a toy gun. The gun didn't fire itself.
Zimmerman is an idiot who had no business confronting Martin at all. But Martin should not have put his hands on Zimmerman; by doing so, he gave Zimmerman the right to self defense. All Martin had to do was tell Zimmerman to "F--- off."
Good point!
I understand your first part but I don't agree. The U.S. does have heroes today such as Manning and Snowden (my personal choices) but the problem, and I am sure you are aware, is in what sort of character the U.S. fosters as a heroic role model. More often than not it's the guy with the gun and guys like Manning and Snowden are labelled villains. The reasons for this discrepancy are being smoke-screened and we can talk about that for a very long time.
True.
Also true.
That's a very interesting theory and I'm sure you're right. It does explain a lot of the anti-social behaviour we all have to endure. There is also 'peer pressure', young men wanting to appear 'macho' in front of their friends.
This is one of the incidents I was referring to...the other happened in a car, when a child picked up a gun. Guns have become so commonplace that people are careless with them.
Just read my post again, clever clogs. I didn't say the guns fired accidently, I said they were fired accidently. In other words, someone fired them, they didn't go off by themselves.
I agree with you 1,000% and it fits perfectly with what we're discussing. The 'peer pressure' you're talking about is 'to appear macho in front of their friends' because that's the hero worship indoctrination (and respect through fear) in action. If the population thought of kindness and generosity as a higher priority then peer pressure would reflect that instead. It would be 'cool' to be seen as generous and tolerant. It seems easy to fix but it isn't. Social inequality on so many different levels means that nobody is going to give you a break because everyone is trying to keep their head above water.
Personally, I don't think that social inequality has anything to do with it. There seems to be an assumption that wealthy people have had everything handed to them on a plate. That is the case with inherited wealth, but there is a huge difference in the talents and intellect people have. If someone has worked hard at school and passed exams, it's only fair that they should reap their reward by having a well-paid position. They then employ those who are less well qualified.
I agree.
It doesn't matter how talented, intelligent, or hard-working you are. Starting from the top down is the wrong way to go if there isn't enough left for those down below. The bottom end ought to be guaranteed a manageable standard and then the top end can be as opulent as they like. The basis of this dialogue is centered round Nosy Bee-54's statement,
