Yes we do. When you have an oppressed minority these things tend to happen. If you look at the rates, only a few cities drive us up among the world's nations like Chicago and Detroit. Take away just those two and the US numbers drop drastically. If we drop the useless war on drugs it would drop even more.
That is not true. Let me explain why below.
Again this is irrelevant for EXACTLY the reasons I stated.
Also, as an aside, why did Australia see such a decline in mass shootings once they banned guns? Does banning guns also cause the number of mentally disturbed people who don't care about laws to drop? I don't know if gun control is the answer, but waving tragedies off as just being down to 'some whacko' is becoming a tiring rhetoric. We have a problem, and whatever the cause is, it's time to stop just putting this down to 'just another disturbed kook', letting the story fade into the background, and then the same thing happening again. - Nilly
This is a direct comparison to the US. Otherwise it was unnecessary and does not apply in any way.
Gun control is not the solution Would 10 round magazines have stopped the 9 getting killed? No. Would a background check have stopped the father from giving the weapons to the son? No. Would a "gun free zone" have stopped him? Well no as it was a gun free zone.
He was a crazy person given a gun by someone else. The first 4 things you mentioned would be a good start. The gun control thing is the real waste of everyone's time.
Ok you are clearly not getting my point. Did I bring up background checks or high capacity mags? I know my lean is progressive but I'm not here to argue for gun control. I know if all you have is a hammer then everything starts to look like nails but jeez.
Mass murders
are not simply because of crazy people.
This is demonstrably true because in parts of the world we see decreases in mass murders when factors that have no effect on the amount of crazy people are put into place (such as Australias 1996 firearm law).
To say that mass murders are just because some people are born crazy is to do a
massive disservice to the issue at hand. We essentially wipe our hands clean of the issue, putting the cause (and thereby the solution) out of our hands. In reality mass murders are caused by a variety of issues, from illness to poverty to racism to access to guns. It's clear from other countries that things can be done to reduce the amount of mass murders a country has. If that were not the case,
why do other countries have a lower rate of mass murders than the US? Protip: It is
not because they have less crazy people than the US. It's because they run their countries in a way that make mass murders less likely by tackling a wide variety of issues.
My problem, and my frustration (which I'm venting out on to you, probably unfairly) is based on the fact that even if we discount gun control from the debate entirely, we are still a big fat
0% of the way to addressing the other possible causes for mass shootings such as the one we just had. Many are quick to blame mental illness, but suggest reform to our healthcare system??? No no no, far too expensive, let the free market sort it out. A large proportion of Americans (even many of the smart ones) can't even acknowledge that a racism problem exists at all in our country (even though the state where the shooting happened, SC, still adulates racism/racists). And whole swathes can't seem to be able to acknowledge that while we live in supposedly the most advanced country in the world, the majority of our people are overstressed, overworked and underpaid.
If gun control isn't the answer, then lets at least get started on fixing the other issues that could y'know, maybe have an affect on why our country is filled with so much more hatred/apathy than any other developed nation. Just sitting back, calling it mental illness and being done with it
is not the answer.