Why so many mass shootings in the U.S.A?).13 Possible Answers..(Add More, Please)

[Stuart G]

Last edited Tue Mar 23, 2021, 01:20 PM - Edit history (1)

1. Guns are very available in the U.S.A.
2. Mental Health programs are not as available as guns.
3. In order to buy a gun, it takes little time
4. In order to sign up for a free mental health program it takes many days..or more?
5. 330,000,000 people in the U.S.A.
6. Lots and lots of guns in the U.S.A. (yes, I think used guns are available to buy)
7. Takes some concern about a persons behavior to get that person to sign up for mental health program
8. Takes little concern about anything to buy a gun (depends on regulations of the state) But it is in the
Constitution that you can be "armed"
9. Guns are relatively cheap.
10 Mental Health Programs are very expensive compared to the cost of a gun. (depending on program)...
.......Yes, some are provided by states, but those take time to sign up for and get, unless an..."emergency"
11 While buying a gun is "easy and quick, and the product is acquired right away, the product from "Mental Health Programs"
is not easy or quick to attain, and often the product from such a program is ....NOT ATTAINED....and more searching
is needed to attain the "product" and a lot more time is needed to to gain some " mental health" than buying a gun.
12. Buying a gun is simple and easy to do....Signing up for and receiving a..Mental Health Program, and getting results..
.....IS NOT EASY TO DO!!!
13. No Federal Program in place to deal with this....yes, funding is available.. but only in the military are there programs to deal
.... with this...(that I know of...& I could be wrong, of course)

Those are 13 reasons...I am sure members of DU can come up with more...(Yes, please add more)

[demmiblue]

1. Toxic masculinity. n/t

[Stuart G]

3. Thank You for adding that ..Yes, you are correct.."Toxic Masculinity" is part of our"Culture"

[NewHendoLib]

2. Fear. and, much is media, religion and/or social network induced

we are largely a ludicrous species

[Stuart G]

6. That one word says a whole lot......"FEAR"...of this, and fear of that... And....

much of that fear is of events that don't happen...For example: (add more if you can) when we put on our seat belt
in a car, how often is that seat belt used to protect a person in a very serious car accident? Yes, the seat belt is
necessary and part of the law...but fear is the reason for putting it on,,,,,not the probability of actually having a
auto accident..

[happybird]

4. Social media "Fame"

“No one knows or cares who I am, everyone will know, now.”

[MiHale]

5. Apathy...

[IcyPeas]

19. apathy +1

[leftstreet]

7. Family, friends, coworkers not held accountable

Too often after these killings everyone comes forward to talk about what a nutter the person was.

The tide will start turning away from the hallowed privacy of personal relationships, and those who didn't sound the alarms will get charged and sued as complicit

[Beringia]

8. I wonder if the nuclear family without many big family gatherings contributes

People get more isolated. I think other cultures stay closer to extended family, but that is my general impression. The elderly are often forgotten or put in nursing homes.

[jmbar2]

9. Fantasies of justifiable killing of people are nurtured in our culture, and mentally rehearsed

- video games provide mental practice, dopamine kicks with no negative consequences
- militias and gun culture nurture fantasies about being a noble warrior/soldier - being a "somebody" is attractive to people who are IRL nobodies.
- gun purchases involve, at some level, ideation about being able to kill someone.
- right wing culture promotes a sense of entitlement to judge and control the behavior of "others"

Possible solutions

Insert consequence ideation into all of the sources of killing ideation.
- Perhaps a video game where you are a doctor trying to save the lives of shooting victims
- soundtrack of the wailing of children every time you kill someone's parent.
- legal pop up, where you determine whether it is murder 1, negligent homicide, or justifiable homicide?

[soothsayer]

10. The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.

The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.

Antonio Gramsci

[Stuart G]

11. Another idea: Changing the laws on guns is extremely difficult and takes lots of time..I am sure...

that federal law changes would have to go through Congress, and that might be...IMPOSSIBLE TO DO...

[hunter]

12. My last visit to the psych ward cost more than $10,000 in addition to what insurance paid.

Thankfully, at my very very worst, it never occurs to me that I should shoot anyone, not even myself.

Fortunately for me I'm white and tend to be an amicable person even when I'm hallucinating.

Nevertheless I was raised in a culture where mental health issues were hidden away and denied.

One of my grandmas was crazy but she could keep a job so everyone pretended she was functional even though the rest of her life was always a flaming catastrophe. I'm just a quarter her crazy.

In California the prison system is the largest mental health provider for people who are not affluent and white.

I don't know how things might have turned out for me I was raised in a society that worshiped guns and a god who thinks ordinary human sexuality is a sin.

Gun cults and religions that worship capricious asshole gods are a very dangerous combination.

Gun fetishes are disgusting. So are many flavors of Christianity.

[Stuart G]

13. Thank You for adding your experience...and this outstanding sentence: "In California ......

the prison system is the largest mental health provider for people who are not affluent and white."

[Wicked Blue]

14. Gun Lobby

Citizens United

NRA

Gun manufacturers

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[dsc]

15. I think mental health often gets scapegoated. It is the guns

only the guns, and nothing but the guns that explains why we have a seemingly infinite number of these shootings and no other country does.

[sanatanadharma]

16. Gun deification in America

A moral malignancy is manifest among USa (sic). Gun deification in America trumps all levels of violence we have seen.
It seems no amount of violence can overcome the gunners' defenses, nor erase the ethical emptiness of 2nd amendment gun-lover arguments.

[Tree Lady]

17. Number 6 used guns

My husband many years ago, before me, we have no guns, sold his gun to a friend. He did register it but makes you wonder how many people sell their gun and its not registered?

[Beringia]

18. Mexico has a big problem with cartels and the guns go along with that

I found a good Old School Corridos playlist and a few of them had machine guns sound effects


Los Tucanes De Tijuana - The Daddy Of The Chicks

Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO0r_NdNdqXVNnmT1-KtmKaN-Fuf9ktCy

[inwiththenew]

20. We are a nation full of violent, mentally ill people

With easy access to guns.