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The love of guns in the United States has been well documented, as have multiple mass shootings across the country such as those in Orlando, San Bernardino, Newtown, and Virginia. The ease of access to guns in American society comes at a shocking cost.
As of September 2016, almost 11,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence. Despite this high death toll, mass shootings in America show no sign of disappearing.
The Stateside obsession with guns can appear baffling to UK observers unfamiliar with its origins. So just how did this gun culture become so deep-rooted in the American psyche?
BBC source: Why Are Americans so Obsessed with Guns?
Wikipedia: Gun politics in the United States
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Why Are Americans So Obsessed With Guns?
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I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.
-- Lillian Hellman
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday January 09 2017, @10:02PM
So, violence perhaps can "settle" stuff temporarily along with diplomacy or whatever too. But whatever methods you use to "settle" something, you should be prepared for similar methods to be revisited upon you or your children in the future. Violence does beget more violence; history shows that too. Violence can also follow more peaceful actions, but with significantly lower frequency.
Welcome to the human condition.
Not that I disagree with your premise, but the fact is that violence is the only universal solution to a problem. When all else fails, attempt to remove the problem by removing the opposing party.
Generally you can make it permanent, but that does involve destroying your opponent. In the case of a people, it means destroying their culture and identity, to the point where they just meld into the rest of humanity. If this does not work, then you can try destroying them physically, but the Nazis were really the last ones to try something like that, and it didn't work out too well for them.
When you don't go for a "final solution" type of violence, you can only really manage a temporary truce, just like you said. That is why you have wars ongoing now that have lasted for centuries, if not millennia. For example, the Shia/Sunni split in the middle east is not a new fight. Just that the collapse of authority in certain countries has allowed the violence to restart. That is a centuries long war at least, with breakouts of peace due to fatigue or the imposition of control by someone.
Not much is different in Europe, who historically are the most violent humans, it is only the post WWII prosperity that has kept them more or less peaceful, along with remembering the atrocities of WWII, and the risk that nobody will really survive WWIII that they make an effort to get along.
Also, There is a huge gun culture in Europe, looking online(1) there are three European countries in the "top 5 in number of privately owned guns per head of population" (Serbia, Switzerland and Cyprus), the Czech Republic has very liberal gun laws, and recently made noises about allowing full auto assault rifles to be owned by citizens.
Yet they do not suffer from mass shootings like the USA. The USA has some specific issues, of which the mass shootings and other violence are just a symptom. Beats me what those issues are, I would hope the Americans themselves can work it out.
*(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday January 09 2017, @10:44PM
> then you can try destroying them physically, but the Nazis were really the last ones to try something like that
I hear that there are people in the Balkans, the Middle East, Rwanda, and Central and South Asia who would really love it if you grabbed a recent history book...
> in Europe, who historically are the most violent humans
[citation needed, unless you mean they are the best at recording themselves doing it]
> For example, the Shia/Sunni split in the middle east is not a new fight. Just that the collapse of authority in certain countries has allowed the violence to restart.
To be pedant, one will point out that that particular fight had mostly been on a really long hiatus, with decent cohabitation in places, and regular territorial/influence wars in others, until people had to find reasons to take sides when the shit hit the fan in places where political opposition has been tortured away. Baghdad, for example, had lots of mixed neighborhoods until 2003.
While the US did not create the idea of the armed jihadi group, the influx of weapons and ideas to defeat the other empire in remote whogivesafuckstan is definitely the root of the recent revival ("recent" on a 1500-years timeline).
> The USA has some specific issues
Colonized by people who feared the locals could come express their land rights at any time.
Landscaped by people who feared the slaves could revolt at any time.
Formalized by people who feared the Brits could come back at any time.
Strengthened by people who feared the Soviets could invade at any time.
Surrounded in the South by jealous people who are feared for they're coming to steal the prosperity any time.
Besieged by people with the wrong god who cultivate the fear that they'll retaliate for the meddling any time.
The US people are supposed the be afraid. They have things to lose. If they don't have things to lose, they still have their freedom to lose, or their life, to all the bastards out there.
So they need a gun.