There is an explanation as to why we lead the developed world (and it ain’t close) in senseless mass shootings of people the shooter never met. Somehow, deadly rage being taken out on large numbers of strangers has become an American phenomenon.

If we could figure out why, then maybe we could answer that question. Reasonable people focus on the amount of guns in this country, because that seems to be the one clear thing about the US that’s different in the world. According to this wiki page, we double our nearest competitor, the Falkland Islands (and I’m not sure anyone’s been shot there since the Falkland War).

I’m all ears on other causes, but I don’t really believe we lead the world in mental illness or psychological distress, which are the other usual suspects (or maybe deflections). I don’t really know that laws can even take care of this, given the black market possibilities in a place as awash in guns as the US. It’s a weird cultural obsession. And a pure political identity issue. So we can’t even get to a reasonable discussion.

Gun violence was downplayed in a big way when I was young. Gunfights in westerns or cop shows were always bloodless no matter how many people died, and gave us all kinds of fun ways to die to imitate on the playground. But somehow, as we grew up, we didn’t see fantasy play jump to real life every week.

In a rational world, you’d think a country valuing innocent life would take a hard look at the one clear elephant in the room - twice as many guns per person as any other country on earth. Unfortunately in our irrational country, that would be heresy to about half its citizens.
[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 11/23/2022 08:34AM]