Ask Americans

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founded 2 years ago

So let's hit the ground running: Guns (self.askamericans)

submitted 2 years ago by ttmrichter to c/[email protected]

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The USA has literally more than one mass shooting^1^ per day. It has reached the point where these don't even reach the news any longer unless there's some special angle to make them "interesting". The reaction to this, from an outsider perspective, should be "maybe we should do something about the proliferation of freely available guns". The reaction to this, again from an outsider perspective, seems to be rather "OMG I BETTER BUY MORE GUNS!!!!!111oneoneoneeleventy!"

What gives? How come the USA has not yet figured out that doubling down on the strategy that led to the nation having a shocking murder rate for the developed world is not a working solution?

What is it about the USA and guns that makes you tolerate this state when you've got a culturally-similar nation to the north of you that, despite your cultural problems being imported, still doesn't have your kill rate?

^1^ Defined as a shooting event in which at least 4 people other than the shooter are injured or killed.

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[–] SEND_BUTTPLUG_PICS 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm aware that mass shootings have existed long before the 90's but my understanding is that the frequency has increased significantly in recent decades. Maybe it's due to better record-keeping or changing criteria used to define mass shootings. I'm not a data scientist. It certainly feels like they've become more frequent since the 90's.