An endless arms race: How to fight the NRA's absurd solution to mass shootings

[marmar]

An endless arms race: How to fight the NRA's absurd solution to mass shootings
More armed guards everywhere, more guns everywhere. Do you want to live in that country? It's time to say no

By JOHN DAVENPORT
PUBLISHED JULY 5, 2022 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) As we celebrated Independence Day, there was no independence from the scourge of gun violence and the toll it is taking on the American psyche. The shooter who attacked a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing six people and wounding at least 38 others, used a "high-powered rifle," according to authorities. Survivors report a rain of bullets at the height of the attack.

This attack is bound to renew calls for more "red flag" laws that would help identify and disarm emotionally or mentally unstable persons who are making threats of gun violence or praising mass murderers. But would the Highland Park shooter's online record of participating in "death fetish" culture sites and making art featuring mass killing have been enough for a judge to order seizure of his guns? The Guardian reports that just one Reddit website featuring gruesome death videos has more than 400,000 subscribers, most of whom will never shoot anyone. Red flag laws may help, but they seem likely either to cast too wide a net or to miss key individuals, given that mental health is not a strong predictor of becoming a mass shooter.

With more than 22,000 deaths by gun reported by July 4 this year, it is not surprising that people are looking for quick solutions. After the execution of 19 elementary schoolers in Texas and a hospital shooting in Oklahoma in May, there were shootings at a graduation party and a nightclub during the first weekend in June. Then an armed man was arrested at the home of a Supreme Court justice.

....(snip)....

This new law may create a false sense of hope, but will do little to reduce the 316 "routine" shootings that take place on average every day in this country, including around 74 in suicide attempts and another 91 in accidental shootings. This problem is driven by the fact that there are so many guns in American households that someone in a psychic meltdown can easily get hold of one. Gun sales tripled during the pandemic, and there is more than one private firearm per person in America, far more than in any other nation. In 2021 alone, 19.9 million guns were sold in the U.S., amounting to more than $1,1 billion in gross profits. Even if we assume half of that went to guns for hunting sports (which is unlikely), it is still a shocking figure.

....(snip)....

To really fix the problem, we have to reduce the fears of neighbors cultivated by mass media, which drive gun sales. The sense that others around you are arming up also triggers second-order fears. Americans feel the need to own a gun because the enormous number in circulation make it far more likely that a criminal here will use a gun while committing a crime. There is no technological substitute for deep social trust, as sociologists researching "social capital" have found. The proliferation of guns erodes that trust like the strongest acid, and produces a defeatist sense that mass shootings are "inevitable." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/05/an-endless-arms-race-how-to-fight-the-nras-absurd-solution-to-mass/

[AndyS]

1. Yeah that's the ticket, post armed guards at (fill in the blank)

After every school, movie theater, county fair, mall and nightclub has its own elite military unit at your expense, shooters will move on to farmers markets, dog runs, ski resorts and ice rinks. No amount of armed officers will ever be enough.

Oh! Wait! What if we just TOOK AWAY THE GUNS?

[LT Barclay]

4. Maybe there is a connection between the NRA and some of the security firms.

I remember during shrub's presidency the only real growth industry was those connected to Homeland Security contracts. Maybe growth has leveled off and they are looking for new markets.

[IronLionZion]

5. The answer is always more guns

because that's how they make their money from gun companies. And that's how they pay off politicians.

[intheflow]

2. Fuck, Salon, don't "both sides" this.

There's a HUGE difference in the slew of reichwing actual mass shootings, and one guy on the left with a gun outside Kavenaugh's house who called his sister instead of shooting any one. THAT was a mental health problem, allll the others are mass shootings with intent to kill as many people as possible. Yeah, that's a mental health thing, too, as in being narcissistic and psychotic, which is waaaay worse than murder ideation without action.

[onecaliberal]

3. Thousands of gun violence victims need to file suit.

[slightlv]

6. And what if all these new security guards

suddenly became a private army?