Everybody talks gun control, but nobody talks about increasing funding for mental health services

[primavera]

89. I think you are looking too technically at the role of law

Law isn't just about creating technical offenses for which punishment can be enforced. It's about contributing to a culture and a social norm with respect to a particular area of behavior. Sure, part of the reason that we have mass shootings is because it's all too easy for a mentally unstable person to obtain weapons capable of inflicting massive harm in a very short period of time. But another part of the reason is that our culture glorifies guns. We embrace them as part of our rugged, frontiersman identity; the bold, self-reliant American, who can solve any problem and set to rights any injustice with his good heart and his trusty six shooter. It's like we're all taught that we should want to be John Wayne, who would never set foot out the door without his faithful Winchester with which to fight off the evil Injuns. That culture of perceiving the world as an inherently hostile place, against which one must arm one's self, I believe plays an important role in the staggering number of gun deaths that occur each year in this country. I suspect that, on some subconscious level, perpetrators believe themselves to be kindred souls with Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Keifer Sutherland, Michael Douglas, or Robert de Niro - courageous antiheroes who recognize injustice and will accept the burden of responsibility for doing what it takes to remedy it in the face of an inept and corrupt government's inefficacy.

I think that cultural message can be influenced by law. If we pass laws aimed at emphasizing the responsibilities that accompany gun ownership, rather than focussing exclusively on the perceived right of every American to own their own .45 as soon as they pop out of the womb, that could, over time, influence our culture that presently encourages gun violence.