| RingoGaSuki said: It's not even stupidity at this point. The inaction and dumbfounding level of apathy with which the issue is treated that is the problem. Americans always ready the typical responses. "Don't try to politicise a tragedy!", "Gun control? (Not even a completecomp, even a simple system of checks) SCREEEEEE", "We have to respect the second amendment! (Though the very word amendment itself means that it CAN be changed!)".
Many Americans (great examples of which can be seen in this very thread), are completely irrational on this issue. Killing is a byproduct of human nature, but acting like controlling access to deadly weapons won't result in a lower number of deaths is ridiculous. I understand the power the NRA and other lobbyists hold with corrupt politicians, but it is not indestructible, nothing is. If you want to improve the state of your society, it needs to be dismantled. That's entirely possible. |
That doesn't explain the statistics though ... I'm willing to entertain the idea that some surveys probably survey almost entirely democrats, but when even NRA statistics lead to 75% of your members wanting more gun control ... yeah ....
You're right that those responses are somewhat common. I have to wonder if it's a vocal minority. Or even more likely, politicians pushing these responses. The problem with politicizing gun violence isn't the discussion around politics, the problem is it becomes an us vs. them debate of political parties and not something that should so obviously come down to one simple answer. People get stupidly tribal-like when name brands like Democrat or Republican are involved.
Another interesting thing that may be true or may be bullshit is that there was this TV special that kind of hinted at one possibility. Take it with a grain of salt because it's a comedy central special ... it's pretty meh too ... it's called "Jordan Klepper solves guns". In it, he spends a lot of the documentary adopting a mentality of us Democrats against those Republican gun owners, and he eventually comes to the conclusion that a lot of the problem resolves in the myth that this is a heated debate when it isn't. If a lot of top politicians perpetuate the idea that people are really mixed and divided on guns, then people will continue to believe so and some might even start adopting pro-gun ideas(by pro-gun i mean bullshit, not just owning a gun). This isn't conspiracy theory bullshit by the way, it's not like a systematic cover up, it's just that when a lot of the establishment is constantly arguing over something it makes the public believe the issue is contested ... and that way of thinking can become reality the more you start to believe it. Still, it does seem likely that a majority are in favor of gun control.
I still don't think anything you said really warrants making fun of an entire group of people. You might not be calling them dumb but it all fizzles down to one thing : making light of people. America is such an easy target. With every other country, when an issue or problem occurs no one resorts to jokes whilst simultaneously being taken seriously by so much of western society. The U.S. seems to be one of the only places where you can actually make a point by actively making fun of it's population, because apparently we have a perfect democracy and so we all must be stupid, even though this is a country where we can't even elect our own president based on a majority vote. And jesting is all good, but not feeling sorry for the families and people involved? A bit far in my opinion, but then again it's just my opinion.
You are completely correct that everything comes down to systems we can change. But I don't think a lot of people are aware of these problems. It will take some time to fix. Hopefully we get there.
