The US is a huge, glorious, and sometimes daffy, colossus of a nation, sprawling across a vast continent, with a diverse population of 330 million, and millions of immigrants, both legal and illegal, each year, with hard wired Constitutional protections and a long and turbulent history of resistance to heavy handed government. Attempting to compare it to European nations consisting of largely homogeneous populations, in small areas, with a history of bowing to central governmental authority, is comparing apples and rock salt. The striking differences between the US and almost all other nations on this planet is one of kind and not one of degree.
We actually do have a problem with violent crime that other affluent countries do not have. Liberals are hostile to effective measures to combat it and engage in culture war games like the gun control bleat, which is a transparent effort to stick the bill for violent crime with rural and small town gun owners, who are not a violent population.
Conservative blacks lay the blame for violent, senseless shootings and homicides in cities where it should be on the backs of Democrat Liberal/Marxists mayors, AGs, DAs. The fact that there is a high incidence of fatherless black families is also a contributing factor. Also the plague of drugs. In rural areas such as the peninsula where we live there is good government, state and local. The shootings have mostly to do with drugs. The sheriff has broken up many drug gangs of all races. It’s a fact that being surrounded by water makes it easy for the import of drugs.
The one BLM motorcade was peaceful but caused traffic problems. The organizers and most of the participants were outsiders.
I would argue that the culture we live in which has become one filled with hatred, lies, corruption, Communist indoctrination, the destruction of the traditional and normal family, the coddling of criminals for decades, the vile filth that our children are subjected to in cartoons, books, movies, television, in schools, and on the Internet, the rejection of everything that is true, especially reality, and a sense of both victimhood and entitlement as well as a plethora of young people who won’t work or be responsible for anything (as well as too many adults), encouraging the use of drugs both legal and illegal, makes is miraculous that we don’t have more murders.
What no one wants to say. The real reason for the Second Amendment was, when all other means had been tried and had failed, the citizens of this nation could rise up and take back control of their government from a despotic regime. It wasn’t about hunting. That was a given. You see, gun control is nothing new. A disarmed population is much easier to control.
The population size has always been a dominant factor for the US, when dealing with domestic challenges. It’s a huge nation by population, and it also happens to be a nation with a dominant international presence. So naturally, international scrutiny will follow. That’s unavoidable.
However, I’ll disagree on the point that Europe is no longer the homogenous society it once was, partly due to immigration. The thing the US still has which Europe has lost, is it’s Christian identity. The US, even under the current bad government, ultimately still considers itself a Christian nation. Europe, on the other hand, has tossed its rich Christian heritage aside in favour of human enlightenment and Godlessness. That’s been amplified by its acceptance of non-Christian immigration. So for European nations collectively to call out anyone for not dealing with domestic violence including gun control, is hypocritical. They have shirt memories when it comes to domestic violence brought on because of immigration. Not to mention the number of wars and ideological regimes which the East (and the West of the continent) has experienced in modern times and those of previous centuries.
The issue of Mass shootings is an issue which needs to be solved as a matter of urgency because unfortunately, children should not feel unsafe going to school. Nor should the parents worry that their child will be shot if they send them to the classroom. The deaths are senseless. Which is why it’s such an emotionally loaded issue. Again, the US is under scrutiny because it is a world leader.
Child safety in schools is a unanimous objective by any side of politics. Hopefully. How safety of children is achieved, is again, a challenge not only because of ideological differences in the debate, but also because of the size of the US population. I pray it’s achieved.
Perfectly sensible point and I’m glad someone is making it. It will have very little effect on anyone’s thinking. The liberal discourse on guns is emotions driven and the whole point is to stick the bill for violent crime on rural and small-town gun hobbyists. If you were actually interested in a general reduction in social violence, you’d pay little attention to long guns. Long guns are responsible for about 500 homicides in a typical year. You’d pay special attention to the slums, to sketchy neighborhoods adjacent, and commercial strips to which slum dwellers migrate. You would also work to make sure that criminal perpetrators were punished. Such measures are unacceptable to liberals because they involve people of lower-status (deplorables) enforcing common-and-garden standards of conduct of a sort ordinary (i.e. deplorables) think apposite on client populations of a certain type of haut bourgeois. They would also prevent if possible members of the this same social segment from exercising discretion in order to replace punishment with social work, so the clients of same will not be injured or inconvenienced. All liberal discourse in our time is reducible to status games and inter-class contempt. There is nothing else left.
It will have very little effect on anyone’s thinking.
I know.
What the left won’t address is that even if you ban guns, they will still be obtained unlawfully. (Which reiterating what you said). Only criminals obtain and use them unlawfully for criminal activity. The families we know who own guns legally, are avid hunters. Or ex-army or police with a background in firearm use. Those who have them for self-protection keep it on the hush. Usually anyway.
Sydney currently has an ongoing issue with gun violence (even though the percentage of gun ownership is relatively low in comparison to the population). It is currently perpetuated by two rival bikie gangs with rival drug importation syndicates. There is a drive-by or execution style killing of a bikie gang member reported on the news weekly. Weekly. Consider this whilst understanding that our population in NSW is small. NSW police are quietly happy they are killing each other off. However, the general concern is that an innocent by-stander will be shot in the cross-fire one of these days. So far there have been homes targeted because of mistaken identity, but thankfully no innocent casualties. Yes they happen in areas where the majority of the population are immigrants and Muslim, and where crime rates are higher.