Topic Las Vegas shooting: Dozens killed in Mandalay Bay attack
Posted 08 Oct 2017 09:59
Here here. I think that whole section ought to be strung up on the front of the White House.
I just cannot understand the mentality that defends the 'right' to own what are essentially weapons of warfare, designed not for self-defence but for mass killing. To own one of these would be bad enough, but allowing people to own their own arsenal is asking for trouble. What sensible, defensible need could anyone have to own a weapon like that, other than the occasional 'pleasure shoot' in the back yard? It's not for hunting. It's not for sport. It's not even for self defence. It's for murdering people by the multitude. If you're determined to fire one for fun, there are ranges where you can do that. You don't need to buy your own - and definitely not a collection of them.
The mental health argument has been passed around to death. It's tiring, and it's people passing the excuse down the line. If this man was mentally ill, it just proves that it can come in a moment, with no warning or any chance of stopping it. He was perfectly sane just days before, if you believe the reports. In which case, as you say, he's corrupted in some other way that you can't control. Mental health acts won't change a person's vindictive, selfish, aggressive nature when that little bit of sanity in their head finally snaps. But if, when that person cracks, the only thing they can lay their hand on is a kitchen knife, do people really think he's going to manage to injure ~600 people?
There needs to be more done for the mentally ill, that's a given - and it goes for almost every state in the world. We could all do more for the mentally ill. But again, limiting their access to deadly weaponry should be #1 on the list, with a big ring around it, highlighted in red. Nevermind the extra few guns the gun companies will sell. It's not worth people's lives.
There's a gun culture in America, that's so deep-rooted, I genuinely can't see it changing for a long, long time. It's almost religious, if you listen to some people. It's a scarily blind attitude to hold, but people do. I don't see anything happening to change things just yet. There's too much good hard cash to be made selling these guns for the Americans to allow something like a few thousand people a year dying to change things. Change is a slow process, but the more people shouting for it, the more likely it is to succeed.
I think it's maybe easier to see these things from the outside. Maybe it is just too deep-seated a philosophy amongst much of the American populace. Maybe the reliance on guns is something we just can't relate to, because our societies function perfectly well without them. The attitude towards race is something I see through-out, though. Terrorist, lone gunman, mentally unsound... What's the difference? These are all people who, for their own twisted, irrational reasons, decide to vent their anger, frustration and hate into killing and maiming the lives of innocent people. Label them however you want, but regardless or religion, race or belief, they all suffer from the same sickness, the same twisted perspective on reality that drives them to these acts. Don't put them into separate boxes, as though they're a different breed. These are all symptons of the much bigger problems we all face. Anyone can be a terrorist. Anyone can be a shooter, or a bomber. If this proves anything, it's that we need to focus on society as a whole and not the little boxes we put people into, because no one is safe and no one is beyond suspicion.
When you treat everyone as a suspect; when everyone has the capacity and potential to be a mass murderer, suddenly the prospect of all those guns becomes a lot more terrifying. That's the truth of it. We make the mistake of thinking that these actions, and these beliefs in people, are somehow rare and to be ignored; but it keeps happening, and it keeps proving that maybe they're not as rare as we thought they were.
Thanks, Lupus. I think you are on to something as well.
There was a book written by Hannah Arendt called "The Banality of Evil" about Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem for war crimes. Part of what it described was the normalization of human wickedness. That is what is going on with the gun debate. People don't want to accept that these shootings are done not by madmen or terrorists but by ordinary Americans, the situation becomes much more frightening as does the ability of just about everyone to get a gun. It is much easier to say "That is not someone like me. That person is a terrorist who hates America or a person with deep mental health issues." It also reminds me of something my father used to quote out of an old comic strip called "Pogo", "We have met the enemy and he is us." If you look around you in the US, a large percentage of those people you see may well be gun owners. How do we know if they have a conscience and empathy or if they are sociopaths? We don't. We have no idea what any of them are capable of doing. Many people get along well in society, are accomplished professionally, have friends and family and are capable of pure evil. There is no test or gene for that. So, it is not just those with a history of violent crime, domestic abuse, or mental health issues that are the threat.
As well, as I touched on above, the societal acceptance of guns has to be broken in the US. If it could be done for smoking, it can be done for this. It will not be easy, but the security people think they have with guns (unless they live in rural or wilderness areas where they truly need them for safety) is a false one. If some of the concertgoers in Las Vegas had been armed and started shooting (as is often suggested by gun proponents) they would have killed and injured more innocent people. Guns should not be some kind of security blanket for Americans. The rest of us in the developed world live happy and safer lives without them.
Edit: There is something I have to add. American society has become divided and remains so. People get their news from sources that confirm their biases. The immunity to false information and propaganda have broken down and there is a flood of bogus information. Trump has delegitimized any fact checking and criticism by labeling reliable news sources as fake news. He has also unleashed a torrent of hatefulness out in the open, things that people would have been embarrassed to say outside of their homes that are racist, sexist, anti-semitic, homophobic and more are now said without shame. That David Duke should thank Trump for his support for his remarks on Charlottesville says it all. This is a long way of saying that the current atmosphere is another way that evil has become an accepted everyday thing.