LogFAQs > #962791366

UnfairRepresent posted...

No pro gun American has ever ever ever explained to me how more guns and less gun control are the solution to the gun problem when the gun problem is unique to America in the whole world.

The "gun problem" only really exists due to a host of other problems and inequalities. Plenty of other countries have substantially higher gun regulations yet higher gun fatalities and others have fairly loose restrictions (in comparison to most of Europe) and still substantially lower levels of gun violence. The same can be said for US states and counties. Correlation is not causation. The real defining characteristics come in many problems that aid in ones will to commit violence and means to cut down on crime in general. Poverty, social safety nets, racial demographics, political discourse/lack of representation, land mass, gangs, drugs, police forces/monitoring in general (which many countries have adopted a police state mentality) ect. Plenty of 1st world countries have these issues, but not to the US' scale. Plus you can also be dealing with the cultures of the people. Japan for instance has almost no guns and yet their suicide rate is higher.

In general Guns ARE a factor as its impossible to not be considering theres more guns in the country than people, but they are not THE factor. If that was the case given the amount in circulation (roughly half of the whole worlds small arms) then the US would be an apocalyptic wasteland which its not. Most actual gun deaths tend to come in the form of suicides which are hard to counter (especially when the next 2 most common methods carries with them high success rates), gang warfare which they tend to have the resources to get what they want and domestic violence which can be easily replicated through a host of other means. Plus many other countries tend to take up the slack in other methods of violence.

Better job security, easier access to education and healthcare, better political representation, legalization of more drugs ect. would go a LOT farther in solving violence in general which extends to the "gun problem". A lot of people turn to violence, self harm and gangs due to thinking things are hopeless to an extent and those are their only way of going forward. The best way to solve that is giving people signs of a brighter future. not to say thats an easy task, especially with certain parties pushing back or going in bad directions.