Accessibility to guns to blame for violence?

by 5thGeneration 47 Replies latest jw friends

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  5thGeneration

  With all the talk about the increased violence in schools and among society, it still surprises me that the accessibility to guns argument often tends to trump the cultural argument.

  Maybe I'm out of touch but showing Saw III uncut on HBO at 10pm and releasing the most violent video games in history and the marketing of violent and perverse music, these are the things to me that desensitises young people first and then may trigger some hurt and unstable kids long before they go and buy a gun.

  Okay, ready to be blasted (pardon the pun)!
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  freetosee

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQo-orO8UHU&feature=related
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  5thGeneration

  Trumped already without a word!

  Michael Moore's a hack.

  Anyway, back to reality... Violence in culture?
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  Forscher

  Availability of guns does not effect violent crime rates.

  If it did, then England wouldn't have a higher violent crime rate than the U.S.. The truth is that it does. If it did, then violent crime rates in Austria and Israel, where possession of of fully automatic rifles, the real assault weapons, is mandated by law would be exponentially higher than the U.S.. They are not. In fact, they are lower (when one controls for the intifada in Israel).

  Cultural attitudes towards violence are the important factor. And unfortunately western popular culture glorifies violence as a means of conflict resolution. When we stop glorifying violence in movies and songs (Rap) and encourage personal responsibility and discipline in our youth, the violence will go down.

  Forscher
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  veradico

  Being entertained by some of the things you mention may be a symptom of a predatory or perverse desire, but I doubt it is a cause. The causes of violence are what they have always been. Hate and fear, ignorance and inflexibility of the mind, these are toxic forces in the mind, retarding growth and ossifying the soul. Of course, the availability of guns, particularly the sort that are clearly meant to kill people, not to hunt animals, does not help matters when someone does go off the deep end. When children commit these crimes, as in the case of the shooting of the gay youth earlier this week (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oxnard15feb15,0,7663055.story), it is easier to blame the environment, i.e., entertainment, the hateful attitudes of friends and family, etc. When a graduate student in social work decides to murder, as in the incident at NIU (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-14-shooting_N.htm?csp=34&src=campaign=reprise_bnfeed_google_shooting), something more complex is going on. I don't think violence can be eliminated from our species, but perhaps we can become more efficient in our ability to detect dangerous people and cure them. Has anyone here ever read The Abolition of Man? What do you think of Lewis' argument that some cures give people less human dignity than the punishments they would have been given by past societies? Indeed, it is easy to see that the notion of "curing" a dysfunctional mind deprives that mind of the "dignity" of having chosen to do wrong.
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  marmot

  Violence has always been a part of culture. I mean read the bible fer crap's sake. It's bloodier and more graphic than any number of hollywood movies or shootem-up videogames. The account of Barak killing king Og was one of the most gruesome things I had ever read - he straps a sword to his hip all ninja-like and then buries the blade past the hilt into Og's gut, causing intestines and feces to pour out of the gash and leading his servants to think the king was just taking a dump so they didn't open the door until Barak was long gone. Ditto Samson slaying who knows how many Philistines with a bloody jawbone torn off of a dead donkey. This is pretty gruesome stuff.
  
  As far as access to guns, I don't think that has much bearing on the issue. The gunman was from all outward appearances a well-balanced individual and he purchased the guns legally. The last big-headline shooting before Virginia Tech was Dawson college here in Montreal, and the gunman in that shooting also acquired his guns legally and Canada has MUCH more stringent gun laws than the U.S.
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  Homerovah the Almighty

  I'm with you 5th generation , I follow the logic which is, what the mind is fed so too it will produce.

  As an example I just recently saw 2 movies which were highly praise by the critics as being very good movies, which spurred me to go see them and both turned out to be

  disgustedly graphic in violence. The movie people have this idea now to make the violence as realistic and believable as possible in a effect to make the picture a better one.

  And I'm no means a lily white conservative , but I really felt a bit riped off for sitting there for 2 hours and getting nothing but realistic brutality and then paying $12.00 too.

  It does seem that society is more acceptable toward violence in a physiological sense than ever before, the big question is therefore why ?

  Maybe now society has grown too apathetic and unconcerning with human psychology, only to be replaced with the concern of greed and wealth.......its a shame really.
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  FairMind

  Simply stated, Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
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  Elsewhere

  I find it fascinating that nearly every massacre happens in a "Gun Free Zone".

  I can't help but wonder if criminals are not dissuaded by "Gun Free Zone" signs.... "I'm ready to start shooting everyone!!!! Oh no! A Gun Free Zone sign... Curses!!! Foiled again!!! I guess I better go home and not kill anyone."
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  Homerovah the Almighty

  I personally think that there should be more armed security personal at all of are universities, campuses and colleges

  and not stationary either in a office but actually roaming around and making their presence known at all times.

  Gun free zone doesn't mean buckcuss.