America is far from free. Why do we accept living under perpetual fear of endless gun violence?

[Anonymous]

The rest of the world things we a crazy and they are right. There have been nearly 200 mass shootings in 2023. And that doesn't count the hundreds (maybe 1000s) of incidents where fewer than 4 died. Why do we allow ourselves to live like this? It truly is a sign of insanity. Americans love to talk about their freedom. But living under constant threat that someone with a gun could kill me or a family member at any moment is not freedom. Our nation is sick and dying. My husband and I families have been here for 4-5 generations respectively) have been working on a plan to leave. It makes me sad but I can't see it getting any better. Ever. I've lost hope and think we'll go the way of the Roman Empire in the next generation or two. But worse, since there are millions of guns that will never be retrieved and destroyed. They will be with us forever. I saw the Texas mall headline and couldn't be bothered to read a single story. It's just despair porn as this point. Is anyone else genuinely considering leaving the US?

[Anonymous]

I agree with you, OP. It’s insane that we are living this way, and it is only getting worse. Why do people not want this to change??

[Anonymous]

Freedom isn’t free.

[Anonymous]

--OP here. I don't understand the glib, bumper sticker responses. Is that a sign that you have also lost hope? and you're just accepting this awful future for America too? Are you just numb to the constant gun violence? Or do you genuinely think it's Ok and place gun rights above all other rights including life? Do you really our founding fathers envisioned a nation where individuals own hundreds of firearms and assault weapons? Or are these weird, vaguely mocking comments, that sort of challenge and dismiss my hopelessness and plans to escape intended to make me think there's no escape? Because there is, or at least I have to think there is. We're heading Ireland. We should have all known that when Sandy Hook happened and it didn't move the needle there would be no turning, no solving the problem. It's tragic, it's insane.

[Anonymous]

Too many people are willingly misreading the Second Amendment and voting in equally ignorant people. 2E calls for a "well-regulated militia." At some point this became the idea that unregulated, unfettered access to guns of all types is a Constitutional right. A significant portion of our population really believes that's what the 2E says.
We the people won't be free of gun violence until we can overcome the ignorance, the intentional misunderstandings, the crazy conspiracy ideas that so many believe in. And that won't happen without a well-educated public, which in itself can't happen without Republican buy-in to strong public schools. For now, our best bet is to use our VOTE.

[Anonymous]

There are a tangle of reasons, but I read something interesting today in another context about the need, in big industrial societies, to sublimate disagreement and conflict to institutional forms. Government needs to maintain a monopoly on violence, and this means police, courts, due process and all of that.

In the Catcher in the Rye, there is a line about how the mark of the immature man is a willingness to die nobly for a cause and the mark of the mature man is a willingness to live humbly for one.

I think the gun culture exploits an immature dissatisfaction with the institutional forms of conflict resolution. Guns create the illusion of agency, an immediacy of conflict resolution, a decisiveness of action that aren't available through other means. Living humbly is simply not something we teach people, particularly our young men, to value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a tangle of reasons, but I read something interesting today in another context about the need, in big industrial societies, to sublimate disagreement and conflict to institutional forms. Government needs to maintain a monopoly on violence, and this means police, courts, due process and all of that.

In the Catcher in the Rye, there is a line about how the mark of the immature man is a willingness to die nobly for a cause and the mark of the mature man is a willingness to live humbly for one.

I think the gun culture exploits an immature dissatisfaction with the institutional forms of conflict resolution. Guns create the illusion of agency, an immediacy of conflict resolution, a decisiveness of action that aren't available through other means. Living humbly is simply not something we teach people, particularly our young men, to value.

A very interesting take. As the mother of two boys, I agree. I'm trying to impart lessons about kindness, honesty, and the dignity of hard work. It's so difficult when the lessons my children see out in the world and on the news don't support those values. I also spend a regrettable amount of time teaching them to be fearful and distrustful. I dropped my son off at a high school party. In addition to typical warning about drinking and drugs, I also felt the need to tell him that if he sees a gun or hears anything about someone with a gun at the party, to leave immediately and call me. It sucks that that's part of my run of the mill parental speech. What other advanced nations have a set up like that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too many people are willingly misreading the Second Amendment and voting in equally ignorant people. 2E calls for a "well-regulated militia." At some point this became the idea that unregulated, unfettered access to guns of all types is a Constitutional right. A significant portion of our population really believes that's what the 2E says.
We the people won't be free of gun violence until we can overcome the ignorance, the intentional misunderstandings, the crazy conspiracy ideas that so many believe in. And that won't happen without a well-educated public, which in itself can't happen without Republican buy-in to strong public schools. For now, our best bet is to use our VOTE.

400 million guns. You aren't voting them away.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of nonwhite men involved in gun violence. We can quibble over the threshold for “mass shooting” and whether those are predominantly a white male phenomenon.

But I think we can all agree it’s almost always males doing the killing. What sickness has taken hold of American men?

[Anonymous]

OP here. I have no doubt this thread will be repurposed to serve every commenter's views, whether it's pro gun, anti immigrant or whatever the hell. But the main reason I posted was to say that America is not free. Far, far from it. It's such a lie.

[Anonymous]

I have never once been in any fear of gun violence. I still am not. I'll come back and tell you when I am.

[Anonymous]

I'm with you OP. Everyone that can figure out how to leave should leave.

[Anonymous]

Because the ruling elite want gun access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too many people are willingly misreading the Second Amendment and voting in equally ignorant people. 2E calls for a "well-regulated militia." At some point this became the idea that unregulated, unfettered access to guns of all types is a Constitutional right. A significant portion of our population really believes that's what the 2E says.
We the people won't be free of gun violence until we can overcome the ignorance, the intentional misunderstandings, the crazy conspiracy ideas that so many believe in. And that won't happen without a well-educated public, which in itself can't happen without Republican buy-in to strong public schools. For now, our best bet is to use our VOTE.

400 million guns. You aren't voting them away.

I would support strict gun control measures if they can explain what we do with the 400M guns already in circulation.

Liberals want to pass feel-good gun control measures that read like "thots and prayers." Now that we don't even have effective police enforcement, I wouldn't want normal people to give up their guns. You can make law abiding citizens give up guns while also refusing to enforce laws against dangerous criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of nonwhite men involved in gun violence. We can quibble over the threshold for “mass shooting” and whether those are predominantly a white male phenomenon.

But I think we can all agree it’s almost always males doing the killing. What sickness has taken hold of American men?

Woman just theorizing here: we stopped valuing masculinity as important to family structures, law and order, etc.