Indeed.
how are there so many suicides by suffocation? is autoerotic asphixiation really that popular in the us?
I believe "not enough guns" is the relevant argument.
Admittedly at first glance I thought that hand was a symbol for "the undead".
Yeah the image looks more like death by skeleton than death by suffocation.
you may be able to categorize hanging in that as well, because I didnt see any specific items for it.
That was my assumption.
The high incidence of suicide is an interesting stat, though; and I Agree that could be an indicator of intense levels of mental health issues in the country.
...Or maybe it was all men who lost everything to their bitch wives in the divorce. Either or.
Woah.
Could I get $25 for Street Fighter 2, floppy disk #2, for the Commodore Amiga?
I wonder if they accept printed out Steam codes.
Aside from mass murders, we tend to have a bunch of murder/suicides across the country. About 99.999% of the shooters are males. Most of the time it's an estranged husband going after his ex. But some times and in increasing instances, it's because the guy got canned and they've maxxed out the credit cards. These types of shootings happen at about the same rate if not a little more than robbery related shootings. The only reason video games and the type of fire arm used comes into play is what video game and what gun was bought on the maxxed out card. Addiction to materialism is the chief cause there I think.
The psycho mass shooters? I doubt video games, movies or access to fire arms is what motivated them. I think there's something in the medications.
If you're ever in the USofA or an American, watch the medicine commercials. on TV. Notice how the medications may treat a minor condition, but has a whole slew of nasty side effects. Thoughts of suicide.... violent delusions... may cause birth defects.... And this is for something that treats heartburn!!!!
I dunno... Where I live gun violence has pretty much always been common. but most shootings here are based on other crimes. And the shooters? They're not going to care what gun restrictions get made. It won't stop them from getting guns one little bit.
The psycho mass shooters? I doubt video games, movies or access to fire arms is what motivated them. I think there's something in the medications.
If you're ever in the USofA or an American, watch the medicine commercials. on TV. Notice how the medications may treat a minor condition, but has a whole slew of nasty side effects. Thoughts of suicide.... violent delusions... may cause birth defects.... And this is for something that treats heartburn!!!!
I dunno... Where I live gun violence has pretty much always been common. but most shootings here are based on other crimes. And the shooters? They're not going to care what gun restrictions get made. It won't stop them from getting guns one little bit.
I suppose there are a lot of factors but it's difficult to blame violent computer games when the rest of the world is playing the same ones.
I think the argument that the USA has a culture of killing is a pretty good one. It's still a very young country, it's not so long since you were out killing the natives and then protecting your own property due to the lack of law and order. I remember living in a fairly densely-populated area (certainly not a rural area) in New Jersey in the '90s that had no 911 service. Maybe it still doesn't I don't know.
So I can sort-of understand the paranoid middle classes wanting their guns and being over-keen to use them against their neighbours. The people I can't understand are the people who want to keep that situation as it is.
I think the argument that the USA has a culture of killing is a pretty good one. It's still a very young country, it's not so long since you were out killing the natives and then protecting your own property due to the lack of law and order. I remember living in a fairly densely-populated area (certainly not a rural area) in New Jersey in the '90s that had no 911 service. Maybe it still doesn't I don't know.
So I can sort-of understand the paranoid middle classes wanting their guns and being over-keen to use them against their neighbours. The people I can't understand are the people who want to keep that situation as it is.
Kev, where in NJ did you live?
Funny I remember you killing us after your king banned and confiscated our guns, then we put a thing in our constitution that says you can't do that because only tyrants do that when they want to kill you.
Gun owners are not over-keen to use guns, but the Gun Owner=Murderer media talking point is the only argument shocking enough to try and marginalize 51% of US households into the rapacious killer category. 100% of households in the UK have knives but what percent of those are used in murders? Some people are using knives to kill people so all people who have knives want to kill people. Sound right?
Gun owners are not over-keen to use guns, but the Gun Owner=Murderer media talking point is the only argument shocking enough to try and marginalize 51% of US households into the rapacious killer category. 100% of households in the UK have knives but what percent of those are used in murders? Some people are using knives to kill people so all people who have knives want to kill people. Sound right?
Because that's been the case in the majority of first-world gun control movements since then, right? Can't roll my eyes any harder.
America in 2013 does not equal America in 1774. The world in 2013 does not equal the world in 1774. Laws should change to reflect the times (social changes, environmental changes, etc).
Ah, the glorious return of your persecution complex. No one is arguing that all gun owners are crazed killers, or that all guns should be banned. Not even the media, for all their faults, are pushing that idea. Most people (according to recent polls, anyway) merely suggest that there should be more stringent restrictions on which guns can be purchased and who can purchase them (some of the existing state laws to this effect are already perfectly adequate in my opinion, though).
I was reacting the the notion that gun owners are keen to kill their neighbors or kill anybody for that matter, an idea which seems to be rampant in countries where people are defenseless. I know people who carry a gun at all times in public. I know of no men or women more unlikely to provoke a violent confrontation than the ones who lawfully carry pistols with the permit they had to train and qualify (including a background check) to receive. Unfortunately, there is no data showing how many crimes were deterred by the would-be victim being armed because crimes that don't happen are usually not reported. This lack of useful information is harmful for the rights of hundreds of millions of Americans, but is purposefully ignored by the media and politicians.
The status quo of gun violence in the US is that it is slowly decreasing with or without gun control. The fact that Columbine happened right in the middle of the assault weapon ban proves that they have no effect except to placate frenetic liberals like Diane Feinstein.
Plus, disarmament of citizens denies the possibility that this country will ever have to fight a domestic war again which is overly optimistic at best.
The status quo of gun violence in the US is that it is slowly decreasing with or without gun control. The fact that Columbine happened right in the middle of the assault weapon ban proves that they have no effect except to placate frenetic liberals like Diane Feinstein.
Plus, disarmament of citizens denies the possibility that this country will ever have to fight a domestic war again which is overly optimistic at best.
Well some people were more affected than others. And I will tell you it is completely different when its so close to home and not in another state. trust me it hits home and makes you think about how that could have been any school.
its pretty simple the us has a ton more gun related homicides and homicides in general than any other 1st world nation so either guns are the issue or americans are all violent pricks... take your pick
How does ~1861 suit you?
Actually I'm of the opinion that it would make me think of many other things before even considering the school-lottery angle.
Around here guns are mostly used in vendettas or settling disputes over property boundaries when they're not being fired in the air in some weird notion of celebratory reverie - and in the past 2-3 years of course ever-increasingly in suicides. Gun owners are quite common too and it's a matter of low intelligence machismo. In my neighborhood, which is pretty much a quiet residential one by local standards, there'll be some sort of gunfire heard during the day.
However, we somehow don't get people going on shooting sprees like that, and it's got nothing to do with them being responsible individuals or legal gun owners. Anything other than hunting rifles are usually illegally obtained and the areas that have the most are usually quite hostile towards the police (although a sign of intelligence usually, in their case it's just a reflexive reaction).
In hindsight and quite ironically, if some sensationalist news reporter made a comparison they'd easily come to the conclusion that "these guys don't play as many video games as the ones in the US". But of course that'd be tantamount to this classic graph.
Mostly Ocean and Monmouth counties. My girlfriend who grew up in Brick told me there was no 911 service there.
I suppose in lieu of any evidence you could just look at violent crime numbers and see if there's a significant fall in states where concealed carry permits were introduced. If there isn't then those nice wild west people probably aren't helping, they're just getting their guns stolen and used to commit crimes (something the statistics do show).
That reaction (the town's, not your reaction) is stupid though. Target one media but leave others alone?
Picking faves anyone?
oh I agree, but the town is also run by people who potentially lost a family member. I know someone who's mother taught a bunch of those kids in the summer. In times of despair people do weird things and try to place the blame on anything they can.
So I guess the preposterous ****ed-up 2nd amendment argument goes that you're OK with firearms so long as you're not exposed to any media that might give you the idea of firing them at people.
Good luck with that frankly ludicrous solution.
Which is stupid though and very, very short sighted to focus in on one media and one media only.
Guns don't kill people, People do. Games don't train people to go and get a rifle and murder anyone any more than LFS trains you how to race a BF1 at 220mph around London.
Burning or destroying one media is a straw man argument. For argument's sake, let's say the shooter liked rap music, would the town now be destroying every bit of music they could? Or if they liked TV, the town would want to turn off every TV? That article had a comment saying to burn every religious text, That I would get behind.
The town's reaction is knee jerk and just as stupid as the people who went online and attacked the Mass Effect fan page.
I never said I agreed... All I said is when people are desperate they will do anything. Is it that hard to understand?
Tragedy and Video Game Violence
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