Mass Murder In Maine At Least 16 Dead

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

1. The human material is basically the same across the globe. Americans are not innately a crazier race than Europeans.

2. There are enormous differences in the rate of firearms homicides and suicides in the US and Europe, to include the extreme events called 'mass shootings.'

3. Point 2 must be the result of particular aspects of the social environment in the US. Efforts to reduce gun violence here should focus on this. Accusations that Americans are particularly awful people are not helpful. What we have is laws and culture that are in some ways awful.

4. If we are to stay a democracy, changing laws and culture is a complex, time consuming project. But immediate attention to helpful legal changes may give limited good results. Background checks and red-flag laws can be implemented in more places. Laws limiting the distribution of the most dangerous types of weapons should be sought as possible.

5. Changes in more people's cultural ideas, ideology, and consequent support of legal and behavioral changes is needed, but getting it will be a very slow process, requiring unusually enlightened leadership.

I'm not arguing any of this. But i have to say something about having to be patient with the people of this country when it comes to doing the right thing about much of anything...much less our history of democratized gun carnage. Its like we are a country full of preadolescent middle school children who have to be fed change in emotionally tolerable doses, lest we start stomping our feet, kicking holes in walls and breaking windows.

The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and one teacher and injured 15 others before killing himself. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history. And within a year with the approval of the British people, Parliament outlawed possession of handguns and any other firearms outside of long barreled hunting rifles and shotguns. Never happened there again.

Perhaps Great Britain has enough maturity in their electorate to get this done.