Self-defense is a right of any civilized and peaceful culture.
We delegate the authority of that to our military and police and if it falls on an individual we have a court system to determine that it was self-defense.
Those systems fail to prevent all violence because it would require a police state with constant surveillance to reduce crime to zero. And we know from experience that results in crimes being perpetrated by the authorities themselves, so we try to find a balance.
It then falls on individuals to defend and protect themselves in certain situations, or community watch groups, or just knowing your neighbors. If those individuals start escalating their weapons, they get the same problems that the police state has.
The answer is to reduce the need for someone to steal or to use violence in any way to get what they think is justice. We need to increase the recognition and care for people who feel disaffected and are prepared to kill to make their point. If someone is able to speak freely and is getting compensated fairly for their contribution to the whole, they don’t have the need to lash out at anything.
So, you’re content just leaving it at stating the problem? We are working on all of those. Some places are going deeper into police states, and it is leading to people getting voted out of office because it doesn’t work. There are of course more guns, and we can see how that’s not working. We are in fact moving toward more mental health awareness, more social programs and better education about health and human services. What is your evidence that it is not working?
Why is it that gun control works in othet countries, including Canada with which we share a 3000-mile border. We have a similar standard of living. Similar ethnic make up, similar immigration status. Yet our gun death rate is twice that of Canada. Why? What’s wrong with America and Americans that effective gun conteol doesn’t work her?
i had something else to add but had to go to another website to pick it up. When I came back to CFI Forums within 2 minutes I had to sign in again. This is as frustrating as hell.
The US has nearly six times the gun homicide rate of Canada, more than seven times that of Sweden, and nearly 16 times that of Germany, according to United Nations data for 2012 compiled by the Guardian. (These gun deaths are a big reason America has a much higher overall homicide rate, which includes non-gun deaths, than other developed nations.)
Why? Are Americans just naturally more violent than people in other countries so gun control doesn’t work? Or are Americans just more stupid?
Americans are not more stupid regarding guns. How could you prove that anyway and what would you do about it?
We have a gun lobby that is run by criminals, literally. With that amount of power, you could get a following in any country. They create a minority of people who own most of the guns. With that in place, it’s easy to entice a few disaffected youth with that feeling of power you get by holding a gun. That keeps the engine running, and passed on to the next generation.