Today we will analyze, with rationality, facts, and logic, rather than rampant emotions, the problem of mass shootings in the United States.
As usual, both the left and the right are completely wrong-headed in their analysis, or should I say emotional reactions, regarding this problem.
On the left, the response is always the same: GUNS!!! There are too many guns in the US! We need to ban guns! Or at least ban the big ones! Once we pass a bunch of new laws, all the guns will vanish and the United States will become a peaceful paradise!!!
On the right, the response is always the same: ISLAM!!! We need to stop being pussies and bomb the hell out of these people and kick them out of our country! Once we do that, all terrorism will vanish and United States will become a peaceful paradise!!!
Unlike with other issues, the right and the left aren’t exactly wrong. Rather, their opinions are incomplete. Yes, the amount of guns is part of the problem. Yes, Islam is also part of the problem. There are also several other large contributing factors to this problem that neither the left nor the right ever seem to talk about, since they’re too busy screaming at each other about GUNS! or ISLAM!
Here are the seven causes of mass shootings in the US (and to a lesser degree, Europe). While they are listed in no particular order, all of them are direct contributors to this problem. Moreover, as you’ll see, many of these problems don’t even have a solution.
1. Guns
Sorry right-wingers, but the fact that it’s so easy to purchase and/or otherwise acquire heavy weaponry in the US is one of the reasons we have our mass shootings. Right wingers are incorrect when they say this isn’t a factor or a problem.
Since I’m for freedom, of course I’m against the vast majority of gun laws. As an American citizen, you have the right to defend yourself against violence in a manner you deem appropriate. Banning all guns, or even most guns, is a direct violation of this right.
If your argument is that if there are more guns in a society, there will be more mass shootings, then you are correct. Yet, given a choice between totalitarianism and freedom, I’ll take freedom every time. In other words, I would rather live in a completely free country where there were mass shootings every week (thus risking my own personal safety) than live in a communist or authoritarian country where all guns were illegal (except for those lovely cops who, of course, never shoot anyone, because government never does anything wrong).
Don’t forget that last part. If you want to ban guns, or heavily restrict guns, you’re forgetting that you’re still pro-gun. You’re just pro-government guns instead of pro-citizen’s guns. Historically speaking, when the citizens have no guns but the cops and armies have tons, how has that usually worked out?
Above I said I was against the vast majority of gun laws. I didn’t say I was against all gun laws. While various libertarians may disagree, I see no major problem with state or local governments forbidding you to own a rocket launcher or 50 cal. machine gun. Therefore I agree there probably should be some limit on the types of weapons you should be allowed to purchase and own.
Where exactly should that line be drawn? That gets into a very muddled discussion that I’m not going to have today, but I do think that handguns and rifles should be legal. My point is that I’m not some raging right-winger and I do think some laws restricting weaponry may be appropriate.
Regardless, here’s the standard thing I always say to left-wingers who think we should ban “assault weapons” or the “big scary rifles” but still allow people to own handguns. Okay, you ban all rifles from the US and they all magically disappear. A month later there’s another mass shooting where someone kills 12 kids using only handguns, which are legal (like with what happened at Virginia Tech and many other mass shootings). NOW what we do?
2. Islam
Sorry left-wingers, but Islam is a huge part of this problem. Islam is by far the most violent and psychotic major religion in the world today, and is directly or indirectly responsible for a large percentage of these mass shootings (and bombings). Left-wingers are absolutely ridiculous when they scream racism every time someone points out this fact. I don’t see any hordes of Buddhists shooting up mobs of people with bombs or assault weapons, but I see Islamists do it all the time, and so do you.
To deny that Islam is significant part of this mass shooting problem is to deny the facts. If your argument is that some of this Islam rage is our fault, then I agree (keep reading), but that doesn’t mean Islam is innocent. It clearly is not.
3. Government Incompetence
With many of these mass shootings, its later revealed that these shooters already had numerous run-ins with the law and are often under intense scrutiny from the police or FBI. Yet, these crazies are easily able to purchase weapons, plan mass shootings, and carry them out anyway.
Conservatives often say that if we just enforced the laws we already had on the books regarding gun sales and ownership, we would never need any more laws. To a large degree, this is true.
The problem is that our over-bloated, way-too-big, headed-for-collapse government has grown so fat and incompetent that it can’t do something as basic as keeping criminals under scrutiny by the FBI from purchasing seriously dangerous weapons and killing piles of people.
This is yet another sign of our collapsing Western world. Not only is government too big, but it can no longer perform one of the few tasks government should do, which is to protect us from physical harm by others.
4. Psychotropic Prescription Drugs
In almost all of these mass shootings, if you wait long enough, the news finally comes out about all the god damn psychotropic drugs the shooter was taking, often via legal prescriptions from doctors.
If there were none of these drugs in our society, I seriously question if these mass shootings would even occur outside of ultra-rare and unusual instances. The correlation of prescription drug use and mass shootings is too strong.
It’s quite obvious that many disturbed people who take these anti-depression or anti-whatever drugs turn into murderous psychopaths and kill people, yet doctors and drug companies alike keep pushing this crap on their patients. Thanks, healthcare industry!
5. Comparatively Violent American Culture
I have already discussed this issue several times, namely here and here. We Americans are an unusually violent culture. From our violent founding, to our movies, to our wars, to our hobbies (hunting, martial arts, MMA, paintball, etc.) to our video games, we Americans enjoy violence in ways most other cultures don’t. You can hate that, but that’s the way we are, and we’re not changing. We’ll always be this way, as long as there is an America.
I’ve said before that you could dump a truckload of loaded AR-15s in downtown Chicago and you’d have a bloodbath, but if you did the same thing in downtown Tokyo, not a single shot would be fired. The cultures are different. If you say that gun laws work in Japan or Australia and therefore they will work in the United States, then you’re a complete and utter dumbass. The Japanese are the most nonviolent and polite people on earth, and Australians are super relaxed and chill, but we Americans are a bunch of angry, violent assholes. Again, you may hate that, but that’s the way we are. You’ve got to take this into account when seeking a solution to this problem (if indeed there is one).
6. Psychos
Psychos exist in every society. Bi-polar, extreme Aspergers, extreme clinical depression, schizophrenia, whatever flavor you’re taking about. There’s not much you can do about this unless you embrace big, incompetent government and eventually bankrupt your nation. I’ll say it again; I’d rather live in a nation where there were a few psychos walking around than live in a socialist nation with massive amounts of laws controlling my personal and financial life, a 70% income tax, and massive waste, fraud, and abuse on the part of government spending. But that’s me, and I know most humans disagree with me on this.
7. US Foreign Policy
This is another issue that is rarely brought up when there’s a mass shooting. Islam and psychos are indeed part of the problem, but this all exacerbated by America’s absolutely insane neoconservative foreign policy over the last 65 years. If you’re bombing civilians virtually non-stop for decades in Islamist nations, they’re going to be a little pissed off. (Do you think if the Chinese were regularly drone-striking your town and killing children, you might be a little upset at China?) Some of these people are going to shoot us when normally they wouldn’t. It’s cause and effect.
I’ve already discussed this problem in detail here.
Solutions?
Now that we’ve discussed the seven direct causes of all these mass shootings, it’s time to discuss possible solutions. Here’s where things get hairy.
As you’re about to see, some of these problems don’t have solutions. You either put up with them or move out of the country. I’m personally moving out the country, because I have no desire to live in a collapsing society. But again, that’s me, and most people aren’t going to do this.
Some of these other problems technically have solutions, but the solutions are so severe that you’d probably not want them unless you’re a lover of either hardcore socialism or authoritarianism. That’s fine I suppose, particularly if you’re European or Australian, but this country, America, was founded on the concept of freedom, and if you’re a socialist or authoritarian you need to admit that you’re going against the entire founding concept of America, the single most successful nation ever in the history of mankind.
Here are the possible solutions to the above seven problems, if any:
1. Guns
– Surrender to the leftists and enact sweeping, draconian gun laws. Ban all guns or at least everything other than handguns. This won’t do much, since there are already over 300 million guns held by civilians in the United Sates. This means you’d have to send in the cops to confiscate everyone’s guns, which would likely cause a small-scale civil war. Great idea.
– A better, but still bad idea: Make anyone civilly and/or criminally liable if they sell a gun to anyone that is involved in a gun crime. Put the onus away from government and on the free market. That means if I’m a gun store owner and I sell you a gun, I could be thrown in prison if you use that gun to kill someone, or if someone in your household does so. Thus, I’m going to make you prove to me via blood tests, medical records, and certified paperwork that you have no criminal record, that you’ve never taken psychotropic drugs, that you don’t live with anyone like this, and so on.
– Another better, but still bad idea: Increase penalties for anyone who commits a crime with a gun. If someone uses a gun to commit any crime, throw the fucking book at them. This should be done at the state and local levels, since the federal government has no constitutional authority to regulate or prosecute murder or robberies. If you read the Constitution, the only three crimes the federal government is allowed to get involved with is treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. They can’t do shit about mass shootings, nor should they.
2. Islam
There is nothing you can do to solve this problem.
Even if Donald Trump becomes president and miraculously bans all incoming Muslims into the US (never going to happen in our left-wing country), there are millions of Muslims already here, and the religion of Islam isn’t changing in your lifetime. You’re screwed.
3. Big Government Incompetence
– Dramatically reduce the size of government, particularly the federal government (never going to happen in our left-wing country). The smaller your government, the better job it tends to do.
As I’ve been demonstrating all over this blog, reducing the size of government solves, or at least improves, all kinds of social problems, including this mass shooting thing.
4. Psychotropic Prescription Drugs
There is nothing you can do to solve this problem.
Big Pharma has too much power over our corporatist society, and no election or protest will change this. Doctors are going to continue to prescribe this garbage and people will continue to murder others because of it. You’re screwed.
5. Comparatively Violent American Culture
There is nothing you can do to solve this problem.
American culture is the way it is and you’re not going to change it. It’s true that cultures change over time, and slowly we’re becoming a nation of welfare-state-worshiping wimps more akin to Europe, but by the time 90-100% of Americans become left-wing, gun-hating socialists, America will be long gone (or be transformed into something else unrecognizable). You’re screwed.
6. Psychos
– Surrender to the leftists and make any and all mental health counseling and mental institutions“free” (i.e. taxpayer funded after massive amounts of government waste, fraud, and abuse). Lock up any person who psychologists say is a threat against their will.
Other than that, there is no solution to this problem. Every society has psychos. You’re screwed.
7. US Foreign Policy
This one is easy. Tell the right-wingers to fuck off and do everything I list here. Stop bombing countries, stop invading countries, stop toppling foreign governments, stop arming foreign armies, etc. You know, just start being normal and stop wasting my tax money by using it to murder civilians, enrage people all over the world, and make them want to kill me, especially considering I didn’t vote for any of you jerks in the first place and don’t support anything you’re doing.
Is this going to happen? Nope. (Notice that Hillary and Trump are both warmongers, just like Obama and Romney both were, and Obama and McCain both were, and Bush and Kerry both were…)
Are any of these above solutions going to happen? Not really. Lefties and righties will scream at each other, nothing much will change (except more silly gun laws will be enacted that won’t work) and the decline of the West will continue.
Moving to Asia or South America is looking really good right about now, isn’t it?
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