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It’s certainly a vast area, but it’s definitely not vague. In fact we have a very acute understanding of the pathology involved in crimes like this and it’s always been 100% a mental health issue. Because the root cause of something like what happened is someone who not only thinks they should, but that they are also justified in killing as many people as possible.

The tool they use, is to a large extent, irrelevant.

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What you posted is post event.
In terms of Precaution, What can we do?
There can be no prediction as to who will be mentally unstable at what point and whether they will be unstable to an extent to kill someone.

What if someone is categorized as mentally stable but they go through a horrible breakup?
What if someone is categorized as mentally unstable but they catch a great break in their career?
What if someone is categorized as mentally stable but a loved one dies?

Would you rather psychologically police a massive massive population on daily basis? or would you rather ban guns?

They are absolutely relevant.
No teenager anywhere in world (bar US) has enough influence or contacts to acquire an AR-15.
That is a tool that can instantly kill multiple people.

Not all mentally unstable people can have easy access to deadly weapons which can kill 10, 20, 30 people in matter of minutes.
But in US, they can go for a stroll & buy one.

Replace guns with knife and death toll will come down drastically.
Yes recently Europe had terrorist use Vehicles to kill people but that can also be less effective than an assault rifle.

It is absolutely ridiculous to think that they live in a society where guns are easily available at anyone with an intention to purchase.

And if someone kills lots of people with a knife, would you blame the knife?

Don’t start this guns don’t kill people rhetoric it’s been the most basic of straw man arguments in this whole issue for years now. The devastation and ease of use of these arms compared to other deadly weapons is absolutely key in these cases. Every bit as key as mental health.

The solutions surely have to involve addressing both matters seriously. It’s too fucking easy to pick up a strap in the US. Might even be easier than getting a car.

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It’s funny there you can’t buy alcohol till 21 but you buy a gun at 18 :man_shrugging:t5:

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I think the availability of guns make the situation worse, but the underlying pathology is the problem to be solved.

How can that ever be solved?
When have there ever been a time in human history where you gathered millions of people together and everyone lived in harmony.
There will always be conflicts among humans in one form or other; be it money, power, sex, fame, social interaction, discrimination etc.

There will never be perfect set of humans.

Its similar to the ideal concept of having better drivers than to have better road rules. Conceptually yes but humans will always have stupid reckless drivers and we will constantly have to evolve our road rules to match our stupidity.

Much harder to mass kill people with a knife.

I also think it’s somewhat cultural as well as a mental problem, because mental illness surely exists to roughly the same extent everywhere, but it’s only America where this happens so often.

But even though I agree mental health is the prime mover, not being able to buy a gun in a supermarket would be a big step in the right direction.

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This mix of white privilege and gun culture in America make it such a tin pot country.

It’s literally a few cities and the state of Washington, parts of Oregon and I wouldn’t mind if the rest went in the sea.

The blatant double standards in the treatment over the shooters that shoot up schools compared to literally anything a minority would do, those Philly fans that trashed the city etc just infuriate me, and I don’t even live there.

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No one would dispute that. But the underlying pathology would remain the same.

I’m not so sure about this. As I mentioned above mental illness is prevalent in every country but it doesn’t manifest in mass murder very often in other places. The conclusion I draw from this is (and not distracting from the need to properly treat mental illness) is that it would be easier to confront the cultural issues, such as the purchasing of guns and violence as an expressive act, which looking at the US from the outside seems to be a common theme of everything from film to school life. Why does someone with a mental illness decide to buy a gun and kill people in America but not often in other countries? This to me is the more pressing question. It has to be cultural surely.

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No, it’s not. There are no other easliy (you can buy guns at WalMart ffs?) availabie ‘tools’ for these people to cause this kind of damage.

There is absolutely no good reason in a developed country like the USA to allow guns to be prevalent like they are today.

When i was in America a few years ago, I was watching a documentary about this subject, and what they could do to stop it, and the audience couldn’t understand why it was happening.

Then during the break there was an advert for a supermarket selling guns, showing people walking in off the street, strolling round the shop and walking out with a gun.
The irony and stupidity is astonishing.

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I certainly wouldn’t say there are no cultural factors at play. What I’m saying is the mindset required to act out these forms of violence is the same, regardless of the tool they choose.

It blows my mind how the availability of guns in the USA is being put away like some sort of sidenote.

Just had an earthquake in Bath!

Pretty freaky, we had no idea what was going on. Felt like a giant grabbed our house and shook it!

You’ve just had an earthquake in the bath?

Is that a euphemism? :grinning:

Lol wonder how big it was. Mexico City just had another 7.5 quake yesterday, scary af.

Ours was about 4.4, which counts as fairly sizeable for the Uk. A once per decade sort of occurrence

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