I don't think gun control is good in america, but I'm glad that in my home country, buying/carrying guns is for the most part illegal.
I think saying "mental illness" broadly is a problem.
I think being very specific in referring to what drives people to shooting: "Being socially alienated, bullied, told that manhood was being 'tough' and aggressive since youth, glorification of two inherently violent institutions (police + the military), prominent racism within society, being in a hyper individualistic society, and dare I say it violence in media all contribute to the level of violence in the US."
Every case is different, but I do think there needs to be more conversations about the social causes of gun violence rather than a knee jerk, short lived "debate" on gun control anytime something like this happens.
Guns are fine
Mental health care, eliminating poverty, and getting rid of the black market for drugs would do a lot more to help prevent gun violence than trying to ban them
The politically smart move is to be neutral on gun control in most of the US (at the federal level). Bernie was fairly neutral as well, and it didn't stir the pot too much. Beto was not.
Beto was dumb as shit. "Hell yes we're coming for your guns!" is not the thing to say in Texas.
no kidding. Would have loved to see chuds go psycho over that dork being their senator, but he had to fuck it all up. They'll probably get a Dem senator in another decade or two though.
Every Man Should Have A Technical
So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb,
Seeing visions over yonder of the war I know must come.
In the corner – not a vision – but a sign for coming days
Stand a box of ammunition and a technical in green baize.
And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land,
Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand.No – no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss –
In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us!
Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be,
We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea.
While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war,
Every man should own a technical and have cartridges in store!
Strong gun control is good. Let's start with the military and police and work down from there.
If anything, countries like Switzerland, Finland and others prove guns don't necessarily mean high crime rates. The question shouldn't be about guns, but about who gets the guns, and the living conditions of these guys. Firstly, crime is linked directly to poverty. That's it, there's no way around it. If people are desperate, they're going to turn to crime or political/religious extremism. The fact anyone in the US, a country with wide ethnic, economic and religious divides; can literally walk into a store and buy a gun, or just go to these gun fairs for the matter of opsec, means what it means : you have a bunch of people who have literally nothing to lose, and are armed.
As others said, mental health plays a huge role. You ALWAYS see stuff in the media or your feeds about mental health, but materially, what has changed in the last ... 50 years ? Absolutely nothing. On the same note, poverty has increased, which causes radicalization of pre-existing beliefs, or at least, makes people far more encline to use direct action, violent or not to achieve these goals. The same phenomenon turns a sucdem into a marxist, or a """libertarian""" into a neo-nazi, and while one is cool and good, the reality is that a good chunk of the conservative population would like to see us in jail, or worse. For those too poor to care about ideology, they often turn to substances to numb the pain and the problems away, often spiralling into debt, or getting involved into drug crimes.
In short, you won't fix America's endemic gun violence without fixing literally EVERYTHING that has been caused by capitalism. And trust me, even if you try to remove the guns (lmao, gl with that), explosives are relatively easy to manufacture, and a sharp blade can still be extremely dangerous (see UK's stabbings rates). If people want to kill others, they'll do it, just make it so they don't have a reason to do so, materially-speaking; by improving their material conditions. Ironically, you can name a problem, and you can be fairly certain it could've be prevented, or massively alleviated if the bourgeoisie made concessions instead of going full mask-off; which means that they "created" us socialists. To finish, I think workers should, under no pretext, surrender arms and ammunition. No one can coup a government that is supported by an armed proletariat; and in the same vein, an US invasion of a country where every single man and woman has a gun would turn into a nightmare.
Yeah - you're right. In a way it's just my selfish belief that when someone has a knife, as a physically able person, I have a fighting chance to run the fuck away.
This is what happens after every mass shooting, it becomes an argument of gun control rather than material conditions that lead to these situations. Next, we'll be hearing about how the shooter was "mentally ill".
Gun control would inevitably prevent some violence, but it does nothing to address that actual causes of the violence.
Gun control in conjunction with social democratic reforms aimed at targeting the roots of violence would probably be a good thing from a utilitarian standpoint, but without socialist revolution there would be no way to guarantee the security of social democratic reforms.
That being said, I don't think that meaningful social democratic reforms are really possible given the current realities of neoliberal contradiction and the collapse of western imperialism.
Honestly I think it's uotpian and reductive as fuck to say fixing material conditions would stop gun violence. But at the same time I think it is good for prols to be armed. So I don't know what the answer is
Disarm military and police while arming the workers and organizing defense and weapons training through unions/mutual aid structures. Ideally armories controlled by workers.
You should have to demonstrate an understanding of [INSERT LEFTIST THEORY] before you can own a gun.
What’s my take on gun control? I hope every comrade knows how to control a gun
I'm in the UK and ngl, considering this one kid who went to my school, I'm kinda glad it's difficult to get a gun.
Same lmao still didn't stop the guy from bringing a fucking sawn off shotgun to school one time though
