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Guns now the leading cause of death for American children

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I'm all for the GOP's brilliant ideas to stop school shootings- teachers with guns, security guards with guns, admin with guns, cops on site with guns, higher fences, locked doors ... as long as they call these places Educages or Learnin' Jails or something like that- because they certainly will no longer be schools.

20 ( +26 / -6 )

The time for a mature discussion on the sociopathic American psyche has yet to come. If it happens at all.

So, as neutral witnesses to the carnage we are left to adopt two possible reactions. One is the standard, solemn but excruciatingly hypocritical and meaningless "thoughts & prayers, condolences etc."

The other is to basically resort to gallows humour. This is actually funny. Americans love guns more than they love children. HA ha ha ha. My god they are so stupid. hahahaha.

11 ( +18 / -7 )

So you have children, the most precious and spectacular things in the world, being killed by guns. And there is a hesitation to even talk about it. A conundrum, if your a wacko. Mmmm do I want children or my gun…..mmm tough question? I like my gun and I really hate those people over there, kids that’s a small target. Mmmm not sure I’d like to show my target hitting skills more.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

And yet here they are leading the world in selling Weapons of Mass Destruction to other countries. Only in the USA do students and teachers feel unsafe.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Wait, I thought COVID was? Guess they’re done pushing the vaxxes.

-23 ( +9 / -32 )

As a life long gun owner, and supporter of the right to own arms, it's reached a point where this is simply intolerable. No 18 year old should be able to purchase military style high capacity semi-auto rifles. Such weapons are not needed for any lawful purpose in civilian life, be it hunting or target shooting. Not just Federal Law, but every State Law needs to be amended.

At the same time, laws that prevent the disclosure of information on the mentally ill and disturbed based on medical privacy grounds must be repealed in every state, and allowed to be part of a Federal background check. This is now a public safety issue that overides the right to privacy.

Finally the NRA needs to be put out to pasture. They have turned what used to be a good patriotic thing 50 years ago into a political monster that simply obstructs for the sake of obstructing any reasonable efforts to regulate firearms, and the cost to the country to let that continue is simply too high. Firearns ownership needs to be brought back to a Public Safety issue and not a Political issue.

15 ( +21 / -6 )

Easy to solve. Sell the guns, but if the buyer also wants ammunition, then put the focus on such people, with psychological checks and surveillance. They can use it at shooting ranges and with limited bullets bought there for sports purposes, let’s say for the first ten years, so that those youngsters got clear in their had and showed or proved responsible gun usage first. Isn’t it strange when they can buy not one but several  rifles at 18 , but have to wait for their first opening of a beer can another three years? That doesn’t fit too. In addition, the purpose of all those rulings and amendment chapters was primarily meant to defend own home or property, right? So why a school doesn’t check for and defend from armed intruders? There should of course also a duty for that, for example schools, churches or big event’s management or shopping centers have to provide or employ security guards if they want continue operation. Some final words…remember how they had managed that in those old days of the Wild West, when you had to drop your guns before entering saloons, churches and so on, often even long before , at the city limits. Some places still do so, considering airports or justice buildings and such. That worked in those former centuries and it has to be widely reinstalled again now and at all potential locations. The rest is drug related and gang shootings, but that’s another extra topic and of course needing another , quite different set of measures.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Guns save lives if used by the right person in the right manner.

American kids should be given basic firearms training as part of their school curriculum. It will instil a sense of gun responsibility in them, and the next time a school shooter shows up they will be ready.

-25 ( +4 / -29 )

The deaths disproportionately impacted Black children and adolescents,

And yes it’s Chicago. Of course it is.

Chicago has had most mass shootings in U.S. since 2018 -- what's the solution?

-11 ( +8 / -19 )

Now, let's try to have a serious discussion instead of a performative exercise in bumper sticker sloganeering.

First, rifles are not the problem. Gun deaths in the US are overwhelmingly caused by handguns. Trying to limit any kind of long gun will not have an impact.

Second, the biggest problem IMHO is mental health and how it is treated. Or rather isn't treated. The last two horrid cases (Buffalo and Texas) both involved teenage boys who clearly were not functioning well far before they did their crimes. Yet they somehow fell through the cracks of numerous agencies that are supposed to be on the lookout for just these situations.

Fourty years ago, the murder rate in the US was nearly double what it is today. The same kind of weapons were available. Yet today, there are more weapons in circulation and fewer homicides. There is no way to remove weapons from American life- that ship sailed a century ago.

-14 ( +6 / -20 )

The second most impacted group by guns were American Indians, followed by white Hispanics.

is “white Hispanic” a thing now?

-13 ( +5 / -18 )

First, rifles are not the problem.

The guy who just killed 19 children in Texas used a rifle to do so. I would say that makes them part of the problem too.

Second, the biggest problem IMHO is mental health and how it is treated. 

Well, we don't have a magic cure-all for every mental health problem out there, so in the time being while we wait for one to be invented maybe it would make sense to try keeping guns out of the hands of people so afllicted?

16 ( +19 / -3 )

The time for a mature discussion on the sociopathic American psyche has yet to come. If it happens at all.

Narrator: "It won't"

3 ( +6 / -3 )

The deaths disproportionately impacted Black children and adolescents

I imagine the deaths also disproportionately impacted children from poorer areas. Why the obsession with race and not socio-economic circumstances. I suspect that gun deaths affecting rich people would show little difference among races.

10 ( +11 / -1 )

Damn shame but that is the path America has chosen and the most vulnerable and innocent ones pay a big price. Complete madness.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Firearms have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among American youngsters, with official data showing a strong rise in gun-related homicides such as the killing of 19 children in a Texas school rampage.

Take out suicide by guns though, and motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause.

What is interesting to me, is every time one of these guns articles come out and I make a comparison of motor vehicle deaths, my comment is rapidly deleted. Ballpark 12-15 times . . .

-19 ( +4 / -23 )

You gotta love Ted "Cancun" Cruz's solution to this; DOORS. Kind of wonder why he and Abbott are still in Office. How moronic can you get. My response to them, "Don't let it hit you on the head on the way out of Office."

14 ( +17 / -3 )

Rainyday, statistically a small part. So it is not sensible for people to waste 90% of their time trying to solve 5% of the problem. Not to mention that there are already 350 million guns floating around. Someone like the Texas shooter can easily get one even if they are technically illegal. A crazy person determined to commit a crime won't be stopped by a shallow and ineffectual gun ban. Nah, better to focus on the shooter rather than the weapon.

-8 ( +4 / -12 )

EvilBuddha

Guns save lives if used by the right person in the right manner.

By the police and the armed forces, not Kleetus Buttwipe and his chums... Only those assigned to protect the citizens need be armed, if necessary. As far as I can tell the whole thing is a paradox - people own guns to 'protect' themselves against villains, who are armed because the citizenry are armed, and to terrorise those same citizens. By insisting that everyone has the right to own a gun America has created its own private hell.

American kids should be given basic firearms training as part of their school curriculum. It will instil a sense of gun responsibility in them, and the next time a school shooter shows up they will be ready.

And that's why this will keep happening. If a prospective shooter believes that the schoolkids, teachers and janitors will be armed... he'll just bring something bigger.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

 A crazy person determined to commit a crime won't be stopped by a shallow and ineffectual gun ban

Hence the need for a deep and effective one I would suggest.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

12 ( +16 / -4 )

These Republicans pray to God, they’re pro-life because they love children so much, or so they claim, but they sit on their hands and do nothing about gun safety. It’s madness.

8 ( +14 / -6 )

I just don't have words...

I do agree with Sven Asai in that we should go after ammunition. As far as I know, "ammunition" is not in the Constitution and the term "arms" refers to weapons and not the ammunition (not 100% sure, but it would take years for the courts to settle, buying some time) My ideas:

-make ammunition (prohibitively) expensive and limit it's sales (18 to buy a gun, 30 to buy bullets, can only buy 10 at a time from a single dealer)

-an "ammunition tax" used to fund school security and emergency services (a firearms tax would be good too - there are federal alcohol and tobacco taxes)

-you can have your right to open carry and conceal carry your "arms" but the carrying of ammunition in public places shall be banned. Or, only unloaded weapons may be carried. Or, weapons and ammunition must be carried separately. Or, you can only carry one bullet. Whatever can get passed.

For guns:

-if you get a DUI or DWI, you lose your right to have guns as you have shown a gross lack of judgement

-if you are charged and convicted of child abuse, spousal abuse, domestic violence, drunk and disorderly, assault or any other violent crime - no more guns for you

-you have to take a series of practical and safety tests (physical and mental competence) and get a license before you can own a gun, you have to retake the tests every X years (and they are expensive tests)

-you have to have a psychological evaluation

-you have to prove that you have safe storage and that you are the only person who can access such storage

-create a federal firearms safety agency similar to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the National Transportation Safety Board

Lots of other things, but this would be a good start. And, leaving it up to each state is fine - just do like they did with the drinking age: if you don't meet our request, you will lose federal funding (for you non-Americans, states that did not raise the the age for purchasing alcohol to 21 would lose all of their federal highway funding. Only one state did not raise it - Texas, of course).

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Amazing how so many people here are unwilling or unable to have an intelligent discussion of the issues without throwing in cheap political attacks and snide comments that do NOT do anything to help the situation.

Ammunition controls, taxes, etc will not work and will never be passed by any state legislature. And even if they are, people will just go to the neighboring state to get their bullets. So that is a non starter. Ditto allowing carrying only unloaded weapons. No chance at all and completely unconstitutional. Forget it as well.

As for gun safety... when I was in high school we actually had a shooting club at the school. Students also often drove to school with guns in their vehicles during hunting season. Yet there were not the mass shootings like we see today.

So what has changed in society? THIS is the question. Mass shootings are on the rise, yet overall gun crime is decreasing. We grieve for 18 children killed in Texas in one horrible incident, and rightly so. Yet not for the victims in daily violence in inner cities.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

Rainyday, I understand your frustration. SO what exactly do you propose? What workable and realistic gun control would have kept either of these kids from getting guns and using them? I have yet to year. Banning certain types of guns won't work. Buybacks similar to the failed program in Australia won't work. Do you propose going door to door and having police confiscate weapons? Wonder how that would work out...

The US, and other nations, is facing a mental health crisis. It is exascerbated by serious social problems like single parent households, easy access to drugs, poor educational opportunities, and so on. These are issues that can be solved.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

As of May 25th, 2002 Ted Cruz has accepted $442,000 in campaign contributions from gun-rights groups in the US.

https://twitter.com/malonebarry/status/1529784584996630528

He can't even answer the question and comes close to losing his temper at the end of the interview. He's a vile excuse for a human being, beyond repellent.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

I'm really glad that after the war, MacArthur confiscated all the guns in Japan, and then later Japan made guns illegal. That is a legacy of the war, and we are all much safer and happier because of it. Japan is an example: you don't need guns.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

For the uppteenthmillionth time, it's not the guns, it's the society.

Oh so sadly, some people absolutely refuse to acknowledge this simple fact nugget.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

For the uppteenthmillionth time, it's not the guns, it's the society.

It's not one or the other.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

These Republicans pray to God, they’re pro-life because they love children so much, or so they claim, but they sit on their hands and do nothing about gun safety. It’s madness.

They could, but they are all bought and paid for by the NRA. If you do the research, you will see that the top pay outs by the NRA are Republicans, with Ted Cruz being on top.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

But if you have strict and effective gun control where it's difficult for the crazies to buy a gun it will help in decreasing gun caused deaths.

It's not common sense in America?

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Ian, sounds like a good idea but it is not practical. There are just too many guns in circulation. It will never be difficult for crazies to buy a gun. You can see that today- cities with strict gun laws are often the most violent and dangerous places in the country.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

It is just like nuclear deterrence.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-has-had-most-mass-shootings-in-u-s-since-2018/

All liberal cities, most in states with strict gun laws.

Wont work, as criminals dont follow laws.

"Each of those cities have problems with group violence," Webster said. "People are commonly in on the street, you know, gathered together - and someone pulls out a gun and starts firing."

Groups in the streets, huh? who would that be?

Until we are willing to deal with who the people doing the killing really are, nothing will change.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

Ian, sounds like a good idea but it is not practical. There are just too many guns in circulation. It will never be difficult for crazies to buy a gun.

You're only saying that to rationalize not doing it.

If measures are implemented to reduce guns in circulation especially illegal ones eventually there will come a point where therebwill not be too many guns in circulation anymore

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Here is a great start to an actual solution:

establish a "Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Best Practices" for use by state and local educational and law-enforcement agencies, institutions of higher education, health professionals, and the public. And it would require DHS to "collect clearinghouse data analytics, user feedback on the implementation of best practices and recommendations identified by the clearinghouse, and any evaluations conducted on these best practices and recommendations."

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

America is not a good place to raise children. Probably the worst, most dangerous first world nation in which to raise a family safely. Family safety and happiness are top of the list for many, and they just cant get that in the US thanks to gun culture. No real hope for any improvement to the current situation. Quite sad really.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

“Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar doesn't plan to give away NRA donation in aftermath of gun massacres”

Why would he do that?" said Cuellar's campaign spokesman, Colin Strother, when asked whether the lawmaker will return an NRA donation or give it to charity in the wake of recent gun massacres in Ohio, Texas and California.

this was 3 years ago. Nothing has or will change.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Living in savanna, for women and small men, Guns are need against all those unjust attacks to protect you and your beloved families.

What is wrong with that?

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

yet when you have a gun just like the criminal does, look what can happen.

https://wchstv.com/news/local/victim-hospitalized-in-charleston-shooting

“Police: Woman with pistol killed man who shot at crowd of people in Charleston”

if you don’t have a gun, you and others become a statistic and a political talking point.

Children were present here and were saved.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Awesome. And extra taxes from gun and ammo purchases can fund it. I'm sure responsible gun owners won't mind paying more to fund workable solutions like that.

Sure why not? That’s an actual solution.

but Democrats in Congress just blocked it. They don’t care about solutions.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Gums are bad and they’re a tool for killing. Ban them.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

So why a school doesn’t check for and defend from armed intruders?

The elementary school in Texas did have an armed guard (which is the gun lobby's "solution"). It again proved ineffective.

There should of course also a duty for that, for example schools, churches or big event’s management or shopping centers have to provide or employ security guards if they want continue operation.

See above.

Some final words…remember how they had managed that in those old days of the Wild West, when you had to drop your guns before entering saloons, churches and so on, often even long before , at the city limits.

I am pretty sure that the school had a "no gun" policy and yet somehow this was ineffective. Perhaps they didn't use a big enough font.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The Police are Not Required to Protect You

the United States Constitution does not require law enforcement officers to protect you from other people, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

https://www.barneslawllp.com/blog/police-not-required-protect

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Ammunition controls, taxes, etc will not work and will never be passed by any state legislature. And even if they are, people will just go to the neighboring state to get their bullets. 

if ammunition is so easy to obtain, then surely the gun lobby won't object to controls.

Oh, they do object? Ahh, because it will make it harder to obtain ammunition.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Another 20 children died because of an egregious and political misinterpretation of the fourth amendment.

The Supreme Court of the USA needs to be enlarged and balanced to more accurately represent the views of American citizens rather than the conservative minority.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Well, the Republicans aren’t going to do anything because the NRA owns them. The schools will have to become castles, the yellow school buses replaced by armored troop carriers and the children dressed in bulletproof body armor. This is the America of tomorrow thanks to the NRA and the Republican Party.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I was reading in a news source over here that during the hour when law enforcement officers refused to engage the shooter, they handcuffed a grandmother who kept pleading with them to do something, and Tasered a father who tried to get past them to save his child. Meanwhile, a mother gave up on the cops, climbed the fence, snuck into the primary school, and rescued her two children on her own.

My sentiment is, if the cops refused to do anything, they would have had to use their guns on me, if they wanted to stop me from trying to rescue my daughter.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Can you link me to it?

https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/services/files/F2A99D1E-6FA6-406B-A6F2-E7E972B34804

Chuck Schumer gleefully blocked it. Falsely claims it puts more guns in schools. He doesn’t want our children protected.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

The Supreme Court of the USA needs to be enlarged and balanced to more accurately represent the views of American citizens rather than the conservative minority.

Only 36% of Americans desire stricter gun control laws.

So that would be 3 out of 9 votes. You have 3 of 9 justices plus a 4th time to time.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

In Buffalo, and on the train to Paris a few years ago, unarmed witnesses took down gunmen by charging at them, and overpowering them.

Meanwhile, armed Texas lawmen refused to try to save children, but attacked unarmed parents desperate to save the children.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

BlacklabelToday  05:51 pm JST

Until we are willing to deal with who the people doing the killing really are, nothing will change.

There is no one saying that mental illness doesn't need to be addressed. It's obvious that it's part of the problem as well as education and economics. And so is access to guns.

It makes me laugh when republicans like you only point at mental health and completely ignore access to guns as part of the problem because it supposedly infringes on your 'freedoms'.

Any logical person, who doesn't care more about guns than the safety of kids at school, would acknowledge that access to guns is as important an issue as addressing mental health.

And don't believe the outright lies that the republicans are open to discussing gun control. They're not. They're not even willing to address a simple issue like background checks. Republicans are against background checks. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/26/uvalde-shooting-background-checks-hr8-senate/

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Only 36% of Americans desire stricter gun control laws. 

90% want background checks .

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It makes me laugh when republicans like you only point at mental health and completely ignore access to guns as part of the problem 

If emotional people with anger and mental issues get help then access to guns doesn’t matter. because they don’t feel like buying one and shooting people with it.,

100s of millions of people have access to guns right now with no issues. Because they aren’t angry and don’t have mental issues.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

90% want background checks .

Yes in general. Until they see what is actually in the legislation as written. Then it’s around 52%.

​​"People may support background checks in general, but become more skeptical when gun rights groups highlight specific complications or unintended consequences that could arise when these laws are implemented," Kristin Goss, professor of public policy and political science at Duke University, told us in 2020.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

something is better than nothing.

Yes it’s a starting point as I said. But Schumer wants to play politics instead.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Yes in general. Until they see what is actually in the legislation as written. Then it’s around 52%.

Which is still a majority, and would obviously increase as legislation is debated and tweaked- oh wait… I forgot, that would happen in a normal democracy where the opposition are not obstructionists paid for by the gun lobby.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

1glennToday  06:27 pm JST

I was reading in a news source over here that during the hour when law enforcement officers refused to engage the shooter, they handcuffed a grandmother who kept pleading with them to do something, and Tasered a father who tried to get past them to save his child. Meanwhile, a mother gave up on the cops, climbed the fence, snuck into the primary school, and rescued her two children on her own.

My sentiment is, if the cops refused to do anything, they would have had to use their guns on me, if they wanted to stop me from trying to rescue my daughter.

This is true.

It's almost as if they wanted it to happen.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Seeing all these comments on here shows the left is not willing to have a real conversation about this topic. Gun ownership is down in the US. 1980's it was about 40-45% now it's 30-35%. The weapon is not the problem, the person using it is. Hammers kill more than any gun does yet we do not have back ground checks on hammers. We have seen world wide the different ways people murder others and its not with guns. You have the toughest gun laws in most democrat run cities yet they have the highest murder rates. It is a social problem not a weapon problem.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Nothing will ever change unless they change the constitution which has about as much chance of happening as a snowflake surviving in hell.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

shows that nearly 30 percent of the deaths were suicides

Can't quite just gloss over this fact, and what it might mean for the headline given.

"Scientists should not sit on the sidelines and watch others fight this out," he wrote.

Not quite sure what the scientist is supposed to do. Is this COVID and we need to follow the science with regards to prevention. Are we confused as to what could possibly be done, and the issue is we don't know how to prevent? Perhaps science can find a way to have a negative correlation between guns and deaths.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Guns are now the leading cause of death for American children”

Now read this line from the article:

”Overall, 4,368 children and adolescents up to the age of 19 died from firearms in 2020,”

If you don’t see the difference you are willfully blind. The line in the article invalidates the header.

Misleading journalism.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

BlacklabelToday  06:44 pm JST

It makes me laugh when republicans like you only point at mental health and completely ignore access to guns as part of the problem 

There is access to alcohol.

people who have a problem with alcohol get treatment and then access to alcohol for everyone else becomes not a problem for them. We don’t need to ban it.

If emotional people with anger and mental issues get help then access to guns doesn’t matter. because they don’t feel like buying one and shooting people with it.,

100s of millions of people have access to guns right now with no issues. Because they aren’t angry and don’t have mental issues.

Did I say anything about banning guns? No. So your poor analogy is irrelevant.

You clearly know little about mental health as it's not that simple as just getting help. Mental illness is very complicated often involving multiple factors. Treatment may not even help.

Restricting people with a history of mental illness through background checks from purchasing firearms in addition to getting help for mental illness is far more rational and logical.

The statistical numbers game is pointless as all it takes is just one person to commit a mass murder. How many people don't is irrelevant. But let's also completely ignore crimes of passion, robberies, murders, etc committed with guns by people with no mental illness.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

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