• boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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    1 month ago

    It’s not JUST the guns tbh. Everyone in Switzerland has a gun and they don’t shoot eachother up. American society is fucked up on multiple different levels and the guns are just adding extra fuel and oxygen to a forest fire.

    • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Everyone in Switzerland has a gun and they don’t shoot eachother up. American society is fucked up on multiple different levels

      Whenever i mention the Swiss having as many guns as the US, if not more, and yet the former has practically zero mass shooting incidents, and pointed out the problem of America is cultural, Americans tend to turn a blind eye to it.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        We “tend to turn a blind eye to it” because “cultural problem” is primarily used as a racist dog whistle.

        If your intention was to point at the underlying cause, you need to be talking about systematic impoverization, lack of generational wealth, devaluation of labor, etc.

          • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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            1 month ago

            That makes sense from an outside perspective, sure. But your criticism was about Americans turning a blind eye to the “cultural” problem.

            Within the US, blaming gun violence on “culture” means pointing out that 13-17% of the population commits (and are the victims of) 55-65% of the murders. Blaming “culture” means pointing out that mass shooters are predominantly white, they also account for less than 1% of all murders.

            The Americans broadly adopting your “cultural problem” argument are MAGAts. Normal Americans are turning a blind eye to that viewpoint, rather than being lumped in with those racist pricks.

    • godfish@lemy.lol
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      1 month ago

      In Switzerland most people give their state issued gun away when they are not serving. So almost nobody has a gun at home.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        Ah but is that not something they opt to do because they feel safe? In comparison, American gun nuts would never do that, they don’t feel safe without their guns.

          • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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            1 month ago

            So that’s part of the same point. They COULD have access to guns and could shoot each other, but nobody wants to. Thus guns are only a problem when there’s other underlying issues.

              • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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                1 month ago

                Aye, but when all the lunatics already have guns and you remove the guns from the responsible citizens, is that putting people in more or less danger?

                I think it’s too late at this point to solve this one via gun control.

            • godfish@lemy.lol
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              1 month ago

              Nope, Switzerland had one of the highest rates of gun suicides before measures were taken.

              • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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                1 month ago

                Gun suicides or suicides in general?

                Because suicides will always be an issue. Guns just make it easier. How many mass shootings have the swiss had though? Switzerland has a “List of mass shootings” article on Wikipedia. The US has a “ListS of mass shootings” category. The US list for 2018 alone is significantly longer than Switzerland’s list starting with 1905. I realize that Switzerland has a smaller population, but the per capita rates have a large discrepancy too. Something like a 9x difference.

                • godfish@lemy.lol
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                  1 month ago

                  As I said gun suicides.

                  And guns are a big part of the problem. Science has proven that over and over.

                  Yes America has other problems. For example not accepting that it is not in a healthy enough mental state to own guns.

                  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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                    1 month ago

                    So suicides in general weren’t dramatically affected, only the method differed?

                    Problem in the US is that the genie is out of the bottle now. Start removing guns by force and the people who are already predisposed to shooting up events, are going to be keeping them AND they’l have affirment for their conspiracy theories so they’re even more likely to shoot shit up.

                    I agree Americans should never have been allowed to buy guns like this, it’s just not a fixable problem right now. Other things need to be fixed first.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        Too late now unfortunately. The people who’d need to give up their guns, will never do so voluntarily. The actually responsible gun owners might give theirs away though.

        It’s media, education and the political system that need to change. It won’t.