Has American Society Gone Insane?

[Kaitlyn]

What's the difference? 

From Wiktionary:

Noun
discipline (plural disciplines)
1. controlled behaviour; self-control

[iFindMeHere]

What's the difference? 

From Wiktionary:

Noun
discipline (plural disciplines)
1. controlled behaviour; self-control

My blood sugar is low so i can't explain it to you

[tekla]

"Select fire" how cute.  What they are, are military grade assult weapons, designed with one, and only one reason, and that's to kill people.  That some folks like me and my idiot friends find them great fun to take up to the mountians and cut down trees with them (often while loaded) I'm sure is not much of a consolation perhaps. 

I think rational people, myself included from time to time, find a huge difference in a shotgun or hunting rifle and tactical assult weapons and think we ought to try to ban the second and leave the first alone.

[NicholeW.]

"Select fire" how cute.  What they are, are military grade assult weapons, designed with one, and only one reason, and that's to kill people.  That some folks like me and my idiot friends find them great fun to take up to the mountians and cut down trees with them (often while loaded) I'm sure is not much of a consolation perhaps. 

I think rational people, myself included from time to time, find a huge difference in a shotgun or hunting rifle and tactical assult weapons and think we ought to try to ban the second and leave the first alone.

I can stand behind that as well.

Nichole

[Annwyn]

a society that somehow thinks its OK to have automatic weapons as a standard household item has got some issues.  And that's just one topic.

That has NOTHING to do with society, except that it helps distill hostility.

[iFindMeHere]

a society that somehow thinks its OK to have automatic weapons as a standard household item has got some issues.  And that's just one topic.

That has NOTHING to do with society, except that it helps distill hostility.

EXAAACTLY. "Oh you want to rob me? You've got a what? Hunh! Me too! Pretty shiny hunh?"

[Dennis]

a society that somehow thinks its OK to have automatic weapons as a standard household item has got some issues.  And that's just one topic.

That has NOTHING to do with society, except that it helps distill hostility.

I dunno about the former statement. Looking from the outside, we would certainly list that as one of the features of American culture, the guns. It's fairly unique in the developed world.

Dennis

[NicholeW.]

I think "fairly unique" is a rather charitable usage, Dennis.

Can you think of another country in the developed world that allows automatic weaponry into the homes of its citizenry? I cannot.

And yes, it has plenty to do with "society." It has to do with wild-west and modern paranoid fantasies about the need to blow away people who somehow offend another or that someone may feel are a threat to them.

Less gun availability has proven again and again in this country to be a key to lowering the rate of murders. I think what is forever misunderstood by those who read the NRA and right-wing screeders is that most murders are not now and have never been committed in the course of home invasions, robberies, muggings and certainly not by the psychotic schizophrenics of the nation.

They are committed by husbands, wives and friends upon one another because someone has the ability to resort as a "law-abiding person" (until, of course, they aren't any longer) to the gun they have stashed in the bedroom under a pillow of in the sock-drawer.

Yes, it speaks very much to the society and the conditioned way Americans always handle disagreement or someone else doing what we don't want them to. Kinda like suggesting the need to go to Iraq and "blow them away," etc.

Nichole

[Dennis]

Yeah, not being American, I don't feel I have the right to comment on it as though it were my country's domestic policy. It certainly does affect my travel plans though. I tend not to travel to the US very often, and particularly, I wouldn't choose it for a camping trip because it doesn't feel like a safe place to me. But that's just me as a foreigner not being comfortable with the idea of an armed populace.

Dennis

[NicholeW.]

Catherine and I have our moments of worrying about camping as well. And we are both life-long citizens. We've considered a couple of wilderness hikes and camps for up to two weeks at a time along the Appalachian Trail.

It doesn't happen often, but there are incidents of women being raped and murdered on the Trail in a few areas. We've decided to stick to drive-in sites for the moment until perhaps we can get to Nova Scotia, Quebec, or Newfoundland for summer camping.

Not all of that has to do with guns, but until we can get a group of maybe six that doesn't include our sons we are leery of making the treks.

Nichole

[iFindMeHere]

I think "fairly unique" is a rather charitable usage, Dennis.

Can you think of another country in the developed world that allows automatic weaponry into the homes of its citizenry? I cannot.

And yes, it has plenty to do with "society." It has to do with wild-west and modern paranoid fantasies about the need to blow away people who somehow offend another or that someone may feel are a threat to them.

Less gun availability has proven again and again in this country to be a key to lowering the rate of murders. I think what is forever misunderstood by those who read the NRA and right-wing screeders is that most murders are not now and have never been committed in the course of home invasions, robberies, muggings and certainly not by the psychotic schizophrenics of the nation.

They are committed by husbands, wives and friends upon one another because someone has the ability to resort as a "law-abiding person" (until, of course, they aren't any longer) to the gun they have stashed in the bedroom under a pillow of in the sock-drawer.

Yes, it speaks very much to the society and the conditioned way Americans always handle disagreement or someone else doing what we don't want them to. Kinda like suggesting the need to go to Iraq and "blow them away," etc.

Nichole

As a pro-gun non-republican--and i'm not libertarian either--for me the gun issue is a Civil Freedom. Until I intentionally harm another person, I don't think it's the government's business what I do, let alone own.

You see, that's actually an outpouring of a deeper issue - Government is supposed to be "by the people for the people". It should be a public servant, not a nursemaid. Seems that the ruling class has subverted that

[Shana A]

American society is definitely weird, I often feel as though I was born in another time and place, and was dropped off here. Still waiting for my ride home. I'm an outsider of this consumer oriented, mass media fed culture. Then again, maybe many of us are. I turned off my TV in 1993, which is coincidentally when I transitioned. Among the smartest things I ever did.

Z

[Annwyn]

a society that somehow thinks its OK to have automatic weapons as a standard household item has got some issues.  And that's just one topic.

That has NOTHING to do with society, except that it helps distill hostility.

I dunno about the former statement. Looking from the outside, we would certainly list that as one of the features of American culture, the guns. It's fairly unique in the developed world.

Dennis

Um, not at all.  Some countries make it mandatory that each household have a fully automatic firearm and inhabitants be trained on how to use it.  FUnny how those countries also boast a VERY low crime rate... hrmm, you'd think they'd all be out shooting each other, right?   

[Dennis]

What countries are those, Annwyn? Don't think I've heard that before.

Dennis

[Annwyn]

What countries are those, Annwyn? Don't think I've heard that before.

Dennis

I heard by word of mouth that Switzerland required automatic firearms, but upon looking into it I saw that they just have an incredibly high gun ownership rate per capita, and it's really no surprise that accompanying that there's a very low crime rate as well.  Of the gun-related crime, most of it is family related murders.  300 gun related deaths a year, throughout the whole country, as opposed to the USA.  I'm glad I own a firearm, and I'll be even happier when I am of age to purchase a pistol and carry it under a weapons permit.  I know that my pepper spray has already saved my life on more than one occaision, accompanied by luck.  There should be less luck involved when my life is on the line.

[Laura91]

I think the culture of consumerism and beauty and conformity would make anyone insane...

And yet, in many ways transitioning is the ultimate act of conformity, ya know? Heck, everything I've done is an attempt to conform, to blend in, to become invisible and "normal" and "just like everyone else."

~ Katie Marie ~

Yeah, it is quite ironic that I spent so much time wanting to be different, when I found out eventually that what I really wanted was to be like everyone else. 

[NicholeW.]

Um, not at all.  Some countries make it mandatory that each household have a fully automatic firearm and inhabitants be trained on how to use it.  FUnny how those countries also boast a VERY low crime rate... hrmm, you'd think they'd all be out shooting each other, right?   

What you and others are either not seeing or don't want to see is that you are partially right. It's not the guns that are problematic. It's the gun-culture that's problematic. Die Schweiz hasn't a gun-culture, nor a wild west culture, nor a culture that measures a penis with a gun extension added to it. Nor are they noted for firing first and asking questions later.

I perfectly agree that the problem is not the guns themselves. The problem is the morons who own them. Sorry, after two hundred years of gun culture it will require a good bit more from American citizens to provided "safety" with an automatic rifle in every home, or even 40.

Nichole

[Flan Princess]

I perfectly agree that the problem is not the guns themselves. The problem is the morons who own them. Sorry, after two hundred years of gun culture it will require a good bit more from American citizens to provided "safety" with an automatic rifle in every home, or even 40.

The real problem is not a "gun-culture" per say, but hate which is unfortunately, integrated into almost every human. Just look at the UK, the government took away gun ownership for almost everybody and they still found ways to murder each other.

[iFindMeHere]

Um, not at all.  Some countries make it mandatory that each household have a fully automatic firearm and inhabitants be trained on how to use it.  FUnny how those countries also boast a VERY low crime rate... hrmm, you'd think they'd all be out shooting each other, right?   

What you and others are either not seeing or don't want to see is that you are partially right. It's not the guns that are problematic. It's the gun-culture that's problematic. Die Schweiz hasn't a gun-culture, nor a wild west culture, nor a culture that measures a penis with a gun extension added to it. Nor are they noted for firing first and asking questions later.

I perfectly agree that the problem is not the guns themselves. The problem is the morons who own them. Sorry, after two hundred years of gun culture it will require a good bit more from American citizens to provided "safety" with an automatic rifle in every home, or even 40.

Nichole

it's how we *became* a country...

[Sephirah]

The real problem is not a "gun-culture" per say, but hate which is unfortunately, integrated into almost every human. Just look at the UK, the government took away gun ownership for almost everybody and they still found ways to murder each other.

Very true. In our case it's knives that are now the big deal. But people can be determined, take away everything and we'd bash each other over the head with rocks. It's the unbridled aggression and sense of "I'm more important than you, and my needs are greater than yours" which need to be dealt with, rather than the methods used to express them. Desensitisation and dehumanisation turn people into either potential threats or potential victims.

To quote Joseph Stalin:

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves."

Owning a firearm and owning the desire to use it are two different things. Take care of the latter and the former is no longer an issue.