The, (Social Unrest) surrounding us.

[Shadowprophet]

There is this morning ritual my wife has. Every morning she will make a cup of coffee, set the tv to Hulu and watch good morning America. If it wasn't for that show, I would without doubt have no idea what's going on in the world on any regular basis. I'd determined long ago that the world was a vastly complex dumpster fire and my opinions about said fire erected such little change to the overall stench that the effort of even keeping track of how fast society was decaying was fundamentally pointless.

With that said, there has been quite a bit of violence in the news as of late. I'm more specifically referring to the gun violence, but to call the gun violence alone the actual problem would be to grossly understate the issue. One could say that historically we are at an all time low with regard to public acts of violence, that the only difference is now everyone everywhere is connected so we hear about these things more often these days. To be completely honest though. It does feel like things like mass shootings and school shootings are at an alarming all time high, in America at the very least.


I guess im just wondering what you guys think? Is violence and unrest at an all time historical low? And we are just noticing it more and more because of societies more connected modern nature? Has society caught the shivers and became ( Snow flaky).

If you are like me you are probably noticing that in general the random stranger is more often than not a highly unpredictable danger, then ever before in our lives.

Something is really different with society in how people Interact with one another. Especially in socially vast public settings.

I don't know l. I'm just ranting at this point. It's a great time to end a post /

 

[pigfarmer]

For some reason I have a memory of driving a car listening to the AM radio and heard that we had invaded Grenada. Eh ? What the hell was that ? I yearn for that level of oblivious existence.

IMO it's the profusion of broadband and the instantaneous communication that comes with it. Way back when radio was new they had to create regulatory agencies because people were using them to **** up maritime traffic. That's sort of the same situation today except how to keep blather from screwing up the machinery and maintain free speech? No such thing as altruism in that arena. 'Yellow journalism' is an old term that's still perfectly applicable and that started a war when communication was measured in, at best, days not seconds. Yelling fire in a crowded theater has become de rigueur, required to maintain ratings. Oh, and at one time actual news was mandatory for broadcasters, it wasn't the form of politically flavored entertainment it is now.

Gun violence springs from multiple sources and yet we still hear the exact same platitudes that call for a single solution. One thing I believe that doesn't help is that games and movies and other media glorify violence and dehumanize killing. Is it some surprise that young people get those ideas in their head - especially with the undrinkable firehose that is modern communication ?

I've been into firearms my whole life and they have their place. I'm quite conservative about it. I see absolutely no purpose beyond killing lots of people to many, many things. If I could just snap my fingers and make the worst of them vanish instantly I would. But that's like illegal immigration - way too far gone to just deport everyone. Millions upon millions of weapons in circulation that aren't going to just go away. This isn't Australia, there will be no mass confiscations or any of that. One thing that would help - that will never happen - is to actually have an intelligent discussion about it.

One of the mass shootings a couple of years ago in Florida in a gay bar could have been avoided if anyone, anywhere heeded the warnings of the gun shop owner who attempted to raise a red flag in advance. If the system in place that idiots rail about worked the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas would not have occurred. I'd also point out that Sandy Hook happened because the mother of the mentally ill killer let him have guns !! WTF ? First one he killed was her. Now there's parenting for you. He drove from New Jersey to Connecticut and of course, passed through New York to do it. Two things happened in the aftermath that are sickening. One is Alex Jones - what was I saying about communications? Then there were the 'three men in a room' Cuomo, Skelos and Silver who passed arbitrary and capricious legislation that had to be instantly amended because it was ill considered and directly impacted every police officer in the state - as proof of cackle heads who pander to public opinion and force their political will without thought - or maybe the intelligent conversation I mentioned. Gun owners sure as hell don't want their kids slaughtered and both sides might've come up with an actually useful solution one that would have prevented the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo. I'd point out two of the three men in that room were convicted and jailed for corruption and Cuomo was forced to resign in disgrace. His political egotistical pandering during covid killed far more people than all the mass shootings in the past 30 years combined. I'd also point out that some gun owners are dumb enough to bring an AR to mass demonstrations and surprise surprise actually kill people with them in a case of gratuitous self defense.

Jesus H Christ people are soooooo stupid.

Personally, I am a life member at a really nice pistol club. Despite all the public hue and cry and some of the most restrictive laws in the country I still have all of my firearms, they didn't vanish or make anyone safer. Now, I never gave a **** about 'black guns' of any kind but know quite a few people who do, or did anyway. They haven't gone away either, they are hoarded, are impossible to use or sell legally and have dropped to a fraction of their value. This is an unfixable problem. I've been a collector and competitor over the years and intend to sell off almost everything. Partly because this makes me sick, mostly because time moves on and so do opinions and hobbies.

 

[Shadowprophet]

For some reason I have a memory of driving a car listening to the AM radio and heard that we had invaded Grenada. Eh ? What the hell was that ? I yearn for that level of oblivious existence.

IMO it's the profusion of broadband and the instantaneous communication that comes with it. Way back when radio was new they had to create regulatory agencies because people were using them to **** up maritime traffic. That's sort of the same situation today except how to keep blather from screwing up the machinery and maintain free speech? No such thing as altruism in that arena. 'Yellow journalism' is an old term that's still perfectly applicable and that started a war when communication was measured in, at best, days not seconds. Yelling fire in a crowded theater has become de rigueur, required to maintain ratings. Oh, and at one time actual news was mandatory for broadcasters, it wasn't the form of politically flavored entertainment it is now.

Gun violence springs from multiple sources and yet we still hear the exact same platitudes that call for a single solution. One thing I believe that doesn't help is that games and movies and other media glorify violence and dehumanize killing. Is it some surprise that young people get those ideas in their head - especially with the undrinkable firehose that is modern communication ?

I've been into firearms my whole life and they have their place. I'm quite conservative about it. I see absolutely no purpose beyond killing lots of people to many, many things. If I could just snap my fingers and make the worst of them vanish instantly I would. But that's like illegal immigration - way too far gone to just deport everyone. Millions upon millions of weapons in circulation that aren't going to just go away. This isn't Australia, there will be no mass confiscations or any of that. One thing that would help - that will never happen - is to actually have an intelligent discussion about it.

One of the mass shootings a couple of years ago in Florida in a gay bar could have been avoided if anyone, anywhere heeded the warnings of the gun shop owner who attempted to raise a red flag in advance. If the system in place that idiots rail about worked the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas would not have occurred. I'd also point out that Sandy Hook happened because the mother of the mentally ill killer let him have guns !! WTF ? First one he killed was her. Now there's parenting for you. He drove from New Jersey to Connecticut and of course, passed through New York to do it. Two things happened in the aftermath that are sickening. One is Alex Jones - what was I saying about communications? Then there were the 'three men in a room' Cuomo, Skelos and Silver who passed arbitrary and capricious legislation that had to be instantly amended because it was ill considered and directly impacted every police officer in the state - as proof of cackle heads who pander to public opinion and force their political will without thought - or maybe the intelligent conversation I mentioned. Gun owners sure as hell don't want their kids slaughtered and both sides might've come up with an actually useful solution one that would have prevented the 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo. I'd point out two of the three men in that room were convicted and jailed for corruption and Cuomo was forced to resign in disgrace. His political egotistical pandering during covid killed far more people than all the mass shootings in the past 30 years combined. I'd also point out that some gun owners are dumb enough to bring an AR to mass demonstrations and surprise surprise actually kill people with them in a case of gratuitous self defense.

Jesus H Christ people are soooooo stupid.

Personally, I am a life member at a really nice pistol club. Despite all the public hue and cry and some of the most restrictive laws in the country I still have all of my firearms, they didn't vanish or make anyone safer. Now, I never gave a **** about 'black guns' of any kind but know quite a few people who do, or did anyway. They haven't gone away either, they are hoarded, are impossible to use or sell legally and have dropped to a fraction of their value. This is an unfixable problem. I've been a collector and competitor over the years and intend to sell off almost everything. Partly because this makes me sick, mostly because time moves on and so do opinions and hobbies.

You make a startlingly valid point, in almost every case of notable violence its seemingly younger people, under 40. There are some rare outlier cases where the perpetrator was some what older but those cases do seem evidently rare.

 

[Sheltie]

One could write volumes about why mass violence seems to be increasing. There is no one reason for all of this. What bothers me is that so many people seem to want to conveniently pick and choose their reasons for it. Liberals, for instance, will blame it on guns and racism while conservatives will blame it on weaker law enforcement or social indoctrination in public schools. While all of these may be legitimate contributing factors, it's not right to ignore the bigger picture.