Originally Posted by
Wiganer
In the past it's been suggested here by Druff and others, that non-Americans shouldn't comment on matters American.
That is arrant nonsense, especially when you see how debate between Americans so often degenerates into extremes of uber-liberal vs uber-conservative.
So, from an outsider's perspective:
As the cliche goes, the problem is not with guns, it is with the people who have and use guns, and the culture within which they reside.
Someone suggested earlier that such atrocities don't happen in places with tight gun controls and/or fewer guns.
That isn't true.
Think Anders Breivik in Norway, Dunblane or Hungerford massacres in the UK for examples of atrocities in countries with tight gun controls. That said, these instances are rarer, and the overall rate of gun violence is lower.
But, if you really want to get an insight into root causes and possible solutions to your problem with guns then try and find a country that like yours has lots of guns in private hands, but without your gun problems, and think about why the difference.
The country you should think about is Switzerland.
Switzerland COMPELS male citizens to hold guns and be trained in their use. In effect the citizenry is a militia, a step beyond your "right to bear arms".
And yet, the rate of gun crime violence in Switzerland is minute, while yours is catastrophically high.
This is simply because of the different cultures. Whilst Switzerland has had violence and tensions in its history, it has generally been unified, and peaceful, with a commitment to neutrality and relative isolationism.
America, by contrast, was formed in essence by armed invasion by people united to some degree by the British "imperialist mindset" but also with significant non-cohesive tendencies due in part to the high proportion of non-conformist religionists, Deist freethinkers etc, who had consciously sought out the New World as a refuge from the hegemony of the old.
The subsequent formative years of transition from a colony and early history as a nation involved slavery/emancipation, armed rebellion, civil war, high levels of banditry and armed gangs, and high levels of immigration from all corners of the globe.
Despite this, you have, from many perspectives built one of the greatest nations/empires in human history, but one whose celebration of individualism and acceptance of inequalities cast a shadow over your undoubted achievements.
Those forces, and others, lead America to have an innate tendency towards violence. That can change, but it will take a long time. It definitely will not be changed by putting an armed guard in every classroom, arming every citizen, or building and filling more and more prisons. You don't cure an alcoholic by handing him a case of whisky.
It could be achieved, gradually, with a steady disarmament and pacification, by a cultural shift, and one which resolves the never yet resolved contradiction between being the UNITED States of America, and being the United STATES of America.
Achieve that and you will again be revered by the rest of the world as you were when you put the first man on the moon, and seen as a true leading society, one that leads through authority, not through firepower.
p.s. Flame away, just don't shoot.
