jdege wrote:Lumpy wrote:OK, so to be fair how do you address people with a different "risk profile"- say, people living in neighborhoods where random bullets are a serious threat?
The only effective solution is to put the shooters behind bars. Unfortunately, that's politically impossible.
While incarceration and greater law enforcement can help treat the symptom of our national disease (that symptom being gun violence), what no one talks about is going after the actual core of the problem.
Which is, of course, WHY do so many Americans feel the need to do violence.
And the answer is despair. Why do young thugs play gang games? Because they "know" that playing "our game", you know, going to school, working etc, isn't going to get them anywhere, because unless they can step off the street to $45,000/year ($10,000 more than national median single earner income), they are going to have less money in their pocket, at the end of the day, than if they just milk the welfare system, never mind milking the welfare system and dealing drugs.
Why do College Age males go on spree killings? Because the average grad is getting into $40k/year jobs 60k in debt, with limited prospect of being able to afford an average new car ($35,000)or an average starter house ($150,000) on top of their loans, in any reasonable amount of time. Meanwhile the rich get richer.
And what does the government say the future holds? Doom and Gloom, Ecological Disaster, Perpetual War, National indebtedness, etc.
Meanwhile the media has turned in to a 24/7 fear emporium (after all, that's what sells), and going to the doctor is as likely as not to earn you a prescription for something with side effects of Aberrant Thoughts, Increase in Depression, Suicidal thoughts, and reduction in empathy.
Enforcement works great for regular violent crime, but if we want to tackle the problems that create the culture of mass shooting, we need to give people hope. We need to double down on the American Dream.
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2016 12:36 pm