Gary Younge on America’s gun obsession

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Wise man. Says a lot of things that make a lot of sense.

I'm not obsessed with guns but I'm not completely against them as long as we have better laws to try and regulate them and do something to prevent these mass shootings.

My mom owns a handgun for self defense because she had a violent and abusive ex husband who now stalks her and I firmy support her right to protect herself.

Like the man points out, it’s the cultural stories and myths told to us and ourselves that need to change - not just laws and regulations.

Peoples beliefs about guns need to shift for their to be any real change. If people falsely believe guns make them safer, they want guns. If they learn and accept that the more guns around, the more gun violence and deaths, then maybe they’ll not feel so safe arming themselves to the teeth.

These sorts of things will take generations to change, just as they’ve taken generations to create as they are.

You clearly don't understand the situation for people like my mom. Who exactly is going to protect her from a man who not only threatened to kill her after breaking her front door down and beating the s**t out of her but also STALKS her to this very day?

Is she supposed to count on the police to protect her? The same police that the progressive left wanted to "defund"?

Man I don't think you or the guy in the video get how unreliable the American system is for victims of abuse in my country.

And yet somehow, despite clear evidence to the contrary, many Americans believe more guns = safer and better protected.

If that were true, as the guy in the video points out, then the USA would be the safest country in the world.

As for defunding the police, I’m for it here in Canada too. It doesn’t mean no police, it means stop using police when psych nurses or counsellors or social workers should be intervening and assisting people who are experiencing mental health difficulties. Police are trained to enforce the criminal code, and being armed, use the tools they have. Sometimes people aren’t behaving appropriately but it’s not criminal in nature and doesn’t deserve to get them shot. So don’t send cops to do the jobs of others, re-allocate the money to other experts and let them do their jobs. Same same for work programs and things that alleviate poverty and reduce crime.

But still have cops to do actual cop things cops are good at, ofc.

Whatever. I guess I shouldn't be surprised anymore that there are many people in our society who care more about protecting the rights of victimizers than they do about protecting the rights of the victims.

No matter how you try to rationalize it, people should have the right to defend themselves. And giving all the money in the world to sociopaths living in poverty isn't going to prevent sociopaths from doing what they do to people like me and my mom.

That's about as absurd as trickle down economics thinking that giving big tax cuts to the rich will benefit the poor.

And this is an example of what I mean about how neither side has any good solutions to actually fix America's biggest problems today. We're royally screwed.

What about the victims of gun violence? Should we not care about them and their epidemic numbers?

There have been plenty of proposed solutions, but despite the statistics that prove otherwise, people still choose to believe that more guns = more safety.

Of course we should. But hey? We're never going to have a perfect world where we can keep everyone safe from mass shooters and violent stalker ex husbands.

Well I dont believe in "more guns". I just believe in self defense, and the right to hunt as long as one is not poaching endangered animals.

There’s self defence and hunting in Canada. People feel safe. We don’t have more guns than people - not even close.

Australians, Brits, Japanese, so many ppl all over the world.. very few guns yet still people are very safe.

And that's exactly my point. We should regulate guns the way they do in those countries but not completely strip the average citizen of their right to own guns for things like self defense or hunting.

You just completely contradicted yourself.

Either you want gun control that’s similar to any of these countries, Or you want a free for all for people to have guns for “self defence.” You can’t have it both ways..

Here, people can own guns for hunting or target shooting under very specific regulations for gun type, storage, transportation etc but you can’t just buy one for self defence or to carry around with you.

That’s a huge part of how we have way fewer guns and way less gun violence. Most of the guns used in crimes here (by gangster/drug dealers) are illegal handguns smuggled across our Southern border from the USA.. a place with so many guns it’s hemorrhaging guns across the border.

How exactly did I contradict myself? I meant exactly what I said.

But you know what? Whatever. I don't even care anymore. I'm tired of arguing about this.

Thought I explained it pretty thoroughly above.



You can have both. The way guns are regulated in those countries is that people can’t just own them for self defence nor carry them around with them. IF they’re allowed to own guns at all, they’re for hunting and target shooting with very strict regulations about type of gun, storage, transport etc.

You can’t Both regulate guns like they do in those countries AND let people buy/own/carry them for self defence. A big part of the reason there are fewer guns, and in turn much lower gun violence, in those countries is that people can’t buy and posses them for self defence.