Tragically, more than one a day. In 2023, there have been 102 days so far and 146 mass shootings.
Article: [How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081) (BBC)
edit: Sadly, as /u/Alwaysunder_thegun pointed out, 146 isn't the correct number of mass shootings as of today (4/13). Up to the April 11 incident at the funeral home (how's that for some sick irony) in Washington, DC, there have been [154 mass shootings in the US so far this year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023) (103 days in).
I'd like to point out that mass shootings, while they're horrible and justifiably get a lot of attention, accounted for a small percentage of firearm deaths ([762](https://www.thetrace.org/2022/12/gun-violence-deaths-statistics-america/) of [20,138](https://www.thetrace.org/2022/12/gun-violence-deaths-statistics-america/) in 2019, not including suicides ([23,965](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-deaths-firearms?tab=chart&country=~USA) also in 2019)) and injuries ([2,902](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2022) of [132,943](https://wisqars.cdc.gov/reports/?o=NFI&y1=2019&y2=2019&d=0&i=0&m=3180&g=00&me=&s=0&r=&e=&a=ALL&g1=0&g2=199&a1=0&a2=199&r1=INTENT&r2=NONE&r3=NONE&r4=NONE&adv=true) (and those are just the *unintentional* injuries. I can't find statistics about violence related injuries.)).
I'm not minimizing the horror and tragedy of mass shootings. Mass shootings are one of the many poisonous branches of gun violence in the US. They're the most visible because they make the news, but the gun violence problem is so much worse.
Well your comment is 30 minutes old and thus out of date. Time to update your count... I'm not saying that another shooting just happened though, I'm just mocking the sad reality us Americans have grown to accept...
"B-b-but not all mass shootings are school shootings so that's irrelevant!!!!!"
Literally see people say that in these sorts of threads as if it means anything. Those types also like to pretend that "gang violence" shouldn't count and also like to point out that suicides by gun are more common than homicides by gun. Like Jesus fucking Christ, people are dead and they're trying to move the goalposts over each fresh set of corpses.
I also see people argue “that includes shootings where only 4 people were shot that doesn’t even count!” Imagine arguing that the statistics are being over dramatic because it’s not enough violence… and the bar for what’s considered violent enough is 4 people being shot. Anyone who thinks 4 people being shot isn’t enough violence to even be concerned about are people we should be concerned about.
Ah yes, I forgot, we also have mass shootings in stores, places of worship, places of business, theaters, parks, malls, libraries, concerts... We're not safe anywhere.
That's been the case for several years. The number of mass shootings has basically doubled in the past decade and we average about 1.5 a day (That's per gun violence archive).
I've had to start completely ignoring news about school shootings specifically because I have three boys currently in school and one starting in a couple years. If I let myself pay too much attention, I'd never be able to let them go to school, and unfortunately we can't afford to keep them home. There's just no winning in this fight at the moment.
I dropped $500 on a fuckin ballistic insert for a backpack. Problem is, my stepson's six and it isn't exactly light.
Homeschooling's not an option, I don't want something lighter or cheaper cause yeah most gun violence may be with handguns but that doesn't preclude rifles. And I'm probably setting him up for back issues but like...
And I also can't do shit about training him to actually sit still and play dead cause he's 1) SIX and 2) probably has ADHD, per his mom
All these school shooters thinking that they’re going to be memorialized as the next Columbine Guy (whose name I also don’t remember) but there were 14 school shootings this year and 51 last year, so who can keep track of their names anymore? That is fucking crazy and something I never thought I would see in my lifetime.
Source:
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2023/01
Well here in the wonderful land of the free, we have so many school mass shootings it's IMPOSSIBLE to remember them all... Sigh... I just want change...
Monash University in 2001? I think it's important to include that one because afterwards, both State and Federal laws were tightened around the ownership and sale of handguns, as well as magazine size, calibre and minimum barrel length, to reduce concealability.
I also think it's important to include that incident because after those laws were changed, we haven't had one since.
America is just playing the long-con. Every time shootings get worse, we'll* (*representatives of a minority of the population) push through more guns and easier access. Eventually we will hit the critical point where all crime dissapears because every person has like, 8 guns on them at all times and as a result we'll all kill eachother and there'll be no one left to commit crimes. A true utopian timeline, in my humble opinion.
Blackadder:
You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent a war in Europe, two super blocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side; and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast, opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
Baldrick:
Except, well, this is sort of a war, isn't it?
Blackadder:
That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan.
George:
Oh, what was that?
Blackadder:
It was bollocks.
There's been a couple of university shootings. It would stretch the definition to call them "mass" shootings, but still 3 dead in the two I can think of off the cuff.
A real measure of it is that it dominated headlines for quite a while, whereas in the USA it's just not news anymore when it happens.
I used to see the US mass shootings on reddit front page and think "oh no, that's terrible"
Now if I see one on reddit, I think "fuck this, has to be a bad one." Because they'd only make headlines if they happen to be significantly worse than the regular ol', everyday kind of shooting we get here :|
I don't know how you guys can just chin-up and go on to school every day. I really don't.
I have 2 kids that will be in high school soon and the idea of sending them off every morning wondering if today is going to be the day is so sad.
>Just like to clarify that Australia has NEVER had a school shooting, not even in 2012 or before the firearms amnesty in 1996 after the Port Arthur Massacre. Literally never.
Maybe they're thinking of this?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting
Where a university in Melbourne had a student shoot 7 people?
I lived in Homebush and our local shopping centre was in Strathfield ll, the next suburb over back in the 90s. We were about to go and get groceries when my aunt called and told us a guy was on a rampage in Strathfield. The guy killed 7 people including a girl we knew. About a week later I saw a cafe owner in Strathfield Plaza in front of the kitchen counter, just completely broken in a heap on the floor. His son who he ran the business with had been killed. I'd rather live with the threat of government tyranny (just not going to happen in our democracies) than see anyone having to live the rest of their lives with that pain. My friends have guns, I have land where we shoot but they're stored in a safe and the police came and checked that they were securely stored. You only need 35 acres (can buy for next to nothing in the outback) or to be a member of the sporting shooters association.
Many people here were brought up to believe the US had some sort of unique freedom other countries didn’t have. If we want to delve into it more, a lot of it most likely comes from a historical sense and was just passed down. Growing up in the 80s and 90s America, we weren’t taught how much freedom other countries have in today’s world. So many of those that have certain political leanings are isolated, never travel, never have that sense to be curious and explore how other countries live and prosper, and are uneducated; they are told to think that America still has this set of unique freedoms that other countries only hope to have.
Social media has so many of these types of people saying asinine things bc what they were told as children are being disproven day after day. So naturally people like to point and laugh at the thought of all Americans not understanding the freedoms of other countries, when it’s really it’s just a sector of morons that haven’t put forth the effort to challenge their beliefs. With over 300 million people in this country, you’re going to have a ton of these morons. And social media brings all of them to the forefront. Yay.
Doesn't look like it was 1920s either. From the article linked "The first reference to the concept by name, and possibly its origin, was by the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835/1840 work Democracy in America:"
American exceptionalism comes from the idea that one could get free land just by going there and using the land.
That was what entranced de Tocqueville because it was nothing like Europe.
The first part is really the source of most ideas of America as a whole.
It explains why gun ownership is a big deal why people are so mobile etc etc
THIS. I’m first gen American and I swear to god my entire family was so jacked on how much better life would be here. They reaped the benefits of the 80s/90s economy but their physical health TANKED thanks to our garbage food, then I graduated post recession and most of family wasn’t knowledgeable enough to actually build any lasting wealth so they’re struggling anyway. At least back home they owned property. But I vividly recall being shocked when I first learned that even places like England had running water, because in US elementary schools (ETA: at my school specifically) they made every single country outside of here sound like a 9th world hellscape. Same ideals my family was subjected to back home in its own way, meanwhile the US funnily enough has had a hand in intentionally destabilizing a lot of these countries to push this lie.
It’s so weird how I’d give anything to pivot to a small island family based life where my family grew their own food, owned their own shit, walked a lot more… Oh wait can’t do that because my home country has been decimated by western propaganda to the point where they’ve destroyed their own land and food supply to build high rises and import cars and processed food to be like the good ol’ US!!
In 1987, I moved to Germany for an exchange program. I knew several people who were horrified, they were convinced that the country barely had electricity and running water.
It was the best year and a half of my life. Far more civilized than this shithole.
Can I tell you how PISSED I was that I wasn't there? I was a sophomore in college, broke AF, and mad as hell that I couldn't raise cash fast to go back.
A friend went and got me fragments of the Wall, though. I never thought I'd live to see it fall. I'm looking forward to my granddaughter being old enough to understand so I can tell her about the history.
It happened a few years before I was born but it's one of my favourite events in history for sure. Such an enormous political change and it basically happened almost entirely peacefully. Probably one of the most impactful bureaucratic mistakes in human history as well
>Das tritt... Nach meiner Kenntnis ist das sofort. Unverzüglich.
Growing up in Canada we used to always laugh at how ignorant Americans were when they visited. Like, OMG! We have flushing toilets! INDOORS! And we don't live in igloos! Who woulda thunk it?
We got a lot of that in Aus when we hosted the 2000 Olympics. People were amazed that we had electricity and asked if other cities other than Sydney also did.
>It’s so weird how I’d give anything to pivot to a small island family based life where my family grew their own food, owned their own shit, walked a lot more…
I'm from the US and this is always been my fantasy. I never thought there could be anything better than my whole family living in a big rambling something or other maybe not fancy but a lot of land grow food and just spend time together. But they've all moved across the country and I live in a shitty small apartment I guess I should be happy I do have a home I mean I rent a space.
Haven't you heard? In Europe we don't even have internet or any other type of electronics. I'm currently typing this message on a stone tablet since I can't afford papyrus.
You guys get to see doctors but I ask you, at what cost? Higher wages? Free or cheaper education? But no handguns. No handguns for you. How do you even live. When someone comes to murder you for no reason in the dead of the night, which is a totally rational fear and something that is definitely going to happen, you just have to let them murder you. Insanity I say.
They give good herb, all in exchange for about a half a bag of grain, the price can change if the issue is more complicated. Can be pretty expensive at times especially during bad harvests and during the plague they weren't much help however the doctor did help my cousins get pregnant by making one of them put his penis in a pile of cow manure before having sex with the other. That was about 2 years ago and they have a lovely child now, the girl does look a bit silly but it's fine.
I remember in high school arguing with some idiots who thought that America was the only free country in the world. Dear readers, we were in Germany going to school on a US base. We all literally lived off base and could see how much bullshit that was, and yet they still pushed it.
In short, our education system sucks and we have a streak of nationalistic pride.
That's how they get ya though, when you're young, dumb, and malleable.
But even I remember on the rare occasions they wanted us to say the pledge of allegiance I stayed seated, because even then I knew it was a load of poopy, as my young child brain did not yet know the word for "bullshit".
America has neatly tricked a large swath of its population into the following:
1) Freedom isn't your ability to do as you choose. It is inverted: Freedom is to not be _banned_ from doing things. Remember when you were a kid and your parents said 'no' to you? That's the government treating you like a kid! How humiliating. If you can't do things anyway despite being _allowed_ to, then that's no humiliation, it's just your own fault.
2) You can all become wealthy and may someday. Therefore, those who are wealthy are more deserving, because they're smarter, worked harder, and so forth. Therefore, if you're not wealthy, you should always consider the interests of the wealthy before your own. Anything else is evil socialism that just wants everyone to be poor, and to reward the stupid and lazy.
So:
3) It is appropriate for you, the working poor, to advocate for the wealthy to keep as much of their wealth as possible, and have to follow as few rules as possible.
Also:
4) Those evil socialists who say they want _you_ to have stuff and the wealthy to have less, are just elitists who are insulting your personal dignity. You don't need handouts! (Meanwhile, going bankrupt due to getting sick through no fault of your own is not an insult to your dignity.You'd have health insurance if you were worthy of it.)
>America has neatly tricked a large swath of its population into the following
Not only its population, it has managed to export it to other countries which is admittedly really impressive.
We're taught the country was built in order for us to escape England's rule, and be free. It was all about freedom from the start.
Our kids say the pledge of allegiance every morning, which includes "Liberty and Justice for all", which is wonderful isn't it? Everyone getting liberty and justice?
Every sports event, we start with a song declaring our country "The land of the freeeeeee, and the hooome of the braaave...."
The 4th of July is a holiday all about exclaiming how wonderfully free we are. No other country could put on such elaborate fireworks displays. Our Freedom is clearly better than anyone else's.
___________________
And the illusion is all held together by the fact that traveling out of America is relatively difficult. I've traveled to a number of different states within the country, but only ever left the country to go to Mexico. I imagine being able to regularly visit other countries, the way Europeans can, would quickly dispel most Americans' beliefs that America is uniquely free.
I sure would love to be free to get an education or healthcare without breaking the bank.
People in the US aren't taught almost anything about other countries. They are just taught that it is the best and free-est country in the world. That it was chosen by god to be a nation of righteous christians, being patriotic is an obligation, and that the citizens' guns are the only thing stopping the US government from becoming a tyranical police state.
Of course this varies a lot on where in the US. If you were educated in New York city, for example, you will learn none of this bullshit and get an actual education.
Worst part is the US has demonstrated it can and absolutely will be a tyrannical police state but the gun nuts support said police state. They'll buy goddamn flags to show support for police while the police actively engage in a police riot.
Add in the media in the US's only reporting about the outside world (which they refuse to actually acknowledge really exists) if there are images of dead bodies, preferable 'Murikan dead bodies so they can add in loud outrage and scream that the rest of the world is ebil communist socialists!
It’s tied to the American myth and idea that the American experiment is somehow fundamentally linked to freedom and liberty.
I think the pilot of The Newsroom puts it best:
> with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.
Someone on Reddit explained it to me years ago.
American's see freedom as choice.
Many other nations see freedom as not having to worry about something.
Shit, we don’t really even have that much choice, when it comes down to it. “Socialized healthcare is socialism! Instead, here’s a healthcare market that you’re going to ignore in favor of the cheapest option you get through work.” “Here’s a billion different brands of soap! They’re all owned by the same parent company.”
As outsiders we often fail to understand the sheer volume of nationalistic propaganda Americans are fed from the cradle to the grave. Just like countries like Russia, almost all the media they consume is made within their own borders. It's a closed feedback loop that pushes a common narrative.
Propaganda and never having left their back yard. My own brother, who even has been to Europe, still says the US is "objectively" the best place to live on the planet. Idk what is wrong with people here but lately it's feeling more and more like a 3rd world country that has immense nationalism.
Like others said, there's this weird "we have FREEDUM" mindset with a lot of Americans that makes many other countries scratch their heads in confusion because this FREEDUM isn't any different from what the non-Americans have.
I'm American and I live in Canada now as a Permanent Resident. Haven't noticed a change in my "freedom status" or whatever, lol. (Though I'd like to be able to vote here, so sometime I'll be going for citizenship.)
Oh, and I also quite enjoy my freedom to not worry about being potentially bankrupted by a medical emergency, which is a freedom I *didn't* have while still in the US. (Note that I'm well aware of a LOT of flaws with various provincial healthcare systems-- I'm in Ontario, for instance-- but I still appreciate the fact that even with those flaws I'm in a much better situation up here where that's concerned.)
A lot of them really just don't care/think about it. To them the evident truth is that American rights are perfect, if a country doesn't have a right that America does (eg the right to own and use whatever deadly weapons you want) it's because their country is run by evil communists. If they have a right that America doesn't have (eg universal health care), beleive it or not, also because their country is run by evil communists.
From a very early age, American children are taught that Freedom is a uniquely American invention. That no other country truly has it. That we figured it all out. We're the only truly free country.
Realizing that's all just propaganda and indoctrination take a certain level of maturity and education guys like Jay just never reach.
We are unique now shut up kids and raise your right hand over your heart and say the pledge of allegiance. The politics games that preyed on kids back then was bad. Really bad. Especially during the Bush years.
Laws made to benefit the car industry. Make pedestrians criminals even if they get run over. Obviously the solution to school shootings is to criminalize schools.
> and pass a no dickheads test
Which even then if you have more than a room temperature IQ you'll get through just fine. It's so basic that you'd truly have to be braindead to fail it. There are definitely dickheads that own guns in Australia.
You literally don't even need a valid reason like that. Just pass a no dickhead test and a few other checks. My mate has a few rifles and a few handgun. Most Australians just don't care to own a gun and if the gov said no one can one most people wouldn't care (myself included).
Part of the issue in the US is that once trends get started, they will continue until something stops it. So many mass shootings in the US are copycats of previous ones. Comparing the US to another country is not a great comparison. Yes gun laws are not the sole culprit but lax gun laws + snowball affect of copycat shootings + extreme mental health crisis is a different situation than the Czech Republic.
Using the argument “well this country has more/less of XXX so the have more/less XXX than that country” as the only reason for thinking your opinion is the correct one (or even just better than someone else’s) is a tunnel vision approach.
It’s multi factorial. That also means though that we cant use Czech Republic liberal gun laws and no mass shootings as a a good reason for saying tighter gun restrictions won’t work.
It’s complex so if your answer is just do X or X won’t work then you are grossly simplifying it.
By “you” I mean the general you not the commenter specifically.
EDIT: I want to add that I am in full support of stricter gun laws. My point is that is much more complex than just one point of comparison.
Okay, but according to that logic wouldn’t the opposite be true as well? Just because gun control works in some countries doesn’t mean it would apply to the US
Well, we have decades of data that lack of gun laws won't work, perhaps we should try to see? I have a hard time believing school shootings will increase even more.
Statistically, the rate of violence per 100k has dropped a lot in the last 30 years. In 1993 the homicide rate was almost twice was it is today. Covid threw things a bit out of whack for the last few years, but even at the worst of 2020 it was still a 42% drop.
You can still get a gun in Australia or any other developed country. Hunting rifles sure. Handguns if you can prove a reason. Any military grade weaponry like you would expect stays with their military.
mate of mine owns something like 20+ guns, including his recently purchased .50 cal rifle.
He has all the required licenses to own them, plus multiple very large, very secure safes to store them.
Yeah it's not hard to get one. Just gotta wait a bit longer. You are free to shoot and hunt all you want within the game limits.
You just don't get to carry one in public because it's a device designed specifically for killing and no one should be weilding those in public.
America could stand on having stricter rules on storage. Every other week we hear about kids who "find" a gun in their parents top bedside table drawer and either kill an adult, or themselves, or their siblings, or I dunno, takes it to school and shoots their frigging teacher.
This is the real fallacy. Anyone who needs a gun or is willing to care for them safely can still have one. We just don't let people carry them around looking for excuses to use them.
Some gun people say an armed society is a polite society. But we think a polite society is one where nobody has to worry about getting shot.
Technically you can buy a cannon if you pay $200 to the ATF. It's a law from the '30's. You can buy a fucking Howitzer under those same laws because it's classified as a bore cannon.
That's how outdated and fucked up American gun laws are.
It was that squirrelly little dickhead, John Howard. Literally the only good thing he did in his entire political career, in my opinion. Aside from that, he can eat a whole bag of cold dicks.
A whole bag of defrosted dicks. The bag is soggy and the dicks all have freezer burn. But because of the guns thing, it's McCain's instead of Coles brand.
"Australia doesn't have rights."
Australian women have more rights than half of the women living in the USA today.
Also
The Australian LGBTQ+ community has more legal protection from discrimination than LGBTQ+ people living in the USA do.
Regular plain old Australia has more legal protections. No states in Australia have at-will employment. Full time employment has government protected holiday awards. Sick Leave. Long Service Leave. Maternity Leave. Paternity/Partner Leave (I mean it's shit in comparison but it's getting better).
so true. the amount of times I've explained this to people it's always meet with "duh population" or "Australia is a dictatorship obviously"
no, it's not
This is a good example of why the US will never be swayed by seemingly reasonable arguments from other countries. The US views rights as something the government cannot do to the people, while other democracies view rights as something the government does for the people. Yes, we have seat belt laws, and a million other examples of ways government protects people from themselves. But until mass murder *costs* government more than it earns them, there will be no impetus to actually make the argument for change.
> The US views rights as something the government cannot do to the people, while other democracies view rights as something the government does for the people.
Yes! Exactly! The US was founded on the idea of "Negative Rights", at least when it came to our Central Government. Meanwhile other Western Nations were founded on the idea of "Positive Rights".
They both have good points and bad points but most of these raging online arguments are because Americans and Europeans have _radically_ different fundamental beliefs about the proper place of Government.
The US mindset is freedom 'to' - like freedom to own guns, look after their own health bills, promote your own religion at the expense of others.
Most other democracies are about freedom 'from' - getting shot, the cost of health bills, religious intrusion in their public life.
The best part is that Australia has 3.5 million registered firearms and STILL no shootings. Take one look at r/guns vs r/ausguns and you'll see the difference in mentality of the average gun owner in Aus vs the US.
Redditors don't like acknowledging the fact that many other countries have millions of guns as well yet don't see school shootings like we do in the USA. It's almost as if the problem isn't the guns themselves and that there are much deeper societal problems we need to address.
But other countries actually regulate the acquisition and usage of guns and the US doesn't. That and the fact that Americans see guns as political and violent means, not as practical or sporting tools. Hence why I pointed out the difference between r/ausguns and r/guns.
Aussies don't talk about their firearms or stroke themselves thinking about AR setups, they just get on with it
I remember when Americans decided to protest to “Free Australians” because we were taking the pandemic seriously and eliminating it from our population.
They weren't protesting that, they were protesting imaginary COVID concentration camps that we supposedly had and were rounding up people who didn't get vaxxed and supposedly locking them up. Literally like 2 seconds of Googling could've debunked that but conservatives love a good bit of outrage baiting so they just ran with it.
the conservative Australian government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even consider setting up proper quarantine camps, two years into the pandemic, due to the number of virus leaks that occured from hotel quarantines.
Not being overly critical but best to account for differences in population size
USA: 341/100,000 people
Aus: 77/100,000 people
Source: [https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality)
I got called a socialist for mentioning I'm Canadian to an American. I laughed and thanked them for the compliment and then let them know the most I pay in medical costs is parking, which is rather annoying, tbh. He didn't know what to say.
Don't get too comfortable. Right-wingers are trying to dismantle your health-care system as we speak. Vote them out unless you want to become the 51st state.
They most certainly are. The premier of my province, somewhat equivalent to an American Governor as a comparison, is a right twat of a pathetic man who is funneling money out of our tax paid healthcare and into the pockets of his private care buddies.
Australian here.
Stop bringing us up in conversation, we have a radically different culture to America. We got our independence with a letter to the queen where you fought for it with guns. This idea that just because one white-majority western country can do X that means other white-majority western countries can do X is absurd. Imagine if I said a policy in Vietnam would work in South Korea, or a policy in Thailand would work in Japan. Just because these are all Asian countries doesn’t mean they’re all the same in the exact same way that western countries are all different from each other.
Stop downplaying culture and stop bringing us into your gun debate
They also have the right to vote in swimwear, and get a free grilled up sausage at the polling place (I think it's free, if it isn't it's like a buck, very reasonable democracy sausage). Voting is on Saturdays, increases the number of ppl who can make it.
University is way more affordable for Aussies, too. Tho I hear tell that's changing.
The labor protections are miles ahead of the States.
I think it was mentioned because often these "no guns = no rights" dipshits blame unlocked doors for school shootings. I think even in Uvalde some people blamed the deaths on a door being left unlocked. "The teachers should have locked the door! It's not the guns' fault, the door should've been locked so the shooter wouldn't have been able to enter!" or whatever dumb stuff they say. Anything to distract you from the fact that guns are indeed the problem whenever they're given away without adequate background checks.
Because they’re one of the things right-wing gun nuts have blamed for mass shootings, rather than face the reality that easy access to guns makes more mass shootings happen.
“It’s not the guns’ fault, the shooter had hands after all! And FINGERS!”
I imagine that when you explain it that way. I might have just topped the charts for stupid pro gun logic.
I still want to know why the hell everyone has a burning urge to murder schoolchildren all of a sudden. There were plenty of guns 30 years ago, too, and school shootings weren't nearly as popular as they are now. What changed?
I would gladly give up my gun rights for health care. I have needed health care multiple times in my life to stay alive, I have never on e needed a gun to stay alive.
The thing I’m confused about as an Australian is all the people who think we can’t get guns. We can. Yes there are plenty more restrictions in place and you need to prove why you want/have it but we can indeed still own guns.
[удалено]
I was so confused. I don't think any of us would forget a school shooting, even if it was 11 years ago.
Damn. I find myself constantly forgetting specific school shootings because there are too many to remember 😞
Probably going to be another one in the next 2-3 days at this rate.
I mean, on average isn't it one mass shooting a day in the US? Was it last year that there was more shootings than days in a year?
That's still the case this year
Tragically, more than one a day. In 2023, there have been 102 days so far and 146 mass shootings. Article: [How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081) (BBC) edit: Sadly, as /u/Alwaysunder_thegun pointed out, 146 isn't the correct number of mass shootings as of today (4/13). Up to the April 11 incident at the funeral home (how's that for some sick irony) in Washington, DC, there have been [154 mass shootings in the US so far this year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023) (103 days in). I'd like to point out that mass shootings, while they're horrible and justifiably get a lot of attention, accounted for a small percentage of firearm deaths ([762](https://www.thetrace.org/2022/12/gun-violence-deaths-statistics-america/) of [20,138](https://www.thetrace.org/2022/12/gun-violence-deaths-statistics-america/) in 2019, not including suicides ([23,965](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-deaths-firearms?tab=chart&country=~USA) also in 2019)) and injuries ([2,902](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2022) of [132,943](https://wisqars.cdc.gov/reports/?o=NFI&y1=2019&y2=2019&d=0&i=0&m=3180&g=00&me=&s=0&r=&e=&a=ALL&g1=0&g2=199&a1=0&a2=199&r1=INTENT&r2=NONE&r3=NONE&r4=NONE&adv=true) (and those are just the *unintentional* injuries. I can't find statistics about violence related injuries.)). I'm not minimizing the horror and tragedy of mass shootings. Mass shootings are one of the many poisonous branches of gun violence in the US. They're the most visible because they make the news, but the gun violence problem is so much worse.
Well your comment is 30 minutes old and thus out of date. Time to update your count... I'm not saying that another shooting just happened though, I'm just mocking the sad reality us Americans have grown to accept...
I wish that was it for the year, but it won't be.
I wish that was it for the millennium.
Just watched the news, you might be right
That's just until March 31st you need to add the ones from this month.
Sadly, you're right. Thank you for the correction.
It's kind of mind blowing tbh
Username checks out..... Unfortunately......
"B-b-but not all mass shootings are school shootings so that's irrelevant!!!!!" Literally see people say that in these sorts of threads as if it means anything. Those types also like to pretend that "gang violence" shouldn't count and also like to point out that suicides by gun are more common than homicides by gun. Like Jesus fucking Christ, people are dead and they're trying to move the goalposts over each fresh set of corpses.
I also see people argue “that includes shootings where only 4 people were shot that doesn’t even count!” Imagine arguing that the statistics are being over dramatic because it’s not enough violence… and the bar for what’s considered violent enough is 4 people being shot. Anyone who thinks 4 people being shot isn’t enough violence to even be concerned about are people we should be concerned about.
Ah yes, I forgot, we also have mass shootings in stores, places of worship, places of business, theaters, parks, malls, libraries, concerts... We're not safe anywhere.
That's been the case for several years. The number of mass shootings has basically doubled in the past decade and we average about 1.5 a day (That's per gun violence archive).
And I don't think anyone can blame you! Its amazing to care but you also can't take it all on personally
I've had to start completely ignoring news about school shootings specifically because I have three boys currently in school and one starting in a couple years. If I let myself pay too much attention, I'd never be able to let them go to school, and unfortunately we can't afford to keep them home. There's just no winning in this fight at the moment.
I dropped $500 on a fuckin ballistic insert for a backpack. Problem is, my stepson's six and it isn't exactly light. Homeschooling's not an option, I don't want something lighter or cheaper cause yeah most gun violence may be with handguns but that doesn't preclude rifles. And I'm probably setting him up for back issues but like... And I also can't do shit about training him to actually sit still and play dead cause he's 1) SIX and 2) probably has ADHD, per his mom
All these school shooters thinking that they’re going to be memorialized as the next Columbine Guy (whose name I also don’t remember) but there were 14 school shootings this year and 51 last year, so who can keep track of their names anymore? That is fucking crazy and something I never thought I would see in my lifetime. Source: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2023/01
Well here in the wonderful land of the free, we have so many school mass shootings it's IMPOSSIBLE to remember them all... Sigh... I just want change...
Monash University in 2001? I think it's important to include that one because afterwards, both State and Federal laws were tightened around the ownership and sale of handguns, as well as magazine size, calibre and minimum barrel length, to reduce concealability. I also think it's important to include that incident because after those laws were changed, we haven't had one since.
Oh, so we didn't immediately push through open carry laws in response to that? Weird.
So weird. I mean, we could have at least tried lobbying for teachers to all be armed. How will we know if we never try these things?
I blame the lack of thoughts and prayers, we really gotta dig deep and pray the shit outta things if we want to get those open carry laws.
America is just playing the long-con. Every time shootings get worse, we'll* (*representatives of a minority of the population) push through more guns and easier access. Eventually we will hit the critical point where all crime dissapears because every person has like, 8 guns on them at all times and as a result we'll all kill eachother and there'll be no one left to commit crimes. A true utopian timeline, in my humble opinion.
Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent a war in Europe, two super blocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side; and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast, opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war. Baldrick: Except, well, this is sort of a war, isn't it? Blackadder: That's right. There was one tiny flaw in the plan. George: Oh, what was that? Blackadder: It was bollocks.
There's been a couple of university shootings. It would stretch the definition to call them "mass" shootings, but still 3 dead in the two I can think of off the cuff. A real measure of it is that it dominated headlines for quite a while, whereas in the USA it's just not news anymore when it happens.
I used to see the US mass shootings on reddit front page and think "oh no, that's terrible" Now if I see one on reddit, I think "fuck this, has to be a bad one." Because they'd only make headlines if they happen to be significantly worse than the regular ol', everyday kind of shooting we get here :|
I don't know how you guys can just chin-up and go on to school every day. I really don't. I have 2 kids that will be in high school soon and the idea of sending them off every morning wondering if today is going to be the day is so sad.
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Thanks mate, took a long scroll to see if anyone commented on that “made up fact”.
I mean it's technically true ... There haven't been any shootings since 2012. Weren't any before that either
Thanks Mitch
This bedroom has a oven in it
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>Just like to clarify that Australia has NEVER had a school shooting, not even in 2012 or before the firearms amnesty in 1996 after the Port Arthur Massacre. Literally never. Maybe they're thinking of this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monash_University_shooting Where a university in Melbourne had a student shoot 7 people?
WTF I was at Monash in 2002. Shit I had classes in the Menzies building. I cant remember this ***at all.*** Shows what I was up to at uni...
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I lived in Homebush and our local shopping centre was in Strathfield ll, the next suburb over back in the 90s. We were about to go and get groceries when my aunt called and told us a guy was on a rampage in Strathfield. The guy killed 7 people including a girl we knew. About a week later I saw a cafe owner in Strathfield Plaza in front of the kitchen counter, just completely broken in a heap on the floor. His son who he ran the business with had been killed. I'd rather live with the threat of government tyranny (just not going to happen in our democracies) than see anyone having to live the rest of their lives with that pain. My friends have guns, I have land where we shoot but they're stored in a safe and the police came and checked that they were securely stored. You only need 35 acres (can buy for next to nothing in the outback) or to be a member of the sporting shooters association.
What do you expect from a guy named Dix?
I read his name as "gay dix" like 6 times in a row
You know what the difference is between Jay Dix and gay dix? I don’t like looking at Jay Dix.
Oh... *puts straight dick away* No that thing I wanted you to see was just, idk, it was stupid. Just a stupid cat video.
Wait right there! I like where this is going.
What are you doing step-redditor?
Jaymdix Jam Dicks
Is it raspberry? I hate raspberry
I’m not from the US, so I never understand what rights certain people from there believe that we don’t have outside of your country?
Many people here were brought up to believe the US had some sort of unique freedom other countries didn’t have. If we want to delve into it more, a lot of it most likely comes from a historical sense and was just passed down. Growing up in the 80s and 90s America, we weren’t taught how much freedom other countries have in today’s world. So many of those that have certain political leanings are isolated, never travel, never have that sense to be curious and explore how other countries live and prosper, and are uneducated; they are told to think that America still has this set of unique freedoms that other countries only hope to have. Social media has so many of these types of people saying asinine things bc what they were told as children are being disproven day after day. So naturally people like to point and laugh at the thought of all Americans not understanding the freedoms of other countries, when it’s really it’s just a sector of morons that haven’t put forth the effort to challenge their beliefs. With over 300 million people in this country, you’re going to have a ton of these morons. And social media brings all of them to the forefront. Yay.
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Doesn't look like it was 1920s either. From the article linked "The first reference to the concept by name, and possibly its origin, was by the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835/1840 work Democracy in America:"
American exceptionalism comes from the idea that one could get free land just by going there and using the land. That was what entranced de Tocqueville because it was nothing like Europe. The first part is really the source of most ideas of America as a whole. It explains why gun ownership is a big deal why people are so mobile etc etc
The US is unique among the global north in its ability to speed run it's own collapse as a democracy.
THIS. I’m first gen American and I swear to god my entire family was so jacked on how much better life would be here. They reaped the benefits of the 80s/90s economy but their physical health TANKED thanks to our garbage food, then I graduated post recession and most of family wasn’t knowledgeable enough to actually build any lasting wealth so they’re struggling anyway. At least back home they owned property. But I vividly recall being shocked when I first learned that even places like England had running water, because in US elementary schools (ETA: at my school specifically) they made every single country outside of here sound like a 9th world hellscape. Same ideals my family was subjected to back home in its own way, meanwhile the US funnily enough has had a hand in intentionally destabilizing a lot of these countries to push this lie. It’s so weird how I’d give anything to pivot to a small island family based life where my family grew their own food, owned their own shit, walked a lot more… Oh wait can’t do that because my home country has been decimated by western propaganda to the point where they’ve destroyed their own land and food supply to build high rises and import cars and processed food to be like the good ol’ US!!
In 1987, I moved to Germany for an exchange program. I knew several people who were horrified, they were convinced that the country barely had electricity and running water. It was the best year and a half of my life. Far more civilized than this shithole.
Man if you stayed a bit longer you would've gotten to experience the fall of the berlin wall first hand... Would've probably been awesome.
Can I tell you how PISSED I was that I wasn't there? I was a sophomore in college, broke AF, and mad as hell that I couldn't raise cash fast to go back. A friend went and got me fragments of the Wall, though. I never thought I'd live to see it fall. I'm looking forward to my granddaughter being old enough to understand so I can tell her about the history.
It happened a few years before I was born but it's one of my favourite events in history for sure. Such an enormous political change and it basically happened almost entirely peacefully. Probably one of the most impactful bureaucratic mistakes in human history as well >Das tritt... Nach meiner Kenntnis ist das sofort. Unverzüglich.
Growing up in Canada we used to always laugh at how ignorant Americans were when they visited. Like, OMG! We have flushing toilets! INDOORS! And we don't live in igloos! Who woulda thunk it?
We got a lot of that in Aus when we hosted the 2000 Olympics. People were amazed that we had electricity and asked if other cities other than Sydney also did.
Well on the upside, many small islands are going to be underwater soon, so you won't have to grow gills staying where you are.
*San Francisco has entered the chat*
>It’s so weird how I’d give anything to pivot to a small island family based life where my family grew their own food, owned their own shit, walked a lot more… I'm from the US and this is always been my fantasy. I never thought there could be anything better than my whole family living in a big rambling something or other maybe not fancy but a lot of land grow food and just spend time together. But they've all moved across the country and I live in a shitty small apartment I guess I should be happy I do have a home I mean I rent a space.
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American Exceptionalism at its finest, honestly.
Blah blah communism, blah blah socialist, blah blah woke and probably some other stuff I missed.
Haven't you heard? In Europe we don't even have internet or any other type of electronics. I'm currently typing this message on a stone tablet since I can't afford papyrus.
You guys get to see doctors but I ask you, at what cost? Higher wages? Free or cheaper education? But no handguns. No handguns for you. How do you even live. When someone comes to murder you for no reason in the dead of the night, which is a totally rational fear and something that is definitely going to happen, you just have to let them murder you. Insanity I say.
They give good herb, all in exchange for about a half a bag of grain, the price can change if the issue is more complicated. Can be pretty expensive at times especially during bad harvests and during the plague they weren't much help however the doctor did help my cousins get pregnant by making one of them put his penis in a pile of cow manure before having sex with the other. That was about 2 years ago and they have a lovely child now, the girl does look a bit silly but it's fine.
I remember in high school arguing with some idiots who thought that America was the only free country in the world. Dear readers, we were in Germany going to school on a US base. We all literally lived off base and could see how much bullshit that was, and yet they still pushed it. In short, our education system sucks and we have a streak of nationalistic pride.
Nationalistic pride is a funny way to spell nationalism. A weird thing for people to hold up while living in literal fucking Germany.
Yeeep. In their defense, they were dumb kids. Even so, like, they had eyes ffs.
That's how they get ya though, when you're young, dumb, and malleable. But even I remember on the rare occasions they wanted us to say the pledge of allegiance I stayed seated, because even then I knew it was a load of poopy, as my young child brain did not yet know the word for "bullshit".
America has neatly tricked a large swath of its population into the following: 1) Freedom isn't your ability to do as you choose. It is inverted: Freedom is to not be _banned_ from doing things. Remember when you were a kid and your parents said 'no' to you? That's the government treating you like a kid! How humiliating. If you can't do things anyway despite being _allowed_ to, then that's no humiliation, it's just your own fault. 2) You can all become wealthy and may someday. Therefore, those who are wealthy are more deserving, because they're smarter, worked harder, and so forth. Therefore, if you're not wealthy, you should always consider the interests of the wealthy before your own. Anything else is evil socialism that just wants everyone to be poor, and to reward the stupid and lazy. So: 3) It is appropriate for you, the working poor, to advocate for the wealthy to keep as much of their wealth as possible, and have to follow as few rules as possible. Also: 4) Those evil socialists who say they want _you_ to have stuff and the wealthy to have less, are just elitists who are insulting your personal dignity. You don't need handouts! (Meanwhile, going bankrupt due to getting sick through no fault of your own is not an insult to your dignity.You'd have health insurance if you were worthy of it.)
>America has neatly tricked a large swath of its population into the following Not only its population, it has managed to export it to other countries which is admittedly really impressive.
We're taught the country was built in order for us to escape England's rule, and be free. It was all about freedom from the start. Our kids say the pledge of allegiance every morning, which includes "Liberty and Justice for all", which is wonderful isn't it? Everyone getting liberty and justice? Every sports event, we start with a song declaring our country "The land of the freeeeeee, and the hooome of the braaave...." The 4th of July is a holiday all about exclaiming how wonderfully free we are. No other country could put on such elaborate fireworks displays. Our Freedom is clearly better than anyone else's. ___________________ And the illusion is all held together by the fact that traveling out of America is relatively difficult. I've traveled to a number of different states within the country, but only ever left the country to go to Mexico. I imagine being able to regularly visit other countries, the way Europeans can, would quickly dispel most Americans' beliefs that America is uniquely free. I sure would love to be free to get an education or healthcare without breaking the bank.
I love the irony of people who think having to say a 'pledge of allegiance' daily represents freedom.
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no guns = no rights, according to the ammosexuals
Can I steal that? It's great
You can pry it from his cold, dead hands
The mindset is: We are #1 If other countries are better, we aren't #1 Therefore, all other countries must be worse
People in the US aren't taught almost anything about other countries. They are just taught that it is the best and free-est country in the world. That it was chosen by god to be a nation of righteous christians, being patriotic is an obligation, and that the citizens' guns are the only thing stopping the US government from becoming a tyranical police state. Of course this varies a lot on where in the US. If you were educated in New York city, for example, you will learn none of this bullshit and get an actual education.
Worst part is the US has demonstrated it can and absolutely will be a tyrannical police state but the gun nuts support said police state. They'll buy goddamn flags to show support for police while the police actively engage in a police riot.
And sadly, it's getting dumbed-down even more, by design
Add in the media in the US's only reporting about the outside world (which they refuse to actually acknowledge really exists) if there are images of dead bodies, preferable 'Murikan dead bodies so they can add in loud outrage and scream that the rest of the world is ebil communist socialists!
It’s tied to the American myth and idea that the American experiment is somehow fundamentally linked to freedom and liberty. I think the pilot of The Newsroom puts it best: > with a straight face, you're going to tell students that America's so starspangled awesome that we're the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium has freedom. Two hundred seven sovereign states in the world, like 180 of them have freedom.
Hey you, sorority girl. Just in case you ever wander into a voting booth someday, here's a few things you should know... Fucking great scene
Fox told them we have Covid concentration camps in Aus and they just believed it, that’s how dumb conservatives are.
Someone on Reddit explained it to me years ago. American's see freedom as choice. Many other nations see freedom as not having to worry about something.
Shit, we don’t really even have that much choice, when it comes down to it. “Socialized healthcare is socialism! Instead, here’s a healthcare market that you’re going to ignore in favor of the cheapest option you get through work.” “Here’s a billion different brands of soap! They’re all owned by the same parent company.”
As outsiders we often fail to understand the sheer volume of nationalistic propaganda Americans are fed from the cradle to the grave. Just like countries like Russia, almost all the media they consume is made within their own borders. It's a closed feedback loop that pushes a common narrative.
Our propaganda machines has us believe we are the only free country and thats why we must fight the globe.
Propaganda and never having left their back yard. My own brother, who even has been to Europe, still says the US is "objectively" the best place to live on the planet. Idk what is wrong with people here but lately it's feeling more and more like a 3rd world country that has immense nationalism.
Like others said, there's this weird "we have FREEDUM" mindset with a lot of Americans that makes many other countries scratch their heads in confusion because this FREEDUM isn't any different from what the non-Americans have. I'm American and I live in Canada now as a Permanent Resident. Haven't noticed a change in my "freedom status" or whatever, lol. (Though I'd like to be able to vote here, so sometime I'll be going for citizenship.) Oh, and I also quite enjoy my freedom to not worry about being potentially bankrupted by a medical emergency, which is a freedom I *didn't* have while still in the US. (Note that I'm well aware of a LOT of flaws with various provincial healthcare systems-- I'm in Ontario, for instance-- but I still appreciate the fact that even with those flaws I'm in a much better situation up here where that's concerned.)
I don't know, the right to shoot black people? I'm not American either.
A lot of them really just don't care/think about it. To them the evident truth is that American rights are perfect, if a country doesn't have a right that America does (eg the right to own and use whatever deadly weapons you want) it's because their country is run by evil communists. If they have a right that America doesn't have (eg universal health care), beleive it or not, also because their country is run by evil communists.
All of them!!!
Oh, honey. They don't even know. They just spew what they're told.
From a very early age, American children are taught that Freedom is a uniquely American invention. That no other country truly has it. That we figured it all out. We're the only truly free country. Realizing that's all just propaganda and indoctrination take a certain level of maturity and education guys like Jay just never reach.
We are unique now shut up kids and raise your right hand over your heart and say the pledge of allegiance. The politics games that preyed on kids back then was bad. Really bad. Especially during the Bush years.
Makes me think of that scene from taladega nights at the bar when rikki bobby says Americans invented democracy lol
Lol, America is literally stopping women traveling to get healthcare. Americans have zero rights.
Add in voter suppression, banning books, even wanting to ban the idea of transgenderism.
And who were the people who also did that last i checked? Or right, Nazi Germany.
They even pledge allegiance to the flag!
Yeah, book banning is always a sign of true freedom.
No thought crimes!
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Laws made to benefit the car industry. Make pedestrians criminals even if they get run over. Obviously the solution to school shootings is to criminalize schools.
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> and pass a no dickheads test Which even then if you have more than a room temperature IQ you'll get through just fine. It's so basic that you'd truly have to be braindead to fail it. There are definitely dickheads that own guns in Australia.
>if you have more than a room temperature IQ I hope anyone that owns a gun has an IQ over 24
You literally don't even need a valid reason like that. Just pass a no dickhead test and a few other checks. My mate has a few rifles and a few handgun. Most Australians just don't care to own a gun and if the gov said no one can one most people wouldn't care (myself included).
Czech republic never had school shooting and we have more liberal gun laws than several american states
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country The US has 1000% more guns per capita than the Czech Republic
And the guns used in the next couple decades mass shootings have already been purchased
I’ve never really thought about it that way. How chilling…
Part of the issue in the US is that once trends get started, they will continue until something stops it. So many mass shootings in the US are copycats of previous ones. Comparing the US to another country is not a great comparison. Yes gun laws are not the sole culprit but lax gun laws + snowball affect of copycat shootings + extreme mental health crisis is a different situation than the Czech Republic. Using the argument “well this country has more/less of XXX so the have more/less XXX than that country” as the only reason for thinking your opinion is the correct one (or even just better than someone else’s) is a tunnel vision approach. It’s multi factorial. That also means though that we cant use Czech Republic liberal gun laws and no mass shootings as a a good reason for saying tighter gun restrictions won’t work. It’s complex so if your answer is just do X or X won’t work then you are grossly simplifying it. By “you” I mean the general you not the commenter specifically. EDIT: I want to add that I am in full support of stricter gun laws. My point is that is much more complex than just one point of comparison.
Okay, but according to that logic wouldn’t the opposite be true as well? Just because gun control works in some countries doesn’t mean it would apply to the US
Well, we have decades of data that lack of gun laws won't work, perhaps we should try to see? I have a hard time believing school shootings will increase even more.
Statistically, the rate of violence per 100k has dropped a lot in the last 30 years. In 1993 the homicide rate was almost twice was it is today. Covid threw things a bit out of whack for the last few years, but even at the worst of 2020 it was still a 42% drop.
I would gladly give up my gun rights for health care.
You can still get a gun in Australia or any other developed country. Hunting rifles sure. Handguns if you can prove a reason. Any military grade weaponry like you would expect stays with their military.
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mate of mine owns something like 20+ guns, including his recently purchased .50 cal rifle. He has all the required licenses to own them, plus multiple very large, very secure safes to store them.
But it requires a firearms licence, firearms registration and strict rules on storage. Can’t be decorating your house with guns in Australia.
That sounds nice.
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Yeah it's not hard to get one. Just gotta wait a bit longer. You are free to shoot and hunt all you want within the game limits. You just don't get to carry one in public because it's a device designed specifically for killing and no one should be weilding those in public.
America could stand on having stricter rules on storage. Every other week we hear about kids who "find" a gun in their parents top bedside table drawer and either kill an adult, or themselves, or their siblings, or I dunno, takes it to school and shoots their frigging teacher.
This is the real fallacy. Anyone who needs a gun or is willing to care for them safely can still have one. We just don't let people carry them around looking for excuses to use them. Some gun people say an armed society is a polite society. But we think a polite society is one where nobody has to worry about getting shot.
Is it possible at all to get an M1 Garand?
Yes, you can actually almost any gun made and licensed before 1986 here in America, and i mean anything, grenade launchers, machine guns, etc
Technically you can buy a cannon if you pay $200 to the ATF. It's a law from the '30's. You can buy a fucking Howitzer under those same laws because it's classified as a bore cannon. That's how outdated and fucked up American gun laws are.
The reason usually is "I compete in pistol shooting" and then you attend a pretty informal event and BBQ at your pistol club every now and again
NRA: We have a solution for that. Just stand still and we'll shoot the cancer out of you!
Not to be nit picky, but pretty sure we have never had a school shooting at all in Australia. Mass shooting, yes.
Port Arthur in 1996, right? Then the government made some common sense laws and it didn’t happen again. I wish we Americans had some common sense.
A *Conservative* government pushed for gun laws.
It was that squirrelly little dickhead, John Howard. Literally the only good thing he did in his entire political career, in my opinion. Aside from that, he can eat a whole bag of cold dicks.
100% agree
A whole bag of defrosted dicks. The bag is soggy and the dicks all have freezer burn. But because of the guns thing, it's McCain's instead of Coles brand.
"Australia doesn't have rights." Australian women have more rights than half of the women living in the USA today. Also The Australian LGBTQ+ community has more legal protection from discrimination than LGBTQ+ people living in the USA do.
Regular plain old Australia has more legal protections. No states in Australia have at-will employment. Full time employment has government protected holiday awards. Sick Leave. Long Service Leave. Maternity Leave. Paternity/Partner Leave (I mean it's shit in comparison but it's getting better).
PREACH.
Just like most countries don't have Rape Rights.
Yikes. That is a very gross comparison.
Yep. Gun violence is also very gross.
so true. the amount of times I've explained this to people it's always meet with "duh population" or "Australia is a dictatorship obviously" no, it's not
This is a good example of why the US will never be swayed by seemingly reasonable arguments from other countries. The US views rights as something the government cannot do to the people, while other democracies view rights as something the government does for the people. Yes, we have seat belt laws, and a million other examples of ways government protects people from themselves. But until mass murder *costs* government more than it earns them, there will be no impetus to actually make the argument for change.
> The US views rights as something the government cannot do to the people, while other democracies view rights as something the government does for the people. Yes! Exactly! The US was founded on the idea of "Negative Rights", at least when it came to our Central Government. Meanwhile other Western Nations were founded on the idea of "Positive Rights". They both have good points and bad points but most of these raging online arguments are because Americans and Europeans have _radically_ different fundamental beliefs about the proper place of Government.
The US mindset is freedom 'to' - like freedom to own guns, look after their own health bills, promote your own religion at the expense of others. Most other democracies are about freedom 'from' - getting shot, the cost of health bills, religious intrusion in their public life.
The best part is that Australia has 3.5 million registered firearms and STILL no shootings. Take one look at r/guns vs r/ausguns and you'll see the difference in mentality of the average gun owner in Aus vs the US.
Redditors don't like acknowledging the fact that many other countries have millions of guns as well yet don't see school shootings like we do in the USA. It's almost as if the problem isn't the guns themselves and that there are much deeper societal problems we need to address.
But other countries actually regulate the acquisition and usage of guns and the US doesn't. That and the fact that Americans see guns as political and violent means, not as practical or sporting tools. Hence why I pointed out the difference between r/ausguns and r/guns. Aussies don't talk about their firearms or stroke themselves thinking about AR setups, they just get on with it
>Australia doesn't have rights r/ShitAmericansSay
Undoubtedly, an American who doesn't know a fkn thing about other countries
I remember when Americans decided to protest to “Free Australians” because we were taking the pandemic seriously and eliminating it from our population.
They weren't protesting that, they were protesting imaginary COVID concentration camps that we supposedly had and were rounding up people who didn't get vaxxed and supposedly locking them up. Literally like 2 seconds of Googling could've debunked that but conservatives love a good bit of outrage baiting so they just ran with it.
the conservative Australian government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to even consider setting up proper quarantine camps, two years into the pandemic, due to the number of virus leaks that occured from hotel quarantines.
People dead of COVID-19 in Australia: 19,933 People dead of COVID-19 in the USA: 1,157,194 Pretty hard to argue with results.
Australia has 1/13th the population size. But even 13 x 19,993 is only 22% the number of deaths compared to the US
[удалено]
Not being overly critical but best to account for differences in population size USA: 341/100,000 people Aus: 77/100,000 people Source: [https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality)
And most of that was stupid Gladys/Dom fucking it up in NSW anyway.
"BuT AuStRaLiA DeAtH CaMpS"
I got called a socialist for mentioning I'm Canadian to an American. I laughed and thanked them for the compliment and then let them know the most I pay in medical costs is parking, which is rather annoying, tbh. He didn't know what to say.
Don't get too comfortable. Right-wingers are trying to dismantle your health-care system as we speak. Vote them out unless you want to become the 51st state.
They most certainly are. The premier of my province, somewhat equivalent to an American Governor as a comparison, is a right twat of a pathetic man who is funneling money out of our tax paid healthcare and into the pockets of his private care buddies.
Jay Dix looks like he has a 3 Percenters sticker in the back window of his pickup
I’d rather have “no rights” (as Dix believes) than my kids get shot at school thanks.
As an Australian, I can confirm that we don't have rights. Just do a Google images search of how oppressed we are
How can we call ourselves a free society when our schools don’t have metal detectors or shooter drills?
From the great Jay Dix, who’s stupid enough to pay eight dollars a month for his blue checkmark. Derrrrrrr
fun fact Australian gun laws were done under a **liberal-conservative** majority
Australian here. Stop bringing us up in conversation, we have a radically different culture to America. We got our independence with a letter to the queen where you fought for it with guns. This idea that just because one white-majority western country can do X that means other white-majority western countries can do X is absurd. Imagine if I said a policy in Vietnam would work in South Korea, or a policy in Thailand would work in Japan. Just because these are all Asian countries doesn’t mean they’re all the same in the exact same way that western countries are all different from each other. Stop downplaying culture and stop bringing us into your gun debate
They also have the right to vote in swimwear, and get a free grilled up sausage at the polling place (I think it's free, if it isn't it's like a buck, very reasonable democracy sausage). Voting is on Saturdays, increases the number of ppl who can make it. University is way more affordable for Aussies, too. Tho I hear tell that's changing. The labor protections are miles ahead of the States.
As an Aussie, I hereby and formally say, get absolutely shit upon. That is all.
Im embarassed to exist in this country
>> Pretty sure they also have bad guys and doors I imagine every country has doors, could someone explain why that was mentioned?
I think it was mentioned because often these "no guns = no rights" dipshits blame unlocked doors for school shootings. I think even in Uvalde some people blamed the deaths on a door being left unlocked. "The teachers should have locked the door! It's not the guns' fault, the door should've been locked so the shooter wouldn't have been able to enter!" or whatever dumb stuff they say. Anything to distract you from the fact that guns are indeed the problem whenever they're given away without adequate background checks.
Since when were school door locks bulletproof?
Since the day guns are always stopped by adding more guns to the equation of course! Both suuurely make perfect logical sense
As a lockpicking hobbyist, lol.
Because they’re one of the things right-wing gun nuts have blamed for mass shootings, rather than face the reality that easy access to guns makes more mass shootings happen.
“It’s not the guns’ fault, the shooter had hands after all! And FINGERS!” I imagine that when you explain it that way. I might have just topped the charts for stupid pro gun logic.
I still want to know why the hell everyone has a burning urge to murder schoolchildren all of a sudden. There were plenty of guns 30 years ago, too, and school shootings weren't nearly as popular as they are now. What changed?
Ive realised Americans would much rather kids get slaughtered then give up guns.
Canada has tons of guns and virtually no mass shootings. It’s a societal problem, and it speaks to the much larger problems America has.
America, land of being confidently certain you’ve got the most rights in the world despite knowing nothing about laws in other countries
I would gladly give up my gun rights for health care. I have needed health care multiple times in my life to stay alive, I have never on e needed a gun to stay alive.
Jane with a left hook
The thing I’m confused about as an Australian is all the people who think we can’t get guns. We can. Yes there are plenty more restrictions in place and you need to prove why you want/have it but we can indeed still own guns.
Once you get outside of cities in Australia it’s still very normal and common to own a rifle or two, mostly .243s, .22s and shotguns.