• AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    66
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Also our for profit, punitive, non-rehabilitative, largest population on Earth prison system doesn’t help, with more than 2 million Americans are behind bars, largely for being too poor to navigate our pay to play judicial system.

    You know, freedom!

  • EveryMuffinIsNowEncrypted@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I once read a really great comment about the difference in how Europeans and Americans view freedom as a concept and it’s always stuck with me:

     

    Europeans are mainly concerned with “freedom from”. Americans are mainly concerned with “freedom to”.

     

    In other words, Europeans focus more on freedom from tyranny, oppression, injustice, etc., while Americans focus more on freedom to own guns, do things without government telling then they can’t, etc.

    • nutandcross@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      🤯 These euros are sooo smart…from…to…dang And I thought I just wanted the freedom to enjoy freedom from the only thing I fear, which is fear itself. It’s really that freedom to fear has us unfree, when we need freedom from fear, like duhhhh 🤯🤯🤯

        • nutandcross@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          It’s that euros want freedom from Americans want freedom to

          Fuckin idiot SIMPLE AS! 🤣

          You Americans need to go back to Reddit

          NIGERIA HATES YOU TOO USA!! 🇳🇬

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    What greater freedom is there than the ability to buy a small army’s worth of guns and ammo, to use as a backdrop to explain how you need to defend your rights from a imaginary monster, while actual monsters use those guns to kill children… nearly every single day, with school shootings nearing every other week. (About 30 of them this year!

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Have you considered stopping the monsters before they’re monsters by fixing poverty and jingoism, instead of just deciding you’re going to babble mindlessly about taking away the human right to self defense?

      Like that would even be possible in a nation with more guns than people?

      • Cynetri (he/any)@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Technically yes, because half of all privately owned guns in the US are owned by 3% of people according to this CNN article. So while there are more guns than people in the US, legislation to regulate them would mostly affect a minority of the population.

        That being said, you’re right that a lot of the problem with gun violence has to do with external factors such as poverty and extreme nationalism. An overwhelming majority of mass shooters are male and less overwhelmingly white which hints at a problem more to do with the environments they are raised or live in. If the problem was stricly gun access, we should expect more mass shootings to have been committed by women. In addition, half of all mass shootings in the US have occured since 2000, a third of which since 2010.

        The rise of mass shootings seem to coincide with the rise of more general nationalist violence moreso than increased gun access, however more guns are being manufactured now than ever. I think the problem that needs addressed more is the public perception and marketing around guns and gun culture, because the past couple decades have seen people own guns more for the “tough guy” fake masculinity reasons rather than actual practicality. For further evidence to back myself up, pickup truck sales have risen in a similar way. Pickup trucks are marketed in almost the same way minus the whole potentially killing people part, not that they haven’t also been used in mass violence though.

        A lot of gun regulation tends to target poor people too, intentionally or not. Tax stamps, fees and mandatory wait times assume someone has the money and ability to take time off to acquire a gun, and wealthy people (the ones who already own most guns) have both. Making it harder for poor people, who are disproportionately black, to arm themselves in a time where racist violence is hitting record highs and stories about police brutality hit front pages every week at least, is unfair.

        • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Often see that statistic about half of all guns being owned by 3% of people

          It’s only used to gloss over the fact that nearly half of all households in the US own a firearm

          That’s fuckin insane

        • AlgeriaWorblebot@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I wonder what gun ownership would look like in 20 or 30 years if right now were enacted (and not thereafter repealed) a countrywide prohibition on advertising of guns & ammo, and on showing any firearms before the watershed and at any time in G- and PG-rated media.

          Putting aside the reality that this could never happen because of frozen peaches and strawmen on slippery slopes, I strongly suspect it would do a lot to curb the fetishisation of firearms.

    • Facebones@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I literally had somebody argue that we can’t have gun laws because some people have 20+ hubs cause they’re “collectors” (emphasis mine of course)

      I’m sure the fact that they’ve stockpiled ammo for all of them is completely unrelated.

  • Thyrian@ttrpg.network
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    The problem about americans sayin “you could improve on humanitarism” is that they dont just say it, they are at your door step on the next day with guns and demand you to change, then they leave with your oil, leaving you in a worse humanitarian situation than before.

  • Cyclohexane@lemmy.mlM
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Why are you concerned with what other countries should do?

    Yes my country absolutely needs to overthrow its government. No, I do not want foreign powers intervening, and their governments aren’t much better.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Only if you all a tu quoque argument to derail you. Unfortunately, most people do because they don’t understand why it’s a bullshit argument. It’s been used in propaganda forever and famously prior to WWII.

    • NewDark@unilem.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, a lot of the time the US had a strong hand in making the other country suck. The school violence is mostly self inflicted.

  • SeeMinusMinus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Freedom, someone else’s freedom to exploit you for profit and fund the military to spread this “freedom” across the planet.

  • moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I agree that there are other problems that should also be focused on, (on either side) but this is still a problem that should be solved.

  • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    22
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Just as note, I went to a school that had a shooting range, and it was cool.

    Die mad about it, Europeasants.

    (On average four years later and not to a gun)

    • JoelJ@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Oh no! I only got an education from my school and didn’t get to fire a gun even ONCE! Let me go sit in a corner and cry myself to sleep with my secure, well paying job and free health care. By the way I’m in army reserves and get paid to shoot rifles and automatic guns at firing ranges. It’s okay, I guess, but I wouldn’t go if I weren’t paid lol