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healthy and well-adjusted people don’t grab the closest murder weapon and kill random people

People are still fundamentally apes. People get angry, people get drunk or high, people are low on sleep. Well functioning societies realize that at times people are not healthy and well-adjusted and try to limit the damage that someone can do to themselves and others in those circumstances. The US isn’t the only country in the world where people have mental health crises, or have road rage, or get depressed. What makes the US unique is that it makes tools for murdering people widely available to anybody who wants them.

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NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

The US isn't the only country in the world where people have mental health crises, or have road rage, or get depressed

Yes, but it's one of the few first world countries who do almost nothing about it. Did you know mass shootings are on the rise in Europe too despite no relaxation of gun control laws? France is even talking about regulating knive sales due to knife-based crime. Not so coincidentally, this is happening in a time of social and economic uncertainty. Also, one reason I say it's a mental health thing is that America has more knife-based violent crime than, say, Britain. This points to a deeper factor beyond gun laws leading to the amount of gun violence in America, because as it turns out violence in America is just insane across the board. All countries have people with mental health crises, but the absolute inadequacy of the response to those crises and the number of financial and social destabilizing factors making them more frequent and worse is uniquely American. I mean, with nonsense like tent cities being a common thing of course gun crime will be through the roof.

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- merc@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Yes, but it’s one of the few first world countries who do almost nothing about it.
  
  It’s true that the US social safety net is bad, but the US isn’t that much more crazy than other places. If you search for “mental health care crisis in ______” you’ll see every country thinks they have a mental health care crisis.
  
  Did you know mass shootings are on the rise in Europe
  
  Is this based on statistics or a feeling? Statistically it seems like it’s a very low but steady rate, although statistics are skewed by Spiders Anders.
  
  this is happening in a time of social and economic uncertainty
  
  It’s also happening at a time of mass social media where fear about this sort of thing spreads like wildfire.
  
  one reason I say it’s a mental health thing is that America has more knife-based violent crime than, say, Britain
  
  Sure, but Brazil’s stabbing death rate is 8x that of the US, I guess their mental health is 8x worse? South Africa is more than 30x the US rate, so they must have some really crazy people there. There are some other major differences between the UK and US, just like there are other major differences between the US and Brazil or the US and South Africa.
  
  The US does have issues with its response to mental health, but it’s not so different from other places. The lack of a social safety net in general causes problems. It means both untreated mental health issues, plus people living in poverty which leads to crime too. But, the bigger issue is that when Americans have a bad day, guns are so incredibly easily accessible.
  
  Take a look at stabbing deaths in the UK vs. US and gun murders in the UK vs. the US. Yeah, stabbing deaths are maybe 50% higher, which points to something causing more violence. But, gun murders are 7000% higher, which suggests that the #1 issue really is access to guns.
  
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