Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/12/28/gun-deaths.html
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But my freedoms…
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Somehow, I am not surprised…
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I wish we lived in a society that allowed a person a dignified, humane death, and the freedom to choose death over a life of pain, whether physical or emotional.
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No waiting or cooling off period, even?
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Solutions. But not laws. Laws don’t work. Right.
Fuck the NRA.
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I imagine there would have to be, right? It should be humane, and the process should offer alternatives like counseling, support, rehab, etc. I wish we lived in the kind of society that could do something like this right. Instead we live in this every-man-for-himself society where the only real rule is that you’re not allowed out.
My aunt and uncle were both hospitalized at the same place, but in different rooms on different floors. When my aunt learned that my uncle passed away, she removed her oxygen tube and slowly suffocated alone in the middle of the night. She should have been able to say, “I’d like to go now, please,” and they should have sent her off gently and comfortably.
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In America you have the right to bear arms but not the right to healthcare. America needs to modernize.
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I agree.
I thought at first you were saying guns should be an option for suicide, an idea I don’t like because of the impulsive, irreversible nature of that act.
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This issue will attract the attention of ammosexuals worried about the government taking away their masculinity totems and bigots worried about “white genocide”. No wonder the NRA is so worked up about it.
The NRA’s “solution” will doubtless be an attachment that detects skin colour.
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Oh golly, a gun thread.
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Not to mention the enormous emotional trauma gun suicides inflict on the people who find them. I’d like to understand why so many people are killing themselves. We’ve all been armed to the teeth the whole time, but the number of suicides is spiking in a big way. Is this somehow related to the opioid crisis, or the Trump presidency, or what?
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It’s also not surprising to me which demographic commits the most suicides by firearm; when you spend all your time fighting off everyone else to stay at ‘the very top of the heap’, that’s gonna take a psychological toll…
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You might be surprised how small a toll it takes.
You probably saw this already, but this book posted by @Wanderfound looks interesting and it covers the racial issues inherent in American gun ownership.
I’ve got it on order.
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That’s a matter of time and perspective; enough drops of water will eventually bore a hole through solid stone.
I did see that, and it is a worthwhile read.
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I recall hearing there is a strong correlation between gun suicides and opiate overdoses.
It also “coincidentally” trends with the demographics of gun ownership. 79% of suicides by gun are white men. 50% of people with easy access to guns are men, 50% of people with easy access to guns are white.
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Yep; it’s all connected.
Bigots don’t realize it yet, (and perhaps they never will) but racial animosity and prejudice is detrimental to everyone, including those that immediately benefit from it in the short term.
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Like both those phenomena, it could be an outcome of the externalities of 40+ years of “free” market fundamentalism coming home to roost.
A lot of white men, especially ones with a high school education or less and who live outside large cities, were told by conservative politicians and pundits that they’d be just fine in this system, that they’d be first in line to start enjoying all those tax breaks and the lifestyle of a $250-thousand-aire. Now it’s decades later, they’re in their late 40s and older, and things have only gotten worse for them. They’re out of work, in debt, and often alone.
When a sense of entitlement that strong and that linked to self-definition has been undeniably thwarted, some people will take the quick way out. If they’re part of the NRA’s death cult of toxic masculinity, they’re also more likely to make sure that their suicides are the messiest possible, to teach everyone else a lesson.
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