Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/31/twitters-daily-gun-death-tal.html
…
3 Likes
Is it a complex problem, though? Seems like gun deaths in the USA have a fairly obvious source – lots of guns in the USA.
Edit: I say this as a gun owner who believes in much stronger gun laws, for what it’s worth (not much).
Edit 2: The project is excellent in its starkness, I’ll add. Jesus fuck.
7 Likes
Each death is ticked off with the gut-wrenching sound of a gunshot, one after the next, creating a sobering message that this violence is happening all around us, all the time
Ah yes, fear mongering - it isn’t just for Presidents any more! Anyone can get in on it!
2 Likes
Boggles the mind.
3 Likes
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong
5 Likes
We should introduce more guns into the system. Perhaps if they can kill each other enough they stop killing others beyond their borders.
Pretty sure Nerf isn’t the problem. I’d support a campaign to encourage America’s gun enthusiasts to make a shift toward foam rubber-based arsenals though.
6 Likes
The difference is that the President’s fear mongering isn’t based on things that are actually happening. For example, he’s telling Americans that we should be afraid of terrorists entering the United States on refugee visas even though no person admitted to the United States this way has ever gone on to commit an act of terrorism.
By contrast, every gun death in the United States really WAS caused by someone discharging a gun.
11 Likes
Well then by all means, lets continue to gush over the firepower of toy guns. My bad. Carry on.
1 Like
I think Nerf1) is part of one of the aspects of the problem, and that aspect is the cultural perception of guns. Gun culture, or rather gun worship.
To borrow some of the war-on-drugs blurb - are Nerfs the gateway gun to real guns?
1) Nerf being used as a generic term here. This isn’t brand specific.
Enjoy your cruise on the Nile.
Pretty sure there are more than enough guns in the US for an armed insurrection against TPTB, but most folks who possess them are authoritarian lickspittles who have no beef with imperialist hegemony, let alone the military-industrial complex.
Not really.
Small arms are practical for small-scale violence (e.g. one on one vs a cop), but they’re of very limited utility against tanks and airstrikes.
There are enough guns to make a mess of the place, but not enough to stand any real chance of overpowering the military. Even the cops on their own would be hard to beat; they’re heavily militarised (thanks, Obama).
Fortunately, there are other options.
I’d be genuinely curious to see a study taking up that question but I still have a hunch the answer is “no.” Nerf guns are sold in many countries that don’t have gun violence issues akin to our own.
1 Like
Well, there were a couple people who were radicalized after they immigrated to the US (legally, IIRC), and later killed people. "two terror attacks in New York last fall: On Halloween, Sayfullo Saipov is accused of ramming a truck onto a bike lane and pedestrian walkway, killing eight and injuring 12; and in December, Akayed Ullah is accused of detonated a pipe bomb in a botched attack at the New York Port Authority. "
But yes, I am agreeing the terrorist hype is mostly BS. It shouldn’t be something one loses sleep over.
But my original point still stands. Homicides are down. They have been on a downward trend since the 90s. We have hit the lowest level since 1966 - you know the good ol’ days when every one was so safe, and you could order an assault rifle and have it delivered to your door (literally) with zero checks.
So yeah, sorry if I find the “message that this violence is happening all around us, all the time” to be fear mongering. We are statistically living in some of the safest times in human history.
It is inaccurate to say that
Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov (“visa lottery”)
Dahir A. Adan (refugee)
Abdul Razak Ali Artan (refugee)
There are likely more, if one took the time to look.
But I think this stems from the quote "750,000 refugees have been resettled in America since 9/11. Not a one has been arrested on domestic terrorism charges in the United States of America.”- Xavier Becerra (2015)
Which is likely true, but with the important detail that “domestic terrorism” is defined by the FBI as “Americans attacking Americans based on U.S.-based extremist ideologies.”
So that excludes anyone committing terrorism for ISIS or any other non US based group.
I am sorry if this is moving slightly OT.
There are something like 800K police officers in the US.
The US military is composed of 2 million active duty and reserve members
There are 16.3 million people in the US with concealed carry permits
Approximately 50 million households in the US have at least one gun.
No other country has gun violence issues akin to the USA.
1 Like
Well, no so-called “First World” country at any rate.
But plenty of other countries DO have robust sales in Nerf guns, which is why I doubt that Nerf is really a part of the problem. If brightly colored toy weapons were really a “gateway” into real-world analogues of those weapons then we might expect to see broadsword sales skyrocket in proportion to toy lightsabers.
