The US has a gun violence legitimization problem. Yes, other countries have guns. But America has a particular culture surrounding the idea that shooting someone whom you percieve to be a threat is a reasonable thing to do, and moreover you're likely enough to encounter this situation that it's worth arming yourself beforehand.
Whenever one of the controversial police shootings happens, there are plenty of commentators on hand to say how the victim deserved it (and therefore his grieving relatives should shut up and stop complaining about the police). But this attitude isn't limited to the police, it's part of wider American society. So whenever two people get into the kind of stupid altercation that in other countries results in black eyes and lacerations, in the US somebody might pull a gun. Undoubtedly this makes a lot of domestic violence situations worse.
The US concept of "right to life" is applied really narrowly, leaving both judicial executions, police shootings, and wider acts of negligence in public safety untouched.
The US has a gun violence legitimization problem. Yes, other countries have guns. But America has a particular culture surrounding the idea that shooting someone whom you percieve to be a threat is a reasonable thing to do, and moreover you're likely enough to encounter this situation that it's worth arming yourself beforehand.
Whenever one of the controversial police shootings happens, there are plenty of commentators on hand to say how the victim deserved it (and therefore his grieving relatives should shut up and stop complaining about the police). But this attitude isn't limited to the police, it's part of wider American society. So whenever two people get into the kind of stupid altercation that in other countries results in black eyes and lacerations, in the US somebody might pull a gun. Undoubtedly this makes a lot of domestic violence situations worse.
The US concept of "right to life" is applied really narrowly, leaving both judicial executions, police shootings, and wider acts of negligence in public safety untouched.
Not to mention the racism problem. You don't need guns for this, other forms of attempted mass murder are available: http://time.com/3942688/black-church-burning-mount-zion-ame-...