What most people don't consider is that the harder it is to get a gun, the lower the rate of suicide! Stricter gun laws would save 10,000 suicides! It is not the murder rate which is important but the tendency of gun-owners to kill themselves.
Don't forget the number of toddlers and children who, playing with their parents' weapons, accidentally kill themselves or others. I believe (without looking it up right now) that more people are killed by such accidents than by home invaders.
Anony Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Tell that to the Japanese. They kill themselves > pretty regular without guns.
Japanese people in Japan "kill themselves pretty regular" because of cultural expectations which do not exist in most other countries.
Suicide in Japan can be a socially-acceptable way of shielding family members, other life associates, and the postmortem memory of oneself from shame when a Japanese person either did, or failed to do, something important which was either expected, or was particularly shameful, by Japanese cultural perspective.
I do not know how common this is now, in the twenty-first century, but up through WWII it was fairly common, especially (to my knowledge) in the higher social classes.
None of this has anything to do with American society in any historical period.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2018 04:20PM by Tevai.
True. I lived near Ithaca NY and Cornell University. Cornell became noted for a perceived higher than average student suicide rate. Students would jump from bridges into the gorges that ran through the campus. I recall several cases of Asian students committing suicide supposedly because they failed to meet their families' and their own academic expectations.
The question we are asking is whether tighter control of guns would reduce the number of suicides in the US. Whether Japan has a (slightly) higher rate of suicide is irrelevant to whether the rate in the US could, and should, be lower.
The Japanese are big on “ losing face”. That’s all I heard from my military dad growing up. They’re always expected to perform at their highest, either militarily, school and grade wise, athletic wise, on the job, everything. They put a lot of stress on themselves or what what be to an average person to make sure everything they do is their best.
Exactly. The ancient Romans had the same mindset. If you were disgraced or had been conquered and enslaved, you should kill yourself. It was considered the brave and noble thing to do. Only a coward would allow himself to be humiiated .
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2018 05:26PM by bona dea.
The ancient Greek myths are infused with that, too. It's the "guilt culture" versus "shame culture" model that, significantly, Ruth Benedict and others applied to Japan.
The fact that normally rational people, including some teachers, are even considering this is INSANE. We don't need teachers with guns playing John McClane. Did we see what happened in Parkland? The school "Police Resource Security" officer refused to engage the shooter. Arriving deputies took a defensive position, outside, while the shooter was killing kids. The cops watched security feeds (later discovered to be delayed 20 minutes) to determine what to do. They finally entered the school where they thought the shooter was, all while the shooter was at a WalMart drinking a coke. I have a friend that's a 30 year vet in a large metro police department. He says that cops, in a hostage or school shooting scenario, are trained to act like anyone with a gun, that isn't marked law enforcement, is a bad guy and should be neutralized (his word). We don't need armed teachers adding to the chaos. This will lead to dead teachers.
Why would would a teacher even want to be armed and attempt to save their own life and the lives of their students by taking out a shooter? Much better to sit cowering and hiding under desks waiting for authorities to do something while the shooter is knocking off kids/teachers one-by-one.
Because your typical algebra or lit teacher, that signed up to teach young lives, not take them, would probably shit their pants with a heart rate of 190, when a school shooting took place, and would have a better chance of hitting one of their 35 kids then the shooter.
If you are locked in your room with barracaded doors and windows and you observe proper safey peotocols , you are more likely to survive than if you start chasing a shooter. Even if he gets in your room, he has a better weapon and the chances of getting shot are much higher than the chances of you killing him.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2018 10:53PM by bona dea.
The idea of teachers with guns is welcome to me. However, they would have to want the responsibility and i would expect them to be expertly trained and require regular testing to ensure they are good marksmen. This does not mean that they are going to actively run out and pursue the shooter. However, they would be a last line of defense and i would expect most students and teachers to hunker down in classrooms, but if the shooter was attempting to enter the door of the room, i would want that teacher to shoot back and hopefully wound or kill the shooter.
Guns are a great equalizer. I would rather have a gun at the ready than throw oversized erasers at a shooter. Same holds true in my house hold. I would much rather have a gun ready to go than attempt hand to hand combat or attempt to stab an intruder.