some interesting data https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35mya/nearly-all-mass-shooters-since-1966-have-had-four-things-in-common?utm_source=digg
My guess almost everyone in Alaska has a gun or know how to use a gun. I have not seen any mass shooting there. I have been living in all three Canadian territories for sixteen years and I don’t remembered any mass shooting. Guns are put into the hand of people at a very young age. Inuit, males and females are experts at shooting. There are a few suicide by guns but not many, hanging is the preference. There are homicides, but not buy guns. The mental issue is an excuse. —- I am not sure what was the point I was trying to make, but it looks like in mainland USA there is a proclivity to use deadly force, with maximum impact, and gun is simple instrument the of choice .
Or, considering the total numbers, and that the population of the U.S. is 330 million people, perhaps the proclivity in the U.S. is for mass shootings to receive disproportionate coverage by the media, which would also explain the fame-related shootings referred to in the article and the relationship to Columbine.
Also, I was trying to make the point that for example Alaska is big on guns, because it is needed for survival. I am not sure about Hawaii. My guess is that people Alaska and Hawaii can be influence by the same news, but it does not have the same effect on them. Canadian received most of their news from the USA. Oh I think the point I was trying to make was that there is a propensity on mainland USA to use guns because maximum causalities is the objective. If another widget can produce super-maximum casualties then it will replace guns. So there needs to be more soul searching, to changed the mindset to inflect maximum casualty.
Whatever happens to just settling things with dance offs? That’s how the cool gangs settled things in the past. Er, at least from what I saw in the movies.
Vermont has no gun licenses, any adult who’s over 21 with no felony convictions, no alcohol/drug abuse, etc., can carry a gun. Maine recently did away with mandatory gun permits; it’s still possible to get one, but they’re no longer necessary for people who fit the above criteria. How many mass shootings are in those states? How many mass shootings are there at NRA meetings or police conventions? Mass shooters don’t want a shoot out, they want a body count. Once they face incoming rounds, they almost always kill themselves.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about this issue due to living in parts of Canada where practically everyone knows how to use a gun. There may also be more guns per household here in the north than in the Mainland USA. Recently, a DIer was blaming the relax gun regulations in Indiana for the gun crimes in Chicago and that had me thinking even more. Maybe it is not the gun culture that needs to be change but as Bruce said, but the mindset to deliver not just pain but death - maximum death.
My opinion, which is based on nothing more than I think so, is that crime is based on population density. Further, the increase in crime isn't proportional to increase in population density, rather crime increases exponentially to population density. My guess is that 2 people per square mile can get along, 100 people per square mile and maybe there's a single, probably minor, crime. 1000 people per square mile and there will be at least a couple dozen crimes, with some increasing in severity. In simple terms, we need some alone time or we get on each other's nerves.
