After I’d read that the Trump shooter had looked at photos of Trump and Biden and their upcoming speech locations and the fact that the shooter was a lone wolf and bullied at school, I read part of the Wikipedia page about the Uvalde shooting . The Uvalde shooter also was a lone wolf and also used an AR-15. My thoughts right now are like this :
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The lone wolfs probably have suffered badly from an inferior complex due to bullying and alienation
and wanted to do something which made them feel historically “significant” instead of feeling completely “useless”. -
The US appears to have a pretty dominant machismo culture (Think about GOP with their MAGA, it is humiliating for women and minority groups) and so-called snowflakes are looked down upon. This is very bad for everyone involved.
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Cops are afraid of citizens having an AR-15 on them.
What can be done ?
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Should vote with our wallets ? Like stop using exTwitter now that Elon Musk has publicly shown support for Trump ? (On Mastodon I’ve seen many comments about people that did cancel their subscription to the New York Times and that seemed to have some effect. Finally the NYT is posting more critical articles about Trump and Project 2025.)
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Should people talk more often to each other and avoid alienation ? In books of Gabor Maté he talks about the fact that most people in society look down on hard drug addicts but these junkies are still human beings. And the same goes for homeless people and refugees of course. They are still human beings. No need to automatically view them as inferior beings, right ?
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Should we limit our screen time on mobile phones ? Are we silently producing a sort of zombies that cannot think for themselves anymore ? Should tech companies be obliged to make phone apps less addictive ?
Should mobile phone usage during class in school be forbidden ? -
Should we promote exchange projects as part of cultural improvement ? Like say 50 people from Congo Republic in Africa swap places with 50 people from California for 1 year, and then after swapping back talk about the experiences.
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Should we in our education system or during leisure time educate people more on what happened in World War II and what we can still learn from that ? For example the book by Umberto Eco about how to recognize a fascist ( Ur-Fascism ) could be used.
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Should bullying at school be pro-actively approached and make victims and bullies talk to each other under professional supervision ?
That’s my issue. The ease with which you can obtain high-end fire arms is too high. I have to do a written test, 30+ supervised hours of driving by another person, then pass a skills test, to get a vehicle license.
Meanwhile, I can walk into a store in my state and walk out with an AR15 today. I can then open carry that AR15 wherever I please. There is a background check for federally licensed dealers, but no other sales. I don’t need to register it. I don’t need training to carry it amongst the public. The biggest barrier to obtaining one is the cost.
Part of the issue with the attempt on Trump was the guy was outside the SS perimeter, so they didn’t have “jurisdiction”, and the guy was following PA laws for the most part up until he pulled the trigger.
But that’s only a small issue if you look at the actual murder stats. The vast majority of deaths by gun are not committed with “high-end firearms” with only an average 3% of homicides involving rifles. Knives and blunt instruments kill many times more people than rifles. Cheap handguns are the number one firearm used in homicides.
Didn’t he get the gun from his father?
I hadn’t seen that; the last “official” position I saw on it was that it was still in question on how he obtained it, but that it was presumed to be his father’s. But even then, that highlights difficulties with gun ownership. Someone giving me a car doesn’t grandfather me in to use, so if it was gifted from his father, that bypasses some current checks. If it was a gun his father owned that he took, then it likely wasn’t secure as it should be, again failing the traditional gun safety terms and responsible ownership.