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in reply to anonymiss

Good! We need more of it to educate the public about firearms, safety and use. We're gonna need it!
in reply to anonymiss

Firearms training for children here in the states would have good results. If we're going to have the second amendment and have firearms available, I think it should be mandatory to educate kids on the when, where, and why to use them -- in addition to what they're used for -- to curb gun violence. Not having a passing grade in high school should limit a lot of things imo
in reply to anonymiss

There is a movie about it and Hollywood can't be wrong: themoviedb.org/movie/1880-red-…
in reply to anonymiss

I did firearms training in the air cadets are age 15 on .22 cal rifles. It is a useful skill. I tend to side with Kenny and headrift, better ti train people in safe handling and shooting than let any untrained idiot buy a gun.
in reply to anonymiss

And you don't think it makes a difference whether you teach the children this to defend themselves from the Russians or to teach them safety?

I see the danger that we will have a lot of armed, dissatisfied young people who will express their anger by taking up arms in the future.

in reply to anonymiss

in reply to anonymiss

Agree! As well as reasonable gun ownershop laws and regulations!
in reply to anonymiss

As well as reasonable gun ownershop laws and regulations!


I would even support no private gun ownership, as that would make the country much safer, but even so, having firearms training in school is still a good idea, even if only to demystify it.

There are countries like Switzerland and Sweden where much of the population has military training and they have very low gun violence rates. Firearms training does not cause gun violence, in fact I think there is good evidence that it reduces it.

in reply to anonymiss

in fact I think there is good evidence that it reduces it.


Why not in U.S.?

in reply to anonymiss

The US is always an exception to everything.

In this case I would guess that it is due to two things: the lack of requirement to demonstrate competency before owning firearms and really bad culture. A good comparison is Switzerland where a large percentage of the population is in the army reserves and keep their military rifles at home. But the number of times people use these for illegal purposes or to settle cores is nearly zero, because it just is not done. They are trained and disciplined. Keep in mind to that the Swiss have centuries of history as mercenaries all over Europe. It is not like they don't know how to apply violence, but unlike in the US the Swiss would never shoot someone for cutting them off in traffic. They don't do school shootings, either. Not part of the culture.

in reply to anonymiss

From about 1961 to 1966, the US put a great emphasis on physical fitness and science education for the same reason: fear of a Russian (i.e., Soviet) attack. A while back I posted a phonograph record to which we all exercised in the regular classroom. #chicken-fat This record was distributed to all schools for free by The President's Council on Physical Fitness. They wanted us to be fit to serve as soldiers.

As a kid, my father gave me both a 16-gague shotgun and a bolt-action .30-30 rifle. He wanted to make a big game hunter of me. I have no idea what happened to those firearms. I haven't had a firearm since I graduated from high school. In my six years in the US Navy, I never so much as touched an actual firearm. That's not to say we didn't have weapons. We had Poseidon missiles and torpedoes, but those belonged to the Weapons Division. We were Engineering. We had a nuclear reactor.

I would be happier, I think, if the US had firearms laws and regulations more like those of the UK.

in reply to anonymiss

It would take a lot of time. A lot of people would have to die. I'm using "would" instead of "will" or even "could" because I have basically no hope for our country as it is. My best hope is that we'll die trying... and that the survivors will pull it back together right. The other thing on that point is that we love to believe in cycles and patterns... we need to reprogram ourselves from the ground up
in reply to anonymiss

There are countries that have successfully gone through civilian disarmament, like Australia, for instance. It can be done. And since then they have not had a single mass shooting.
in reply to anonymiss

IMO, as a people, we USians almost exclusively appraise the value of any given human American life based on a few metrics: Wealth, profitability, race, and gender.

Our core values are greed, cruelty, brutality, and violence.

These social traits guarantee that the overwhelming majority of us have lives that are utterly disposable and eminently replaceable.

Whether it's mass murder of school children, gang warfare, someone popping and committing murder, most of our deaths are insignificant. The national birthrate guarantees our lives are replaced within minutes.

Add the most effective ranged killing tool man has invented (guns) and that's our United States of America.

in reply to anonymiss

The national birthrate guarantees our lives are replaced within minutes.


That's what I say about CEOs shrug

in reply to anonymiss

Most CEOs can be replaced with 20 lines of Python.
in reply to anonymiss

Heh. And for some I've worked under they're irreplaceable. Leaders that you feel safe and right working under aren't rare but definitely not everyday in my experience.
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