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Originally Posted by SeijiSensei
Alcohol consumption plays a much more significant role in gun violence that mental illness and the use, abuse, or non-use of prescription drugs. The Jovan Belcher murder-suicide case is a good example. Beyond such anecdotal evidence are a variety of other studies that you can find from a simple Google search. I would guess that alcohol plays an especially significant role in domestic violence cases, where two-thirds of victims died as the result of gunshots. |
With regard to alcohol it's not just guns, or cars, or fights, it is everything.
Alcohol abuse can be tied to all manner of ills, but we tried prohibition once and it didn't work.
In fact, it made things much worse by providing the income for organized crime to become horribly powerful.
Same thing has happened with drugs.
The best way to deal with the alcohol issue is to find out why people abuse it in the first place.
You'll find that the highest amount of abusers are usually poverty stricken.
Same can be said for drug abuse.
Gangs are another major issue with regard to homicide, and both drugs and poverty are related to why kids join them in the first place.
I noticed in your link to DOJ that they state:
The overall number of firearm homicides among intimates has fallen considerably during the past 30 years, however.
Interesting considering the number of firearms owners is up since 1993.
I wonder if it has to do with the
fact that more women are becoming gun owners now?
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Why doesn't the NRA argue in favor of cracking down on problem drinkers, or stressing that guns and alcohol don't mix, rather than focusing on "mental health?" Why do I think that such a viewpoint would not be widely shared by the organization's members?
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I highly doubt they have the funds to tackle another issue besides defense of the 2nd amendment.
The reason for their focus on mental health is because most of these mass murderers have mental health issues that are not being treated properly.
When your funds are limited you have to choose your battles wisely.
However, as you, I, and others here have shown, this issue of violence in the US is a very complex one.
No one thing is responsible and blaming inanimate objects such as video games, guns, movies, music, or whatever new boogey man the politicians want to scapegoat, is just a cop-out to make it look like they're doing something.
The real issues are psychotropic pharmaceutical, poverty, gangs, mental health, and drug abuse.
Figure out how to solve those problems, and you will lessen the violent crime of the US.