The obsession with fighting against and for gun rights and gun control has led to long debates that have gone absolutely nowhere in the last few years.
Perhaps the point is to debate this issue pointlessly; it certainly polarizes opinions and keeps anyone from focusing on issues that should be easy to come to consensus to. Throw that hot-button red-herring out there and NOBODY gets anything done.
The fact is that there are many ways to skin a cat, and if reducing gun violence is the true aim… there are many ways of doing that WITHOUT wasting time. Here are five of them.
1)Treat alcoholism
Substance abuse is the largest predictor of gun violence according to research published in Homicide Studies. The researchers calculated that 48% of all homicide offenders were apparently under the influence of alcohol. Alcoholism also increases the chance of homicide, suicide and violent death according to other studies. People who show signs of alcohol abuse also are up to 4 times more likely to commit a crime.
Despite these shocking numbers, only 11% of the 22.7 million US citizens who are addicted to drugs or alcohol have received treatment.
According to a 2015 report from Community Catalyst: “people from all walks of life struggle with substance use disorders,” however “access to treatment options is limited by income.”
Indeed, the lowest end rehab options cost 7,500 bucks a month… and can run up to 120,000 bucks a month. I doubt minimum wage would cover that, and health insurance may not provide for the full cost…
2) Maybe STOP jailing people for no reason?
Some 48% of American prisoners were there for drug offences, while 35% were imprisoned for public-order crimes. 8%, were jailed for violent crimes.
The US has the largest prison population in the world, it has more prisoners than even China which has 5 times its number of citizens.
When people go into prison for non-violent crimes, they are dehumanized and face violence and trauma first-hand. They become desensitized to violence, particularly considering how violence in American prisons are a necessity to survive.
“The experience of being locked in a cage has a psychological effect upon everyone made to endure it,” Mika’il DeVeaux, executive director of Citizens Against Recidivism, wrote in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. “No one leaves unscarred.”
The so-called “mandatory minimum” sentencing has led to automatic incarceration of drug-offenders- even harmless marijuana, though this is changing for that particular drug.
The Department of Justice even admits that among nonviolent offenders released, “about 1 in 5 were rearrested for a violent crime within three years of discharge.”
“Someone whose only crime is using a drug does not necessarily have any criminal tendencies, but when they come out of prison and can’t find a job because of their record, many turn to crime,” wrote former Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Downing in an op-ed in the Huffington Post. “Almost two-thirds will reoffend within three years, clearly indicating that our current form of punishment is not a deterrent.”
3) Cut the vicious cycle of children being sent to prison
The NRA has suggested a policy of increased armed police officers standing watch in public schools, a move that would pointlessly subject children to even more humiliating surveillance… treating KIDS as though they were criminals without even having to commit a crime. Of course, we can see that the NRA only cares about the bottom-line of gun companies.
Think Progress wrote, “Young offenders who were incarcerated were a staggering 67% more likely to be in jail (again) by the age of 25 than similar young offenders who didn’t go to prison. Moreover, a similar pattern held true for serious crimes. [The researchers] found that incarcerated youths were more likely to commit ‘homicide, violent crime, property crime and drug crimes’ than those that didn’t serve time.”
Kids get sent to prison, they come out hardened criminals who are more likely to shoot people… and stay in prison. They have kids out of wedlock more often, and their kids are more likely to do poorly in school… they commit a petty crime and get sent to prison and… the cycle repeats.
Bernie suggested a government-funded job opportunities program to stop this, but most other politicians have ignored the issue. His idea seems to be the right place to start.
4) Stop POLICE MURDERS
Officer-executions of innocent people is a problem that causes most us to view them with ever increasing cynicism. We have covered multiple incidences of brutality across all the races, but their targeting of Blacks and other minorities in particular has caused this issue to more increasingly be viewed “only” as a race issue… polarizing the People against each other when they should ALL come together and end the epidemic of police violence which has been on the rise.
When the POLICE become viewed (rightly) as the very lowest form of criminal, and as they continue to arrest people for minor infractions, people get angry and are more likely to lash out. With guns.
One way to stop them is to prosecute them more, and indeed we are seeing more police going to trial for their crimes. However, this is not nearly enough of a signal when the officers eventually end up being found innocent again.
5) Stop the wealth transfer TO the rich
Citylab’s Richard Florida and Charlotta Mellander found a trend between income inequality and homicidal violence.
Elizabeth Stoker of The Week had an explanation for this:
“[S]ince much of the violent crime we see among young men appears to be the result of the hopelessness and frustration brought on by the lack of status available to men at the bottom, strides can be made toward reducing the impetus for those crimes simply by raising the bottom up and reducing the gap between the worst and best off,” she writes. “A policy as simple as a universal basic income could accomplish that neatly.”
A 15 dollar minimum wage, currently being suggested by Bernie, might help with that. HOWEVER, I would propose that we STOP propping up financial markets, stop bailing out bankers with tax-money that comes from the middle class… as admitted by even Ben OOPS Bernanke….That just might stop this wealth gap from growing further… and stop angry young men from trying to wrestle away their college debt burdens the only way left to them.
Sources: Policy Mic, WSJ, ZeroHedge
This Article (5 EASY Ways To Stop Gun Violence… WITHOUT Fighting Endlessly For Gun Control) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author(CoNN) and AnonHQ.com.
I’ve been following this Anonymous website on facebook but seriously, the posts these days have no logics with no evidence/data.
Fine, I agree with many points in this article like more reasonable judgements and more limits for police to use forces.
But how the hell are they related to gun violence? If you want to argue that prisoning more people would increase the gun violence, you have to provide any data or evidence.
Police make people angry and lead people to gun violence? Speechless.. First, again, no evidence. Second, even if it is true, why is police’s fault? Even if someone is mistreated by police, it does not mean that he/she has to turn to be a bad ass shooting other innocent people. It’s their problems.
You called these as 5 easy ways? Nope. We just have one single easy solution. More Gun Regulation. It’s just a simple statistics. Only the U.S. observes mass shooting every a few months.
Right . . . because the average perpetrator of gun violence is a law abiding citizen who respects gun regulations. Our economic system run by banksters breeds poverty and crime. On top of that our mental health system (or lack thereof) is an inadequate joke. Zoom out and look at the big picture–what else besides guns do you think protects the People from tyranny and totalitarianism? What do you think is the first step toward subjugating a people? Discussing this issue with someone who generally trusts the US government is futile. You can imagine some utopia where no one has a need for self-defense of person and property or you can embrace one of the only unique freedoms of being an American. Whatever you do, making it more difficult for people like me to buy guns will not make you more safe.
HDD that doesnt even make any fucken sense if you dont like the site why r u even following it on facebook of all places bitch about it and spread how u hate it somewhere else if u dont agree about statistics then please motherfucker give me urs cuz they give them most ot the posts iv seen daily and either way its all just text everyone believs what they want to anyways its called epistemology and im an empericist indont know something til i see/experieced it so what do i do…BELEIEVE because ibnever lived while WW2 was going on so i cant tell you any ofbthe things we were tought in school true or not technically speaking now can i so if YOU dont beleive it then bitch to people who giv a fuck
Horse manure. There’s only one way to stop mass shootings. Stop prescribing Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors. End of discussion.
these shootings are all staged all of them . it is a jew mind screw to get you to give up guns, guns are the last resort of protection against tyranny, which is what we have now legalized tyranny, that is reason for guns and there is a law next to gun bill of rights which prevents making guns illegal.would you rather i bash your head in with my war club?