So the US has six times the level of gun ownership that Australia has but it has TWENTY ONE times the level of gun homicide!!!
What is going on here???
This is something that I have tried to scratch under the surface of... and what I found (contrary to what I consider to be popular belief) is that killing people is actually a difficult thing to do, even when people have reason to or might say that they want to.
Two things are going on...
The first thing going on is that mind altering prescription drugs are now being widely distributed, particularly in the US. Many of these drugs are known to cause suicidal and homicidal side effects and from what I've heard they have been prescribed to most (if not all) of the perpetrators of these mass shootings.
The second thing going on is the psychological conditioning of entire populations via the mass media. The violence that is shown in TV, movies and video games, when presented to people over time is known to erode peoples normal human instincts and inhibitions that would otherwise lead their decision making to a different end. This fact has been well established for thousands of years (look at the Roman Colosseum for another example) and is well articulated in several books and speeches by Colonel Dave Grossman.
Both of these causes are far more prevalent in the US... hence their gun homicide rate looks so off the charts when compared to anywhere else.
The killing of innocents is a terrible thing, I could not agree more, but where are the calls for greater restrictions on homicidal mind altering drugs and where are the calls for greater restrictions on violent imagery in popular culture???
These causes are well understood but I don't expect that you will see any pundits standing on their soapboxes and arguing for these changes, no doubt because the government has no interest in such changes. The government is in the business of control and when that is your business then all forms of control are appealing: chemical control; cultural control; forcible control... etc. etc.. On this day they are seeking to extend their gun control, regardless of what the truth may be.
(20min delay)