Credit: David Ryder/Stringer
As a nation, the U.S. has a deep and enduring connection to guns. Integrated into the fabric of American society since the country’s earliest days, guns remain a point of pride for many Americans. Whether for hunting, sport shooting or personal protection, most gun owners count the right to bear arms as central to their freedom. At the same time, the results of gun-related violence have shaken the nation, and debates over gun policy remain sharply polarized.
A new Pew Research Center survey attempts to better understand the complex relationship Americans have with guns and how that relationship intersects with their policy views.
The survey finds that Americans have broad exposure to guns, whether they personally own one or not. At least two-thirds have lived in a household with a gun at some point in their lives. And roughly seven-in-ten – including 55% of those who have never personally owned a gun – say they have fired a gun at some point. Today, three-in-ten U.S. adults say they own a […]
Yes, we have to do something about the guns, but it is the psychiatric drugs that are “making” people do these things. Florida was allowed to happen to serve an agenda.
Hi Sam I am sorry for my dismissive comment about your observation regarding drugs making people do these things. No question that this is a reasonable area of concern.
Thank you for being big enough to apologize. It is a well known fact that SSRI’s can cause suicidal ideation in teenagers, and homocidal ideation is the other side of that coin. It’s called the Seratonin Syndrome. The fine print on Prozac used to say that 1 person in 10,000 would become psychotic as a result of taking it. That warning is no longer there. Millions and millions of people are casually being given prescriptions for these drugs by robotic doctors. My wife’s doctor told her they were now prescribing it for symptoms of menopause.
Access to guns is obviously a problem, but the guns are not making people do this. If that was true we would be living in a pandemonium of random shootings by gun owners driven crazy by their weapons. I’ve owned various guns in the past. On my worst days it never occurred to me to go out and mow down a bunch of people. Something else is going on, and in many of these cases that something else is psychiatric meds. Or meds that have psychiatric side effects.
You know the more I thought about your comment regarding meds and then listening also to a short piece on PBS TV by a doctor. She was talking about various research showing damage created in the young by different stressful events that translate into behavior issues very often “treated” by meds and law enforcement. In a compassionate society we would love our kids enough to fund therapeutic/loving care to help them instead of creating more stress and pain. All of which creates life long damage. On the right there is too much talk of family values and not enough true compassion that might mean more taxes.