Courtesy of Vox:
Sunday with Lubach, which is sort of like the Dutch version of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, looked at guns — specifically, the US’s love of firearms. And it’s very telling.
For one, the satirical Dutch video describes America’s love of guns as so bad that it is an illness: Nonsensical Rifle Addiction, or NRA — a reference to the biggest gun lobby group in the country.
“Dear fellow Europeans,” the video’s narrator begins, “a devastating humanitarian crisis is threatening a small country on the coast of North America: the United States of America.”
The video goes on to list some of the statistics related to America’s gun homicides and accidents from Gun Violence Archive: 24,000 injuries and 11,000 deaths so far this year, culminating to roughly 40 deaths a day. The video pins this on “a terrible epidemic.”
“NRA is a constitutional disorder caused by a dysfunction of the prefrontal Second Amendment in the nonsensical cortex, causing patients to shoot people,” the narrator explains. “It starts with an innocent Colt, but soon patients will show signs of shotguns, sniper rifles, and M16s even. Often, patients use silencers to hide their condition.”
This is certainly not the first time that Americans have been mocked for our ridiculous obsession with guns, but it is one of the more creative attempts.
The take away for us is the realization that the whole world sees our problem, as well as its solution, but we remain incapable of doing anything about it.
This is great!
ReplyDeleteEach shooting reminds me of a conversation with a Frenchman in Paris sixteen years ago. He asked me why Americans are so anti cigarette smoking but not upset about children taking guns to school.
ReplyDeleteWell, by then sanity had begun to prevail with regard to cigarettes and the lobbying had been finally stymied. Unfortunately that hasn't happened yet with regard to guns. My hope is that the young people, emboldened by a group of intelligent, sane and earnest Florida high school survivors of the latest school massacre will inspire the young and their elders to take on the NRA and Congress and state legislatures as well between now and forever - as long as it takes to get a sane interpretation of the Second Amendment and an end to the arming of America. It has always amazed me that gun supporters will say that their right to own guns is more important than my (or anyone else's) basic human right to live.
DeleteBeaglemom
Could be because roughly 480,000 people die every year in the US from cigarettes, and roughly 13,000 die every year from firearms.
Delete7:39
DeleteBecause 13,000 isn't such a big number. No big deal. /s
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/02/15/586014065/deaths-from-gun-violence-how-the-u-s-compares-to-the-rest-of-the-world
Delete" 2016, there were more than 38,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. — 4,000 more than 2015, the new CDC report on preliminary mortality data shows. Most gun-related deaths — about two-thirds —in America are suicides, but an Associated Press analysis of FBI data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016, up from 9,600 in 2015. The increase in gun-related deaths follows a nearly 15-year period of relative stasis.
“The fact that we are seeing increases in the firearm-related deaths after a long period where it has been stable is concerning,” "
http://time.com/5011599/gun-deaths-rate-america-cdc-data/
But the GOP in Congress rejected allowing the CDC to study US gun culture. It needs the kind of detailed, statistical study that the CDC could provide. I think the GOP is frightened of the likely conclusion: that owning guns is not healthy for anyone.
DeleteBeaglemom
https://www.thedailybeast.com/don-jr-advises-president-trump-post-parkland-dont-go-wobbly-on-guns?ref=home
ReplyDelete"According to three sources with knowledge of their conversations, the president and Trump Jr. repeatedly discussed gun control over the long Presidents’ Day weekend, often as they both closely watched a TV airing footage in real-time of young Parkland students savaging the president for his inaction.
When polled on his opinions on the matter, the first son emphatically replied that the president must not waver on his pro-gun stance, whatever the impassioned calls for reform. Trump Jr., according to these sources, reminded his father that inching toward gun control would be immediately taken by his conservative base—as well as major donors and motivated activist networks, including the National Rifle Association—as an unforgivable betrayal.
Eric Trump, his middle son, readily agreed."
Yeah, Junior and Eric wouldn't go hunting if it was just the game and a hunting knife. Imagine either of them trying to kill a lion or bear with just a big ol' Crocodile Dundee hunting knife. They'd shit their pants. They need their guns so they can be as far away (and safe) as possible.
DeleteSo Donald knows how universally he is hated but is going to listen to Dumbass for advice?
Come on, cheeseburgers. I'm rooting for you fried chicken. Take him out already, chocolate shakes.