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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

Guns have existed for hundreds of years.

Why is this just becoming a problem recently?

The sheer amount of guns owned by American civilians compared with the rest of the world is staggering, and, maybe not so coincidentally, so is the amount of gun related homicide. [0] The fact remains that even you in your comment called it a problem. Guns and gun ownership are the common denominator when it comes to mass shootings, and very little, if anything, is being done about it.

[0] - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Why does California - a state with one of the lowest gun ownership rates, and extremely restrictive gun laws - have so many mass shootings, then?

The relationship you're proposing (more gun owners means more mass shootings) doesn't seem to hold within the US.

That's true when you're looking at a statistic like guns per capita [0]. When you're talking about number of registered guns, however, the only state with more guns than California is Texas, which falls at number 3 on the list of states with the most mass shootings [1].

I do still believe that having more guns around does tend to lead to more mass shootings, along with other forms of gun related homicide.

[0] - https://www.thoughtco.com/gun-owners-percentage-of-state-pop... [1] - https://www.statista.com/statistics/811541/mass-shootings-in...

Your link 0 is absolutely ludicrous. That 21 guns per capita in Texas would mean ~600 million guns in Texas ALONE out of the ~400 million total in the US.

And you're right that these things should be counted per capita, but that still doesn't explain how Texas has a far higher gun ownership rate, 30% less population than California.... And HALF the mass shootings.

Just to clarify because my link 0 "guns per capita" was a bit misleading. It's actually per 1,000 people, not 1. Link to more original source [0].

Quick maths: 21 guns p/capita divided by 1,000 people = 0.021 * 28 million (pop of Texas) = ~588,000 guns.

Your observation about Texas is very interesting, and I don't have an answer for that. Texas might have, historically, a better gun culture? In any case, having half the mass shootings as another state is still a number greater than zero, which remains the ultimate goal.

[0] - https://huntingmark.com/gun-ownership-stats/#_ftn1%20

> Just to clarify because my link 0 "guns per capita" was a bit misleading. It's actually per 1,000 people, not 1. Link to more original source [0].

Ahhh, registered guns per 1000 people. That makes a bit more sense, but is still probably not all that useful, as the vast majority of guns in the US are unregistered. AFAICT this is just counting NFA-registered weapons, such as fully automatic guns, destructive devices, short-barreled rifles, suppressors, etc.

> In any case, having half the mass shootings as another state is still a number greater than zero, which remains the ultimate goal.

Ah, but it does provide a hint that the number of guns might not be the primary determining factor.

> Texas might have, historically, a better gun culture?

My guess would also involve "Texas's gun culture hasn't been killed off by state laws", as in California.

Guns are part of the problem, but not even close to the entire solution. And guns are so ingrained in American lifestyle that they're not going away.

I like the fact that common factors are being found. Maybe flags can be raised and preventative actions taken, including temporarily moving guns out of reach of the at-risk individual.

> guns are so ingrained in American lifestyle that they're not going away

then neither are the mass shootings. that's that.

Copycat syndrome.

The terrorists and the crazies in the 20th century seemed to prefer bombs for causing mass panic. There haven't been many bombings in the past 20yr except by "professional" terrorist organizations. Seems like shootings are more popular now.

That said, I haven't been keeping a list so I may be wrong.

After 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, it became harder to get the materials for bombs. Bullets did not become harder to obtain in the same way. So the method of choice for causing mass panic moved to shooting.

And so after someone gets their way with a national gun ban (and somehow magically that makes the guns go away), people will switch to UHaul. Or arson.

mass violent behavior has been around for a long time

e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_amok

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