Gun owners need to understand that it isn’t a right, its a privilege the rest of us allow only if conditions are met.
If something happens that alters the situation those conditions are set for, they need to respect changes that may come.
Setting themselves up as victims, like they have here, makes me question the participants mental capacity to evaluate their own behaviours, therefore their own risk to those around them.
Two people were killed by a gun owner in circumstances where his ease of access to guns greatly increased the severity of the consequences. Communities have a right to expect gun owners to seriously appreciate the risks of their firearm possession.
Also screw the Nationals for making this a political fight, especially a rural v metro fight. This is bigger than you’re never seen dirt akubra hat and white pressed shirt with rolled up sleeves country cosplay.
And we should also recognise that mental health statistics are not trending in a positive direction, particularly among young people who will, in the coming years, be adults capable of legally owning firearms. It’s pretty common to hear something along the lines of “I never knew” or “I didn’t think they were capable of that” from family and friends following a suicide or act of public violence. Whether people are inherently “good” or “bad” isn’t what should be focused on here.
Woah. Someone other than Mountaineer read this. On a thread this deep on a small community on a post two days old. I’m impressed!
It’s a bit of a tangent, but I don’t buy into the notion that mental health is declining. It’s being discussed in younger generations. The issues were always there. I think it’s great that it is discussed.
The prevalence of mental illness among young people (aged 15-34) has more than doubled within the last decade. It’s possible that is partially due to younger people being more open about their mental health, but the trend is still very significant when compared to middle-aged and older people.
A hell of a lot of the rise in diagnosis is the attitudinal and knowledge change thats happened in this area. I’m not yet middle aged and even in my lifetime i’m noticing the attitudinal difference.
I can’t stop to find it, but there was actually a satirical post on Lemmy All yesterday about this, might still be high in the feed.
It’s not just diagnosis that has spiked, it’s also hospitalisations. The rapid decline of the mental health of young people between 2010 and 2015 is consistent throughout the Western world, not just in Australia. I don’t find it believable that a decrease in stigma or an increase in education could be the sole cause of the same phenomenon around the world, during the same short time period and to such extreme degrees.