Venting, What has changed?

[afeid]

Just food for thought, I have no web sites to reference, nostatistics to back this up, just my own experience. I have grown up in a smallish town, I have been present for a grade school show and tell where a student brought in a musket (a major crime today), depending on the day I could look out my bedroom window and see people walking down the road with a shotgun over their shoulder going to hunt or a pistol belt on while walking to an area to target shoot. The firearms laws were nowhere as strict as they are today, guns were more available, and there were more people with licenses to possess.
Today there are extremely more stringent requirements to possess or sell, multiple tougher laws on the books dictating secured storage, use and more laws regarding the violation of the above. Today if a person was seen walking with a firearm over his shoulder on his way to hunt, there would multiple 911 calls and the person would most likely lose his license and face charges for causing a public disturbance.
Please don’t get me wrong, I think that the recent and not so recent tragedies are terrible, I also do not think that knee jerk reactions are the solution. What has actually changed? The term assault weapon, the term high capacity magazine, both are not what they were while I was growing up. An assault weapon was a fully automatic military weapon, now it is a semiautomatic rifle that just looks like a military weapon. Today’s high capacity magazines used to be normal capacity magazines, high capacity magazines used to be 75 rounds and higher. Today’s laws compared to my youth are far stricter, it is harder to legally purchase, possess, and use (hunting, target shooting) a firearm. There are states that have much looser laws on the books for the purchase, possession, and storage of firearms, but again I have to ask myself what has changed?
The people that follow the laws are not the ones committing the atrocities, but are constantly the ones targeted afterwards. What I see today is too many people with a belief of inflated self entitlement, a lack of respect for others, and failing of accountability and the responsibility of doing the right thing including responsible parenthood.
Some standardization of laws, and real enforcement could go a long way in reducing some of the tragic occurrences of late, on the same token being more personally accountable for our own and our children’s actions could go far further in turning the social decline that is prevailing across this country.

 

[tuna]

I think a cause of some of it is.........too little violence in schools.
Allow an explanation. In my day, a disagreement turned into a schoolyard fistfight. Punishment was writing some sentence a hundred times. Then we'd all go play again. Now a fight sees the cops called and criminal charges, so the anger and frustration grows until it explodes, badly.
I'm not a psychiatrist, its only my theory.

 

[jmh992003]

Also today's kids aren't used to
Losing, everyone gets a trophy no games where you pick your own teams, so when people experience losing for the first time they can't handle it. And another all these idiots want to be famous

 

[MrJones79]

Liberals. That's what has changed. They've poured their influence out through schools, mainstream media and elected officials and this is what you get.

 

[Zarathustra11]

There a more than a few points that could be made on this, but the main difference between 'those' days and today is what the media and government have chosen to focus on selectively.

This is because they clearly have an agenda, and that agenda is to increase the difficulties of being a gun owner by making it so costly, the laws so archaic and labyrinthine, and the emotional stigma attached to gun owners so negative that people simply opt out of their own accord. If they could simply take the guns away they would have a long time ago, instead they stand on tragic events to use as emotional vehicles for their motives.

Sure, populations have exploded, there has been a breakdown of moral codes/norms, and the social compact that once held neighborhoods and communities together is largely gone. Some could even argue this, too, was part of a larger agenda.

But remember- most people believe only what they are told by either the government, the media, or both. This is their gospel and their truth. Even for a lot of people on this site. It would take a population of people no longer relying on these sources, but on critical thought, to get our country back. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

 

[Chevy 2 65]

Liberals. That's what has changed. They've poured their influence out through schools, mainstream media and elected officials and this is what you get.

Ding, Ding, Ding....and PC

 

[FPrice]

Liberals. That's what has changed. They've poured their influence out through schools, mainstream media and elected officials and this is what you get.

That's the "how", not the "why".

 

[MrJones79]

That's the "how", not the "why".

He asked "what" has changed, not how or why...

 

[weldingmachine]

That's the "how", not the "why".

All of those Vietnam war protesters from the 60's & 70's turned into teachers & think that liberalism will keep them safe, so they have been brainwashing their students ever since!
Now the first generation of those students are getting into their 40's & influencing their own kids (that are now going off to college) the same way.
And of course the professors keep the brainwashing up for another 4 years just to make sure it sticks.
Liberalism is a disease that this nation needs to cure if we are to continue being a nation IMHO.

 

[smokey-seven]

War I, War II and Korea brought our servicemen and women home with a profound respect for firearms. Vietnam took 58,000 of us and the returnees were spat upon. Flower children and the drug culture replaced decorated heroes and the Kennedy assassination spawned Ted Kennedy's gun control act of 1968, the beginning of the slippery slope of gun control and the general population thinks that laws will stop bad people from doing bad things.

 

[Fixxah]

We used to shoot at yhe norwood police station in the nra rifle club. Lots of fun as a young teen. Today, the new range is basically unused because of neighbors noise complaints. Sucks for all of us as I had hoped to weasel my way into using it.

 

[Win]

Progressive have been able to make their ideas the mainstream ideas in a way that conservatives haven't been able to.

 

[Varmint]

America has become addicted to laws, lawsuits, and government control. It goes far beyond guns. Try selling lemonade on the street. Try letting your kids play in the back of the car while driving. Every accident that occurs no matter how rare and unlikely, results in more laws, more rules, to try to prevent that accident from happening again, in exchange for more freedoms surrendered.

The country is circling the drain, imo. Don't know if it can recover.

 

[mac1911]

Liberals. That's what has changed. They've poured their influence out through schools, mainstream media and elected officials and this is what you get.

Correct Liberals have changed..........into communist socialist . See you can't have a armed civilian if you expect them to obey.
What has changed.....today kids don't so much out doors. I bring my kids fishing , shooting
The police are involved in everything or at least the people now call the cops for everything.
It is sad how messed up things have become.
I walked across the street to tell the neighbors kids to knock their shot off. ( 12am running a open header engine and reving the shit out of it) I thought they where going to cry. Father came over the next day asking why I yelled at his kids..... I told him I had to yell over the engine running at 12am.
Oh he didn't say he had the motor running....wtf really. I would not even mentioned the incident to my dad. Things have changed. More people are becoming special cream puffs.

 

[FPrice]

He asked "what" has changed, not how or why...

I addressed your point. "Liberals" (whatever that means) are not the "what". The gradual degradation and coarsening of society over the course of the past few years, decades, or centuries depending on your POV is what has led to today's problems. Liberals have certainly helped the process to be sure. But there are many other guilty parties.

 

[BillO]

The Media has changed as well as the introduction of Social Media.

I see many of these new “Me” generation as self-absorbed and ill equipped to handle so many difficult social situations that my generation had to cope with before the Selfie/Facebook/Twitter ect . came on the scene. Seldom do these mass killers do their horrendous acts without seeking some degree of fame, which I might add our Media happily accommodates them in their quest. Our “News” major market Media has transformed from reporting actual news to rating-seeking circle-jerk entertainment programming. Giving these sick cowardly bastards the fame they seek will only encourage such acts in the future. Perhaps a policy change of only naming the perpetrator –and nothing else, would help. But there’s that pesky First Amendment thing . . . .

 

[Bfatz]

Liberals. That's what has changed. They've poured their influence out through schools, mainstream media and elected officials and this is what you get.

Spot on, Liberals have accomplish much. The movie Idiocracy - that's where Americans are headed. And yes, it is all planned....ignorant non-thinkers who know how to obey orders is just what the chef had in mind.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-03/students-bombed-the-sat-this-year-in-four-charts

 

[marleythefish]

i think that a lot of this is the natural progression of every generations wish to make life better for their children than they had it. Well intentioned parents do more and more for their kids, each generation of kids is less capable of doing for themselves. this manifests itself in increased liberalism, as these kids grow up, each generation more helpless, they look for their parents when young and the government when older,to do for them. As these kids become more helpless, they are also more scared and more insecure, 24 hour news cycles feed this fear, when really scary stuff must be done, they switch to the kardashians on tv and leave it to the former free range kids to fix it. as long as everyone gets a prize it will only get worse.

 

[Periphery]

What changed? The war on drugs, blame Nixon and every President that has supported it since including Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Clinton, etc.

 

[boiler_eng]

i think that a lot of this is the natural progression of every generations wish to make life better for their children than they had it. Well intentioned parents do more and more for their kids, each generation of kids is less capable of doing for themselves. this manifests itself in increased liberalism, as these kids grow up, each generation more helpless, they look for their parents when young and the government when older,to do for them. As these kids become more helpless, they are also more scared and more insecure, 24 hour news cycles feed this fear, when really scary stuff must be done, they switch to the kardashians on tv and leave it to the former free range kids to fix it. as long as everyone gets a prize it will only get worse.

Along with that is the fact that schools don't teach or build any analysis skills. So instead of people learning how to understand and the extrapolate information from what they know they just are taught to be walking data tables.

One time my buddy was in a history class and they were trying to talk about why the Battle of Stalingrad was important and he says "Well it was named after Stalin" and everyone laughs like he is joking around the teacher just acts confused because he didn't say one of the 5 things listed in the text book. So my buddy goes on to cite different sources and talk about how it was reflected in different memoirs of Stalin and other Soviet leaders and someone just responds "Why would you read that stuff?" .... Because its relevant to what we are studying that's why!

And that lack of thought/analysis just rolls down hill until everything becomes a gut reaction with 0 logic.

When I talk to recent college grads (my peers) and they say about how they think it would be a good idea to just discharge their student loans because their degree doesn't make them enough money or their payments are too high for the lifestyle they want all they are thinking about is one side of the equation. If you ask them whether you think taxes should be raised to pay them off they recognize that isn't fair. If you ask them if everyone in the bank (down to the tellers and the janitors, because you know they would be fine with executives losing money) should take a pay cut to pay it off they recognize that isn't fair. However, when its just a number on a balance sheet they wish they could just take an eraser to it.

The same goes for gun legislation, someone who isn't involved just hears that people are getting hurt and says "Sure restrict that, its not like I am effected anyway, and therefore we have done something and can feel like I helped". They don't care if it fixes the problem, motion is the solution.

 

[thormx538]

Cloward-Piven strategy.

Liberals.

Overpopulation.