What is America doing wrong these days?

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Sn@kebite

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Sometimes i just trawl through youtube to see what i can find.

I just came across this video where a police officer is giving a speech on the danger of guns/drugs and his gun goes off in a classroom of students. (Luckily nobody got hurt)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KenHANMp9jk

Just wanted to know Ireland's view on gun/drug culture in the states. And what are they doing wrong? Is there a way to stop the gangs and violence? I think it's really getting out of hand
Or do we discuss international problems here?
 
Well if I have learned anything from Hollywood its that violence is the solution to every problem
 
We haven't had a thread like this in a while.
This should be fun; loads of heat and not much light.
I'm not criticising Sn@kebite, it's a good question, it's just that people usually take a position on America in general in these threads and don't actually discuss the specific issue. This is a sociological question informed by history, politics and emigration policy but I'd bet it will end up as a debate about American foreign policy.
I hope I'm wrong.
 

I think they messed up in Iraq...
 
Hate to be defeatist(?) but unfortunately guns will always be freely available in the US...as long as it's in their constitution. Even a change here, which would be huge, would probably have little effect given the amount in circulation already.
 
Now, I'm not usually prone to defending America and, yes, their Iraq adventure is a disaster for all, fundamentalist religion is widespread, their gun laws are crazy, they have a loony President who thinks God told him to invade Iraq etc .... BUT I'd much prefer their society and secular constitution to that of Iran/China/Syria/Russia/Zimbabwe/any Arab state/any state ruled by religion (eg Sharia law).

Can't remember when I last saw protestors complaining about Iran, for example, and their human rights record/anti-women/anti-west/anti-anyone-anything-not-muslim
 
There was a good article the other week in one of the papers (Sunday Times I think) about Americans and their guns. To be honest, I had always pictured members of the NRA and the like to be Texan cowboys, Southern hillbillies or extremeists and it kinda shocked me to see who actually carried or were trained in weapons from old women to young children but also the type of weapons they carried. There were sub machine guns favoured by the Navy Seals in one house. It was also their attitude to the Second Ammendment that was also shocking. Many of them actually believed that peoples right to bear arms was necessary for the security of the State. It is like they are expecting another civil war or something.
 
This is a sociological question informed by history, politics and emigration policy but I'd bet it will end up as a debate about American foreign policy.
I hope I'm wrong.
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No, Purple you've pretty much summarised it there! This debate could go on and take millions of angles; American foreign policy is just one example of "what America is doing wrong".
If we look at gun culture/violence etc., there are numerous other countries in the world that are far more unstable and where gun violence is more of a problem combined with Social upheaval. the only reason we hear about North America so much is the through the media.
 
Seriously...the reason these discussions are always so crap is because (no offence to anyone) the level of discussion usually comes down to...I'd rather live in America than Iran!
 
Purple said:
This is a sociological question informed by history, politics and emigration policy but I'd bet it will end up as a debate about American foreign policy.
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Well if i was to analyse the history part i would say Americans (children) are educated about war being a good thing, like the revolutionary war and they glorify that imo. So when any war is fought my view is that americans think it's a good war, only they forget who they're fighting.
As for the political side, do you mean the government is not doing enough/it right?
As for emigration, I don't really understand how Americans leaving their country could contribute to violence there? Can you explain?

thanks!
Gabriel said:
Seriously...the reason these discussions are always so crap is because (no offence to anyone) the level of discussion usually comes down to...I'd rather live in America than Iran!
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I agree with that statement. Although the point ppl make is true! - But i really don't want it to turn into some 'stating the obvious' arguement.
 
Sn@kebite said:
I agree with that statement. Although the point ppl make is true! - But i really don't want it to turn into some 'stating the obvious' arguement.
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Well...I'd rather live on an an Island full of beautiful naked nymphos than live in Dublin...but if I want to discuss the various problems that Dublin has then I don't see the point in bringing paradise island up!!!

The reason people bring countries like Iran/N Korea into these conversations is because they've been indocrinated by Western media to do so. America = land of free = all is well......Iran = axis of evil = hell.

It's very black and white but unfortunately no world issue is black and white.

With that level of conversation these discussions will never go anywhere.

In relation to the original post:
Guns = bad


Incidentally...I wouldn't live in the States if you paid me. And if I had to it'd be New York or San Fran. Everywhere else scares me a great deal.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Kings <<< latin Kings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crips << Crips

My view is if the US Government with all its domestic security agencies such as the FBI and police forces etc, throwing multi billions of dollars over decades at domestic security and with local support of the population (which they dont have generally in the middle east) cannot eliminate the home grown culture of gangs such as the Crips and Latin Kings etc (as only 2 examples of gangs which can have 20,000 members) then how are they going to eliminate the anti American, anti west, militant, anti human rights, anti rights for women and anti democracy culture which is even more deeply engrained than gang culture in much of the middle east ?
 

OK point taken. But my view is: Are the FBI, NSA and so forth really trying to stop the gangs in the US? Gangs have drugs and imo drugs bring capital into the US economy. I don't believe the US govnt. would really want to stop gangs and drug dealers. (obviously they'd want to control them but not abolish them).
Do you agree that where there's guns/drugs there's always money? - I do.
Yet when we hear on news that there's been a drug bust, we see images of the drugs on tables and the weapons, but we never see the cash stacked onto a table. Why is this? - Could it be that they don't want us to see it because we might start wondering where this cash goes? - I doubt it gets incinerated along with the drugs or melted down along with the weapons.
 
I don’t disagree with you but I think the fact that it’s a new country that was born in violence is a bigger factor.

Sn@kebite said:
As for the political side, do you mean the government is not doing enough/it right?
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I was thinking about the minimal level of social welfare and the impact the underclass that this helps to create and perpetuate has on the level of violence in society.

Sn@kebite said:
As for emigration, I don't really understand how Americans leaving their country could contribute to violence there? Can you explain?
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I was referring to the huge numbers of people that enter America every year and the social pressures that this generates.

I think there are loads of great things about America, far outweighing the negatives, but that is not what this thread is about.
 
Purple said:
I think there are loads of great things about America, far outweighing the negatives, but that is not what this thread is about.
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I agree. - I also think that while there are lots of positives, the negatives are alot more intense. And so obviously wrong. (or that could be just my view).
 
Gun control has to be an issue. If it is easy to get guns, then there will be much more gun crime. It's a race to the bottom. Everyone needs a gun, because everyone else has one.

I got attacked by a gang of youths there a few months back when I was walking home with my girlfriend. Now, if I had a gun at the time - who knows what I would have done. And if they had guns... well, you can see where this is going.
In the end we got away with cuts and bruising, and of course a damaged psyche. It could have been worse if we had the same gun laws as the US.

Of course there are other problems, but this one is the obvious one. The rest could follow.
 
In the end we got away with cuts and bruising, and of course a damaged psyche. It could have been worse if we had the same gun laws as the US.
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Even with the alarming rate of gun ownership in the US I don't think this scenario would have been any differnet than in Ireland for the simple reason that as far as I know it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon in public. you may keep a weapon on your property to 'protect' your property, but out in the streets it is as illegal for the law abiding citizen to bear arms as it is for the gangs. I am open to correction.

If it is easy to get guns, then there will be much more gun crime
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You can't legally buy guns in Ireland, but its fair to say the gun culture is rapidly expanding and furthermore I doubt alot of the gun crime ensued by gangs, dealers etc have been carried out with legally obtained weapons, so is the wide accessability to guns in the US really strictly related to high crime rates or would it be fair to say that problems run alot deeper than that
 
You can buy guns in ireland legally, recently 9mm pistols were made legal and plenty of gun clubs have members with them, semi automatic machine guns and rifles are still banned mind you
 
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