The last sentence is dead on, IMO.

 

Problem isn't guns, it's cultural decay

 

Thoughts?

Nailed it....

I am not sure if its 'cultural' or 'economic' decay.

 

Vibrate economic centers have little desire or need or tolerance for violence. An ongoing lagging economy takes its toll on the lower rungs of the ladder first. These already struggling areas are probably just giving up.

Take God out of our country like they have and you get USA 2013

Another cultural example.

American Student Punished for Refusing to Recite Mexican Pledge | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes

Not arguing, more asking the question. Has Europe experienced a similar moral decay? If so, why so little gun violence there?

Has nothing to do with morals so much as a lack of real opportunity. What do you expect folks to do when they failed to win the birth lottery and they're trapped in a decaying urban hell with no options for bettering themselves because all the jobs left decades ago? To be fair, these same problems affect white folks in rural hell -- i.e., places such as Eastern Kentucky. And it's getting worse there, and not going to get any better when you consider the coal jobs aren't coming back. It's easy to have "morals" when things always go your way. The game changes when desperation sets in, and for many folks desperation has become a generational thing.

 

Of course, in the thread I posted regarding King Coal, nobody seems to want to address that bogeyman -- especially folks from Eastern Ky. -- but they're happy to point fingers at "welfare queens" and "gangstas" in the 'hood, complaining about "cultural decay" while being conspicuously silent about the ills affecting their white-trash brethren.

 

To paraphrase Chris Rock: It ain't right for folks to act out the way they do, but I understand.

Nailed it....

 

Absolutely!

From the article:

 

What explains a lot of what we see today, which politicians and their liberal allies would never condemn, is growing cultural deviancy. Twenty-nine percent of white children, 53 percent of Hispanics and 73 percent of black children are born to unmarried women. The absence of a husband and father from the home is a strong contributing factor to poverty, school failure, crime, drug abuse, emotional disturbance and a host of other social problems.

 

I agree that this is a huge part of the problem.

Has nothing to do with morals so much as a lack of real opportunity. What do you expect folks to do when they failed to win the birth lottery and they're trapped in a decaying urban hell with no options for bettering themselves because all the jobs left decades ago? To be fair, these same problems affect white folks in rural hell -- i.e., places such as Eastern Kentucky. And it's getting worse there, and not going to get any better when you consider the coal jobs aren't coming back. It's easy to have "morals" when things always go your way. The game changes when desperation sets in, and for many folks desperation has become a generational thing.

 

Of course, in the thread I posted regarding King Coal, nobody seems to want to address that bogeyman -- especially folks from Eastern Ky. -- but they're happy to point fingers at "welfare queens" and "gangstas" in the 'hood, complaining about "cultural decay" while being conspicuously silent about the ills affecting their white-trash brethren.

 

To paraphrase Chris Rock: It ain't right for folks to act out the way they do, but I understand.

 

I agree with you that moral decay cannot be considered the sole or even the primary cause for gun violence (otherwise, why does Europe have such low gun violence?) but I also don't know if one can assume the winning and losing of the birth lottery as a cause. The reason being, humans have been born into poverty or wealth or in between from the beginning of civilization I would guess but for some reason, gun violence has become much more of a problem today than several decades ago (atleast it seems it has, I do not have the data in front of me to support or refute that comment.) Why did those who lived in urban hells fifty years ago not resort to gun violence like today? Sure there was some, but was it anything like today?

I agree with you that moral decay cannot be considered the sole or even the primary cause for gun violence (otherwise, why does Europe have such low gun violence?) but I also don't know if one can assume the winning and losing of the birth lottery as a cause. The reason being, humans have been born into poverty or wealth or in between from the beginning of civilization I would guess but for some reason, gun violence has become much more of a problem today than several decades ago (atleast it seems it has, I do not have the data in front of me to support or refute that comment.) Why did those who lived in urban hells fifty years ago not resort to gun violence like today? Sure there was some, but was it anything like today?

As PepRock said in another thread back in December, firearms helped shape our history, not so much in Europe.

As PepRock said in another thread back in December, firearms helped shape our history, not so much in Europe.

 

Granted, but why the shift? Fifty years ago, youth gangs settled their differences with tire chains and baseball bats in rumbles. Now, it's drive-by shootings. Was their history not also shaped by guns? What changed?

Gangs were growing and thriving when the economy was doing well. Drug dealing and drug associated violence was thriving when the economy was doing well. There were nutjobs killing multiple people in schools when the economy was doing well. So, I think it is cop out to blame the economy....read more..

 

Common themes are: unwanted, unsupervised children (many of whom find belonging in gangs); tolerance or lack of punishment and follow through for violent behaviors especially in schools; over tolerance for illegal drug use; proliferation of firearms; and our propensity to make excuses and/or look for blame for our own or others poor choices and decisions.

Has nothing to do with morals so much as a lack of real opportunity. What do you expect folks to do when they failed to win the birth lottery and they're trapped in a decaying urban hell with no options for bettering themselves because all the jobs left decades ago? To be fair, these same problems affect white folks in rural hell -- i.e., places such as Eastern Kentucky. And it's getting worse there, and not going to get any better when you consider the coal jobs aren't coming back. It's easy to have "morals" when things always go your way. The game changes when desperation sets in, and for many folks desperation has become a generational thing.

 

Of course, in the thread I posted regarding King Coal, nobody seems to want to address that bogeyman -- especially folks from Eastern Ky. -- but they're happy to point fingers at "welfare queens" and "gangstas" in the 'hood, complaining about "cultural decay" while being conspicuously silent about the ills affecting their white-trash brethren.

 

To paraphrase Chris Rock: It ain't right for folks to act out the way they do, but I understand.

 

Take advantage of your free public education, go to school, attend college, graduate, and move. I know many who have done just those things. Acting like breaking the law is the only option is ridiculous. It is the easiest option.

Take advantage of your free public education, go to school, attend college, graduate, and move. I know many who have done just those things. Acting like breaking the law is the only option is ridiculous. It is the easiest option.

 

A man dies and goes to heaven. He is astonished at the appearance of everything around him, but he notices one thing that seems a little odd. He asks God, "why are the women over there chained up?" God responds, "because they are from Eastern Kentucky; and chaining them up is the only way to keep them from going back."

 

Thought that was a pretty funny joke.