And yes, the rebuttal to every point I made above is "well, US law is the reason" or "the Supreme Court directly contradicts what Sean just said". WHICH IS THE PROBLEM. Those are political choices. We don't have to accept those choices in a representative democracy.
The Onion got it painfully right after Uvalde, and don't tolerate anyone today framing this as a mental health issue, or a missed signal by local law enforcement, or a hard question about what our society has become. https://theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1848971668/
The US doesn't have a disproportionate share of mental health issues, or disaffected young men, or anything else that will be scapegoated this morning. We just have way too many guns. We can deal with that, or we can keep living in fear. Everything else is horrible, terrible, frightening noise.
@SeanCasten I thought for sure that Uvalde wasn't the origin of that article, but no sadly, it's just been posted so many times since then that it feels like it was longer ago (the list is too long to screenshot):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_Says_Only_Nation_Where_This_Regularly_Happens#List
@SeanCasten It isn't 'just' a mental health issue, but the R's did vote to make it easier for people with mental health issues to get guns, and harder to get treatment. They clearly want people who might be susceptible to acting on antisocial impulses to get guns and act on those impulses.
Oct 16, 2026, 5:59 PM@maccruiskeen @SeanCasten A guy I argue with scoffs at the idea of gun control, saying it has never worked (has it ever really been tried?) I've had it with these "law-abiding gun owners" who are OK with the status quo, or blame everything on "the gangs."
@KateConnors @maccruiskeen @SeanCasten
The idea of "gun control" is a myth.
For example, Luigi Mangione made his own gun.
I think it's pretty clear that he had psychological problems.
He might have been able to get treatment too, if he didn't need to deal with an insurance company that made its money by denying claims.
That he killed its CEO just oozes with poetic justice.
"We Made Luigi Mangione’s 3D-Printed Gun—and Fired It
In the wake of Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of a health care CEO with a partially 3D-printed pistol, we built and tested the exact same model of weapon ourselves. And it was entirely legal."
by Andy Greenberg
May 19, 2025 6:00 AM
https://www.wired.com/story/luigi-mangione-ghost-gun-built-tested/
@SeanCasten It's not the people who have the most to fear who drive US gun nut culture. It's specifically the most racist people doing this, going back to the #MAGA era of genocide, slavery & apartheid. If you want to go around being an a$$hole, you have to be a gun nut to avoid getting killed immediately.
@SeanCasten The Nazis will not take guns from their Nazi buddies. Whatever the law, you will see it applied just as unevenly as it is now. The US is cooked. Hopefully we can rebuild something better once it finishes collapsing, however long it takes.