Guns, Culture and Crime in the US

Guns, Culture and Crime in the US

2013, Crime  -    -  Playlist 359 Comments
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We look at why the debate over gun control is so polarized and travel to West Virginia - a place where shooting guns is a sport that has been passed down over generations - to find out what fuels the love for guns in this country.

Are American people as divided as their politicians? The Newtown shooting, which left 20 school children and six teachers dead, has dragged the issue of gun control back into the national agenda.

For the first time in years, US politicians are discussing serious gun control measures. But millions of people in the country's inner cities live with the threat of gun violence on a daily basis.

In Baltimore, one of the most dangerous cities in the US, the police have re-framed their 'war on drugs' as a 'war on guns'. We travel to Baltimore to meet those trying to stop gun crime and others who say owning a gun is sometimes a matter of survival.

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FrankInFL
FrankInFL
3 years ago

The claim that BGCs are not required at gun shows is categorically untrue. The rule is that anyone licensed to deal firearms must ALWAYS do a BGC before selling a gun to ANYONE. Private individuals may — in most states — sell a firearm without a BGC, whether it's at a gun show or anywhere else.

As for the vaunted NRA, anyone who holds the view that the NRA is pro-gun really needs a history lesson.

Leon
Leon
7 years ago

Lyle gun. now knock it off.
The second amendment is for the protection of Americans against tyrannical threats be they foreign or domestic and while the present administration only wants to restrict access to certain guns can you guarantee the same can be said when the next president is sworn in? Or the next. or the one after that? I fear that we Canadians have become too complacent about our own personal freedoms and rights in the face of Acts of Parliament designed to curb them. Case in point: A new law which requires any Canadian who to have a Canadian passport to fly back to Canada. Suppose I were to drive to Mexico (no passport required) and while there learned there was a death in the family, I would be barred from flying back for the funeral because I don't have a piece of paper with a federal seal on it. That is tyrannical in my view and something definetely impacts my right to self-determination and my right to freedom of association (or dis-association).

Charlie
Charlie
9 years ago

5:35......"free society"?????? Post Patriot Act, there is no freedom in the USA, only the perception of freedom built on fear. Well done President Cheney and the Retarded Texan, ( good to see the "No child left behind" literacy program worked :-) )

It is kinda cute that Americans beat their chest and claim they are free as they "liberate" another oil rich country. If You understood the meaning of irony, you would see the humour in that claim.

You have the right to bare arms, it is your country and it is no one else's business how you manage domestic laws, but in fighting to keep that right, don't piss and moan when some nut job Redneck shoots up a school with an AK or M16, live by the sword, die by the sword.

Ben Gagliardo
Ben Gagliardo
9 years ago

Why should I give up my rights so you can feel "safe"? I feel safer having the freedom to protect myself, but you feel safer having me not being able to protect myself? pleas get professional help

Guest
Guest
9 years ago

I'm just putting my opinion out here so don't attack me if you disagree, but I personally disagree with Gun culture as a whole. I don't think you should just "accept" shootings are going to happen if we give Americans gun rights. Even if more people can be killed with bombs and such, we have to try to the highest extent we can to prevent any death, even if it is only one, by getting people to understand that gun culture has way more cons than pros. I say this because I believe every life has value so even if only one person is killed in a shooting, it still means something, it still causes pain. We shouldn't measure the severity of an incident by the number of deaths, in fact we shouldn't measure the severity of any incident. Every incident or accident where a life or lives are lost is a severe tragedy, to one or more families. I know that what I'm saying isn't particularly realistic but it is my opinion.

Michael Jay Burns
Michael Jay Burns
10 years ago

The "gun culture" feeds from the "fear culture." Powerful interests use fear to mold public opinion in order to shape foreign and domestic policy. The resulting enhanced perception of danger creates a fertile market for personal weapons.
Here in the US "the market is king" and the weapons industry has been in max-production servicing that demand for quite some time. A culture saturated with firearms will inevitably have incidents where those weapons amplify the damage that deranged people can inflict. .

That is all part of the fabric of the life we live. Irrational shootings are a "death tax" that we pay for the right to defend ourselves.

In my view the right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be abridged since it ultimately is a check on the tyranny of the state. That's why it is in the Constitution. Like everything else, it has a price: "Freedom ain't free"

To put things in perspective: A mad man can kill more people with 5 gallons of gasoline than he can with an assault rifle.

Terry Beaton
Terry Beaton
10 years ago

Guns don't kill people, Americans kill people. You tell me how we can keep killing so many people without easy access to guns. If we didn't have guns we'd just find another way. Americans kill people, not guns. In fact, Americans kill people all over the world. We've got our reasons and it has something to do with freedom. That's good enough for me.

hydros63 .
hydros63 .
10 years ago

I think if you wanna die a slow death... by smoking or drinking your life away.. by all means go ahead.. the fact that someone can violently take your life.. not the same thing. Everything should be controlled to a certain extent...

pavilionking06
pavilionking06
10 years ago

Stay Paranoid America. Gun sales depend on it!

Francisco Sá
Francisco Sá
10 years ago

The american constitution gives the right of owning guns but was written when rifles were loaded with a long metal stick. Now we have machine-guns, automatic guns, etc,etc. A person can kill dozens of others in seconds. The scenery has changed completely, don't you think ?

Joseph Lee
Joseph Lee
10 years ago

The reason the gun control advocates are loosing this campaign is because they became too over zealous and over killed with their demands! If they want success, thet have to use the right clubs as in golf! One should not use the driver to put a 30 footer!

tim trudell
tim trudell
11 years ago

I'm sure we're all aware that the worst massacre at a school was committed in 1927 with a car bomb. How about Oklahoma City no guns there. The gun is not the problem and never was, unless you're a tyrant.! It's sad to think that people are so out of touch with history. Imagine a world with no murder even by the governments. Dream on, dream until your dream comes true.

SugarShane333
SugarShane333
11 years ago

I'm not so worried honestly nobody is taking my guns.

Nothing_Is_Real
Nothing_Is_Real
11 years ago

Are American people as greedy as their politicians.

Nothing_Is_Real
Nothing_Is_Real
11 years ago

This gun controversy is just something to occupy the lime lite to keep our minds busy and try to let us forget the real issues of today. Might as well bring in abortion, the pill, gays,immigration you know ( all the stuff that gets the people to fight each other ) while the real issues are totally disregarded. I think the sheep should replace the eagle as our national emblem, let me rephrase that, the sheep represent the people and the eagle represents the private banks. Every time the gun issue comes up it actually increases gun sales across the country, which I don't think is a bad thing, but it is a response to another fear tactic and help the rich get richer. If and when we need guns there will always be plenty around we can get them from the black markets, I am sure they won't be on the governments side. Have you forgotten about the 911 cover up, illegal wars all over the world for oil to back up the private banking "petro dollar", the slaughter of millions of innocent woman and children and citizens of the world. Hey gun control, global warming, abortion rights, gays, immigration thats the real important stuff. WAKE UP SHEEP or should I say BAA BAA BAA.

awful_truth
awful_truth
11 years ago

Michael Moore had it right in Bowling for Columbine. The number 1 employer in Columbine is Lockheed Martin, (makers of weapons of mass destruction)yet the parents cannot understand how their little darlings would carry out such a devastating act of insanity. (disconnected, brainwashed, and hipocritical) The bottom line is the American public does not have to worry about needing guns to protect them from their government, because they have already surrendered their freedoms/safety to fight for the corporations. On a final note: Has anyone in America seen the latest release of the movie Red Dawn. You know, where North Korea invades the USA, (yeah right) and the citizens use guerilla warfare to fight back. I keep waiting to see them redefined as 'terrorists' under the same measuring stick the U.S uses to define those who take up arms to defend themselves against their attacks. Yes, I am so surprised why America has such gun violence, (14,000 a year) and more incarcerations per a capita then any other country in the world! Personally, I think the USA needs less alcohol, more dope, and a lot less guns. The only real solution to reduce violent crime is global cooling. This is why Canadians live in relative peace by comparison. People are to busy trying not to freeze to death 7 months out of the year.

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

So our increasingly militarized police forces, in this case in California, only had to shoot at a few pickup trucks with innocent civilians in it. They did not have to murder the cop-killer cop - they didn't - they said so!

He just happened to jump into a burning, smoke-filled crater that happened to appear in a cabin he took refuge in on a last-ditch escape effort, and after hiding out in a different cabin yards from the police command post for days.

Good job, coppers. Top notch case work - this is one for the books. They'll be teaching this in cop war college soon.

terrasodium
terrasodium
11 years ago

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist
John Maynard Keynes

thinkagainagain
thinkagainagain
11 years ago

Why use philosophy when everything else is working so well.

thinkagainagain
thinkagainagain
11 years ago

I both understand and appreciate your defense of philosophy. Unfortunately I was not waxing philosophic. It's not talking theory if it is reality.

thinkagainagain
thinkagainagain
11 years ago

Yet none of the present laws and none of the proposed laws and none of every law, rule, or regulation proposed on this site would prevent me from walking next door and borrowing my neighbor's gun. She would be more than happy to lend it to me.

Laws can be written ad infinitum but there are 300,000,000 guns at my disposal. In America if you can't get your hands on a gun you quite literally are the person who cannot get laid in a whorehouse. Law or no law.

GRUMPY25608
GRUMPY25608
11 years ago

Why dont the US state sue the gun manufactures like they did with the tobacco industries, they could even use simular arguements in some aspects. And you Yanks love to sue. I'm sure the gun makers would soon alter the way they conduct there business if it started to effect there profits

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

I actually just sent an email to CREDO, asking to be the first person to register as a non-gun owner. I think it would make a great webpage.

You heard it here first! And maybe last...

dewflirt
dewflirt
11 years ago

Maybe if everyone that bought a gun was forced to be an organ donor fewer people would buy guns. That or the donor shortage would be over :)

dewflirt
dewflirt
11 years ago

'Guns make the woods more interesting' says the man looking at a cardboard box. Apparently that's how boring the woods are, the wilderness is much improved by bullet holes. What a plonker. Can't help but wonder what people would think if others took to pootling about with swords hanging at their hips, or a machete slung over their shoulder. And 300 million guns in the country does not look much like gun control. Why even bother with a background check? Who doesn't have a gun there and if some don't, why do some need two or more? All sounds a bit slack to me and in a slack system things go missing, must be millions of guns floating about waiting for the wrong hands to find them. It also seems that along with owning a weapon, goes the idea that it's ok to dish out a bit of justice when it suits.

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

Saw this quote and comment after a story regarding the cop-killer cop in LA - "officers from the Hollywood division blazed at a pick-up truck in Torrance, thinking it was Dorner's grey Nissan, firing more than a dozen bullets, only to find they had hit two women who were delivering newspapers.
And there are those who argue that making sure the "good" guys have guns is necessary to protect the people?"

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

Which is worse - lots of guns or infected Romanian horse meat sold as beef? I'm inclined to go for a nice corn-fed beef cow and take my chances on being slaughtered by a nut with a gun and a plan. Lots of guns and beef in WI. Mass human slaughter isn't a huge factor here, but beef is sacrosanct!

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

Regarding Occupy, check out this chart. It looks impressive.

directory dot occupy dot net

AntiTheist666
AntiTheist666
11 years ago

An internal arms race in the USA? Well I am surprised. I blame John Wayne.

Automatic weapons, grenade launchers, drones and nukes? What next Robocop? Perhaps your own personal version? Or maybe an army of them? And while you’re there why not a fully armed automatic defence system built into your home?

I don’t mean to make light of a very serious and obviously painful subject but farce is often excruciatingly funny. Wholesale mass murder on regular basis is just not tenable whatever an individual’s rights may be. Greater good etc. I’m not criticizing here; I’m genuinely baffled why after so much killing the American people are not making what seems like an obvious decision in demanding and getting constitutional changes to individual rights to bear arms.

This culture of fear and weaponry to accommodate it will not end well for all of us unless those that see its insanity really make their voices heard. How many more Sandy Hooks, 10, 20, 100?

“I got a rat writ, writ for a rat” or something like that.

The Crucified One

Eniki520
Eniki520
11 years ago

I don't understand why law abiding gun owners would be against registration we all have to register our cars, phones, Internet access, hell you have to register to comment on this video!! a stolen gun is capable of killing more than a stolen car as it can be reloaded but a car can only take so much damage. and then when criminals get caught with guns we'd know where the gun came from.

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

Occupy seems to have raised awareness on some issues - the banksters are still in their nice offices instead of prison. There is a glimmer of hope, but I am not optimistic.

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

I don't see how one can even be accused of breaking a law when there is no law to break.

The government/military/fear-mongers are abusing the citizens of this country. They are not afraid of any citizen's guns. They are afraid of people understanding their plan to keep us under their collective thumb.

Our media reports what the gov't wants and keeps quiet about what the gov't says. The fourth estate is dead, and our constitution is very ill from lack of interest and abuse by the corporations and fascists running this country.

Geoffrey Grekin
Geoffrey Grekin
11 years ago

The Second amendment "The right to bear arms", has long since been distorted.
Historically it was an amendment that sought to protect the US from foreign invasion because the early american military demanded that individuals rally together as a militia groups to fight off both foreign and domestic threats.

Problem is that today, there is no longer any need for personal militia's and likewise the need to bear arms (muskets) to rally with. There is already a well trained military that uses a sophisticated arsenal to do its bidding (for good or bad)

As a result the amendment needs to be repealed, as it has nothing to do with personal protection, or the right to hunt animals or any other selfish personal desires.
Gun toting Americans who use the second amendment as justification have no clue as to its original meaning.

It's often said that people kill and guns are merely the tools. But having said that if the tools were restricted or abolished than killing of innocents would be increasingly more difficult, aka no school shooting that leave dozens of a children dead

It's time Americans citizens dropped their ridiculous obsession with dangerous weapons because it doesn't serve any positive good.
Ultimately a gun only serves one purpose and its a destructive one, Hopefully rational people will come to this same conclusion and shut down the gun crusaders of America.

Andi Mack
Andi Mack
11 years ago

i'm just gunna throw this out there... and i'll probably get crucified for it (especially because i'm Canadian).. but as a US citizen, you have a right to bare arms right? arms are just weapons. I understand owning a hunting rifle, maybe even a hand gun for protection. And maybe it's because of my cultural upbringing, but it seems to me that everyone is so focused on "protecting" this right for themselves, that they're willing to allow others to infringe on others right to life by trying to keep guns easily available. Just seems a little self centered to me, but like I said, I'm Canadian, and although i grew up in a border city, there are HUGE cultural differences between Canadians and Americans on the whole.

Judy Romeo
Judy Romeo
11 years ago

I can't even watch anymore of this crap. OMG! LOL Please go read the journals of the revolutionists!

Judy Romeo
Judy Romeo
11 years ago

Citations please!!! Whata bunch a sh*t!!

blahblah32
blahblah32
11 years ago

But the constitution says...
But the bible says...

Bloody ancient texts!!

pwndecaf
pwndecaf
11 years ago

Now I am off to a better documentary somewhere. There is learning to be done!

For philosophy, I recommend you Google Michael Sandel and the Justice series at Harvard. It is available there or on YouTube. Philosophy is not useless.

Lorna1
Lorna1
11 years ago

I thought I grew up in a place where guns were not. My best friends aunt shot herself last year. I knew her well. We all know she didnt plan it, it was just one week moment and in that weak moment a gun was there (not hers). Its not just guns been handed out to ''good people'', this acceptance and availability of guns means that seemingly perfectly reasonable people when they have a weak moment, fit of rage etc have guns to hand to blow theirs or anyone elses f#####g brains out. And its quite often not their own gun anyway. You're all gone mad if you think having a load of guns around is going to lead to a safer community.

4wheelNeal
4wheelNeal
11 years ago

I AM an AMERICAN and I want to keep ALL OF MY RIGHTS. I feel that our
forefathers new what they were doing by adding the amendments to OUR
beloved CONSTITUTION.They knew there were going to be modern improvements on guns and thats why THEY put in the words SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED in it.They were trying to curb GOVERNMENTAL TYRANEY.The PEOPLE are supposed to be the GOVERNING entinty.NOT the FEDS.
look what happins in China and other countrys that take RIGHTS from there citizens. Also I like my guns,and THEY have NEVER KILLED ANYONE.
I am a law biding citizen,why should I give up my rights to BEAR ARMS of any KIND.When laws already there arn't being enforced.WE DON'T NEED MORE LAWS....Shooting is a sport just like nascar, tennis or football,using a skill for PLEASURE and FUN.

imdwalrss
imdwalrss
11 years ago

This was a response to thinkagainagain. I thought it would post that way. I might add to said thinker that it seems to me that although the sixth amendment does not use the word "fair " (a word that in my opinion should be thrown out of all political and legal discussion) it pretty well describes conditions for a trial that preserve as much as possible the rights of the accused.

imdwalrss
imdwalrss
11 years ago

Not exactly, I would say. It starts with an explanation of the amendment's constitutional purpose. Then it states it as a right without limits--'shall not be infringed" (infringed=transgressed upon, violated, encroached upon. ) The only possible argument for limitation based on the text then becomes whether or not the militia clause states exclusive conditions for gun ownership rights, which is the constitutional argument being waged, at least by those who still care about the constitution.

However the Supreme Court has weighed in on this issue in the Heller decision of 2008. Scalia (for the court) stated that the Second “does not protect those weapons not typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,. . . .” but does protect "an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia."

As much as anything this seems to have been a practical decision on the court's part, an instance in which technology has outgrown the amendment. Ordinary citizens do not have the right to own SCUD missiles for example, and I don't think the argument that they do would get very far.

If stare decisis holds then, it seems to me the standard for limitation have been pretty well set, and the argument moves to what types of weapons fall outside constitutional protections. I'm not a gun owner, but the arguments of people who actually own these things and know them make a lot of sense to me. The chief Obummer says if he can save one life it is worth it, but really he is just deciding which lives to save when he proposes such things as limiting clip size. In my view, if government regulation prevents one person from protecting self and family, the loss is unacceptable.

thinkagainagain
thinkagainagain
11 years ago

There is no constitutional right to a fair trial- amendment or otherwise.

nada nada
nada nada
11 years ago

With these arguments you can claim the right to own a bazooka. Oh bazooka is too dangerous? NO! Bazooka doesn't kill, people do! And so on.

henrymart81
henrymart81
11 years ago

There's nothing to debate. The Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms, period, end of story. If you don't like it you can move to another country.

over the edge
over the edge
11 years ago

first off. as far as i know the proposals do not take away existing guns. just like full automatics the ones already in existence can be kept. and if the government starts mass round ups of guns i will defend your right to keep them. just like the 1994 assault weapons ban did not take the grandfathered guns away.
secondly. when people start repeating the "second amendment" nonsense they forget that their right to bear arms is already limited. the above mentioned full automatic ban as well as many other types of arms are already limited so that does not fly with me. also the claim that this is just the first step to taking all guns is nonsense.
as i had to state on the other recent gun doc. this subject is not about atheism/theism so please stay on topic

Sum1uallno
Sum1uallno
11 years ago

Ok time for a smoke, beer, and some target practice.

MicknotDick
MicknotDick
11 years ago

So...this is what I hear living in the States.

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people"

True, but guns make it much easier.

"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"

True, unless you stop bad guys from having guns in the first place.

"It's my right to have a weapon"

True, but it's your right to have eighteen baby mommas too.

"The government is going take my right away"

Why? Are you an inner city a**hole who bought a gun for $50. bucks of your crack whore's brother?

The NRA used to lobby to protect us and restrict arms to people that shouldn't have them. Now they lobby to sell guns.

The inner city problem demands that we be more creative in problem solving, not only be concerned about ourselves. It's like Congress...we have to work together.

Wake the F**k up!

robertallen1
robertallen1
11 years ago

One way or the other, no one either in the documentary or in these comments has come up with any practical and potentially effective solution to the problem. Maybe there just isn't one.

Paul Gloor
Paul Gloor
11 years ago

Effective background checks, ownership and safety training courses and biofeedback fire control systems.... should nip the problem for responsible owners...