When looking for answers, make sure to ask the right questions on gun-violence.

[DetlefK]

11. It might be as simple/complex as a change in culture.

There recently was an article about gun-ownership in Switzerland. The country has no standing army, instead everyone is member of a militia and gets issued an assault-rifle he takes home after training, to be ready for war at a moment's notice.

The difference to the US? The attitude. The Swiss regard those guns/rifles not as personal tools: These rifles are intended for defending the country. This is not your rifle, this is your country's rifle. Using it for anything else is unpatriotic.

Culture in the US on the other hand is more focused on the individual, on the liberties and freedoms of the individual. The individual can do whatever the fuck it wants and you better not get in its way. Weapons and their use are part of this freedom, therefore they are a legitimate way of dealing with the individual's problems.




The drop in gun-violence might simply result from a subconscious shift from a libertarian attitude to a social attitude.

How did the influence of libertarianism on US-culture/-mindset change over the last decades?