I’m not referring to rich/poor necessarily. I think cultural relativity and views on violence factor in. Hence the relatively low rate of assault/homicide in Japan
I’ve also seen a drunken idiot send themselves to the hospital 
Once again, societal differentiation. This happens here, but it’s uncommon if you’re vigilant. For those who fall victim (I know a few, one of whom was in a coma) the perpetrators were all punished harshly (jailtime).
What do I propose someone do? Within the context of the situations I refer to none of the parties were sober. These situational outcomes occured at parties, “doofs” (illigal, unregulated gatherings), nightclubs and the likes. A lot of these “king punches” in Australia occur within the confines of these environments. I’d like to think no one is carrying a firearm when drunk/high and discharging it in the middle of a crowded place.
Getting cornered and beaten up in a dark alleyway does occur here, but this IS typically reduced to rough (not necessarily poor) suburbs/youth gang violence.
I think the eye for an eye statement is flawed. If the individual isn’t mentally competent (not through inebriation, but say a severely autistic individual flails about and breaks someones jaw) I don’t believe he ought to have his jaw broken. He/she can’t comprehend what they’ve done and won’t understand why they’re being maimed.
I knew a few types of gun owners in the USA. I even owned a .22 pellet gun and I would regularly go shooting at ranges for fun. There were the “playing tough guys”, the self defence advocates, the conspiracy nuts (one of whom had been to juvie and should have never been able to acquire a weapon), the average Joe etc. There is no “typical gun owner”. I’m not a fan of how harshly I tend to get attacked whenever I’m slightly critical of the way gun ownership is in America.
Not to state I’m in the right or wrong, but American gun culture is unique to America. It’s not as if other countries look at your gun related homicide/suicide rate in envy. I don’t think it’s merely gun ownership that causes this, rather the culture surrounding gun ownership, the types of guns owned, enforced safety protocols etc largely factor in. Why do YOU think America’s gun homicide rate is so far above the majority of the developed world @BrickHead?
There you go… This is (in my opinion) the answer, no need to be facetious.
I have
Question, you’ve had suicidal ideation during your teenage years. Do you think owning a pistol would have helped with regards to this? Did you ever inflict harm upon yourself or attempt suicide? If so, once again… Do you think access to a firearm would have helped or hurt the situation?
Henceforth one of the reasons I believe safeguarding needs to be kept in mind with regards to firearm access. Suicide is a tricky topic, the right to die advocates have a point when/if someone is terminally ill and I’d tend to agree with them for late stage ALS etc.
But what about mental illness, there are those who aren’t ever going to come right, they want to die… So should they be able to? That’s a topic for another post all-together (euthanasia).