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So, I've been pondering over this for a bit. Do you think US Football being our dominant sport is why we have so much gun violence?

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Blade2.0

Member
Or more violence in general compared to other western nations.

I've thought about this for quite a bit, now. Maybe I should apply for a research grant to study it further, but I've wondered, since learning about CTE, could that be one of the causes for our higher gun violence levels(and how we seem to be a more violent country than other western nations in general)?

Why do i feel this way? Well other countries with big gun cultures have very little gun violence. Places like Switzerland (we should adopt a lot of their regulations) love their guns and have national shooting days, but you almost never hear of mass shootings or even gun homicides from them. However, in the states, you hear of a mass shooting almost everyday, and this year we've had more mass shootings per day than there are days in the year. We're on pace for 700 mass shootings by the end of the year. So while our deregulation causes many issues that expound mass shootings I believe an underlying issue for them is caused by CTE and our football centric culture.

These are the symptoms of CTE:

Symptoms​

There are no specific symptoms that have been clearly linked to CTE. Some of the possible symptoms can occur in many other conditions. In the people who were confirmed to have CTE at autopsy, symptoms have included cognitive, behavioral, mood and motor changes.

Cognitive impairment​

  • Trouble thinking.
  • Memory loss.
  • Problems with planning, organization and carrying out tasks.

Behavioral changes​

  • Impulsive behavior.
  • Aggression.

Mood disorders​

  • Depression or apathy.
  • Emotional instability.
  • Substance misuse.
  • Suicidal thoughts or behavior.

Motor symptoms​

  • Problems with walking and balance.
  • Parkinsonism, which causes shaking, slow movement and trouble with speech.
  • Motor neuron disease, which destroys cells that control walking, speaking, swallowing and breathing.
Many times we hear "my child would never do something like this" or "He was a great neighbor, I would never think he'd do something like that." Mass shooters tend to be depressed, show emotional instability, have bad impulse control, and are aggressive. Obviously, many times it's just a crazy psychopath that wants to kill people, but has there actually been a study that delves into our sports culture and how it impacts our day to day living? Why is the USA filled with more psychopaths willing to shoot others than anywhere else on the globe? We, as a society, start doing full contact Football very young. Some as low as 12 years old and possibly many that start even before that. Could we be causing so much head trauma to our youths that it has a cascading effect that reverberates throughout the whole of our society and culture? Why are we more violent prone than other western nations?

I'm not saying this is the absolute root cause or anything, but I believe it could have a profound effect on our gun culture and society as a whole. Maybe a study could focus on aggression levels in adolescents that participate in full contact sports vs those that only participate in less intense sporting activities. See if, on average, there are more violent tendencies with the youth that participate in full contact vs those that don't.

Like I said, I'm no doctor or sociologist, but I do think there could be some incite to be gleaned by researching this further. What are your thoughts?
 
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West Texas CEO

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
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West Texas CEO

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
But why not?
We have gun violence in the U.S. because we have access to guns.

They don't have that in the U.K. because they don't have access to guns.
But they do have access to knives.
So what do they do?
They like to stab people.
Profusely.
They have knife violence instead of gun violence because of what they have access to.


But, if you took away their access to knives, it would simply move over to toothpick or spork violence.

Pretty simple, no?

It's all about access.
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
You have mass shootings because everyone in America has a gun and some people are whackjobs.

In the UK we have waves of stabbings because only farmers have guns. People will use what they can to kill people. If knives were banned it would be pointed sticks.
 

willothedog

Member
You have mass shootings because everyone in America has a gun and some people are whackjobs.

In the UK we have waves of stabbings because only farmers have guns. People will use what they can to kill people. If knives were banned it would be pointed sticks.

I wouldn't say only farmers have guns and it is a criminal offence to carry a blade over a certain size in public without a damn good reason :lollipop_confused:
 

Blade2.0

Member
We have gun violence in the U.S. because we have access to guns.

They don't have that in the U.K. because they don't have access to guns.
But they do have access to knives.
So what do they do?
They like to stab people.
Profusely.
They have knife violence instead of gun violence because of what they have access to.


But, if you took away their access to knives, it would simply move over to toothpick or spork violence.

Pretty simple, no?

It's all about access.
Except violent crime as a whole is more in the USA across the board. There's more to it than access. If your theory was correct, knife violence would be comparative to US gun violence...but it just isn't.

 

Blade2.0

Member
You have mass shootings because everyone in America has a gun and some people are whackjobs.

In the UK we have waves of stabbings because only farmers have guns. People will use what they can to kill people. If knives were banned it would be pointed sticks.
But why do we have more whackjobs? There is more to it than "Americans just love killing more". And I think research into this might help. Most people that have had CTE usually have violent ends. Chris Benoit and all the older NFL stars normally did something irrevocably violent and were diagnosed with severe CTE right after.
 

Blade2.0

Member




I'm not the only one thinking along these lines and some studies have even linked football with more aggressive behavior off the field. were they like that before the game or was it the game that changed them into it. it isn't a stupid question to ask.
 
Except you can't tell me how my IQ is worse for asking this question. Maybe think a little yourself before dunking on people.
HbLlT7W.jpg

"Currently, the most ancient traces of violence that have been found are those resulting from the practice of cannibalism. Marks of disarticulation, emaciation (the stripping of flesh), fracturing and calcination have been observed on Palaeolithic human bones. This relatively rare practice – which appeared 780,000 years ago and has been documented in the Sierra de Atapuerca mountains in Spain"
Source

Rocks and sticks, or Handguns and RPG's, I'd say American football has absolutely DICK to to with excess violence and more about human nature

I'll leave you to ponder your own IQ level and whether asking for that research grant into this topic is worth it or not
 
It’s a valid conjecture, but anecdotally looking at the history and mental state of a lot of well known shooters doesn’t seem to bear this theory out. You might be able to find some examples through research, but I don’t think it goes very far to explain the broader trend.
 
The US is a much bigger country with more people. There’s always going to be a percentage of any population that goes nuts. Put the two together and that percentage is just naturally larger. Plus I would say the digital age/social media has made it even easier for some people to feel like outcasts in society, which doesn’t help.
 

Blade2.0

Member
The US is a much bigger country with more people. There’s always going to be a percentage of any population that goes nuts. Put the two together and that percentage is just naturally larger. Plus I would say the digital age/social media has made it even easier for some people to feel like outcasts in society, which doesn’t help.
If population size was the only determining factor, then India and China should always be worse when it comes to crime, but they aren't. There's more to it than population size.

 
I'm from Cape Town, South Africa and we don't have American Football as a sport anywhere in our city or country yet Cape Town has one of the highest murder rates in the world. And yes its easy to get a gun in Cape Town if you know the right people. Hell they'll even gift wrap it for you. Cape Town also has a gang problem, that along with the high unemployment and poverty rate forces people to commiting crime to survive.

All this has nothing to do with sports.

In the state's isn't it easy to get a gun? Take that away and you'll go a long way to curbing mass shootings.
 
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AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
No. Football is not why we have fun violence.


We have spent a couple of generations telling people they don’t matter. Or that life is valuable.
 
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