7% of adults in the United States say that at some time in their life, they have thought about shooting someone else
https://medresearch.umich.edu/health-lab/thoughts-dont-kill-people-study-suggests-options-keeping-guns-doing-soOpen linkView original on feddit.uk184
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Only 7%? 🤔
That's how many are willing to admit it to a pollster, which is a subset of who thought about it. We don't know how big the larger set is.
Which is a subset who would talk to a pollster in the first place
Yes there is also the subset of people who've thought about it, and might tell a pollster, but avoid pollsters if at all possible.
The other 93% have shot someone.
Without thinking about it first, it seems.
That way it's a crime of passion 🤓
The text of the question seems to be "I have thought about shooting another person or multiple people" and 7% responded "Strongly agree/agree/somewhat agree." Looking at the 160 page pdf questionnaire, I'm guessing most respondents deduced the correct answer and didn't want to cast aspersions on any of their other habits.
Call of the void
Absolutely, there’s a huge difference between thinking about doing something and then letting the thought go compared to doing anything on the path to actually doing it.
I often used to have intrusive violent or sexual thoughts about strangers I'd see out in the world. They were unwanted and I found them horrifying, and of course would never do anything like that to anyone. Medication eventually helped.
Related
Only 7%? Yeah there are a lot of people 100% lying.
I'd say 93% are lying.
Mm, you can fixate on killing someone without using a gun.
You could use a knife, a rope, poison, there are any number of things you can use to kill someone.
Maybe that 93% just very specifically envisions harming others without guns!
Lol no, many of them are lying.
Woodchipper, car bomb, garbage compactor, fire, a single large rock, multiple smaller rocks, open windows, closed windows and some force... The list goes on and on
Update:
A bit exotic perhaps, but strapped to a rocket and hurled at a building.
I choose butt plug, what do I win!?
Diarrhea.
Yeah it all depends on the wording and how honest they are. Sometimes I’m frustrated enough to get all sorts of dark thought to inflict on them. But I have impulse control.
One of the reasons we need better gun control is too many people don’t. Or maybe too many people live in fear enough to escalate to deadly violence
That's way lower than expected and I suspect it is just because they didn't want to be on record.
Survey: how many people are willing to be edgy on a survey?
People answer surveys as their ideal self not honestly. So yea most people, considering the constant virtue signaling about how non violent they are (lol to be proud of non violence while a pedophile rules you is a definitely a moral choice), are going to answer these surveys saying they are non violent.
They are the most violent among us and they always have justification.
Yep, what a load of bollocks, the only thing this study is useful for is why would you do this.
And 93% of adults are liars.
This only make sense of the question was while caring a loaded gun.
As an anti-gun anti-american pacific redneck, I have also thought about shooting people, at least once per week. There's only 3 people alive I would actually ever shoot though, given the chance.
I would not actually shoot anyone but I have certinaly thought about it. Maybe more murder in general. Its called getting very mad at people doing very bad things. I think 93% are either lying or their imaginations are more hands on or maybe less.
Does grenade launcher count as shooting
Not if you're aiming in just a general ballroom direction
Mortar fire might work better.
Far more efficient really
lol I immediately thought of this:
As a Canadian, I have never thought about shooting anyone, but I have thought about people being shot by someone else who is in no way affiliated with me! Lol
If America didn't have such a fetish for guns it would be %7 of people thought about stabbing someone or something
Knives banned: "7% of people in the US have considered forking someone else".
Fork you!
Thinking about it is normal, not doing it is being civilized.
I don't know how you could be older than 12 and not wanted to shoot someone ever.
I can honestly say I've never wanted to shoot, stab, or otherwise greviously injure someone. I've gotten into some fistfights when emotions have gotten out of hand, but this is maybe why its important that everyone is not running around with a way to blast holes in people.
Hand me a loaded gun and put me in a room with Putin, and i'll not even blink when i shoot him.
Good point
Wow, there really are Nazis here on the fediverse.
The president of the free world is a child rapist.
So, some people may not trust others that insist upon this answer.
Why is it so low?
Maybe they asked like, "SERIOUSLY thought about shooting someone" or perhaps "thought about shooting someone at a time that you actually had the means to do it" or even "made mental plans to shoot someone."
Or maybe I'm more of a psychopath than I thought I was. Like I don't actually want to hurt anyone, and I don't even own a gun, but the number of times it crossed my mind...
I think the headline flattened the question. Most people have thought about it happening, I'd wager, but less thought about doing it.
That's wild that 93% of Americans have never driven in New Jersey.
When I was doing my firearms training, one of the first things they had us do was think about shooting someone else… and then they taught us how to avoid doing so.
Does that mean only 7% of American adults have had decent firearms training?
Based on how the question is phrased, it can be very open to interpretation.
I've thought all kinds of sick thoughts along the lines of "I could push this person in front of the arriving metro", or "I'm holding a kitchen knife, if I were to stab the other person in the kitchen there's nothing they could do about it". When I was in the army, and we were at the shooting range, I could get thoughts about how easy it would be to shoot a whole load of people. Of course, I never consider doing those things. I'm talking about people I would lay down my life to protect, and I still get these thoughts.
I was very relieved when I read somewhere that this is fairly normal, and some researchers ascribed it to a protection mechanism: Their theory (which they provided some evidence for), was that be evoking these thoughts, your brain makes you more aware of acute potential dangers, so that you can act more carefully to avoid them. Basically, by becoming conscious that you could push/stab/shoot someone, you handle your movement/knife/firearm more carefully to avoid doing so by accident.
So: Have I thought about shooting someone? Plenty of times. Have I considered shooting someone? Never.
That is an interesting thought exercise, I've gone through a few different firearm trainings through the years and never gone through that exercise.
But to speak to the original topic.... Yeah I've definitely had that thought. Never seriously, but ya know, intrusive thoughts and all that.
Only 7% makes me think people are interpreting the question as "would you admit on the phone to seriously considering shooting another person".
I suspect that few people have actually gone through that.
If I ever get mad enough at someone to picture killing them it's usually a blunt force weapon, so I get the low value on shooting here.
The other 93% have already shot someone else
This js just invalid data.
How many think about shooting themselves? 🤔
I was in this statistic and I didn't like it. 😥
Depends on whether or not they consider themselves people
Oh hell.
(loling because of who you're replying to, btw)
Can we stop pretending everyone doesn't do this?
Hell I don't think an hour goes by that I don't think of shooting someone
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To be fair, there is someone who 100% deserves to be shot
If you've never thought about shooting someone, then on what basis can you even say that shooting someone is wrong?
Pollster: Have you ever thought about shooting someone?
Me: Well even if I never had before, now that you've asked the question and put the idea in my head, I have, so thanks for that!
Pollster: Follow-up question: Have you ever thought of a pink elephant?
Id bet that in recent years that figure is much higher
Thought crimes.
Have you like seen any movies played any video games like what?
Only 7% on any given day, right?
With someone, you mean a really long list?
Why wouldn't it?
Ooh and the question specifically mentions "someone else." By the time I scrolled down enough, I forgot about that.
Anyway I have both considered offing myself, and on a night where a dude scared me on a dark street I wished I had a gun. I guess that's not the same as wanting to shoot him. I just wanted to have something that would make him as scared of me as I was of him. I just wanted to be left alone.
That counts as a yes
Here is the actual study, and the questionnaire they used can be found attached as Supplement 1
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2846565
just one?
call me when you find out how many have lists.
Approximately 1/3 of Americans own guns.
7% seems low just because so far as I can tell it's 7% of adults in American not 7% of those who own guns.
I haven't ever fantasized about shooting someone. Throttling them to death? Yeah. Dropping a piano on someone? Certainly. Shooting them? No. For one thing I don't want to clean up a shooting. But for another at the point where you're wanting to kill someone or maim them a gun is just impersonal and hands off. I'm not a murderer. I would absolutely have to be pushed to that point.
But I have met quite a few people who really do just want to shoot someone. They are looking for a reason.
When was this poll taken?
Years ago, or within the last few years?
Sounds like you need psychiatric help. The good news is that if someone is trying to control you psychologically, they'll help free you from that as well.
The logic isn't logic-ing. I don't mean to antagonize you out of some schadenfreude or malice, but I do believe that sometimes passively accepting nonsense can be a form of tacit approval which becomes enablement. It's a normal thing to have a desire to construct a narrative that is gentle to ourselves, but such a construction needs to stay as close to reality as one can possibly muster, which can be difficult. Oftentimes the harshest isn't even the acceptance of a terrible situation, but that our own imperfect decision-making might've enabled some aspect of those situations and could be improved. I don't doubt for a second that your mental health journey has been hell, nor that you have had toxic people around you, nor that professionals and close ones have failed you. This including the strong possibilty of bad prescriptions and their side effects. What I am saying is that you don't have to go to the same professionals, you don't have to get the same prescriptions (or possibly any, depending), and you should fight harder to keep your own agency. Finding good psychiatrists, good therapists, good advice, and good support isn't easy and can take a while but it can be done. At least consider the possibilty, you sound plenty smart to do so. Fully removing yourself from the equation - however relieving of inwardly-eroding negative feelings of guilt or sadness, shame, anger, et cetera - only serves to dig you further in the hole.
Hey man, that sounds like a rough time. I'm sorry.
Have you ever talked to a mental health professional before, or perhaps just told your doctor about what you describe here? The reason I ask is that things like the feeling that other people can read your thoughts is a typical sign of mental health conditions that can be dangerous to both yourself as well as those you care about. But even if you are psychologically a 100% well, no one should have to live under such threats and control as what you describe, and you would need help in that regard.
Remember that you can trust your doctor. It is their duty to help you, it's their job to care about your well-being, and they have sworn an oath to do no harm. If you don't know where else to turn, then you can always talk completely confidentially to your doctor, and they well help you, or guide you towards whoever can. And if you don't like your current doctor, then remember that you are always completely free to change to any other doctor of your choosing.
I wish you all the best.
A lot of would-be film directors out there!
i had thoughts like that, then later realised my ex boss doesnt deserve a fast death
Do we want to arm the proletariat or ban all guns? Its so hard to tell where Lemmy is at on guns sometimes.
Yeah, it's as if Lemmy isn't one monolithic hive mind...
If it weren't with a firearm it'd be with a crossbow, a knife, ball peen hammer, concrete saw, etc.
Thinking about shooting’s kinda weird tho. Like, some won’t shut the fk up and you’re thinking about slapping them or strangling them? Yes lol
How it is actually /j: https://youtu.be/HCSlmrPXPc0?t=8