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?
The other 93% have already shot someone else
Id bet that in recent years that figure is much higher
Thought crimes.
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…
That’s wild that 93% of Americans have never driven in New Jersey.
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…
Found a 7 percenter ^
With someone, you mean a really long list?
If it weren’t with a firearm it’d be with a crossbow, a knife, ball peen hammer, concrete saw, etc.
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.
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.
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.
Only 7%? Yeah there are a lot of people 100% lying.
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
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:
- drum of boiling water
- large cat exhibit at the zoo
- thrown from a highway bridge
- snake pit
- drowning in a cesspool
- explosive butt plug
- fire ant
- flying with Tom Hanks in a movie
A bit exotic perhaps, but strapped to a rocket and hurled at a building.
I choose butt plug, what do I win!?
Diarrhea.
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.
I’ve thought about all sorts of horrible things I’d never even contemplate actually doing. I’m sure I’m not alone.
Call of the void
Oh, thank goodness :)
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.
That sounds a bit scary, glad you found some relief. Yeah the key thing is self control and of course recognizing they are bad in the first place. Mine are fairly random, like my brain just likes to remind me what horrors the human mind is capable of for some reason.
