Is the real problem meds, or guns?

[lawrocket 3]

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Why doesn't the argument cut both ways?

Because that would be consistent.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[ManagingPrime 0]

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Let's see if you can complete the picture here:

99.9% of people who own guns never commit a violent crime. Therefore, guns do not cause people to become violent criminals.

99.9% of people who are prescribed psychoactive drugs never commit a violent crime. Therefore, ___________ (fill in the blank).

Why doesn't the argument cut both ways?

Don

Intution tells me that more than 1 in 1000 people on psychoactive drugs have commited a violent crime.

...same for gun owners. However, I'll bet dollars to dimes that the "drug" group has higher incidences of violence.

Not sure about the source of this data, but this study was on the first page of a google search for "study on violent behavior and psychoactive drugs"

http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/education/violence-and-suicide-booklet.pdf

[billvon 2,427]

>Intution tells me that more than 1 in 1000 people on psychoactive drugs have
>commited a violent crime.

I don't think it's that high but I do think it's higher than the general population. Because although they do not cause crime, they are associated with mental illness which is also associated with crime. (As a corollary, hoarding weapons is also associated with mental illness, which is also associated with crime, although again the guns themselves are not the cause of the crime.)

[OHCHUTE 0]

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Also, not eating enough protein could be a contributing factor

true, vegetarians can randomly flip on you without warning

The guy that shot himself in the room down the hall from my room was not getting enough protein. He was drinking a lot of beer and eating snack food. lucky I was away at the time. Many years ago.

If you had an opportunity to travel in a communist country as I have you will know the effects of being protein starved. Your brain goes to mush. Beer and potatoes doesn't do much for your brain.

[rushmc 18]

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This sounds cynical, but it wouldn't surprise me if cases like this are about as easy to predict and control as the weather. I don't think it's a matter of "If only his parents (or society) did X."
Also, while I believe kids are over-medicated for behavior problems, I don't think this the meds are turning them into destructive monsters. (Even if their defense attorney says otherwise) If every kid (or even one percent of every kid) on meds went went on killing sprees, this would be happening every day.
Also, the list of killer-kids-on-meds sounds scary, but its possible that they had serious behavior problems to begin with, which in turn prompted the adults in their lives to seek treatment. Maybe the only "bad" thing about the medicine is that it didn't work.
Just my two cents.

I agree with you totally

and that in the end is really the point

So it boils down to what we as a people are willing to giving up for a "feeling" of faux security

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 18]

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Let's see if you can complete the picture here:

99.9% of people who own guns never commit a violent crime. Therefore, guns do not cause people to become violent criminals.

99.9% of people who are prescribed psychoactive drugs never commit a violent crime. Therefore, ___________ (fill in the blank).

Why doesn't the argument cut both ways?

Don

Because Mr Emanuel said a politician can never let a good tragedy go to waste?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[skypuppy 1]

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>Intution tells me that more than 1 in 1000 people on psychoactive drugs have
>commited a violent crime.

I don't think it's that high but I do think it's higher than the general population. Because although they do not cause crime, they are associated with mental illness which is also associated with crime. (As a corollary, hoarding weapons is also associated with mental illness, which is also associated with crime, although again the guns themselves are not the cause of the crime.)

I haven;t heard of hoarding weapons being associated with mental illness. You got a study on that? Hoarding cats, maybe, but not guns...

If some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead.
Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone