7% of adults in the United States say that at some time in their life, they have thought about shooting someone else : science

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

The other 93% have already shot someone else

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 8 points 6 days ago

Can we stop pretending everyone doesn't do this?

[–] GraniteM@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

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?

[–] enphurgen@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Id bet that in recent years that figure is much higher

[–] catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

Thought crimes.

[+] AnalogRegression@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

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[–] username123@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[+] AnalogRegression@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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[–] username123@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

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.

[–] skaffi@infosec.pub 1 points 6 days ago

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.

[–] sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Do we want to arm the proletariat or ban all guns? Its so hard to tell where Lemmy is at on guns sometimes.

[–] Frenchgeek@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

Yeah, it's as if Lemmy isn't one monolithic hive mind...

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 116 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Only 7%? 🤔

[–] Steve@communick.news 58 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

[–] baahb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Which is a subset who would talk to a pollster in the first place

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[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The other 93% have shot someone.

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[–] CombatWombat@feddit.online 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[+] etherphon@piefed.world 99 points 1 week ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

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[–] Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Call of the void

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[–] BartyDeCanter@piefed.social 15 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Tiral@lemmy.world 55 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Only 7%? Yeah there are a lot of people 100% lying.

[–] GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'd say 93% are lying.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

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.

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[–] AlecSadler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 44 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's way lower than expected and I suspect it is just because they didn't want to be on record.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Survey: how many people are willing to be edgy on a survey?

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[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 week ago

Yep, what a load of bollocks, the only thing this study is useful for is why would you do this.

[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And 93% of adults are liars.

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[–] luthis@lemmy.nz 33 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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.

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[–] kobra@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago

lol I immediately thought of this:

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[–] muhyb@programming.dev 31 points 1 week ago

Thinking about it is normal, not doing it is being civilized.

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I don't know how you could be older than 12 and not wanted to shoot someone ever.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why is it so low?

[–] psivchaz@reddthat.com 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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...

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 6 days ago

I think the headline flattened the question. Most people have thought about it happening, I'd wager, but less thought about doing it.

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[–] Hobo@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

That's wild that 93% of Americans have never driven in New Jersey.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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?

[–] thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

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.

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[–] Siethron@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] Mpatch@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

This js just invalid data.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

How many think about shooting themselves? 🤔

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[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Hell I don't think an hour goes by that I don't think of shooting someone

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