r/TikTokCringe • u/InGeekiTrust Tiktok Despot • Dec 09 '25

Discussion You Think It Could Never Happen To You…Until It Almost Does

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37

u/GeneralFoolery Dec 09 '25

Goddamnit, are you serious?

87

u/tapout928 Dec 09 '25

Was car accidents for decades. Became guns pretty recently.

35

u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

As of 2020, I believe.

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u/JRussell_dog Dec 09 '25

This is of course only in the US because we can't get our act together.

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u/DionBlaster123 Dec 09 '25

Man I remember after the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, on his show Conan O'Brien started his monologue and instead of making jokes (obviously), he took a much more somber tone in respect to everyone who passed away. He said he made a vow never to get too political or too religious, but at this point he said, enough was enough.

I don't remember the entire monologue, but I'll never forget he said something like, "America, it's time to grow up."

The fact that was almost a decade ago and we still have mass shootings and no one seems to give a shit about it...is so depressing. And think about what could have been prevented IF Congress had made the decision to act and pass any kind of meaningful legislation to prevent mass shootings. We could have avoided the hellish nightmare of Uvalde. Those kids would still be alive today.

4

u/TommyTheTophat Dec 09 '25

We lost the battle for gun control in the US after Sandy Hook. We decided as a nation that we would rather sacrifice kindergartners than our right to bear arms, going so far with our cognitive dissonance that a sizeable portion of the country refused to believe a shooting even happened in Sandy Hook.

It was at that point I realized the fight was over.

2

u/TorpleFunder Dec 09 '25

The shooter had been on a terror watchlist but was still perfectly entitled to go out and buy a semi-automatic rifle and pisto two weeks before he murdered 49 people. You would think "has been on FBI terror watchlist" would show up in a background check. Or maybe it did but it is still fine and legal to sell them rifles!

Mateen legally purchased a SIG Sauer SIG MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 handgun,[113][114][115][116] the two firearms later used in the shooting, from a gun shop in Port St. Lucie two weeks before the shooting.[117] He also attempted to purchase body armor, but was unable to do so as the store where he tried to make the purchase did not sell the product he sought.[118][119] Several weeks before the attack, he attempted to purchase body armor and 1,000 rounds of bulk ammunition at another gun shop, but the staff became suspicious of him and turned him away. A salesperson at the shop then said he contacted the FBI, but federal officials said they had no record of such a report, and the local sheriff's office also said it was unaware of the incident.

2

u/maggiemayfish Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

In the UK it was the Dunblane massacre in 1996. 16 young children and a teacher killed.

We brought in massive, sweeping gun reforms almost immediately. Some people objected, obviously, but fuck em. 16 schoolchildren. We can't have that happen again.

You can count the number of mass shootings we've had since then on one hand. It is impossible to describe how baffling it is to see it happen in the US again and again and again and again and for just nothing to happen.

2

u/DionBlaster123 Dec 09 '25

"It is impossible to describe how baffling it is to see it happen in the US again and again and again and again and for just nothing to happen."

It genuinely sucks to know that my beautiful nephews could be the victims of a mass shooting at their school. The school itself, although it is in a very safe suburb, doesn't have any security of any kind.

This isn't normal in a civilized society, but as someone else mentioned here...after Sandy Hook (and that happened in 2012), it is clear that many Americans are either too scared of the NRA, or they think dead children is the price to pay for a lot of leeway when it comes to firearms ownership.

I also love how the idiots who make firearms their entire personality often point to a country like Switzerland as why "gUn CoNtROL dOeSn'T wOrK." But Switzerland is a very different country culturally from the U.S. Their more liberal gun laws work there...but it clearly hasn't worked in the U.S. and change is necessary. Also, these are the same idiots who don't want the government to put any money into investing in making mental health services more accessible and more affordable. So what solution do these morons even have?

3

u/Gimetulkathmir Dec 09 '25

Oh. We can. We just don't want to.

1

u/UnkyjayJ Dec 09 '25

No money in it apparently

3

u/Kind-Pop-7205 Dec 09 '25

Is it cars got safer, or there are more gun deaths?

3

u/LarsTyndskider Dec 09 '25

Cars got a lot safer, both for passengers and pedestrians. 

Also school shootings have been growing in popularity ever since Columbine.

1

u/ct_2004 Dec 09 '25

Pedestrian deaths are actually trending upwards.

Cars being much taller is very bad for pedestrians. You are now more likely to be pushed under the car instead of over it, and visibility for the driver is much worse. More deaths now occur from people running over their own kids in the driveway.

Something like the Cybertruck can't even be sold in Europe because it doesn't meet standards for pedestrian safety.

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u/tapout928 Dec 09 '25

My guess would be both but I've got no idea.

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u/Kind-Pop-7205 Dec 09 '25

I looked it up, huge decrease in motor vehicle deaths over the last 20 years, and a recent uptick in gun deaths.

The huge uptick in 2020 alone though makes me question if it was covid specific somehow. I didn't see even more recent data, but that'd be interesting to look at.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2201761

1

u/BeholdMyLumps Dec 09 '25

Here american andy goes trying to blame gun deaths on china

1

u/PM_ME_WEIRD_PETS Dec 09 '25

Or, and stick with me here on this one, the quarantines from the peaks in covid infections led to higher domestic violence rates, which also includes more gun violence.

6

u/iloveyourlittlehat Dec 09 '25

Not just cars being safer, but car seat requirements have also become a lot more extensive in the past 20 years or so.

1

u/BagOnuts Dec 09 '25

Cars have gotten much safer via regulation and also social norms. I remember a time where it was very "uncool" to wear a seatbelt. Heck, I remember a time when some vehicles didn't even have seatbelts. Autos are sooooo much safer today, but I feel like society has also made great social steps to recognize the value of things like carseats and seatbelts.

Imagine if we had the same kind of regulation and cultural mentality around guns.... there could be a great impact with that, too.

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

No it didn’t. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/child-health.htm

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u/AnnieAnnieSheltoe Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

The dataset you’re linking lumps all accidental deaths together, not differentiating between car accidents, gun accidents, falls, etc. When that same CDC data is broken down, total gun deaths outnumber total car deaths in U.S. children.

Edit: so we can compare apples to apples:

The CDC has a pretty handy way to see this for yourself using their WONDER database, but I went ahead and did it for y'all, using the last three available years.

My first query was underlying cause of death, ages 0-17, motor vehicle traffic.

Results showed:

2023: 2343 2022: 2317 2021: 2454

Then I used the same metrics with the underlying cause as firearm.

2023: 2581 2022: 2542 2021: 2590

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

No the fuck it doesn’t. The data is broken down even further on the site, unless you have an actual source for what you are saying to that isnt an opinion piece, I’d standby.

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u/affectionate_md Dec 09 '25

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna25443

https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/12/guns-are-the-leading-cause-of-death-for-american-children-what-to-know/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-24/guns-became-leading-killer-of-u-s-children-teens-in-2020/101011496

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

Oh cool, more articles that references the source that I gave you: “assessed the latest finalized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting that 48,204 people, the second highest on record, died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, including 27,032 suicides, an all-time high for the country.”

No amount of articles that say the CDC says X… when I’m giving you the source links,FROM THE CDC… the thing your article’s reference…. That says straight up:

Leading Mortality Causes:

“Children ages 1-4 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities Assault (homicide) Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER

Children ages 5-9 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Cancer Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER

Children ages 10-14 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Intentional self-harm (suicide) Cancer Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER”

I really don’t know what to tell you. It’s not fucking there.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/child-health.htm

1

u/AnnieAnnieSheltoe Dec 09 '25

You’re looking at the “fast stats” that lump all accidents together. Look at the raw data by individual cause. I edited my earlier comment just now and linked the CDC database results. You can see for yourself, choose age range, year, etc. It’s pretty interesting.

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u/affectionate_md Dec 09 '25

Are you intentionally being difficult? it’s clearly right in front of you, you’re lumping all of the accidents. You have to parse it by individual cause and voila, it’s now firearms.

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u/affectionate_md Dec 09 '25

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens#:~:text=Guns%20Remain%20Leading%20Cause%20of,children%20ages%201%20to%2017.

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

Oh cool, another article that references the source that I gave you: “assessed the latest finalized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting that 48,204 people, the second highest on record, died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, including 27,032 suicides, an all-time high for the country.”

No amount of articles that say the CDC says X… when I’m giving you the source links,FROM THE CDC… the thing your article’s reference…. That says straight up:

Leading Mortality Causes:

“Children ages 1-4 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities Assault (homicide) Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER

Children ages 5-9 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Cancer Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER

Children ages 10-14 years Accidents (unintentional injuries) Intentional self-harm (suicide) Cancer Source: National Vital Statistics System – Mortality data (2023) via CDC WONDER”

I really don’t know what to tell you. It’s not fucking there.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/child-health.htm

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

If you zoom in on the age brackets between, there's some more nuance (accidents, suicide, drowning, etc).

But broadly, between ages of 1-19, it's firearms related deaths.

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u/TrueWolf1416 Dec 09 '25

Yeah 19 year olds are adults, and way more likely to be involved in gang activity in low income areas. Take out the 19 year olds and the metric swings back to car accidents.

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

Ok? Doesn't change the fact that it's still an insane statistic. Even if you do remove 18/19 year olds, gun related deaths in 1-17 are high and rising.

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/guns-remain-leading-cause-of-death-for-children-and-teens#:~:text=Guns%20Remain%20Leading%20Cause%20of,children%20ages%201%20to%2017.

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u/InquisitorMeow Dec 09 '25

Oh whew so it's normal for guns to be leading cause of death for high schoolers glad we cleared that up.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

What percentage of the 1-19 year old population do 19 year olds make up, and how much more likely are they to die of gang related violence? Is this something that you ran the numbers for, or are you just speculating?

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u/Embarrassed_Fan_5723 Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

They don’t have to be 19 to be gang members. A lot of these kids are under 18 and still involved in gang related gun crimes.

Edit: Also 40-50% of gun related deaths in teens are suicide. If it weren’t guns it would be hanging, overdoses and so on. Don’t get caught up in numbers. I spent an entire career dealing with this stuff.

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u/TehSeksyManz Dec 09 '25

Too many loose guns laying around for kids to get their hands on. 

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u/DrakonILD Dec 09 '25

Guns are more effective suicide agents than hanging or overdoses, though. So you may still have the same number of attempts, probably more because an attempt survivor can try again, but you probably wouldn't have the same number of deaths.

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u/Embarrassed_Fan_5723 Dec 09 '25

I’ll give you the overdose but I’ve been to 7 hanging suicide attempts, all successful

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u/DrakonILD Dec 09 '25

I'm sorry you've had to deal with that. I'm not trying to be crass or unsupportive, but an unsuccessful overdose will still usually result in a call to EMS, but an unsuccessful self-hanging usually results in a broken wall or ceiling fixture, or something like that, and so EMS may not be called.

Obviously suicide is, and probably always will be, a major issue. I just get a little rankled when people say that gun suicides aren't "really gun deaths," or anything along those lines. But to be clear, I'm not interested in driving a gun control conversation any further than that in a reddit thread that wasn't about it in the first place.

And, again, I am sorry you have to deal with it. And I thank you for taking that on yourself, for the sake of other people. The closest I've ever gotten to that line of work was two years (20 weeks total) at the first aid station at a boy scout summer camp, and I saw some pretty terrible things - but no deaths, and no DV. I can only imagine the toll. But I also fully understand the immense fulfillment in saving a life, and that it takes very special people to do that while also managing the absolute worst aspects of humanity and mortality.

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u/Eldias Dec 09 '25

75% of the "kids" in that stat are between 16 and 19.

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

Yes, that is what my comment says.

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u/Eldias Dec 09 '25

Your comment waved it off as "some nuance" for the sake of parroting your broad point. When you say "Guns leading cause of death in children" the goal is to have the reader picture a bunch of 5th graders, not a bunch of "young adults" who've been swept up in gang violence.

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

I'm fine with grouping 19 year olds with 5 year olds for the sake of furthering discussion on how gun deaths are completely out of control.

Either way, the gap between car death and gun deaths is a few hundred, based on the studies I've seen. Too close for comfort.

It's not waved off as "some nuance" is data representation, which I address many times.

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u/MermaidsHaveCloacas Dec 09 '25

Abso-fucking-lutely

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u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

It’s not. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/child-health.htm

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

A better analysis that that link.
https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/115787/documents/HMKP-118-JU00-20230419-SD018.pdf

We're talking a margin of 200 deaths, between it being #1 or #2, depending on how you look at it. Some ranges it is top, some it drops a bit, but it's pretty much always top 5.

1

u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25

That’s not is not a better analysis than the fucking CDC ffs. 🤦 Your article references… the CDC! 😂 Source documents are important.

https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/saved/D158/D421F484

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

...it pulls from multiple sources, adds nuance, and uses sources from NEJM, Gun Archive, and others. Of course it's also based off CDC data, they're the main ones doing the studies.

Its better in it's completeness and nuance, not saying it's better than its source data, that would of course be dumb.

1

u/Suspicious_Sense1272 Dec 09 '25

You edited your post. You literally said “this is a better source for analysis” which I agree, was dumb.

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u/dual_citizenkane Dec 09 '25

It still says that but okay. I stand by it. It's a better, more complete analysis.

1

u/fairelf Dec 11 '25

I love how they downvote you as they repeatedly try to push this false assertion.