I have been thinking a lot since the election about what could explain the incredibly high numbers of Americans who seem incapable of critical thinking, or really any kind of high level rational thought or analysis.

Then I stumbled on this post https://old.reddit.com/r/guns/comments/16ires5/lead_exposure_from_shooting_is_a_much_more/

Which essentially explains that “Shooting lead bullets at firing ranges results in elevated BLLs at concentrations that are associated with a variety of adverse health outcome"

I looked at the pubmed abstract in that Reddit post and also this one https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5289032/

Which states, among other things, “Workers exposed to lead often show impaired performance on neurobehavioral test involving attention, processing, speed, visuospatial abilities, working memory and motor function. It has also been suggested that lead can adversely affect general intellectual performance.”

Now, given that there are well in excess of 300 million guns in the United States, is it possible lead exposure at least partially explains how brain dead many Americans seem to be?

This is a genuine question not a troll and id love to read some evidence to the contrary if any is available

  • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    921·
    6 days ago

    Most Americans don’t even own guns. A minority of Americans own lots of guns.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      49·
      6 days ago

      And like 9 out of 10 people who own guns go to the range less than a few times a year.

      More than half of gun owners have never gone to a range beyond what might have been part of a state’s pistol permitting process.

    • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.worldEnglish
      192·
      6 days ago

      Yeah, but I read something on reddit that says Americans all have guns and love shooting them. So they must all have brain damage

      • discostjohn@programming.dev
        62·
        6 days ago

        I can’t remember where I read it, but I’ve heard that Americans all have guns and love shooting them, so they must have brain damage

        • reddwarf@feddit.nl
          6·
          6 days ago

          I appreciate you all for the anecdotes and source materials, some well researched things to ponder!

          Here’s my take on it:

          I can’t remember where I read it, but I’ve heard that Americans all have guns and love shooting them, so they must have brain damage.

    • Demonmariner@lemmy.world
      51·
      6 days ago

      According to Gallup, 44% of American households have guns. This is survey based. If fact, the actual number is unknown. A good guess is somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3.

      Gun ranges where I live (California) require employees to wear an exposure monitor for a week or so each year. I talked to a range officer about it, and he said that they had never had the monitors indicate anything that is remotely a problem. Nevertheless, careful gun owners are aware of the problem and ranges that I’ve been to post notices and have hand cleaning stuff ready at hand.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
      63·
      6 days ago

      Before trump, I’d have agreed with this. After trump, it’s now increasing at an incredible rate. It was like 32% owned a firearm. Latest pew from this year is 40%. Now with trump back in power, I’m betting you will see us hit 50% or nearly 50%.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
      11·
      6 days ago

      Only takes a minority to go off the rails and spread conspiracy theories. Squeaky wheel and all that.