I think it's the availability of firearms combined with ease of use. You can buy them pretty much anywhere. They're compact, portable, and you put in a cartridge and press a button to shoot. Basically the same skills you need to operate a Nintendo Game Boy. A person completely untrained with firearms can use one to kill. Honestly they might be more dangerous, depending on intent.
Bombs take effort. They take patience. They take longer than a three-day waiting period to make, unless you're skilled. And you can't just go buy them. You need licensing to buy explosives, and that's not even a bomb yet. Most people who make bombs have some deeply held beliefs, something to sustain anger over a long period. Otherwise, if you can make a bomb, you have enough skill and patience to go get a real job, and be a normal member of society.
That's kinda the thing -- your average university chemist knows enough to take down an airplane using things that probably aren't detected. There are lots of chemistry professors and postdocs and grads. And yet, hey, air travel goes on as normal every day, because people who have a decent life (yes, even postdocs lol) don't feel like they need to asplode anything. Or, y'know, they just find some fun chemicals and take them instead. Anyway what I'm really saying is the bombing threat is nearly orthogonal to the gun violence threat in the U.S.
Bombs take effort. They take patience. They take longer than a three-day waiting period to make, unless you're skilled. And you can't just go buy them. You need licensing to buy explosives, and that's not even a bomb yet. Most people who make bombs have some deeply held beliefs, something to sustain anger over a long period. Otherwise, if you can make a bomb, you have enough skill and patience to go get a real job, and be a normal member of society.
That's kinda the thing -- your average university chemist knows enough to take down an airplane using things that probably aren't detected. There are lots of chemistry professors and postdocs and grads. And yet, hey, air travel goes on as normal every day, because people who have a decent life (yes, even postdocs lol) don't feel like they need to asplode anything. Or, y'know, they just find some fun chemicals and take them instead. Anyway what I'm really saying is the bombing threat is nearly orthogonal to the gun violence threat in the U.S.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto