Thanks for being the first person in this thread to actually post some useful tips to get the lead out, so to speak.

This is a fascinating angle, I just looked at a couple of pubmed articles as a result of your comment and this one stuck out right away

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38829253/

“Long-COVID is characterized by persistent symptoms following COVID-19 infection, with cognitive impairment being a prominent feature. Symptoms include brain fog, difficulties with concentration, memory issues, and executive function deficits.”

At the end of the day hardly anything has just one cause, and you may be correct that long COVID has had a big impact on the critical thinking problem in America.

Great comment, receiving contributions like this is why I posted the question in the first place, thank you

I’m not sure why you think it’s esoteric or niche, there are something like 400 million guns in the US, with 1/3 of Americans directly owning at least one gun and 44% of us households having a gun owner. I think that’s pretty far from “the vast majority” not being gun owners https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own-guns.aspx

Moreover, lead exposure is known to cause cognitive impairments. I do agree however that most gun owners don’t shoot very often.

But if you need me to cite evidence that millions of Americans seem incapable of critical thinking you are either trolling or just not paying attention.

Here’s an entire book on the subject in case that helps https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Critical-Thinking-Crisis-Education/dp/1735942200

Finally, I’m not sure how you could construe my question as wanting evidence that it isn’t guns causing the problem, I pretty clearly asked a question, provided some links to explain what I had read that led me to that question, and then welcomed contrary evidence, of which you cited none by the way.

It seems like outdoors would be somewhat better, but I’m not sure the specific premise of your comment is correct in that it seems to be much more important to use proper remediation in terms of cleanup rather than whether you shoot at a good indoor range or a bad one or even outdoors.

See, for example, this comment thread in that same post where the person states that a three day carbine course, which presumably occurred outdoors, left him testing at 13 a week later. Subsequently the person made sure to engage in proper cleaning rituals which have prevented a recurrence of the high blood lead levels

https://old.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1h6qtis/update_on_lead_levels_from_shooting_30_days_of_no/m0fpnlp/

Yeah idk. The more I read the comments and check out sources I think the question has at least some merit.

I’m taking in that cognitive impairments seem to really require cumulative exposure and the effects are delayed, but also anecdotes like this reddit post below make me think there is a nonzero number of Americans who are chronically exposed to elevated lead levels over a long period of time by frequent shooting (especially indoors) and not taking proper remedial measures.

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1h6qtis/update_on_lead_levels_from_shooting_30_days_of_no/

It definitely could be and I appreciate the contribution to the discussion

Yeah it seems like maybe they’re not mutually exclusive. If you’ve been shooting regularly for a while, especially indoors, and not cleaning up right, it seems like you could get some cumulative effects over time and if you aren’t tested you might never even know

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1h6qtis/update_on_lead_levels_from_shooting_30_days_of_no/

I find this comment super compelling, especially in combination with some of the other good points in the comments here. thank you

Yeah some of the replies have good points about lead damage being cumulative and showing up later, so maybe the workers in those studies I mentioned showed impairment because they were chronically exposed over some lengthy period and the impairments they measured were because of the cumulative exposure?

That also makes me think again though that, like you said, going to the indoor range a few times per year and not taking proper measures to clean oneself could cause some cumulative effect over time?

I mean check out this post where this person’s lead level was over 15 and decreased to 8 after a month of no shooting. Idk but reaching a blood lead level of 15 can’t be good right? Especially if you’re exposed repeatedly over a long period of time?

https://www.reddit.com/r/liberalgunowners/comments/1h6qtis/update_on_lead_levels_from_shooting_30_days_of_no/

I didn’t mean to suggest that it was the only explanation, rather that it might help explain some of the phenomenon of the lack of critical thinking that seems so prevalent in america these days, while also sort of flying under the radar as I don’t really notice people talking about it.

There has always been an anti-intellectual portion of the population but it seems to be expanding rather than contracting over time, whatever the reasons.

That Atlantic article is pretty crazy, I didn’t realize the kids these days don’t read books basically at all in school anymore.

Here’s an archive link for anybody else who wants to check it out since its paywalled

https://archive.is/xr5Jd

Somebody else in the comments said something very similar, I’lll paraphrase what I responded which is that I hadn’t really thought of that, and I’m starting now to come around to the notion that maybe even if there is some percentage of the population suffering the cognitive impairments associated with the adverse effects of lead, it’s probably more likely that they were exposed many years or decades ago vs recently

Oh that’s interesting, and I hadn’t really thought of that, so even if there is some percentage of the population suffering the cognitive impairments associated with the adverse effects of lead, it’s probably more likely that they were exposed many years or decades ago vs recently

That’s a good point, especially the fact the most people who own guns don’t shoot them that often, but re: lead in the water, hasn’t the issue of lead in water become less significant over time?

This post by New York City government states that actually construction work is the most common source of lead exposure for people in the city, followed by sketchy consumer products. https://a816-dohbesp.nyc.gov/IndicatorPublic/data-stories/adult-lead/#%3A~%3Atext=This+continued+drop+in+blood%2Cair%2C+paint+and+consumer+products.

Maybe just generally we’re not taking the adverse cognitive effects of lead exposure, whatever the source, seriously enough?

Edit: someone else in the comments made the connection between the high numbers of lead water pipes in Florida and the “Florida man” phenomenon. Maybe lead in the water is still way more significant of an issue than I thought

“It’s in your nature to destroy yourselves”

-the terminator