The amount of guns in the population is irrelevant. There are literally hundreds of millions of guns in the USA. Out of that hundreds of millions of guns, 3 of them caused the last 3 tragedies. The logic limiting of production and sales of guns is akin to saying that if we had less cigarettes lighters, there would be less forest fires in California.
I agree with some of your points Ed. I am a law-abiding citizen and I have a license to carry and I do that to protect my family. Where I live there is way too much crime to just assume my family will be safe.
It's a vicious cycle, Carlos. I understand the need to carry if you're trained and psychologically sound, but the ease of access (especially to assault rifles) is a major problem. The issue of civilians defending other civilians with guns wouldn't be necessary if there wasn't such a proliferation of guns in the first place. This point cannot be made clearer by looking at the rest of the developed world where gun laws have all been reformed. The stats for the US should make for deeply troubling reading, but your senators don't give a shit!
About 42% (or more) of U.S. households have guns. A lot of private businesses here have guns behind the counters (such as motels, gas stations, 7-Eleven shops, and basically any business in a bad neighborhood). In the U.S., if you tell someone you are taking away their gun, it's similar to saying you are taking away their vehicle or dog. Europeans have accepted the fact that they cannot defend themselves/their homes fully if bad guys break into their home (as you mentioned a lot of guns/crime round in Manchester); it is a compromise they have made in order to reduce gun ownership/gun violence. However, a lot of Americans including some of the posters here are not willing to make this compromise.
None of what you said is accurate. To get a gun, you have to produce an ID, get a background check and then buy the gun. I've purchased several guns recently. It's the same routine every time. And no, there haven't been 215 massacres this year.
You've had 27 school shootings this year and around 215 mass shootings, and you're not willing to make a comprise? Fucking hell. I have no words. The gun culture is just insane at this point.
This is true. England never did have the same obsession with weapons, but don't you think it's time that your deeply ingrained gun culture is finally changed/reformed? You're the only country with such a hideous amount of gun atrocities, so why do you wanna persist like you're still in the Wild West days rather than modernise your laws as every other country has? There have been no school shootings in the UK, Australia, or most other developed countries for a long time.
This is all ancient history and has very little relevance to today. Times have moved on considerably, and so has every other nation except the US.
It's about solving a problem, not what you are able to run from. Again, apply common sense.
These "mass shootings" you continually refer to are not what you or the media like to portray them as. I viewed the list. I am familiar with many of the areas where they are occurring. It's in areas that are extremely rough 3rd world type areas and are riddled with gangs and violence. The people in those areas don't give 2 shits about a new gun law. None of their weapons are legal to begin with - 100% black market. Most of the 215 are gang drive-bys where 1 or 2 other gang members were shot. A lot of times just injured and not killed. HUGE difference between that and a true mass shooting in a school, church, or grocery store.
To be honest with you, with the way the Supreme Court (6-3 conservative majority) is now, any drastic legislation on gun control passed by Congress, or even executive orders signed by a President would likely get shot down by them (pun intended). These conservative justices, especially the ones that were appointed by Donny Trump are all strict constructionists, meaning they restrict interpretation only to the exact wording of the law. However it's written is the only basis for interpretation. So in this case, the second amendment states "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" and since this line is found in a document that's considered to be the supreme law of the land… Yeah good luck trying to persuade them otherwise.
Wow really? ID? Are you kidding me? You need ID to buy energy drinks here; who gives a shit about ID.
They do in every country, but guess what, we don't add to our tally of deaths by handing out guns to murderers. We're talking about kids in schools here; what planet are you on? No other developed country has the problem you have. It's a solvable issue but you'd rather bury your head in the sand and pretend people aren't getting slaughtered in large numbers every year.
Yes it is. Look at every other country that changed theirs and see what happened.
Which is why there shouldn't be such easy access. Killers here and elsewhere can't get to weapons that are designed to kill in mass numbers, so they are much more easily dealt with.
Yes you can. You take them out of circulation and destroy them or reallocate them like other countries did. There's no need for that amount of weapons to be readily available to just anyone. It's absolutely insane.
Wrong again. The police were at the elementary school before the shooting started and they couldn't stop him because they wanted to wait for tactical gear and backup. They locked themselves in classrooms and repeatedly rang 911 for help for over an hour, but nobody came, even though they were already there and knew what was going on. So, if they couldn't stop him, what good would an armed teacher or a security guard be? There are no guarantees of competence from an armed teacher, police, or a security guard, as they can easily be taken out by a shooter before they start on the kids.
They did everywhere else. You just choose to ignore that fact.
Oh yea, fuck those areas. There aren't any humans who live in those places, so it doesn't count. The total number of deaths per capita is off the scale. Every country has gang violence, but they still don't get tallies anywhere near yours. Innocents get wrapped up in amongst it all.
You're a lost cause. Kids will continue to die because of people like you and your ideology.
Left winger?
I'm from a conservative background, but I'm not far-right and I don't support various ideals that are seen in some political parties. My views cannot be expressed with simple umbrella terms like right or left wing because I'm way beyond all that. I'm a mixture of all sorts of beliefs that would fall all over the spectrum.You can stop giving them guns and assault rifles, though. Doing that would make a huge difference.
It's a tragic state of affairs.
I have young children myself, so when I hear these stories coming out of America it really touches a nerve with me as nothing is ever done about it. What's worse is that stricter gun laws were introduced in the US Congress, but they were defeated by Republicans, independents and some moderate Democrats. On what grounds? It's crazy that this is allowed to go on with complete inaction.
If you look at the facts, you'll see that all the countries that introduced gun reforms saw a dramatic decrease in gun-related homicides, and mass shootings have become a rare anomaly and nothing like the regular occurrences that the US sees.
This is not true. Your average 18-year-old loner is not going to have links to black market arms dealers, and they won't have the money either. The reason they can do these atrocities so freely is because of how incredibly easy it is to acquire assault rifles and other deadly weapons. Those who use black market weapons are hardcore organised criminals, and they aren't into killing kids whilst they're in school. They remain largely a law enforcement threat, and a gang on gang threat. You can see this reflected in the statistics of every other country.
This is a current UK requirement and is something my cousin had to do to get his shotguns.
I agree.
Yea, something definitely has to change.
They've gotta do something as inaction under these circumstances is totally inexcusable.
It seems America is like a "western movie"... but with a few real psychopaths. The forced lockdowns have not been great for mental health.
True. Mass murder needs to be classified differently from other murders and mass crime. They are often loners who have been bullied.
I love America and grew up being heavily influenced by their culture, but their overly relaxed attitude to kids being killed in schools cannot be ignored.
I think politicians need their voters served on a silver tray. So the only option left for the elderly and disabled is creating associations and campaigning for their own rights, like those "special interest groups" are doing.
It's completely out of control. 98% of the gun crimes come from the type of areas you just described. Those areas are 3rd world and I wonder if the European countries deal with the same level of hood that we do in the US.
How has the ownership class passed law and policy to destroy the poor? Our lawmakers have done this. Sadly, it's been calculated and purposely done.
Drugs are a different animal as they are easy to grow/produce, and black market access is pretty much on every street corner and available to everybody. My personal opinion on drugs is that they should stop wasting money on the fight against them and decriminalise them. Eliminate the black market, control what goes into them, and tax those who choose to use them in the same way we do cigarettes and alcohol. Make sure that there are extended programs on the dangers that drugs pose in schools, and educate your kids at home. This mainly changes the context in which drugs are framed, and I don't think it would make a huge difference on who chooses to use them as I believe the same people will go that route whether they are legal or not. There would obviously be other problems, but on balance, I think it's a path worth exploring. The war on drugs has failed across the world; it's a waste of time, money, and resources to continue fighting it, in my opinion.
From what I have been told, Europeans see a lot of liberal media articles from the US and FOX News. We see much of the same, but local feeds do have to print local real news events.
Member
