One any given day I will frequently spend some time on five different computers: my main system, an upstairs PC, my notebook computer (mostly used for work), an iPad, and a smartphone. This morning I read a post on gun control laws in California and other states which, according to the author, were based on scientific facts that hadn’t been proven yet. I wish I could include the link for you but for the life of me I can’t find it again.
Think about the statement “things that hadn’t been proven yet”. Isn’t it terribly convenient? Try as I might I can’t think of anything that couldn’t be justified on that basis.
The irony of it all is that I’m in favor of some gun control laws. I think bigger greater problem is that we’re not enforcing the laws we have particularly well. Take Bobby Primo, the nutcase who’s being tried for the mass shooting in Highland Park on the 4th of July. If the laws we already have on the books were actually enforced in sensible manner, I doubt he would have been able to obtain a firearm legally.
I’ve even stated my support for repealing the 2nd Amendment with one requirement: we disarm the police at the same time. Does anyone actually think that would turn out well? Obviously, we’re not going to do that. We have so many firearms in the U. S. at this point that control is impossible. The most you would achieve by making private ownership of firearms illegal, something that is politically impossible, is to turn police officers into targets. No laws will prevent criminals for obtaining and using firearms. Think about it.
However, I think that laws against “assault weapons” are a waste of breath, paper, and bits for three reasons. The first is that it’s vague. The second is that the beauty of Kalashnikovs is that they’re easy to make—they can be made in just about any machine shop. And the third is that laws banning them will never be enforced.
There’s another tremendous irony. In many cases those advocating for banning firearms in some fashion are the same people who argue that “prohibition doesn’t work”.
As I sit here writing this post there are by my count eight computers within 10 feet of me. Most of them aren’t thought of as computers but they have more power than anything I used up until about 1985.
Many of you seem to have access to all sorts of stats and stuff, is there a gender issue when it comes to gun ownership and mass shootings?
There are too many guns in circulation to achieve large scale control. That said we can nibble around the edges and make some small differences. As noted elsewhere if you are convicted of domestic violence you can keep your guns unless it is actually declared a felony. Laws aimed at keeping keep who are mentally ill and at risk form having guns have been overturned. Limiting magazine size could help.
Mostly I think gun owners probably ought to bear the costs of guns. We do that with cars so lets do it for guns also.
Steve
Some of the most horrific gun crimes have been committed in areas having the strictest gun control laws. Some potentially horrific slaughters of people have been avoided by a gun owner with a license to carry a weapon. The latter, though, is minimally reported, while the former receives a lavish amount of media attention.
Yes, I followed the news on the 4th of July because I was curious if anyone would report that way back, when I attended Highland Park High School,………..it had a Rifle Club. Just .22’s. If I remember correctly kids would bring them to school, on buses, turn them in to the coach on shooting days down in the big concrete basement. No problems. Soooooo, since the guns have not basically changed,……what has changed,…….it’s the kids and no one wants to deal with why they shoot people they don’t even know. My theory is the ones they shoot are symbolic people who are stand ins for people from their past, who tortured them in school, and everyone just watched.
ABC quotes “The Gun Violence Archives†in this article claiming 116 Americans are shot to death each day, mostly by suicide and mostly clustered in seven populous states.
Until you break down the numbers it’s a terrifying thought,
but if you’re not young, male, and Black living in a big city, you’re probably not going out that way unless by your own hand.
I look at it as one of the prices we pay for our individual freedoms.
Gun prohibition would come with a price as well, you would need to have an unreasonable confidence in the government to want to give them that much power.
{There was no link to the article}
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
How many mass shootings are perpetrated by women compared to men?
According to the FBI statistics of the 61 active shooter events in 2021 60 perpetrators were men and by far the greatest number were 19 to 44.
Then you have the superintendent of the schools in the West Texas town that left his gun in a school bathroom stall where a third grader found it. The kid reported it to his teacher. Great help in a shooter situation.
“what has changed”
A lot of things. My father was a lifetime NRA member and I am an intermittent member. I appreciate their safety courses but their politics pisses me off so I lapse a lot. Anyway, I grew up with guns. I intermittently lived on farms and every summer worked on relatives arms. Everyone had a gun or two. It was a tool. No one had a fetish about them. Guys weren’t running around in camp to get their pictures taken. Few people actually had handguns. No one had magazines with a capacity over 30 rounds ( I doubt over 20).
All of that changed. Guns became a fetish. There was a mass proliferation so they are very easy to obtain and we have continually seen them become easier to own. At the same time we decided to declare a war on drugs. That made drugs much more valuable so guns were use to help make money in the drug trade and we got more killings. Now, guns are cool, everybody has one and can get one. If you are made because someone disrespected you, the bullies were mean to you in school or whatever, you get a gun and go kill people.
Steve