Can we discuss 2nd ammendment? Trying to educate myself about US gun laws.

47 school shootings so far this year

😝 @FastandLoose got there already!

On Spotify there’s an excellent podcast explaining the history and influence of the NRA. Journey Through Time, episodes 23, 24 & 25. I learned a lot.

I suggest you look at the per capita firearm deaths of Central American countries before making such a statement.

Our continent is awash in illegal firearms, you can respond to this, of course, but you don’t have to restrict the rights of normal people to accomplish this.

We don’t want to be in a situation where literal criminals are the only ones able to access firearms. At least I don’t.

Only one country in the world seems to love guns more than life itself.

“The gun licensing system works well, to prevent absolute loonies from owning guns”

So the regular mass shooting, and daily murders are all committed by rational people ? Even more reason for tighter gun control then.

Plus, you might have rules in place to stop “loonies” (whatever that means) from owning guns legally …. But in a society where there are more guns that people, owning one illegally is not so hard.

If you own a gun, you are more likely to be shot.

My guns bigger than your gun, see me waving it around. You don't have to be Sigmund Freud to understand why guns are so important in US culture. Or, as a first date potential girlfriend said to a suitor when he roared up in his lamborghini, "Gee. I'm sorry your penis is so small °".

It is seriously difficult to change an amendment.

There's something rather amusing hearing some U.S. commentators arguing that an amendment cannot be questioned or changed.

If you have time, this is an interesting (1st of 3!) podcast on the background to the 2nd amendment and the NRA:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/journey-through-time/id1802085505?i=1000720964260

The place is still The Wild West.

Sat over here, in the UK, it’s seems almost unconscionable that people are allowed (any people) walk round with guns.. and not just any gun, high-powered semi-automatic guns.

I get people owning a rifle, who live in the wilds… Farmers over here have them, but they have strict controls, and the “type” of gun is regulated.

One school shooting we had over here, the law changed almost the next day, and we’ve never had another.

If you own a gun, you are more likely to be shot … so instead of getting rid of guns, people buy more guns, which makes the whole place more violent.

You see these pictures that Politicians put on thier Christmas Cards, the whole family, in festive jumpers, holding semi-automatic guns … and you have to questions the messaging.

The weird thing about the 2nd ammendment's application is that it specifically is about a "well ordered militia" - that is, a self-governing organisation of ordinary citizens. I don't see how that justifies the chaos of entirely disordered individual armaments with individual violent people being able to accrue an enormous arsenal for their own power-trip.

A well-ordered militia would be a federation of locally governed democratic groups of respected and steady citizens who could corporately agree on thresholds of maturity and good sense necessary to bear arms, and had the right to withold or withdraw that right from people who shouldn't be armed, that restriction coming not from the government but from the people directly.

There is nothing well-ordered about the current situation of individual armaments in the usa.

More than 100 US citizens are shot dead every day and at least 10 of those are under 18.

I don’t think the framers of the constitution could have foreseen the technological advancements and massive power of the military for the country they were creating. The idea of defending ourselves against the government is still paramount even if it is unrealistic.

You also can’t discount how much of the United States is still wild. Most of the people I know who own guns use them for either self defense against wild animals or for hunting food.

I am not a fan of the gun culture and I don’t own one, but the animals that regularly come on my property aren’t dangerous enough to be worrisome.