America's Gun Control

Why not? Everyone else is, so much so that there's an entire board devoted to it.

@Wallaw change is hard. It should be the easy and only choice when so many children are killed year on year, but there we are

Yes state rights are problematic but reform is possible. It's clearly unacceptable that so many people and groups are opposed to reform when it's clearly the only morally acceptable choice.

Definitely not! They're just aimed at people lecturing on how easy it should be to change things.

@SnowyGiveAway - no problem. I've been mainly trying to explain the practical difficulties of bringing reform about. States rights is something Brits seem to have difficulty understanding.

Apologies, I also misread your comments as being pro gun ownership. I must have missed something in the thread

@Britinme apologies, I must have misread your comments as being in favour of gun ownership. I couldn't make it through such a long thread, and lost track.

I left too. We've been resident in the UK for fifteen years.

I still vote in the US and have never voted for a candidate who did not support gun control
I would never live in a red state
I have, when back home, attended March For Our Lives marches
I donate to March For Our Lives, Gabby Giffords' anti-gun group and Moms Demand Action
My husband and I have both done pro bono legal work for anti-gun lobbying groups

Living outside the US is not an excuse to not try to be part of the change you want to see.

And just to be clear I don't own a gun and don't want one. Some of my daughter in law's extended family do. We don't discuss it.

So, much like the rest of us then.

Nope, sorry, I left. I vote, that's all I do and all I can do.

I haven't read the full 19 page thread, so apologies if you've already said, but are you a gun owner? Do you value your right to bear arms? Some of my family do. It's an entirely alien belief to me and if that is your belief system I suppose we will never see eye to eye. It is very hard to support your culture, your rights, your beliefs when they are so destructive

Had a debate with someone in the office today. He is pro gun, and says it's down to culture. The Swiss are allowed to keep guns at home, for instance, and have a much lower gun death rate.

That is exactly how the SCOTUS would argue, disregarding the difference between 18th century firearms and 21st century firearms.

Ok, so you're American resident in the UK. What have you personally done to change the situation?

The Founders most definitely did intend to create an unfettered right to firearms in the Constitution. The Federalist papers and their contemporaneous writings at the time say that in plain language.

In fact, if we kept with the true intent of the Founders, all males 18 and older would be required to own at least one firearm, keep it in good condition, and practice marksmanship on a regular basis.

Great. So what are you and your family doing to change the situation?

Why are so many posters on this thread so exceptionally hard of reading and thinking? We keep trying to explain the subtleties and difficulties, but you guys keep coming at it like battering rams.

For anyone actually interested in thinking, I'm posting this link about the NRA and the changing interpretation of the second amendment for the, sigh, third time.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/nra-guns-second-amendment-106856/

@SnowyGiveAway - Brexit is an example of the stupidity (as those of us from outside the country see it) of some political decisions supported by a majority of the voting public. In that regard it's comparable.

The will has to come from enough voters to elect enough liberal politicians to change the legislatures so that three quarters of the legislators agree to amend their state constitutions and then continue to do so until two thirds of the states ratify the amendment and the SCOTUS doesn't knock it down. Should be a snap.

@Wallaw Brexit is entirely unrelated to gun massacres. I don't understand your point

@Britinme the problems are not insurmountable, if the will was there. The will is not there. Which looks like either stupidity or callousness, take your pick

Are you unable to process any of the information people are giving you?

For what it's worth, I'm American, live in the UK, and would happily ban every gun in existence, and I can assure you that the rest of the world (being all the Americans I know, who are all for gun control, by the way) also watches in disbelief as Britain willingly makes itself poor and obsolete by voting to remove itself from the most successful economic and political bloc the world has ever known. So big shrug from me to your post.

And by the way, I suggest your sister-in-law moves to a city in a blue state.

I'm not defending it, just pointing out the problems that have to be overcome to change it.

I'm American living in the UK. I despair of other Americans defending the indefensible. This is why things won't change.

It doesn't matter what your culture or beliefs state. They change, they can be changed, same as countless laws that we now find outdated and wrong.

The right to life and liberty should come before the right to bear arms. The right for your children to attend school in safety, like most children throughout the developed world, should come before the right to arm your citizens. The fact that my fellow Americans argue against this demonstrates why we're in the state we're in.

Calling it stupidity is probably kinder than the alternative, which is to call it selfishness or callousness or evil

@JudgeJ - I suggest you RTFT.