America's Gun Control

'As a British person with American citizenship I clearly think the situation is awful. But virtue signaling gets nobody anywhere,'

Agreed,so perhaps the time for 'thoughts and prayers' is over?

In today's news:

After a guest on his show warned that Trump’s indictment marked a “civil war era” in the U.S., Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Americans should hold onto their assault rifles. “Probably not the best time to give up your AR-15, and I think most people know that,” Carlson said. HuffPost]

An amendment to the constitution is not the same as a piece of legislation.

And it's probably the same in this country too

I wonder how long it takes to pass pieces of Legislation that benefits the politicians? I'm guessing not 50 years + I wonder why that's is.

The Equal Rights Amendment took fifty years to be ratified (apparently now has been, contrary to an earlier assertion of mine). Met the legal threshold in 1972, finally ratified by the final state - Virginia - in 2020. Gun control will be harder than that.

I'm not sure who has said it's going to done quickly and simply if anyone. I think the bigger problem Americans face is , not everyone is even wanting to change regardless now long it takes.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime - perhaps you think people aren't trying? They are, I assure you, but it's going to take a very long time and when people assume it can be done quickly and simply that is just ludicrous.

Maybe it's the defeatism that is getting up people's noses? "It's difficult so there's no point in trying" doesn't always cut the mustard, at least for some.

After all, Americans (some of them, not in fact a majority; more than three percent of the white population, fewer than twenty percent, black people not counted as not being relevant) did the very difficult thing of throwing the British out of their country. They could have just sat there saying "oh, that's going to be very hard, maybe we shouldn't bother..."

As a British person with American citizenship I clearly think the situation is awful. But virtue signaling gets nobody anywhere, though I'm sure it makes you feel good. Going over and over vague suggestions that I and other America-based posters have explained won't work because our system is not the British system and can't miraculously be transformed into the British system is pointless.

😬😊 I apologise

The first ten of those when there were only the first 13 states. The ERA still hasn't been ratified. Please read pps on why it's exceptionally hard to amend the constitution.

Well it clearly need a few more times doesn't it! Or do u not feel it needs to change? Because ultimately that's the point I've made the whole way through.

Doesn't make it OK/acceptable/ not changeable .

@Rainbowsandbutterflies1990 . It's not a sense of entitlement. It literally is enshrined in the law.

@Rainbowsandbutterflies1990 - the British constitution (and yes there is one - it's just more obscure than the American one) based much of the rights you enjoy on Magna Carta, which was issued in June 1215 and was the first document to put in writing the principle that the king and his government were not above the law, limiting royal authority by establishing law as a power in itself.

Want to add I am very aware that is isn't as simple as just entitlement. There is fear of what other would do, the shuting the door once the horse has bolted , I am not nessasery thinking that banning is the answer. I just find the sense of entitlement super annoying. And not good enough reason to not do anything. And u haven't convinced me that sense of entitlement is acceptable.

I don't need to have a massive understanding. I dont even know if there is a British one , quite honestly, because we dont use something that was written in 1700s and claim, we r entitled/ have a right to things because it say in a 300 year old document. ;but then on other hand change things to make it difficult for some the right to vote like, the black people in alabama . So basically pick and choose what we decide benefits us.

@Rainbowsandbutterflies1990 - I have never found it difficult to vote, but then I am white and I live in a Democrat controlled state. If I were black in Alabama it might be different.

@Rainbowsandbutterflies1990 - I think you have a limited understanding of what a written constitution involves. The British constitution is largely unwritten and based on case history so is infinitely more flexible than ours. You simply can't talk airily and dismiss something as "decided three hundred years ago". It's meaningless to do so.

And ironically as someone mentioned above the process to even be able to vote is very difficult from what I've seen in America. And way more difficult than here. which is showing how possible it is to heavily regulate a right when they feel the need!

In what way more powerful, in what way faster? Bigger round, more powerful cartridge, different shaped round, faster trigger, faster round?

The AR15 is a platform for multiple types of firearms, other platforms remain available (AK for example) you can pick and choose a huge variety of firearms from that platform.

You can own a semi auto AR15 in the UK.