Why can’t America ban automatic weapons?

[MaryPoppinsPenguins]

I don’t get it. I honestly don’t. After Sandy Hook that should have been enough... statistics speak for themselves.

Why? What don’t I get?

Yep

On a related note, don't they have security in American schools? All the schools my kids have been to have been locked since Dunblane. He wouldn't have been able to get into the building, though he could have shot through the windows, of course.

Have to agree with this, we have joked about the security the new Head has brought into my DC's school, but the shooter would have great difficulty getting into my DCs school (I can think of several ways to do it but they would tend to alert the authorities quicker).

Husk how can you come onto a parenting forum and clearly demonstrate that you don't give a shit about children's lives?

Obviously they could have taken down the shooter
So your now saying part of a teachers duties should be to be armed at all times and to shoot dead students if they are a danger? Nothing could ever go wrong with that eh? Imagine what teacher training would be like lol

Would teachers in England be up for that?

I think we look at this all from a different angle. Guns have never been entrenched in our society like they are in the USA so we view them differently.
Of course the way that some American view guns is just terrifying. A gun is a tool, the only thing it does is kill so I dont see how unless you are hunting at that moment it is useful. I also don't understand why semi automatics are ever necessary.
As for the UK being more dangerous. I grew up in Bradford, and was allowed to go to the town centre by myself at 11 and was travelling to bigger cities by the age of 14. The crimes I have experienced are my dad's car getting nicked, a garage getting broken into and being offered drugs by a guy in a park; that's it and I'm nearly 30. I have never felt unsafe in the UK. So this idea about UK cities being hotbeds of crimes is rubbish in my experience.
I think that there is a massive middle ground between getting rid of all guns and the current situation but nobody is interested in finding it.

Obviously could have taken down the shooter
You mean, the shooter that wouldn't have been there in the first place in the first place if gun control laws had been in place.

I think that there is a massive middle ground between getting rid of all guns and the current situation but nobody is interested in finding it.

I don't think I know a single American who wants to get rid of all the guns tbh. They want a middle ground.

The pro-gun-lobby perpetuate the myth that gun control = having to get rid of all guns, but that's not what anyone is actually asking for.

And still no one has an answer as to why anyone needs to own and carry a gun?

exiguous yeah i worded that badly. I should have said politicians aren't interested in finding it. Whenever gun control gets mentioned it's "you can't take our guns" and this leads to conversations been stopped before they really start.

On a related note, don't they have security in American schools?

What security can prevent an armed person - who might use a hostage to force entry ? Unless every single window is bulletproof (?) any dedicated shooter will simply go around the checkpoint anyway.

exiguous yeah i worded that badly. I should have said politicians aren't interested in finding it. Whenever gun control gets mentioned it's "you can't take our guns" and this leads to conversations been stopped before they really start.

Agreed :-(

DG yes but this kid just walked in apparently. They knew he was a risk because he wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack. How about not allowing him on campus at all then? Of course there are ways round it, but some security is better than nothing. Most of these shooters are kids, not trained snipers.

They are not scared, there is nothing to be scared of. They see a handgun as a tool, and carry them just as they carry a penknife

That's some pretty flawed thinking.

A penknife has all sorts of uses - cutting things, peeling things, undoing screws etc. A gun has only one use - shooting things.

Unless you're likely to need to shoot something, why bother?

DG yes but this kid just walked in apparently.

I have no answer . All I know is that when we were looking for schools for DS, "security" wasn't one of the criteria.

Is this the country whose elected leader called other countries "shiteholes" ?

The school had no security at all?

I'm surprised. Ours all have locked doors.

Of course, to get in all you have to do is buzz the buzzer, or just slip in behind someone else who's just been buzzed in.

The gun industry is worth billions In America. It just won't happen.

And the innocent victims have to suck it up. That's the way it will always be.

Dunblane was close to my heart. A there but by a grace of god situation. A couple of times a year when police cars head to the school or my ds unexpected enters my thoughts I expect it again and panic. How do American family’s cope with that. Do you actually get numb to school shootings on the news? Of course I don’t have the answer.
My feelings is that the USA is a young country still finding its feet. Maybe in another 200 hundreds years things will be better. Doesn’t help protect people today.

Automatic weapons are weapons of war - I really can't think of any civilian use.

I can understand rifles for hunting.

I know there's a religious attachment to handguns "for protection". But quite aside from the slightly odd logic of being in a situation where you gift your attacker a weapon (because unless you are a dab shot, your protection is an illusion) you have to be prepared to use it. And contrary to what people think (there was an excellent little seen documentary on this a few years back) humans really don't want to kill humans. You need an iron nerver to pull a trigger knowing what it will do (which is why bad guys are bad guys).

I feel more and more each day that American society is just unravelling.

The amount of violent crime (be it gun related or otherwise) is a giant problem, compounded by the 2nd Amendment argument. I really don't see any reason why someone should need to carry a gun at all times. The only reason people won't give them up now is because there's a chance that someone down the street won't have given up theirs and if they break into your home with their gun, how will you protect yourself? People always want to have the bigger stick.

There's so many issues in the country now, from political upheaval due to the way the government and electoral college works. To general population apathy (how Donald Trump gets away with most of the things he does and says is because no one can be bothered to stand up against it in an organised manner). To crazies now getting a foothold in today's zeitgeist and consciousness (anti vaxxers, flat earthers, conspiracy theorists). To the growing issues of homelessness across the country. To the issues with a healthcare system that first looks in your purse before at the patient. People can be massively in debt for the rest of their lives because they need life saving medical care.

The more and more I see in the news and hear from people who live there, the more I feel like that unless something drastic happens soon, the country will topple. Donald Trump has already began to cause other world leaders to turn their backs on the country.. how long before boiling point is reached?

Why don't they just ban bullets? They wouldn't even have to amend the constitution.

Top post.

Sorry to go back to the kinder egg issue, but their banning the US isn't to do with safety, but to go with food hygiene (as in certain things other than packaging can't touch the food I believe (as I found out when sending kinder eggs over to American friends - they got through!)).

But anyway, it seem like there are a lot of opinionated people here who have probably never actually set foot in the country. I lived there for a number of years and never felt unsafe. I never even saw a gun in all the time I was there and most of the Americans I mixed with were anti-gun.

I think the attitude is a bit like nuclear disarmament - nobody is going to be first to get rid of nukes even though their potential is horrendous, because another country still has them and that would make us feel less safe (despite the fact many countries don't have them at all and are no less safe for it).

My kids did lockdown drills as a matter of course, but they weren't told what they were for, it came under the banner of fire drill/hurricane drills etc. That does make me sad though.

But all those saying how unsafe it us and how they wouldn't set foot in the country, it:s really not like that day to day. Which doesn't mean I don't think there's a problem. But it's not like down town Baltimore for most people. I feel relatively safe in the uk, bit I don't think we should kids ourselves that everything is perfect here, I certainly try and avoid certain areas on a Friday or sat night due to the massive drinking culture and ensuing aggressive behaviour, like someone mentioned up thread.

@APerfectSky I don't think anyone has said its perfect in the UK. Just seems like we have less gun crime because not many people own a gun?

And still no one has an answer as to why anyone needs to own and carry a gun?

You need to carry a loaded gun at all times to protect yourself from the police who might try to disarm you of your right to carry a loaded gun at all times. Obviously.

back to the kinder egg issue, but their banning the US isn't to do with safety, but to go with food hygiene

Therein lies the problem. Food hygiene is a SAFETY issue. Just like gun control is a SAFETY issue. Cant you see that? You might never see any one choking but the one time you do choke it could kill you. Same with guns.

I really don't think more guns are the answer. You only have to look at the US Police to see how wrong that could go. Teachers and school staff are going to be less mentally prepared than a trained Police Officer. How many innocent/unarmed children would end up dead because a teacher panicked?