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?

So mass shootings in schools every week are a price America is willing so pay??!! That’s acceptable??!!

So mass shootings in schools every week are a price America is willing so pay??!! That’s acceptable??!!

Two things...
They aren't every week, that is hyperbole again.
It isn't acceptable to me because I am anti gun.

However, clearly America as a society does find it acceptable or rather they find it more acceptable than living without their guns.
We have knife crime deaths, but we don't can all knives. We have laws that try to minimise the deaths and injuries, because on balance we need knives more than we need to save a relative few lives. Sounds awful, but it's true.

the ban in the UK didn't work

when people post this, do we know how the ban changed the number of firearms in the UK?

Knives, of course, are different. you can't kill 50 people with a knife.

The IS terrorists last summer killed quite a large number, though. It's thankfully very rare, though.

And some types of knife ARE illegal in the uk. Banning knives is impractical because most types of knives have a use beyond killing people. The ones which don't (flick knives are only really useful for one thing) are banned.

Exactly, and banning flick knives doesn't really help at all, as anyone can grab a knife from their kitchen drawer.

Much harder to conceal a kitchen knife than a flick knife

Trump going on about the shooters mental health is how people like Kursk justify trading weapons with facebook strangers. Because Janey is a church going family loving soccer mom who just wants to swap her handbag for a shotgun, she is nothing like the crazy kid.

Chilling

Knives, of course, are different. you can't kill 50 people with a knife

You can, but rarely in one mass incident. They do get reused though.
The principle remains, even over one death or injury... Their practicality is worth a few deaths. This is evidently how society feels. Sounds crass, but it is the reality.
Is the practicality of guns worth it too? The Americans seem to say it is. Then you're down to which types to keep and which to ban... and Americans currently don't seem to want to even venture that far again.

Note, I say Americans as a whole. Plenty of them are anti gun.

Oh I missed the latest posts re knives.
AR-15 versus flick knife, hmm wonder how will 'win' that fight.

You are right, @Rinoachicken but sadly a lot of knife attacks take place in the home, with kitchen knives. I really don't see what can be done about that problem.

From the NRA's website "10 Reasons to Own an AR-15"

Owning an AR-15 is as uniquely American as baseball, apple pie and the Second Amendment. It’s a classic example of American exceptionalism, independence and ingenuity—all the things that make us the land of the free and home of the brave.

And

From short-range plinking to longer-range precision shooting, the gun is easy to shoot—and easy to hit targets with. And, as you know, nothing’s more fun than hitting what you shoot at.

Did anoyone else see the post on Facebook about a child of eight crying after practicing lock down drill, and realising the lights on her trainers would give her away? She's eight and worried about being shot in a place she should be safe.

it dosnt help that the president has quotes like this 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,'

There is an arms race going on and no one wants to be left behind

Been following this thread for a few days. Shocked at the level of cognitive dissonance clear in certain posters. Not to mention crazily irresponsible possibly even illegal, even within USA, behaviour. (Those guns you're acquiring through trades, how do you know they're not stolen? Weren't used for a murder? To commit a robbery or rape?)

"make the decision that keeping their guns means more to them than the 'abstract' loss of life of people they don't know"

Yes I would LOVE to put these defenders of extremely lethal weapons in a room with the bereaved parents/families and have to defend it to THEM.

It is insane. As a country USA clearly love their guns more than their children.

"And once you reach the point where the lives of innocent 4 and 5 year olds mean nothing you are beyond the point of no return." It's truly sickening.

"They aren't every week, that is hyperbole again." Average this year so far - THREE A WEEK!

I feel desperately sorry for the Americans who are anti gun and really CAN see the situation for what it is but have no choice but to put up with it.

Thing is, what people are asking for is gun control, not a gun ban. It is a different thing and fairly sensible. It’s not destroy all guns. Just get rid of the ones made for large scale mass slaughter. Why would you even need one of those in your home?

I live in the UK and my FIL owns a gun. A couple of friends also own guns. Because they shoot. I know they own them but have only seen FIL’s shot gun once when he had it out for cleaning. He keeps it in a really well hidden gun safe that is always, always locked. He has a license and had to go through full background checks.

None of this is difficult, sometimes a bit slow.

So there are guns in the UK. But not hand guns. Why would you need one?

In fact, living in the countryside is a bit like that quote from ‘Hot Fuzz’- ‘Everyone and their mums is packing around here.’

Not sure what part of this system is unreasonable or overly restrictive. I’d rather mentally ill people didn’t have assault weapons really.

"They aren't every week, that is hyperbole again." Average this year so far - THREE A WEEK!
three a week this year there has been 6 weeks thats 18 please can you name each 18 school shooting thanks

Just to be a bit of the devil's advocate: admiral Yamamoto of WII infamy said something along the lines of: attacking the US on land would be madness, there would be a gun waiting for the invaders behind every straw of grass.

www.king5.com/mobile/article/news/nation-world/18-shooting-incidents-have-occurred-on-school-grounds-in-the-us-in-2018/507-518863102

Even if you analyse the data and change it to only include those that fit a certain perception of a "school shooting" that's still 6 - that's one a week - and I wonder how many don't make it into news/police reports for whatever reason?

At the end of the day, regardless of what the American people want or think the higher powers of USA could do something to control gun laws/licences if they wanted to. The sad fact is that they don't want to. I'm not saying that it would be easy or quick - it wouldn't but it could be done.

Hypothetically, if you sold/traded a gun (maybe to free up more money for a better gun) and the person seemed fine, and 6 months/a year later you found out that gun had been used to murder someone (maybe its switched owner more than once since you had it) would you feel guilty at all?

It would be impossible for me to ever know that. I wouldn’t feel happy but I don’t think I would feel guilty.

I really struggle with this. You (and others) argue that America is perfectly safe, if not safer than the UK. Yet the threat of the irrevocable breakdown in law and order is so real to you, you have guns 'off grid' specifically for when that happens and it's a case of 'every citizen for themselves'

Fair enough, I personally don’t see a link between the two. I feel safe and relaxed. I don’t feel that there will be a breakdown in society any time soon however I like to be prepared.

Is the potential for this irrevocable breakdown in law and order less likely or more likely to happen as a result of all the firearms stored in preparation for it?