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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why can’t America ban automatic weapons?

905 replies

MaryPoppinsPenguins · 14/02/2018 22:42

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?

OP posts:
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26
AgnesSkinner · 14/02/2018 23:58

And in the US you’re twice as likely to be shot dead by a toddler than be killed by an Islamic terrorist, so the US tries to ban people coming into the country from Islamic countries (although not the ones that tend to generate terrorists) but don’t ban toddlers with guns.

Makes real sense huh?

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 14/02/2018 23:59

Guns will never be banned in the states the right to bear arms is so ingrained in their society

There are other countries with high gun ownership (not as high as America) Sweden, Finland, Norway and Switzerland but all these countries have very low crime rates and shootings

It’s far more about the violence in America that is the ongoing problem there are too many guns about for their to make a difference now in banning guns and becuase of the fear of violence gun ownership increases after every mass shooting

If guns were banned I can’t see people handing their guns over to authorities it goes against the principles of what America is about

MotherforkingShirtballs · 15/02/2018 00:02

Chances of being killed in a terror attack in the UK, very low.

Chances of being accidentally shot in the US by a 2yo who found Daddy's gun in the closet, very high.

Samantha77hat · 15/02/2018 00:04

Emma, sorry we are too thick to appreciate your brilliance, it must have gone over my head whilst I was worrying about a toddler shooting me

WooWooSister · 15/02/2018 00:05

How naive to think gun ownership in the US is about rights rather than long-standing and concerted advertising by the NRA. Framing it as a 'rights issue' was a marketing masterstroke.

I am so sorry for those poor American children who are being taught 'active shooter drills' are normal. The videos from the school were heartwrenching. So much fear and horror. And their elected representatives continue to fail them. Neither Democrats or Republicans will make a stand.

GnotherGnu · 15/02/2018 00:08

NotAnother, why are you ignoring posts demonstrating that the statistical basis for your argument is nonsense? Demonstrably the simple fact is that you are in far greater danger of violent death in the US than you are in the UK. In 2014 30 Americans were shot dead, on average, every day. By contrast, the total deaths from terrorist incidents in the UK for the whole of last year was 35. Are you seriously trying to tell us you would feel safer in the US?

GnotherGnu · 15/02/2018 00:09

NotAnother, clearly the reason we are no fun to argue with is that all those nasty inconvenient facts support our side of the argument.

Veterinari · 15/02/2018 00:10

Terrorists still manage mass killings here.

Yes it happens but the risk is incredibly low and School shootings in the UK are vanishingly rare. It’s a shame that you feel afraid because the reality is that you are significantly safer than you would be in the USA

I’d rather take my chances with our terrorist risk than the overall school shooting/accidental shooting/deliberate shooting/overall murder-violence culture in the USA. Pp are right - it’s not all about gun control - many other countries manage to have guns without the school shooting risks of the USA.

In the USA it’s about easy access to guns plus an overall culture of violence.

AgnesSkinner · 15/02/2018 00:10

Living in Texas I was way more worried about an idiot shooting me because he thought I might have looked at him funny than I am about a terrorist attack in the UK.

Just as well Emma was’t here in the 70s and 80s, she’d have been pissing her knickers on a regular basis.

thatwouldbeanecumenicalmatter · 15/02/2018 00:13

The AIBU section just proves to me daily that the stupid have far outbred the intelligent.

If the shoe fits...

slashlover · 15/02/2018 00:13

Terrorists still manage mass killings here. Except briefly after September 11th I never lived in fear of stepping into a large city for fear I'd be killed in a terrorist attack, like I do here.

Wiki says there were 23 terror attacks 1990-1996 in Great Britain (mostly IRA based), 9 in 2000-2009, 9 since 2010.

The Florida school shooting is the 18th THIS YEAR.

Veterinari · 15/02/2018 00:14

Since 2013, there have been 291 reported school shootings in America, which averages out to about one per week

Exiguous · 15/02/2018 00:15

Here's how I would perfectly legally buy a gun in my US state.

Look through the classifieds. Call someone who's selling a gun. Buy it.

No background checks.

No training required.

No one knows I own that gun. There's no register. The police are not informed.

I can own as many guns as I like.

I'm curious to know if it's that easy in other countries with high gun ownership.

laudanum · 15/02/2018 00:17

The NRA are wankers is why.

Exiguous · 15/02/2018 00:19

The NRA are wankers is why

They certainly are, but fundamentally we have too many people like NotAnotherEmma who want to believe what the NRA tell them, and who are determined at all costs to keep their guns.

squeekums · 15/02/2018 00:19

They could
They CHOOSE not to
They choose that their so called right to a gun is more important than human lives, even that of their own kids

It may sound wrong, but i now no longer even feel a twinge of sadness at the news of another american shooting, they allow and encourage it, why should i feel sad for them

OutyMcOutface · 15/02/2018 00:20

Because there are a lot of stupid people there? A larger population usually means a greater stupid to reasonable ratio. This in turn results is really stupid political decisions. I'm joking. It's because of the gun lobbies.

confusednotcom2 · 15/02/2018 00:23

After Sandy Hook & Vegas it seems to be just be the status quo. Crazy.

At least they have the perp alive so hopefully the victims won’t be trolled by people thinking it’s fake. 😒

HateSummer · 15/02/2018 00:27

If banning guns stopped murder then why do so many people get murdered in the UK?

Wow. Thick comment of the week.

At least parents can send their kids to school here and know for a fact that they will be safe from being gunned down by another student.

There is something seriously wrong in a nation when school children have such deep mental issues that they feel the need to take a gun into school and kill everyone. This isn’t just a gun problem, there are children being failed by people who should be taking care of them.

LegallyBrunet · 15/02/2018 00:32

Because the right to bear arms is entrenched in the American Constitution and an entrenched law is very hard to get rid of. To my knowledge it's only been done once and that was the amendment that repealed prohibition. Something like 2/3 of each house and 3/4 of the 50 states have to agree to the new amendment to repeal old one and to be honest, guns are now so ingrained in American society it's unlikely to happen

bettythebutterfly · 15/02/2018 00:32

I live in a nice corner of a nice city in the Midwest. The fear of crime among my neighbors is unreal. They seem to think at any given time someone is waiting to enter their house and murder them in their beds, or that someone will carjack their car, or that someone will rob their garage. I have no idea where this comes from - we can sign up for a police report monthly and they list things like 'laptop stolen from unlocked car'. On the whole, they are kind, liberal, well-educated people. But they live in terror.

Guns are the one problem I have living in the US. DH and I decided against home daycare, because you just don't know what's in someone's home, and how it's locked up (or not).
I worry about my son going to someone else's house, so we usually host play dates.

But why should fourteen lost teen lives change what they think? To not have acted after Sandy Hook was abhorrent. The NRA has done a stealthy PR and political funding job over the years which now means our politicians are in their pocket. It is a rotten system.

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 15/02/2018 00:32

18 mass shootings this year. This. Year. It's 2 weeks into February.

I'm sorry but you have to be really fucking obtuse to not be able to see that getting rid of guns is the best option.

This article is interesting and it has pictures for the hard of thinking.www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts

DianaPrincessOfThemyscira · 15/02/2018 00:32

Oops try again www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts

confusednotcom2 · 15/02/2018 00:33

what is in their heads that rather then just killing themselves they want to hurt as many people as possible?