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?

I get the vitriol to trump but this isn't the first time it's happened. Its happened under Obama too and know he wanted control but its a bit much to lay all blame at trumps door.

I feel mass school walk outs on the regular basis good idea.

You can't blame it on anyone individually, the USA as a united country should be working together no questions asked. It shouldn't matter who you are, which state you live in, your religion, sex, colour or your age etc.

I read an article on this that said that 150,000 kids have been at school during a mass shooting. That’s 150,000 children directly involved in an event that will stay with them forever. Add to their their families.

And that number only includes ‘shooter event’ stuff. Not shootings outside school, suicides etc.

This is the first of these shootings I’ve seen young people directly get angry and start to demand change - I wonder if the post columbine generation will drive the change needed?

According to the news the Florida Gun Show went ahead just 3 days after the school shooting

And they offered free entry to children. WTF

@julie8008 - you are kidding me! I second the WTF. There really are some despicable, sorry excuses for human beings out there. At least the kids are starting to have a voice & quite literally fighting for their lives, its just a shame that they need to fight for it in the first place because let's face it the pro gun adults are doing a shitty job of it.

According to the news the Florida Gun Show went ahead just 3 days after the school shooting
of course it did, in their minds the solution to shootings is more guns

In the USA 10,000 people a year shoot themselves to death.

The only thing that will save those lives is better gun control.

Talkinpeace
Suicide will still happen by other means but it could reduce the number of deaths by suicide, as many are spontaneous 😪

ivykaty
"cry for help" suicides attempts are rarely successful
unless they involve guns

The US suicide rate is far higher than other rich countries
because of guns

Talkinpeace, sadly I’ve seen enough coroners files in the uk to know that isn’t true

What that the UK suicide rate is not lower than the USA ?

There will be no coroners file for the "cry for help" that gets saved

Japan has a much higher suicide rate than the US and they have hugely draconian firearms laws.

They also aren't a third world country

Sweden also apparently has a very high suicide rate.

“Cry for help suicide attempts are rarely successful unless they have a gun”

“There won’t be any coroner files for cry for help suicide that gets saved”

Talk in peace the coroners files for cry for help suicide that you say are rarely successful without a gun, there are plenty and mostly male through hanging

We are getting a bot OT
BUT
According to the ONS there were around 6000 suicides in the UK last year - all methods.
According to the CDC there were around 10,000 gun suicides alone in the US

Surely removal of those guns is worth trying ?

Given the population sizes looking at finite numbers isn't massively helpful.

Total suicides USA : 12.6/100000
Total suicides UK: 7.4/100000
But Japan: 15.4
Sweden: 12.7
Finland : 14.2
Europe: 11.9

But anything that reduces the USA mass shooting incidence
HAS to be worth it .....

Nobody needs semi automatic weapons in the home

I think the gun show going ahead just shows that lack of connection
I suppose unless you come from a country without them or Been abroad etc you wouldn't really understand what people are talking about m

But other countries have access to semi automatics without the mass shootings?

People seem to have a very poor conception of what a semi automatic is. They are not inherently more dangerous than any other firearm, and, part of the reason a semi automatic ban (which would be pretty extreme) will never gain traction in the US is that pretty much every pistol is semi automatic.

If you go the restricting calibre route like the UK it's still a minefield. Where do you draw the line? In the UK it's limited to .22 rimmy, or shotgun. But that's pretty arbitrary tbh.

Or you could limit capacity (imo where the US should probably start looking) where anything over a .22 rimmy is limited to say 3 or 5 rounds. A clip of 5 is pretty standard so it's not like we are talking major upheaval here.

The Australian approach worked ....

Tbh, I don't know much about Australian gun laws, but a quick Google suggests semi automatics are still available to licenced users. And as the liscence is also the same as used by clay shooter and farmers, it's probably not that difficult to get. About the same as the UK I imagine.

Australia did a Gun Buyback scheme that took over 660,000 guns out of private hands when they brought in proper gun laws

It can be done
But America does not value the lives of children

But whatever Australia did, the situation improved. They didn’t know it would work, and as a democratic country presumably they could now change the law back, but apparently they don’t want to. I’m sure loads of people hated the changes when they were originally made, but if you don’t try, you don’t know.

Biggreygoose

I think a large number of people here do not necessarily understand the difference between semi automatic, fully automatic and bolt action

Well, then an explanation would good. We know how many children and teenagers you can shoot with a semi automatic. How many can you shoot with an automatic? Or a bolt action?