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?

Semi automatic weapons cover a wide spectrum, 60-70% of pistols and rifles are semi automatic. It will fire once when the trigger is pulled and reload.

Fully automatic weapons are what the public know as machine guns. It will repeatedly fire for as long as you hold the trigger.

Bolt action and leaver action rifles require the user to manually reload between each shot.

I come from a rural area in the UK, there’s basically zero crime. The farmers have access to shot guns though and I know two within a five mile radius who have used them to commit suicide.

Such a tragic and sad incident. Thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this terrible event. Losing a child is just the most hellish thing that could happen to parents. Losing all those promising young lives is just heartbreaking.

@bitter.

You can shoot as many times as you want with any action, including muzzle loaders.

As Kursk says, all semi automatic means is that every time you pull the trigger the gun will fire untill ammunition is depleted. They are also referred to as self loading. It's a trigger function, nothing more.

Some Nerf guns are semi automatic. As are some BB guns and quite a few lower powered air rifles. It has next to nothing to do with lethality of a gun.

Semi automatics are available in the UK, Australia, and pretty much every country. They don't have school shootings.

There is no correlation between a countries citizens having access to semi automatics and death's of 1000's.

You can be very nearly as quick as a semi automatic with an under lever action, MARS and leaver release actions (watch the biathlon at the winter Olympics, their guns tend to be level release, and see how quickly you can shoot one of those...). None of which are technically semi automatic.

What other countries (including this one) recognise is that people should probably be checked out properly before they get any sort of gun. That is not a crazy idea.

American high school students are demanding action and are taking a stand, hopefully many will follow their lead.

A revolver is not a semi automatic, despite falling under the definition above as its the movement of the block that loads the next shot, not the energy of the previous round.

In the U.K. the police can also withdraw somebody’s gun license if they are thought to be a risk to others or themselves and the license has to be renewed regularly.

However, the tactic of the pro gun lobby in the US seems to be to argue with any legislation so that there is none, and that clearly isn’t working.

Some semi automatic weapons might be manageable in the U.K. against a background of licensing, low levels of gun ownership and a gun culture that revolves around shooting targets and animals, not people.

Gun ownership is high in Switzerland, but that is against a background of mandatory national service and public healthcare.

Many parts of the US have as good as no regulations, limited access to any healthcare, and a worrying cultural belief that armed rebellion might be necessary at any time.

Against that background, yes ban semi automatics and maybe allow access to nerf guns.

If anyone follows the Trump thread in aibu, there are some heartbreaking posts and links regarding the shooting from survivors and parents.

This one I have copied from there is a perfect example of what the people asking for stricter rules are up against:

*Missouri Third-Graders Selling AR-15 Raffle Tickets For Their Baseball Team
The fundraiser is going ahead despite mounting controversy.

Children in a Missouri town are selling raffle tickets offering an AR-15 assault-style rifle as the prize to raise money for their baseball team. The rifle is the same type of weapon used last week in the Florida school shooting that killed 17 people.

The raffle was launched before the shooting, but Levi Patterson, the coach of the team in Neosho for boys 9 and younger, told The Kansas City Star he plans to continue with the fundraiser.

Patterson said he decided to “turn it into a positive thing” after “getting the hate” in the form of angry Facebook posts after the raffle was first reported.

The weapon was donated as a prize by a team father and co-founder of Neosho gun manufacturer Black Rain Ordnance Inc., which is currently pitching a Spec15 AR pistol on its Facebook page.

Rest of article is here if you have the stomach for it.
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neosho-baseball-team-features-ar-15-raffle_us_5a8a02f2e4b00bc49f455f30

www.cnn.com/2018/02/17/us/florida-student-emma-gonzalez-speech/index.html

This young woman makes me hope it will be different this time.

Well, not quite the same, but today a 7th grader has walked into a school in Ohio and shot himself.

Loved Emma Gonzalez' speech she was spot on.

So sad to hear there's been another shooting death. That it was self inflicted doesn't matter, that's another life lost and another school full of traumatised, terrified children.

Plus 7th grader so 12/13 years old?

Absolutely disgraceful such a young child can so easily get hold of a gun of ANY kind.

Just seen a video on Facebook. A gun owner destroying his own gun so it will NEVER be used to kill someone.

I REALLY hope (though I realise it will take much more overall) that this means that the tide is beginning to change.

Guy has used the tag #oneless.

Well this is just horrifying: the family who Nikolas Cruz was living with have given an interview saying they still believe it was his right to own “five or six” guns, despite his mental health issues.

www.scarymommy.com/family-parkland-shooter-his-right-to-own-guns/?utm_source=FB

Why can't America ban automatic weapons? Because Americans are, by and large, complete idiots.

@Graphista, sadly there have been more shootings than just that one.

I’ve got a screenshot from the gun violence archive website which I took last Thursday and one from this morning.

Since last Thursday there have been 4 more “mass shootings” (defined as 4 or more people injured or killed in the same incident) and 240 people have been killed by guns.

trump wants more guns in schools
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43149694
obviously the solution is for teachers to be armed

I am utterly incredulous

It’s unbelievable! Why on earth do they think MORE GUNS are the answer?!

Well obviously it’s because their NRA Masters are pulling the strings.

How those kids from Florida didn’t jump in front of the many White House reporters and shout “No, this is not what we want!” I do not know.

Part of the problem is the political point scoring. This isn't a Democrat or Republican problem. Both parties have been in power during mass shootings. They actually need to work together.

And tbh that means holding the FBI to account too. They were given direct warnings. Pretending that's ok because people hate Trump and Trump is fighting with the FBI is still putting politics before lives.

There's a tiny opportunity for change here but it's already slipping into the old partisan arguments.

Gun law change needs cross-party support.

This isn't a Democrat or Republican problem. Both parties have been in power during mass shootings.

It was pretty clear from his tears that Obama wanted change after Sandy Hook, but was stymied by Republicans and the NRA.

The orange one was always going to propose a 'solution' like that, no surprise there.

The students and parents will continue, something is shifting.

I haven’t yet seen what the procedure would have been if the FBI had investigated Cruz.

I know that in some states they have ‘red flag’ laws that allow police to seize guns, but that wasn’t the case in Florida.

Presumably you have to break a law before the police can lock you up, or be mentally ill and a clear threat to others or yourself, but would he have met that criteria?

Obama did bring in a law to provide background information about individuals with mental health issues, Trump repealed this law last year.

If it wasn't that it's Trump, I would find the idea of arming teachers totally incredible. He really believes that it's a good idea to put loaded guns into schools so that the next disaffected teenager doesn't even have to bring his own gun in?

Obama did bring in a law to provide background information about individuals with mental health issues, Trump repealed this law last year.

Obama took it as far as he could, which clearly wasn't far enough, but his hands were tied.

Trump repealed it.

Hillary has made her position on gun control crystal clear, as I've already said up thread.

This absolutely IS a Republican problem.

He really believes that it's a good idea to put loaded guns into schools so that the next disaffected teenager doesn't even have to bring his own gun in?

He doesn't believe it - he just says whatever needs to be said to appeal to his deplorable base, and to keep the big bucks rolling in.

Wouldn't want to be him, on his death bed.