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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:
Thread gallery
26
insancerre · 15/02/2018 07:22

Guns don't kill people, people do
There's the problem
It's the people that own the guns
And their role model is Trump

Bettyfood · 15/02/2018 07:27

Children are really not safe in school in the US.

The right to bear arms is of course more important than that.

At one time the US used to be admired, now at best other countries feel pity.

SadieHH · 15/02/2018 07:27

Oh the irony Bartholin. All these macho bullets flying round and not one of them hits the target that might actually do some good.

Kursk · 15/02/2018 07:33

Bettyfood

The Violent crime in the US is generally located in urban areas. Namely Chicago, New York, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

I live in a rural area in a sparsely populated state. There is no crime, I never lock my house or car. The one time I lost my purse, it was found, handed to the Sherriff who then dropped it off at my house.

In the UK I was mugged, everyone I know has experienced crime at some point. I never felt safe and I still don’t when I visit.

scaryteacher · 15/02/2018 07:40

Whilst I agree some form of gun control is necessary, banning them will just send the gun trade underground, and won't stop shootings, like Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan. If you know where to look, you can buy AK47s in Brussels (Midi market on a Sunday morning).

I think in the U.S. a federal database would be the answer as opposed to one run by individual states.

Motheroffourdragons · 15/02/2018 07:50

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ on behalf of the poster.

honeysucklejasmine · 15/02/2018 07:53

We might share a language and an entertainment industry, but the US and the UK are fundamentally different cultures with very different values.

DH has American family. One couple, who we've met a few times, are fab. Funny, liberal, gsoh, generous and loving. But I was horrified by their response to the kneeling NFL players. They were outraged about the so called disrespect show to the flag.

They tried to explain it to me. "What if someone didn't show the Queen respect?" they asked. "That's called being a republican", I replied. The whole veneration of the flag, the military and the constitution are just so out of our range of understanding - we have no equivalent.

They'll never change. The NRA are too powerful and too successful.

Backenette · 15/02/2018 07:59

There's a deep cultural problem entrenched in the US that's responsible for the mass violence. The guns are merely the means

Then remove the means! Someone is going to have a rather hard time massacring a crowd if they’re armed with a spoon aren't they??

It’s like all the dangerous dogs bullshit ‘oh but it’s not the dog.’ - I wonder if you’d rather be locked in a lift with two raging pugs or two raging dobermans? All dogs can turn but the potential for serious injury varies with breed

Oh but anything can be a weapon! Yes but Guns are ONLY weapons. They have no other benign use - they are for shooting shit. No civilian needs a fucking automatic weapon.

WooWooSister · 15/02/2018 08:00

All the excuses about why gun control won't work aren't based in fact. Gun control does work. It's that simple. The global statistics prove that it works. If you don't want children killed in school then you should campaign for gun control.
Look at how quickly the Women's March was pulled together. If Americans did the same against gun control they could at least push the debate.
But sadly and ultimately it seems the majority would rather offer 'thoughts and prayers' rather than action and solutions. There's a void at the centre of America where its compassion should be. It's the perfect example of unfettered capitalism and individualism and it's terrifying.

Backenette · 15/02/2018 08:04

everyone and their mother wants to use it as an excuse to push their anti gun agenda.

If you have a pro gun agenda there’s something wrong with you.

The USA will never ban guns - a journalist as ^one of the fathers whose student son was on that school if he thought there should be stricter gun control and he started on with ‘don’t want the gubmint taking my guns.’

Astounding. They do not want to solve this problem.

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 15/02/2018 08:05

Thoughts, prayers & outrage that anyone should use the latest mass shooting as a reason to suggest gun control.

k2p2k2tog · 15/02/2018 08:06

Most of them don't want to, and the President thinks the answer to school shootings is to give every teacher their own AK47.

StripySocksAndDocs · 15/02/2018 08:06

I think Toadinthehole makes a good point about drink in the UK. Whilst it is obviously not a like for like comparison and with different outcomes. Alcohol is a huge problem in the UK - heavily involved violence and health problems - controls on it haven't really helped. It's the attitude to the use that's the bigger issue.

Tighter regulations on getting hold of alcohol would probably improve things. As it would with guns in the USA. An outright ban (on both in the relevant country) would of cause mean a huge decrease in the problems.

I think the comparison gives some insight to the attitude too. Suggestions of an ban on booze would cause a similar outraged attitude in the UK, as a suggested ban on guns does in the USA.

There does seem (to me anyway) to be some reluctance to mention the standard profile of a mass shooter in the USA: white male.

Easy availability of guns, toxic masulinuty and white entitlement, contributes to this profile.

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 15/02/2018 08:10

Kursk, you say

Most people I know own guns, probably half of those (DH included) conceal carry’s a handgun on a daily basis.

and I live in a rural area in a sparsely populated state. There is no crime.

So why are people in your peaceful area so scared that they have to be carrying a lethal weapon at all times?

RandomDreams · 15/02/2018 08:10

Thoughts and prayers does fuck all.

It's time America did something to stop future mass shootings.

Kursk · 15/02/2018 08:17

EmpressOfJurisfiction

WooWooSister · 15/02/2018 08:18

In one fundamental way, guns aren't like alcohol : the ability to kill other people quickly, horribly, randomly. Alcohol is a problem in the UK but it's also a problem in the US. If, somehow, alcohol had killed lots of children in a school in the UK then we would have had cross-party and public support to enact whatever laws could stop it happening again.

Biggreygoose · 15/02/2018 08:18

Both Cumbria and dunblane were largely down to massive failures by the police. In both cases notifications that the individuals involved were wholly unsuitable to own guns were ignored or just swept under the carpet. There was a significant cover up of this post dunblane while focus was put on gun control. From records released in 2005 Hamilton had been reported to the police and charged with assault, obstruction of an investigation and offences under the children's act just 3 years before. Cases were put before the prosecutor but then nothing was done. It has been the same for a lot of the gun related killings that have occurred since.

It is true that guns don't kill people, however nutters with guns kill lots.

Most countries are good at keeping guns out of the reach of crazy people. America seems to struggle with this.

Freddiesgirl · 15/02/2018 08:19

As one of my American friends said, maybe they aren't using the correct ratio of thoughts and prayers Hmm.
In all seriousness, There are plenty of sensible Americans who don't want these shootings to continue, and who want gun control, it's just that those in power tend to have been influenced by NRA etc. I'm not sure if it still exists, but if you used to google gun crime in USA the top links used to be paid for by NRA!!

greenbeansqueen · 15/02/2018 08:19

The NRA basically. And the conservatives reluctance to touch the constitution over ‘Right to Bear arms’.

FrancisCrawford · 15/02/2018 08:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IfyouseeRitaMoreno · 15/02/2018 08:24

Well that's fucking great isn't it? I used to get upset whenever I heard of mass school shooting in the US.

But now there seems to be no point in feeling anything because the US will never wake up and do something to help themselves.

How anyone can think that the right to bear arms trumps the possibility that the lives of schoolchildren will be saved is beyond me.

greenbeansqueen · 15/02/2018 08:25

I know lots of Americans who think it would be too late to try to have gun control but I think they should start with a ban on assault rifles, have a huge PR campaign to make ‘good’ people think about why they would need one anyway, and declare an amnesty on assault rifles so everyone can hand them in. Knowing the US well they’ll probably have to give them some kind of payment for the guns it’d be a start. There’s a whole culture that we don’t understand and one of the main reasons why we turned down an opportunity to move there with our kids.
Not interested in living somewhere where my children have to learn what to do if a ‘shooter’ attacks their elementary school.

billybagpuss · 15/02/2018 08:30

I'm 48.
In the UK I remember:
Hungerford (17 deaths)
Dunblane (18 deaths)
Cumbria (13 deaths) (why did Gazza turn up?)

According to the US Gun violence archive they have had 58 deaths so far this year.

But of course its not the guns, banning the guns will make no difference (that was sarcasm for the benefit of our American friends)

Kursk · 15/02/2018 08:31

EmpressOfJurisfiction

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