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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:
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26
jaseyraex · 15/02/2018 08:32

Guns don't kill people, people do

If people couldn't get hold of guns so damn easily, they wouldn't be able to kill people with them. It's that simple. Yes, if some maniac is determined to get a gun then they'll probably find one. But making it so that you can't just walk into a local store and grab a gun with your groceries will lessen these tragedies. America will never ban guns, but tighter laws on the buying and selling of guns is needed sooner rather than later. The UK and Australia alone prove that gun control works, and I do say that as one of the "lucky" ones. I hope the people that want to keep their guns never have to experience one of these tradegies first hand.

Backenette · 15/02/2018 08:32

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

Prayers do bugger all. How about some sensible legislation to remove assault rifles from the public sphere? Nobody needs an assault rifle ffs.

And it’s logical to respond to a massacre of innocent children with a suggestion that maybe, just maybe, the weapons used to kill them aren’t safe to be so widely available.

No civilian has a legitimate reason to own an AR-15. Farmers and hunters don’t use them, they are purely weapons of mass slaughter.

Toomanytealights · 15/02/2018 08:36

The phone footage from terrified children is horrific. Just how to do the powers that be in the US sleep at night?I'm just staggered,they will all see it and do nothing. That shocks me as much as the numbers of children dying each year

scaryteacher · 15/02/2018 08:37

No Mother I'm not just talking about terrorism. Belgium is a European hub for illegal weapons dealing. There are some interesting reports from the Flemish Peace Institute on the subject.

FellOutOfBed2wice · 15/02/2018 08:40

It’s a different culture over there. I have an American friend who is totally against automatic weapons and wants a ban but he couldn’t get over that even our police don’t routinely carry them. They just have a whole different mind set to us about guns and their place in society.

AlexDrake1981 · 15/02/2018 08:42

Rights over safety 😞. The UK isn't perfect, but it acted accordingly after Dunblane & I believe UK residents are safer because of it. Just a shame that Dunblane had to happen in the first place 😢.

GnotherGnu · 15/02/2018 08:42

Kursk, the fact that you feel safe in the US is, as you identify, because you live in a sparsely populated rural area. If you lived somewhere like the remoter Scottish highlands it would be the same in the UK. It has nothing to do with the US's gun control laws, does it?

The difference, however, is that if one of your neighbours became mentally ill and decided one day, say, to kill as many people as he could in a local school, church or shop, all he has to do is pick up his gun to cause a large number of deaths. If that happened in a remote UK area, the best he could do would be to pick up a kitchen knife. Where would you rather live in that situation?

Biggreygoose · 15/02/2018 08:44

Semi automatic rifles, semi automatic shotguns, thermal and night vision scopes and silencers (plus hand guns - albeit restricted to three shots and quite rare) are all legally available in the UK. If you are on NI there are far less restrictions.

Some of that is illegal (or extremely difficult to own) in the US.

We still don't have random school children being shot on a weekly basis.

The problem isn't so much what you own, it's who owns it.

Parker231 · 15/02/2018 08:44

Things won’t change in the US as they are wedded to the NRA and the stupid right to bear arms. Gun control in the UK is far from perfect but the risks are in a totally different arena than the US. I enjoy holidays in the US butI could never live there or risk my DC’s going to school there.

With Trump around nothing will change.

MotherforkingShirtballs · 15/02/2018 08:45

Cumbria (13 deaths) (why did Gazza turn up?)

That wasn't Cumbria, it was Rothbury and Rail Moat.

Backenette · 15/02/2018 08:45

Belgium has a big problem with eastern bloc weapons for sure. Realistically if you’ve got money and connections you can buy anything g you want.

That’s not the same thing as being able to legally buy an assault rifle and countless ammo for it. Heck Walmart sells bullets... it’s insanity. Last time I was in the USA I won a shotgun at a company bbq. People were most put out when I politely refused it. It’s the ubiquity of guns that’s the issue. And the fact that powerful automatic weapons are sold at all - I get that the USA is culturally different, I’ve spent plenty of time there. But farmers and hunters weapons are generally not the ones used in these sprees - it’s these assault rifles.

This kid passed background checks - so those checks aren’t working. You should not be able to buy an AR-15 offthe shelf legally, you just shouldn’t.

angularmerkel · 15/02/2018 08:47

Michael Moore's film 'Bowling for Columbine' explains the US gun situation very well. It's old but worth a watch. The media ensures folk live in fear; people in fear feel that they need protection; they get a gun as protection; gun crime is sky high; its reported by the media; people live in fear; they want protection; they buy a gun... ad infinitum. Watch it, it's very interesting.

Willow2017 · 15/02/2018 08:48

There is absolutely no reason for a civilian to need an automatic weapon. The only reason to have one is if you are going to war.

Until the vast majority of politicians stand up to the gun lobbyists (stop taking thier money) there were never be a change in the law.

Money talks bribes and funds lifestyles

greenbeansqueen · 15/02/2018 08:49

BillyBagPuss -don’t think your figs are accurate. In Jan this year there were over 1200 gun deaths in the US and nearly 5,000 ‘incidents’ - woundings etc.

EnthusiasmIsDisturbed · 15/02/2018 08:50

It isn’t just those who are supporters of the NRA, Republicans, Trump supporters that support gun ownership

My cousin was having an issue with her neighbor he was thought to be spying on her and other neighbors (he was a teenager) and she (who has left wing opinions) was considering getting a gun for safety which everyone thought was a good idea. That just wouldn’t be considered by anyone I know here but in the US even for many who support gun control think of it as a way to protect themselves should they feel vulnerable. There such a difference in society attitudes compared to the uk

StripySocksAndDocs · 15/02/2018 08:51

Already said they weren't like for like and the outcomes were different @WooWooSister.

What is the same though is they are both huge contributors to violence and death. With both the refusal to acknowledge this and the defence of the right to are the same.

spankhurst · 15/02/2018 08:52

Kursk, I’ve lived in the U.K. for nearly 48 years, including big cities like London, and have had my purse stolen. Once. I don’t know anyone who’s been the victim of violent crime. Your friends must be extraordinarily unlucky. Or perhaps they strayed too near the ‘no-go’ city of Birmingham which as we know is controlled by Islamic extremists Hmm

Tanith · 15/02/2018 08:53

Not long after the Dunblane shooting killed 16 children and their teacher, there was another school attack on young children in Wolverhampton. The perpetrator was armed with a machete. There were no deaths.

Sure, it's the person not the gun that kills. However, the gun allows them to kill an awful lot more people and makes it much harder to overpower the lunatic shooting at them.

slashlover · 15/02/2018 08:54

People think the second amendment is the right to bear arms. It actually reads

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

It is NOT meant to be used for individuals and self protection. When it was written it was intended to stop the federal government from disarming the state militias and replacing them with a Federal army. America no longer relies on state militias.

The constitution seems to be the main reason people think they should keep their guns but it was never intended to be for that reason.

billybagpuss · 15/02/2018 08:54

Green bean that was just a site I came across for mass shootings, happy to be corrected x

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 15/02/2018 08:56

They see a handgun as a tool, and carry them just as they carry a penknife.

A tool?

That's chilling.

It puts a lethal weapon on a level with a spanner or screwdriver. Your idyllic neighbourhood sounds much scarier now.

DiplomaticDecorum · 15/02/2018 08:58

BillyBagPuss -don’t think your figs are accurate. In Jan this year there were over 1200 gun deaths in the US and nearly 5,000 ‘incidents’ - woundings etc.

Possibly because a lot of figures bandied around by the NRA talk only of deaths by RIFLES, they always seem to conveniently forget to include handgun deaths in their statistics ...... fucking idiots.

TheDowagerCuntess · 15/02/2018 09:00

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

It no outrage at the killing of children?

You don't want to discuss gun control at any time, don't try and pretend otherwise.

Why wouldn't people suggest gun control in the wake of another mass shooting...?

Utterly bizarre.

TheDowagerCuntess · 15/02/2018 09:02

Oh my - apologies Empress, I got the wrong end of the stick with your post! Blush

EmpressOfJurisfiction · 15/02/2018 09:03

No problem Cuntess!

Guns matter more than children. Obviously.