Not to understand resistance to gun control

[Maggiethecat]

I understand that it serves those with financial interests but cannot understand why Joe Bloggs wouldn't want restrictions on eligibility to carry guns. It's not as if guns are being banned and their freedom is being taken away, it's that there should be reasonable checks carried out.

Are Americans not exhausted by the mass shootings and wonder why this is the only country in the world with such a dismal record?

All the Americans I got to k ow (quite a few as I lived there for 10 years) are against guns. They are exasperated. Do they compare with other countries. They don't too, it doesn't require a comparison to realise the damage that it does.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone - it's a huge country and there will be some states where gun deaths are not an issue. But there will be some places where it is.

I cannot understand how collectively Americans cannot come together to even try to tackle the problem.

I lived in the USA (Utah) for 3 years and was really shocked at how gun loving all my friends and family were. I got a christmas card last hear from a family, the picture on the front was all of them (little kids included) holding guns in front of the tree. They think its normal and all about 'protection'. Many Americans are fanatical about guns and so hard for us to comprehend.

Was shocks me the most is that all the democrates want to do is bring in background checks before a person is given a gun - the repulicans claim thats unconstitutional as 'everyone has the right to bare arms'. CRAZY

I follow quite a few American accounts on Instagram. Most are horrified and saddened and are calling for change.

One shared this... followed by a post about how people were DMing her spreading hate and that's the problem apparently. Not the guns. The parents who are teaching their children to spread hate.

I think many Americans are in favour of some sort of gun control but they will be shouted down by the very vocal and influential NRA.

How can one organisation yield so much power that it cripples any attempt to minimise mass shootings including those of children?

but the mindset of gun control is only going to change when the people who vote in politicians who are part of the pro guns change their mindset
the pro gun/NRA lobby fund a lot of campaigns in areas so a candidate who relys on their money to get/stay elected aint exactly gonna turn round and be for gun controls, if they did they would lose the money and problably the votes for the people who align themself with the pro gun/NRA mob

texas has one of the most leinent gun control, new york state has one of the strictest and both have been victims of mass shootings in the past few weeks

the answer is something has to be done at a federal level, which wont be easy/wont happen on a basic level, the republican party are more pro guns and the democrats dont have an answer - they dont have the majority in the sentate to push anything thru at the moment and the elections in November is likely they might lose the senate - same with the house, slim majority but could lose that in november

it would be great if they repealed the legislation that prevented gun manufacturers being sued. At the moment they can pump guns out confident there'll be no reprisals. Americans can sue tobacco manufacturers, they can sue pharm companies that make opioids, but somehow arms producers are exempt.

Fuck that.

Is it partly because to impose more restrictions on guns would involve the rewriting of the constitution which is the foundational principles of America. This is not a small issue to many Americans.

Also, this is a stable door that I can’t see is possible to bolt at this point. There are millions and millions of firearms in the country. How do they round them all up? People who want to commit these atrocities will surely still be able to access a gun somehow. It’s just too late.

i lived for 2 years in a remote part of the us
If I had a armed robber try to break in the nearest town was over a hour away
I had a gun and lessons

Because they donate to/bribe so many politicians.

It's only relatively recently that you've been able to buy a Kinder egg!
There really is no point in anyone getting so upset by what's happened on Texas, dreadful as it is, but if the American system is there to protect the almost unfettered access to weapons our tears are of no use. I know it sounds so cynical but that's the reality.

the insularity of some (many) Americans is very true, but it goes further than that....and many Americans see other states as very different from their own and actually they are. I lived in NJ for a while, it was around 30 years ago but I was amazed at how "foreign" it was....and it was pretty cosmopolitan compared to other states. What i remember is that there was a strong feeling of fear in the blue collar sector which was encouraged by their unions....I was there as a legal alien without permission to work and my husband was sponsored by his global employer so had a work visa and whenever we had to deal with officialdom, we were always grilled about why the job couldn't have been done by an American. The individual people I met in shops and so on were lovely and interested in stuff like the "brit accent" but there was also an undercurrent of "foreigners will take out jobs" "no one will protect us so we have to protect ourselves" The attitude mhas been manipulated for political ends for years; we have just seen this in spades with Trump. I know we say it about the UK but money really does speak over there :(

At this stage Amnesty International or the UN need to start getting involved .Is it not a basic human right to be able to send your child to school knowing it will be safe and not slaughtered by some gun toting crazy lunatic. In America apparently not.

Whilst this is true I think it can be a little unfair. The USA is a vast place so you don't have to leave it to experience a lot of cultural and geographic diversity.

This is an excellent point - there are many areas where population density is tiny and there is minimal Policing.

I agree - you can experience a wide range of climates, cultures, geography etc in one country. But does that stifle knowledge about other countries? particularly in this age of technology?

I saw a Republican politician say yesterday that now was a 'time for healing' i.e. Bored now. Let's move on.

I’m half American and many of them I know would view countries with gun control with pity. They genuinely think I’m oppressed as I can’t just go get a gun to ‘protect’ myself (in UK) I point out every time that I can get a gun, but I have to register, provide references and prove I can store it safely and legally first. They view gun control as socialism which to many = bad (essentially communism, the biggest bad of all except Islam). They use historical conflicts (Greece/turkey maybe?) where somewhere got invaded and the local populous couldn’t defend itself. It sickens me that it’s harder to drive and drink alcohol in the states than it is to get a gun. No one is asking for an outright ban, just more robust checks. There is also a religious element to this regarding the magical view of the constitution’ and god given rights to defend yourself/bear arms.

Sadly I can’t see it changing unless it directly affects the gun supporters (I.e their kids start dying) or until the young generation who is affected the most now, grow up and are in power themselves.

Sadly I can’t see it changing unless it directly affects the gun supporters (I.e their kids start dying)

Their answer to that will be simply...more guns.

That isn't unique to the US though. And the issue is made worse/ more dangerous because the intruders will have access to arms too.

Fortunately this is a UK site and most users are from the UK so we don't have to worry about this or even think about it at all. Is there a US section? Might be best to discuss there rather than clogging up AIBU getting UK people wound up about nothing

Scroll on by.

I just don't understand how any civilian can justify the need for assault rifles ? Can't be for hunting because there would be nothing much left to eat or hang on the wall if you shot something with one !

I was astounded when one man said the solution was to arm teachers. Sorry I went to uni to train to teach children, not discharge firearms. So is a US teacher meant to keep a loaded gun in her (presumably unlocked) desk drawer at all times and hope to beat any probable assassin to the draw - very helpful if he's waving an assault rifle around.