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?

I don't 'get' it either, but there's a really good It's always sunny in Philadelphia episode which demonstrates the two views! m.imdb.com/title/tt2999348/

Like where, out of interest?

I do agree with @LifeExperience it's a complex issue, but @RandomMess has a good point too about the gun tech in place at the time. I've got US friends on both sides.

That's brilliant then if it's becoming the norm not to circumcise, and I am very happy to hear I am wrong about that.

Lawyer on channel 4 news explaining the dilemma now.

Lol. And the ones who live in cities? As most of you do. They're all scared of bears too?

Incredulous, rather than smug and virtuous, that gun crime is the leading cause of death in children in the US and that there is no political will to deal with this. Other than arming teachers it seems.

As far as I understand a large number of people would like background checks which might actually curb some ‘nutters’ obtaining guns. But if gun owners resist any incursion of their right to own how will this be achieved?

I also don't understand how the constitutional right to bear arms must mean access to ar-15.

I suppose it is because it was written so that any individual american has the right to take up arms against their government, and so once your military arming improves so must yours.

But by that logic, the average American should be able to have a tank and nuclear weapons.

What a strange thing to have ever been written into a constitution at a time where I assume there were already no laws against having a weapon of any kind.

When I lived in America, the ones who were obsessed with guns and owned loads (10+) Were always the ‘odd’ people of the group.

They don’t trust their government - perhaps rightly so. They want to be best prepared in case of things hitting the fan, which feels more possible than ever these days. America has a very different history to us here in the U.K., a different relationship with their government. If they gave up their guns would it mean the US police would no longer routinely carry guns? Here in the U.K. police do not casually walk around with guns, I think if they did then it would change things. I am British and find the gun culture over there baffling so I am not defending it but I do find it worth listening to them rather than just parroting ‘guns are bad’ with my fingers in my ears. Something I don’t understand is why they have such a range of guns available. In this country you can acquire a gun if you get a licence, have no criminal record or mental health issues etc - but the type of gun you can get is suitable for hunting, it would simply be no good for mass killing. I just don’t understand why they don’t just - for starters at least - adjust the laws of what guns are allowed and also up the age to 25 or something. I mean, it would be a start. Usually governments love the softly softly approach (Two weeks to flatten the curve!) So I’m not sure why they haven’t eased in restrictions gently.

@LifeExperience but surely having more gun controls doesn’t stop you defending yourself from coyotes? It’s not an all or nothing argument is it?

@LifeExperience I can see the argument for rural folk to have a shot gun.
in the UK farmers often do. It’s tightly controlled, gun cabinets of specific specifications, police checks, doctors sign off etc
It works, Google when we last had a mass shooting event.
I’m ex-armed forces and have fired a rifle many times, I’m not anti gun at all.

@LifeExperience sorry, you aren't unique in having wildlife, I think Canada has you beaten on bears and yet they manage to survive without automatic rifles for everyone. Australia has far more terrifying wildlife than you do including snakes. Ever seen videos of people with cassowaries in their back garden? Actual dinosaur birds that they manage not to shoot. On Svalbard where they have a very real chance of attack by polar bears every time they leave the house, they carry non automic rifles. Why again is America so speshul?

Exactly, @Maggiethecat! I was hoping for a response from that poster because I really do want to understand the other side. But every time I try it's seems like people are purposely obtuse.

No constitutional right is absolute. There is nothing in the text of the Second Amendment or Supreme Court jurisprudence that would stop congress from banning high powered assault weapons. That's the bottom line.

@LifeExperience , I grew up in a rural part of the UK before moving to the USA. All of the farmers in our English village had shotguns. There was even a weekly pheasant shoot during winters, with about 50-60 people taking part. Never once did I worry that someone was going to turn the gun on people, as the background checks in the UK are extensive. Nobody here is talking about shotguns. We are talking about AR-15s and militaristic weapons of mass destruction. They need to be banned immediately. Care to see any projected photos of the children in Texas with their faces blown off? That should be the first thing people see when they walk into that disgusting NRA convention tomorrow.

In short it's to do with white-settler colonialism. Everything basically stems from that.

It’s a huge and diverse country and this issue is very much a geographical one. Talking about ‘Americans’ in this context is a bit meaningless. There’s no gun control at a federal level, it’s legislated for at state level. So there are Democrat-controlled states that have fairly sensible gun laws and there are Republican states (like Texas) where you can impulse buy an assault rifle.

I believe that polling suggests that overall, a majority of American citizens do want federal gun control laws, but they aren’t represented that way. The views of people in New York and LA have zero influence on lawmakers in Texas.

@GarlandsinGreece - I'm also starting to feel that images in the US media have to change. All we ever see are photos of people being hugged, flowers and law enforcement dutifully investigating. Maybe public opinion would start to change then.

That’s a good point.
Seeing the actual wounds and murdered children may move these people. The thought of dead children alone obviously doesn’t bother them.

It's the hypocrisy. Just the other week these people were angrily saying they were pro life and the rights of a woman to choose an abortion should be removed. That choice only affects the woman and her immediate family.
Now, they are saying that their right to be able to own guns no matter how mentally unstable they are is more important than the right to life for children who are very much wanted and loved and sentient. It makes no sense. Add in to that the legal age to drink is 3 years after being able to buy a gun, not being able to buy a kinder egg because they're dangerous, and you have a crazy situation. As always in America, the logical path is the one that the brainwashed will do anything to avoid - socialised health care, gun control, the right to have autonomy over your own body, the right to a fair wage without ganneting over tips, maternity care, employment security, vacation days. So much wrong with America. Mainly caused by rich, old, fat white men who want to be richer, more powerful and fatter. Can't do that without treading on thousands beneath them. Those thousands are like turkeys voting for Xmas. Where is the line? As long as its not Republican men who suffer then there is no line.

I wouldn't rush back to some parts of Croydon, Peckham, Camden and Walthamstow for starters - further afield - Moss side, Wythenshawe, Sparkbrook, Liverpool 8, Bradford and Glasgow for starters as well as a couple of bits of Leicester and Nottingham and a couple of areas in Derby too, ad that's just off the top of my head. You're living a sheltered life if you thing some of these places aren't risky.

Not the whole of Glasgow BTW, just to be clear - most of it is brilliant.

Thanks for the informative posts and links. I hadn’t realised that the individual’s right to carry guns was only ruled as guaranteed by the second amendment by the Supreme Court in 2008.

I’m still baffled why anyone, and especially an 18 yo on his 18th birthday, would need 2 semi automatic rifles? And who would think it acceptable to allow him to have these? And without any checks? When he probably isn’t even lawfully able to drink alcohol?

I doubt that he needed them both to shoot snakes.

Our last mass shooting was in 2021

Plymouth shooting

😂😂😂

I grew up in one of those places, and have lived in 3 others on your list. I've never worried about being stabbed, or shot, for that matter.

I don't think it's me that's 'sheltered', though.