America's Gun Control

You probably need rather more power than that. As I said, try actually finding some stuff out about them.

There is no reason to give ordinary people access to assault rifles

Ah - it's time for the 'all of America and Americans are the same and I know bc I went there once or my husband's, brothers, aunts godmother lives there' thread. Always a joy when these pop up. I really can't be bothered answering all the comments here but would just beg that people do some reading on how the American political system works - the difference between local and federal powers and influence, the constitution and amendments, the supreme court and Citizens United before commenting. There is a lot wrong about my adopted country (and a lot of people trying to fix it) but it's tough to have that conversation when people are answering without actually knowing what is and isn't possible.

There’s no shortage of threads on Brexit, NHS, U.K. on mn

This is about gun control which is an interesting topic in its own right.

No one has to post on it but I don’t see why the conversation always has to come back to things like Brexit and the U.K.

The US gun situation is problematic and despite some saying a majority want change it doesn’t look like that will happen.

I’m not sure why voting won’t lead to change though if many want it to

Well partly because the initial title of the thread (now changed) was a gleeful something like Are All Americans Stupid. I realise what this thread is about, but my point is that it's easy to point at other countries' self-inflicted damage while glossing over your own, which benefits no one.

And the answer to your question is that it's more complicated than just voting. American politics are really very complicated and it's impossible to understand them without a decently deep dive into Supreme Court decisions on the transparency of political funding and judicial appointments and campaign finance and lobbyists and secretly funded think tanks and media and social media manipulation and algorithms.

Just as many Americans are convinced to be afraid of governments taking their guns, British people were convinced to be afraid of immigrants taking their jobs and healthcare. Many of the same forces are at work behind both of those beliefs.

I'm reposting the article I just posted because I do think it's a useful beginning for anyone really wanting some understanding
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/nra-guns-second-amendment-106856/

If the Second Amendment prevents gun control, why not restrict sales of bullets instead? As a very minimum they could all be stamped, recorded and traceable?

They have gun crime, we have knife crime.

@Whammyyammy they have knife crime too, and their knife crime alone is worse than our knife crime, never mind the gun deaths. The US homicide rate (adjusted for population) is more than ten times that of the UK.

They hit those too. It's so commonplace that it rarely hits the news. School shootings do attract more attention from the media so you're more likely to hear about them.

That’s actually inaccurate. Proportionately speaking, when you take the number of people killed in a school shooting as a percentage of the population, even Finland has a bigger problem than here. There are a lot more incidents here, but we have a much bigger population than most other countries.

And the worst massacre in a school here (in terms of the number killed) happened without a single shot being fired.

Guns are our right, per the constitution. I’m a responsible gun owner. No more reason for me to give up my guns than there is for you to give up your car.

You licence them and limit the sort of weapons they are allowed to possess. Shotguns and hunting rifles are perfectly legal in the UK, people hunt here too (I had roast pheasant on Sunday). No one needs to own an AR15.

No one is a responsible gun owner. A gun is a killing machine. Is life so bad that you feel so unsafe?
Sounds like you value the constitution more than the lives of school children.

Remember: guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Can’t believe you posted that with a straight face.

Well said! And they reckon we “don’t get it”. Along come the armchair America-experts because third-cousin Bob lives in Tennessee or they’ve been to Florida more than once. I give up trying to explain things. They don’t get it. And that’s fine, they don’t need to because they don’t live here. But don’t tell us what’s wrong with the country.

That's a very silly remark.
There are 10000s of responsible gun owners.

https://wisevoter.com/country-rankings/gun-deaths-by-country/

Gun deaths by 100k population. US - 4.21. Finland - 0.21

If you have a gun in your hand, you are not being responsible - what is that gun for - to use to kill somebody - hardly a responsible act.

So r u saying genuinely that ur right to own a gun is more important than live of a child and also the truma of the children who have been in crowfire but not actually killed. If u could be told that no one child would die in mass shootings (I know this is obviously not really going to happen as cannot be 100% true but hypothetical) if u gave up ur gun would u do it?

It is desperately sad, and seems tragic to people outside the country, but I think unless you are American you will never really understand the whole 'right to bear arms' and 'constitution' thing. Let alone the huge complexities of the political situation.

The bottom line is that many Americans will value their right to own a gun over everything else, including the lives of people. Gun laws will never be changed. People will continue to die. I honestly don't think that it will ever change. I suspect that the vast majority of Americans believe that multiple deaths are a price worth paying to keep their guns.

I also wonder if ur mind would change if it was ur own child who died. Obviously I would never want anything to happen to anyone .

A fucked up country. It's getting to the stage where they'd rather have every school, church, shopping mall, concert venue, you name it, armed to the teeth as a "precaution" like some sort of open air high security prison, rather than tackle the issue of access to assault rifles.

But you know, "Land of the Free" and all that.

Like I said.
Silly.
This is a serious topic.

I do love the argument that the whole gun thing is part of their constitution and as such is unchangeable.

Except it isn't - its an amendment, a change, to their constitution - it's literally right there in the name, the 2nd Amendment rights they love to bang on about.

Are they as keen on all 27 amendments to their constitution?
What about amendment 18?
Or amendment 21? or the fact that amendment 21 repeals 18. 18 was the Prohibition amendment—banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.”

So there is precedence for amendments to be overturned or simply brought up to date.

And frankly, unless you are sleeping with your loaded handgun under your pillow it's not going to be much use to you when the fabled bad man breaks into your house in the middle of the night. The likelihood though is you'll just have a bad nights sleep as I imagine they are pretty uncomfortable to sleep on or you'll shoot your spouse when they get up for a piss in the middle of the night. And when you get up your in the morning and your dog jumps on the bed they'll likely shoot you too. And that before you throw kids in the mix.

Not silly at all - no one should have a gun in their hands. You’re not then going to be responsible.

DSil lives in US - told me not to drive like I would in London. Too risky to act as an ‘aggressive’ driver as you have no idea whether the driver next to you at the lights has a gun on the seat next to him.

Guns are our right, per the constitution. I’m a responsible gun owner. No more reason for me to give up my guns than there is for you to give up your car.

Under what circumstances would you use your gun?

Too risky to act as an ‘aggressive’ driver as you have no idea whether the driver next to you at the lights has a gun on the seat next to him.

Wonder how many of these gun on seat drivers have had to brake suddenly, gun gets flung off the seat and goes off accidently and shoots them (ironically) or the kid in the car next to them (sadly more likely)?

There has to be an issue if your back to school essentials include a bullet proof schoolbag