RE: Come and Take It!
You are viewing a single comment's thread:
Sure you can, especially if you're talking about things people love to try to ban.
Banning books, however, is just politicians trying pretend they're actually doing anything.
And banning firearms will differ from that how?
0
0
0.000
Less people will be killed by firearms in the US.
You believe less people will be killed by people with guns.
Less people are being killed even as guns proliferate in the US, though. If your premise of more guns making the US more dangerous were accurate, violent crime rates should trend up as carry restrictions are relaxed and more firearms are sold. The opposite trend happened over the past 35 years, with zero demonstrable effect by the Clinton Gun Ban other than the increased threat of government violence against peaceful people.
We see violent crime largely associated with drug gangs, which is a consequence of government prohibition. Mass shootings are rare, and school shootings moreso. The US is a big country with a large population, an industry dedicated to sensationalist "journalism," and a lot of people broken by government institutions.
You keep asking what arguments will change my mind. What arguments will change yours? What facts, evidence, and reasoning will cause you to reconsider your premise that guns are to blame for violence in society?
That's a great question.
These conversations have already taught me a lot. I didn't realise death by handguns was so much higher than death by rifles.
As you've mentioned, there are a lot of factors at play in the violence in the USA, and so obviously it's always going to be hard to compare lots of different countries or states with each other.
To be convinced that access to guns are not a significant factor in violence in society, I think I'd need to see data from a range of countries with differing levels of firearm regulation on violent deaths, particularly of children.
Has the US become less dangerous over the past 35 years?
Mass shootings and school shootings are rare ways to die in the US, but both events seem to occur more frequently than in other developed countries.
You seem to be conflating making something illegal with making something unavailable. If this country's attempts at banning alcohol and drugs are any indication, the opposite is likely to happen. Less guns in circulation does correlate with less firearm deaths but in this country there's already more guns in civilian hands than there are civilians. Until someone comes up with a way to convince people to voluntarily give up those, politicians attempts to ban firearms will remain nothing more than 'trying pretend they're actually doing anything.'
Yeah, you're right.
To be honest, I don't think banning firearms is a workable solution in the USA.... but I personally don't think the current scenario of a vast array of weaponry available to private citizens is healthy either. I do think that the number of school shootings in the US is a problem worth trying to solve.
The intention behind my original comment was that lumping guns in with books and weed doesn't work because firearms are a much more nuanced conversation.
I am in complete agreement with you on that. Earlier this year we had a mass shooting here in my city, that is an experience I wish no one and no place had to go through. (You can see my posts on that here, here, and here.) We went through the same tired routine in the aftermath, and exactly nothing changed. We had another mass shooting before that week was through, although that one seems to have been more of a gunfight rather than a killing spree.
Gotcha, firearms are definitely a much more complex issue than the others, I was just taking issue with that complexity disqualifying them from a discussion on banning things.
Yeah, I was too flippant in my response to you and should have put more thought into my answer. I knew it at the time too, but I was too distracted with my responses to the other posters. Sorry.
Aw man, that is brutal. I've never been personally affected by anything like that and my heart really does go out to everyone affected. I really do think the USA could do better in this arena. I'm in the US but I'm not from the US and so I don't always understand the nuance and complexity, but I do also think I can bring some different insights and ideas to the discussion.