America & Guns

We awoke today in Britain to the news that there has been another mass shooting in America. The question again is how does America stop these events from occurring? To me the answer is plain and simple, gun control, taking away the weapons will stop this from happening but as I skip through threads here and on facebook pages it's obvious that no matter how many of your children are massacred you will not hand over your guns.

Now before you guys start hurling insults at me let me make one thing clear. I AM NOT A LIBERAL. In Britain I am forever being accused of being far right as I am anti muslim, anti immigration and I think all this gender fluidity business is absolute nonsense, oh and if I was American I would have voted Trump.

A few months ago after a similar event I chatted to an American woman online about gun control and she left me speechless. No matter what I said to her she would not consider for a split second giving up her guns. Her first reason was I need my guns to hunt, I said okay would it be possible to keep your guns in a hunting lodge to which she responded well no I need them at home to protect myself. From what I asked, well somebody may break in through the window to rape me she responded, errr okay I replied so why don't you improve the security of your home to make it very difficult to break in. Well what if there is a power cut she answered. At this point I knew that I was wasting my time as it was clear that she had guns because she wanted to have guns, not because she needed them.

A few years ago when I was more active on ATS I read a post from a moron who went out the previous day armed and wrote about how he had restrained himself from shooting somebody on multiple occasions for such trivial reasons nobody deserved to die for. I sarcastically responded with what a hero he was and then told him what I really thought of him. It did teach me something though, this person wanted to shoot somebody, not because he was evil but because he wanted to be a hero. He was looking for a situation to unfold whereby he could end somebody's life but come out of it as a 'good guy'. When my brother and I were kids we would watch films like Rambo and Bloodsport and re-enact things we had seen on screen when we played. As we matured we stopped doing things like this and we became men. Have some Americans just never grown up? Has TV and film created a group of people who yearn to be a hero by killing others?

I see another well worn and lazy reason why Americans won't give up their guns. "It will empower the criminals". I can understand why people might think that but I don't agree with it. Surely if laws were introduced that carried long prison time just by possessing certain firearms the number of guns owned by criminals would reduce. Proper policing would reduce the numbers even further. You'd be surprised how many criminals would hand over their weapons in an amnesty. I can understand that you guys don't trust your law enforcement, they do seem very trigger happy and poorly trained. Our officers in the UK may not have guns but they are trained to a much higher level than those in America.

Another ridiculous argument that is going around today is "we need more guns". That is like trying to put a fire out with petrol (gasoline). If you arm your school teachers you have failed as a country, I'm sorry but that is a fact. Teachers are there to educate children, not kill them. Yes maybe if teachers had guns the body counts may be lower but it also creates the possibility that stressed and overworked teachers could carry out a few mass shootings of their own.

Come on America please tell this outsider looking in what it would take for you to hand over your guns or at the very least the guns that are capable of killing lots of people in one go. What if you could only own one low capacity handgun? Gun control is undoubtedly the answer to your problem. What has to happen before you embrace it?

a reply to: GafferUK1981

If we outlawed guns in the US, would the bad people still have them? Would they be able to protect us from those who would bring them over the borders?

You brought this up, so you should be able to answer those simple questions. Not being antagonistic, being realistic.

a reply to: GafferUK1981

Advice from the British Empire. Yay!
Give the queen a kiss from across the pond.

We awoke today in Britain

And there ya go.....
I will say you are honest. Most are not.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: GafferUK1981

Advice from the British Empire. Yay!
Give the queen a kiss from across the pond.

And if we had had gun control at one time we would still be a colony and taxed into oblivion...

as long as you think guns are the problem the problem will never get solved

the problem is everyone is viewed as a resource such as children, they are resources to get education funding, to prove the school is doing a good job, to get good grades so the parents can brag at work

our culture is the problem, we don't care about each other

a reply to: GafferUK1981

I just want to know when you Brits are gonna do something about your food?

Millions of innocents are subjected to that vile dribble every day...tbink of the children.

a reply to: GafferUK1981

What criminals are going to, as you put, "hand over their guns"?

There's more guns than people here... It is what it is.

If the government just tries and takes them, the criminals would be far more powerful.

I am however for more improved measures of keeping an eye on who has them, with a system similar to the ownership of cars.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: GafferUK1981

Advice from the British Empire. Yay!
Give the queen a kiss from across the pond.

And if we had had gun control at one time we would still be a colony and taxed into oblivion...

a reply to: GafferUK1981

There are many mass shootings that don't even make the news:

www.massshootingtracker.org...

Only the really good ones ever make the news.

a reply to: toysforadults

We can still find out which public policies reduce mass shootings. It's just political than nothing ever gets done to make machine guns illegal.

Is that it then, is the answer no because it's too much like hard work? I don't bite at much but an American criticising British food, that did make me laugh. What should we do? Add melted cheese to everything like you guys?

a reply to: GafferUK1981

The question again is how does America stop these events from occurring? To me the answer is plain and simple, gun control

Luckily your opinion here does not matter. Please tell me how gun control would have stopped this.
Mental health is a serious issue facing America today that needs to be dealt with. Until we address this issue nothing is going to change. Chicago proves gun control does nothing but go ahead keep screaming to take our guns and nothing will ever change.

a reply to: GafferUK1981

I thought the same thing. The only good food in America is Mexican. And Trump is deporting Mexican food.

a reply to: Martin75

The psychopath would not have access to machine gun? Is this a trick question?

Chicago has gun control......more people killed with guns in Chicago than anywhere else in America......so try again with the "gun control argument". Cause it's a mute point to responsible law abiding gun owners. Raise the legal age to 21 and do a damn serious background check. Not a cursory questionnaire about your past history. I'm all for raising the age & making it harder in the background check. But if a man wants to harm people, then a guns just the tool. Take away the guns, then the mass stabbings start or the mass bombings. Mental health issues are behind 90% of these shootings. In this case FOR DAMN SURE.

a reply to: GafferUK1981

To me the answer is plain and simple, gun control, taking away the weapons will stop this from happening...

Wrong. Sure, we'd stop some deaths by gun... but the simple truth is that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns.

But let's get real. I care that people are killed. I don't care how they're killed. We can take away guns, but that won't stop people killing others. Cain sure didn't need a gun to kill Abel, eh?

And, of course, Britain shows what happens when guns are outlawed:

Rising Knife Violence Alarms Britain as Youths Take Up Blades
Horrific state of Brit knife crime laid bare after FIVE stab attacks in ONE NIGHT leave two dead and several injured in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield

You just might want to step off that high horse and deal with your own violence and murder.

originally posted by: GafferUK1981
Is that it then, is the answer no because it's too much like hard work? I don't bite at much but an American criticising British food, that did make me laugh. What should we do? Add melted cheese to everything like you guys?

it's not that it's "hard work", it's not possible, unless you leave out "criminals" from your equation. It's sad that you would start an OP like this and then bail on it before the end of the first page.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: Martin75

The psychopath would not have access to machine gun? Is this a trick question?

please don't take this wrong, but having ZERO clue about the subject matter, isn't helping the discussion at all.

Look up "machine gun".

a reply to: GafferUK1981

You live on a tiny island. Police have a fighting chance to protect you. Your ancestors drove large predators to extinction. You dont have to worry about coyotes and mountain lions.

Here in the US its not hard to be an hour from any police or hospital. Your experience provides no context here and is inadequate to serve as a point of reference.