Why illegalizing guns will not work in the U.S

[Friendly Lich]

First I want to recommend a book "Deer hunting with Jesus" that I had to read in college. The author grew up in a very conservative home and is a "cultural defector" if you will. This book will give you an insight into the U.S gun culture, its also very funny.

With all the talk of guns and shootings recently I've read allot of posts from users oversees that suggest we simply make guns illegal in the U.S. The problem is it just wont work, guns have become an enormous part of america's culture and are apart of the nation's heritage/identity. I don't identify with the subculture that is obsessed with guns but I know people who are and if guns were made illegal there would be very large, very dangerous, armed riots all over the country.

Secondly there are huge, powerful lobbying groups that spend billions to maintain influence in Washington and they will not see the day when guns become illegal.

Gun laws and control might work but making guns completely illegal is not an option anymore.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I'll have to repeat myself from your other topic, because my point still stands.

Ban all guns! Ignore the fact that there are literally millions, if not billions, of guns in the U.S., a good deal of which are in the hands of private owners! The U.K. did it! Never mind the fact that the U.K. has about a quarter of the population and 2 percent of the area. If one country can do it, every country can!

Edit: I'm sick of being quoted on this by certain people, so let me say this. This entire post, except for the edit, is sarcasm. I believe that banning guns in the U.S. would be impossible. Now, stop quoting me and saying that I'm an idiot for thinking that banning guns is feasible.

 

[DoPo]

One of these threads...they never turn good. Also, I suggest R&P for this topic. Sorry I don't contribute more - I don't want to get involved, because I've seen too many times how gun control threads work.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

The U.K. did it! Never mind the fact that the U.K. has about a quarter of the population and 2 percent of the area. If one country can do it, every country can!

Speak for yourself, I live in the country!


I think the reason we haven't had any school shootings is that the guns when not in use are required by law to be locked away, unloaded in a special gun cabinet, and only the owner has access to the key. I said this in another thread, but since it's highly unlikely the rather paranoid populace will ever give up their guns, I think it could be useful to consider tighter restrictions on gun storage in America. Keep them locked away out of reach of children and teens, except under constant supervision, and teens like this will find it a lot harder to access deadly weapons for school shootings. I don't know if this would have helped in this particular case, but it would surely lessen the huge amount of death caused by accidental discharge of guns every year in the US. I dunno, just a thought.

 

[Terminate421]

I'll have to repeat myself from your other topic, because my point still stands.

Ban all guns! Ignore the fact that there are literally millions, if not billions, of guns in the U.S., a good deal of which are in the hands of private owners! The U.K. did it! Never mind the fact that the U.K. has about a quarter of the population and 2 percent of the area. If one country can do it, every country can!

You need to go to another country.

Banning all guns in the US at one point will just make this point stand out more:

 

[Friendly Lich]

I'll have to repeat myself from your other topic, because my point still stands.

Ban all guns! Ignore the fact that there are literally millions, if not billions, of guns in the U.S., a good deal of which are in the hands of private owners! The U.K. did it! Never mind the fact that the U.K. has about a quarter of the population and 2 percent of the area. If one country can do it, every country can!

You need to go to another country.

Banning all guns in the US at one point will just make this point stand out more:

Banning guns would have prevented the most recent shooting because the guns that the gunman used were acquired legally by one of their family members. Had said family members not been able to acquire the guns then this shooting would not have happened.

Maybe but its not that easy. You cant just snap your fingers and take away everyone's guns and change an amendment.

 

[Ryotknife]

making guns completely illegal is not an option anymore.

If this is true, then mass shootings will keep happening.

The US has made their bed. Now they have to lie in it.

mass shootings will continue to happen even if guns were banned for many reasons. Some reasons because of decisions we made. Some reasons simply because where our country is. And some reasons because of our population makeup.

To say that we made our own bed is nothing more than pure ignorance when quite a few reasons have always been out of our hands.

 

[the clockmaker]

Okay, some points,
1- It is not just the UK that has banned guns, Australia,(which is roughly the same size as the US by the way) banned its guns years ago, and while the US has more people, it also has a fuckton more police, so, you know per capita versus total and all that. Germany also has much more restrictive laws without flat out banning them, so there is another option. New zealand's laws are focused on the owner rather than the object which is a further option.

2- Criminals do not obey laws, this is true and a fact that is beloved by people who drop smug macros into discussions. However, if we stop and consider the actual ramifications of this, it becomes pretty goddamn irrelevant.
- If someone has an illegal firearm, that is a crime and they can be stopped there and then as opposed to simply letting them walk on.
- It will slow down or limit the permeation of these weapons (not eliminate, no one is claiming that it will eliminate them)
- Someone who fits the profile of a spree killer (isolated, angry, feels like they have been wronged) suddenly aquiring a weapon becomes a bigger red flag and they are more likely to be stopped.
- From what I can see, it is rarely career criminals that conduct these crimes and so average joe blog on the street is unlikely to know where to get a hold of illegal assault weaponry.
- Someone who is in need of mental help, and is likely to commit violent suicide by attacking those near themselves, is less likely to have a weapon to hand when they snap.
- Criminals, are, for the most part, profit motivated human beings. Someone who is already hiding from the law is not going to assist someone who will draw attention to themselves
- Criminals are often quite reasonable and are unlikely to support the person who is likely to gun down more than a dozen children.
- Not all people who commit these crimes use their own weapons, so if their friends and family do not own them, it is harder for the criminal to obtain it.

3- There is no need to immediately ban all guns, that is impractical, what needs to happen is a staged drawdown of firearm ownership, starting with making them illegal to sell, running buybacks and making it clear that, for example, your assault rifle will be illegal in five years time, but you have five years to obtain a weapon more suitable for hunting and will be provided proper training in the storage and security of your remaining weapons.

I'll have to repeat myself from your other topic, because my point still stands.

Ban all guns! Ignore the fact that there are literally millions, if not billions, of guns in the U.S., a good deal of which are in the hands of private owners! The U.K. did it! Never mind the fact that the U.K. has about a quarter of the population and 2 percent of the area. If one country can do it, every country can!

You need to go to another country.

Banning all guns in the US at one point will just make this point stand out more:

 

[Vegosiux]

-wonka-

Again, I'm going to slap this one on here.

You don't win an argument with a quickmeme generator, and if "But criminals will always break laws because they're criminals!" is all you have to say for your case, maybe you should stand aside and let people who actually make good points speak for that case, as you're doing it a disservice.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

You talk about removing guns from private owners like it'd be impossible- I present to you this. Give them insintive- Give them a chance to turn them in for money, any that don't have their's taken away by force, preferably by the Military. What are they going to do? Shoot the soldiers at their door who are armed to the teeth?

 

[sextus the crazy]

making guns completely illegal is not an option anymore.

If this is true, then mass shootings will keep happening.

The US has made their bed. Now they have to lie in it.

pretty much, no one can really admit that were kinda fucked in this regard unless the US somehow changes one of the most integral aspects of our cultural heritage.

 

[sextus the crazy]

You talk about removing guns from private owners like it'd be impossible- I present to you this. Give them insintive- Give them a chance to turn them in for money, any that don't have their's taken away by force, preferably by the Military. What are they going to do? Shoot the soldiers at their door who are armed to the teeth?

err, hide their guns?

not to mention such a sweep would take a ridiculous amount of time and energy. It's really a wasted effort considering other-death prevention things we could invest in.

 

[MysticToast]

You talk about removing guns from private owners like it'd be impossible- I present to you this. Give them insintive- Give them a chance to turn them in for money, any that don't have their's taken away by force, preferably by the Military. What are they going to do? Shoot the soldiers at their door who are armed to the teeth?

You're clearly underestimating the amount of gun owners we have here who value their firearms more than their own lives.

 

[xDarc]

What are they going to do? Shoot the soldiers at their door who are armed to the teeth?

Pretty much, yes. Do you remember the branch davidians? Waco, TX? Were you even born then?

 

[Friendly Lich]

You talk about removing guns from private owners like it'd be impossible- I present to you this. Give them insintive- Give them a chance to turn them in for money, any that don't have their's taken away by force, preferably by the Military. What are they going to do? Shoot the soldiers at their door who are armed to the teeth?

If I may where are you from? Whenever I talk to gun owners about gun control they have said that they would fight to the death to protect their gun rights.

 

[MysticToast]

-wonka-

Again, I'm going to slap this one on here.

Funny you mention that. The same day we had the shooting in CT, a man in China stabbed 22 children at a school.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/14/china-knife-attack-school.html

I know, I know. No one died. But that's not the point. I'm just being facetious

 

[xDarc]

You know what else bothers me about this whole thing; all this focus on stopping spree killers. It's emotional over-reaction. Spree killers account for what? Like 0.005% of annual firearms deaths in the US? Hell- I'll even take out all the suicides- 0.01%.

Everyone wants to know why the spree killer does it, but when 4 people were shot and killed last week in a home invasion/robbery here in Detroit, nobody gives a rat's ass.