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What tc556guy said!!^^ This really isn't a gun problem. It's so much more complex than that. Fixing the problem will require being a lot more honest about the causes and digging in the weeds to figure out a much better solution. Some people want to outlaw AR-15's because of the recent school shooting. It's an emotional response (not trying to insult anybody) that they hope will solve the problem. But it won’t.
There is a sizable core group of anti-gun people (including some politicians) whose goal is to outlaw all guns. Those people hijack any discussion about how to prevent gun violence, use tragedies to push their agenda forward and are happy to use people who are having an emotional response for their own ends.
If AR-15's (or even all guns) were outlawed and confiscated, it wouldn't prevent further school murders. Would-be school shooters would choose another gun or even a different weapon and continue murdering innocent schoolkids. Why? Because they are sick, evil and twisted and because schools are where they find lots of unprotected victims. Outlawing guns does nothing to address those sick individuals' twisted thinking nor does it protect our children.
There is no single issue or quick fix for these tragedies. In one of the recent school shootings, the murderer passed by a closer school because there was an armed police officer on campus and instead chose a school with no cop there. Having an armed cop on campus is not a complete solution but it can sometimes help.
In the Florida school shooting, an armed cop (School Resource Officer) was on scene and utterly failed to do his job. If he had immediately engaged the shooter, he would likely have saved some lives. Maybe the cop or the shooter or both would have died in such an engagement but the shooter would have had to focus on that cop instead of unarmed and innocent kids and teachers.
If the next 3 cops who had responded had entered the school and engaged the shooter, they likely would have been able to stop him from murdering any more children. Again, this wouldn't have been a complete solution for that incident but it could have substantially changed or lessened the # of victims. Having armed officers on all campuses could definitely help reduce the # of shootings and save lives.
Depending on which study you consult about school and mass shootings, somewhere between 59% and 62% of shooters were suffering from mental health problems and obviously did not get the mental health help they needed or it didn’t work. This wouldn't be a complete solution (only around 60% of shooters) and there's no guarantee that each mental health subject could be fixed or cured. But it would help.
I don't think anybody (including the NRA) is against competent background checks. But those background checks are only as good as the information entered into the databases used. Several states and the military simply do not participate like they should in entering prohibited people into the databases. Laws strengthening participation would help but they should also conduct audits to make sure people don't slip through the cracks and are fully reported.
With the Florida shooting, the FBI, President Obama, DOJ and the FBI's Promise program and the local Sheriff's Department all dropped the ball, concealed a growing problem and in general failed those murdered schoolkids and our country. All of that needs to be fixed. Judging from all of the reports about LE calls involving the shooter, he should have never been eligible or legally allowed to purchase any gun. The system is designed to prevent such tragedies but it can't work if all of the participating parties fail to do their jobs.
This is just a partial list but it would be a tremendous start to addressing the problem. A lot of things can be done differently and combined, all of them would help reduce the problem significantly.
As others have already said - what good do they think a ban on AR-15's will do? There are already millions of them in citizen's hands (and probably criminal's hands) right now.
I fully believe that attempts at confiscation will lead to more dead people, on both sides, than any school shooting has caused.
Indeed. Who killed more people last year? The Police or maniacs with "assault weapons." Not that I don't support the Police, I do, but the point is that this will not cure violence.
Of course the ultimate end goal is the banning and mass confiscation of ALL guns from the citizenry. They will stop at nothing until this is achieved. We must never allow this to happen.
Fear actually changes the brain chemistry over time to paranoia. How would you know the end goal of to take away all guns?
There is no past action that has ever been taken to support what you are posting.
We don't need guns of war but do need rifles and handguns. Rifles, to cull popuations of animals, some are out of control now like feral hogs.
Handguns for protection.
...
There is no past action that has ever been taken to support what you are posting.
...
This is, of course, and outright lie, as three past actions
(and several attempted actions) have already been
discussed in this thread.
And this also goes to the point that we must never
trust those who claim to only want "common sense"
gun control. It is an incremental step, and the goal
isn't the guns, the goal is control.
OOPS: have to edit this. Four past actions have already
been discussed in this thread.
Fear actually changes the brain chemistry over time to paranoia. How would you know the end goal of to take away all guns?
There is no past action that has ever been taken to support what you are posting.
We don't need guns of war but do need rifles and handguns. Rifles, to cull popuations of animals, some are out of control now like feral hogs.
Handguns for protection.
It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you .
Fear actually changes the brain chemistry over time to paranoia. How would you know the end goal of to take away all guns?
There is no past action that has ever been taken to support what you are posting.
We don't need guns of war but do need rifles and handguns. Rifles, to cull popuations of animals, some are out of control now like feral hogs.
Handguns for protection.
I don't have firearms to shoot feral hogs (or any animal for that matter). And although a handgun is a measure of self protection, it's not sufficient for the type of protection that is prudent and has been needed in the past over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, etc, throughout history.
What protection is that you ask? It is protection from an out-of-control government or other faction which attempts to assert itself as the controller over others (aka tyranny). At one point, a musket or mace may have been a minimally effective weapon against tyranny. But no more. Even having an assault weapon (which I suppose could be defined as any semi-auto nowadays, right? With a black stock, of course) is putting oneself at a distinct disadvantage if confronted by an out of control government, SS paramilitary organization, or left-wing tyrannists masquerading as do-gooders.
But it is all we have. A full auto would probably be better in certain cases, but although not illegal, they are a huge hassle and expensive to be permitted. A single shot rifle may as well be used as a boat oar (ask the cavalry who fought the American Indians on the plains) unless you are one of a huge group of organized fellow rifle-wielders. And THAT was largely against bows and arrows, tomahawks, and the occasional firearm.
I can't speak for everyone, but that is why I have several "assault rifles." Again, it ain't for feral hogs. And it ain't because I plan on going postal. It's in case YOU go postal. And unless you are Clint Eastwood, a rifle WILL win against a handgun 90% of the time (given competence on the part of both operators). Why do you think soldiers and SWAT teams carry them rather than pistols or single-shot rifles?
fear mongers on the right smdh. Every poll I've seen show the overwhelming majority of Americans want two things:
1. better background checks;
2. Reinstitute ban of AR-15 types guns that GOP chose not to renew in 1995.
90% of americans have repeatedly said DO NOT outlaw guns as whole! Limit them like other things are limited to reduce the changes of serious bodily harm or death.
Great, let's do it. Just don'e be disappointed in the results that would be same as last time. It was not renewed but that is because it did not have any effect.
You would think that the ARs had a mind of their own, and just took it upon themselves to get up, and with no help from any human anywhere, just decided to kill some people!
Good grief.
Good grief is right.. to equate the potential damage from a shotgun to a semi-assault, military style rifle! How come none of our troops then use shotguns if they are as deadly!? Why was one at one time BANNED but not the other!?
The Second Amendment trumps all the squealing. We now control Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. The Founding Fathers are beginning to show a crinkle on their lips. They won't really smile, however, until we repeal the Gun Control Act, National Firearms Act, and all the others that infringe our right in even the tiniest way.
The Constitution was formulated in a particular way to restrain the uninformed mob.
Hurrah for the Founding Fathers, the greatest bunch of felons ever.
yea, the founding fathers, such examples of virtue who hated taxation without representation but had no problem deeming humans chattel property or prohibiting women any voting right
I don't want your shotgun, just your assault weapons.
That's funny. Of course you Liberal Snowflakes want all guns, but can not get them, so you try and chip away them one at a time. You can not deny that fact, since plenty of Liberal Snowflakes in Congress have stated so, on public TV time after time. How can you back paddle from that? Volunteer to go out door to door and take them. See how that works out for you.
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