When is it going to be enough? How many more innocent lives have to be lost before we ban all assault weapons and magazines that carry more than 10 bullets at a time. What are these weapons for except to attack other people? This is a national security issue. This is domestic terrorism. I don't think the freedom to own these assault weapons trumps our freedom from being wire-tapped. Yet after 9/11 the government can wire-tap citizens. We kill 4 times more of our fellow citizen each year than 9/11 but we can't give up the freedom of owning assault weapons?
The argument that if good guys can't buy weapons then they can't protect themselves from bad guys is absurd. It is much more likely that guns owned by ordinary citizen will kill someone innocent, kill someone during an argument, or kill someone accidentally than to have stopped a criminal. Certainly the guy in Florida who shot the black kid in a struggle would not have even approached the kid if he did not have a gun. He would have simply called and waited for the police to show up.
I think we should ban all manufacturing of assault weapons except for those to be purchased by the military and law enforcement. It is not a right to make these weapons. After all, I am sure one cannot legally build an atomic bomb. The line has to be drawn now.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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I don't really have a solution to the gun violence in this country. I believe that there are too many guns in society and that criminals could get them if they wanted to.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't know if banning them does anything. I don't like the fact that states are passing laws that allow people to carry guns in public places like schools, churches, etc.
In some cities, there are even open carry laws that allow you to tote your gun around in plain site. I don't agree with that because it just becomes a public panic. An 18 yr. old was carrying a rifle around last year, slung around his back. Police stopped him and arrested him. He tried to explain to them that he has the right to open carry so they arrested him for public disturbance.
The charges were later dropped, but now he is thinking of suing the city for arresting him.
I also don't have faith in my fellow human to have the restraint to NOT use their gun in anger.
However, I will say that our constitution gives every person the right to have guns and there's no way that will ever change. So what do we do?
Do we make it harder for people to buy guns? Do we increase the cost for guns and ammunition? Does this stop a person who really wants to shoot people?
Assault weapons should not be available to the common person. This will anger some who use them for recreation or who collect them. But when the government bans other things that are dangerous, why not these?
What is the motivation for someone to shoot innocent people? Maybe the answer lies there. Maybe we need to help these people. Maybe we will become a society where there's security at every school, mall, church, etc.
It's extreme and a pain, but how do we make people feel safe?
-LBOAYM
Like you, I have no good solutions to this problem. I just want to make some comments on your comments and ask a few questions.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that banning all assault weapons will help a great deal but all I can say that countries with strict gun control like England have very little gun violence. I think England had about 40 some cases a year vs over 10,000 here in the U.S. And cities like London and Manchester are just as diverse as New York and LA so you can't blame demographics and economics. New Orleans has a greater homicide per population than the death rate in war torn Afghanistan. So there is no reason not to try to ban assault weapons.
Gun right advocates always say that it is people who kill, not guns. If that is the case then we must be thousands times more evil than the Brits and the Japanese! Has anyone ever seen someone kill people with a knife? I agree that it is crazy to have people walking around in public with guns. This was what it was like in the wild west days with cowboys and Indians. These open carry laws bring us back to our less civilize past.
The constitution also gives us the right to free speech. But the courts have ruled that those rights are not absolute. You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire. There is no free speech in child pornography. So we don't have to overthrow the constitution but we have to draw a line when it comes to guns just as in speech.
I don't know why people go on a rampage. I am sure the British have the same percentage of crazy people and loners as us. There are many reasons for people who does mass shooting. But in order to do it you have to get the weapons. This is harder to do in other countries. I am sure they have the angry workers who go postal. They also have the guy in Virginia Tech who thought he is a hero posing with weapons in a video. But for whatever motive, the key to successfully carrying out the rampage is still to get the weapons.
One question I have is who makes all these weapons? Every time there is a mass shooting, the guns are traced back to where they come from. I have yet heard that a gunman used a gun that is bought underground because nobody can figure out where it came from. I understand that if assault weapons are banned then there will be underground sales. But do you think then the Connecticut gunman would have gone to some inner city and buy massive amount of weapons and ammos from criminals? And the quality of the weapons on the underground market are not going to be as good and will be more expensive. Who is going to take bad guns back to criminals to demand their money back?
Lets face it, we can never be completely safe. There will always be evil people. But we should at least make it as difficult as possible for the evildoers.
I haven't looked at too many statistics other than the huge difference in gun violence here vs. the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that there are more guns here than in other places or are they more readily available?
Assuming that moral values are similar, then it's a supply problem. If it's a societal thing, then banning guns probably won't do much.
I keep coming back to the fact that if a person is planning on killing someone else and will probably kill him/herself, then there's no way to stop them.
The Connecticut tragedy is an example of a person who had immediate access to the guns. They weren't bought illegally or underground. So do we blame the parents who had them and didn't teach the son to respect life?
I think the majority of gun related deaths and crimes probably happen when the gun is obtained illegally. These aren't reported as much because they aren't used in mass killings and they don't happen to young children. It's tragic nonetheless.
It's such a complex problem and I don't know if there really are any solutions. I hope it doesn't become a political tool, but you already see some politicians using it to bash the President. I hope that this new task force works with the NRA to come up with some real life solutions and laws.
But my guess is that these things like what happened last week will happen again and the only thing is hope that it doesn't happen to someone you love.
On that note, Merry Christmas. Hope Santa brings you happiness, so that you are not so angry! I have a feeling you will be getting something from him tomorrow!
-LBOAYM