Hey guys! I was hoping if somebody could explain that to me: Why is there no regulation on guns in the USA? I am from 3 countries in Europe and all have gun regulations - very strickt gun regulations - and it is very hard to get a hold of a weapon here. I somehow cannot understand why it is necessary to have a permit to drive a car, which is definitely not designed for killing other people, and no permit in the USA if you want to purchase a weapon. I figure that a gun in the wrong hands is much more dangerous than a car. If I look at this wikipedia Link, I ask myself how a western country with no civil war going on can have such a high murder rate, especially compared to any other industrialized country with no war going on. Yet only after those massakers there is a small debate about restricting "assault weapons" or making it harder to bring weapons to school, but that's about it. There is no party in the US which wants to outlaw weapons, which is confusing. The 2nd amendment was written for muskets not colts and not for assault weapons. You couldn't kill that many people with muskets in such a short amount of time. Another stat I found on the German wikipedia page: Just to clarify if it's not obvious: Land = Country Tote = People killed je 100.000 Einwohner = per 100.000 inhabitants
please educate yourself before continueing to post in this sub forum. the US has strict gun regulations, and has had them for years.
To my knowledge it is still much easier to get a weapon in the US than in Austria where I live. I couldn't possibly get a gun for home protection over here. But I read only the wikipedia stuff I found, so you're probably right. And the "no gun regulations" was definitely the wrong way to start this topic. The in place regulations make it rather easy in certain areas to get a weapon though, and the access to weapons is not AS regulated AS in Europe...
We come from the inception of a free society where government is "by the people" which makes the US the first country in the world with such an historic document as the constitution. One of the things enshrined in it are protection of rights from government oppression. The right to defend oneself, family, and home is a right not to be trampled and a right given by God long before the Constitution encoded it into law. This country was settled quite a bit using the gun so it is part and parcel of our society and why resulting gun use has always been greater than centrally controlled countries like in Europe. Gun control was initially designed to keep guns out of the hands of blacks for fear of them rising against whites, then gun control came around in the 30's with machine gun use by the mobs. Gun control is always an easy political target but the fact that the right to bear arms is enshrined in our constitution makes it much harder to easily ban anything. The ridiculous Assault Weapons Ban was a silly attempt to ban certain things that made a gun look like a military weapon (like a bayonet lug) and one reason it was let expire. Here individual States set gun laws with the exception of machine gun and selective fire weapons which is regulated by the Federal government. In the last 20 years almost every state has passed a law allowing conceal carry for protection after incidents like the recent school shooting. The fact that these shooting occur in the few areas where conceal carry is unlawful should be an indicator that CC works everywhere else.
Ya beat me to it. Look folks the regulations were followed, where the shooter got around it is by taking someone elses guns, mom, that should have known their son had emotional issues and kept the guns locked away from them, instead she was taking them to the range to learn to shoot even better, WTF. Would they have found another way to get one, most likely, but his mother made it far too easy. To the gun owners out there, if you have a son or daughter that you know for a fact has issues, please make sure they cannot get easy access to yours, it is part of your responsibility as a gun owner. One last thought, guns in America are not going to go away, 74% of Americans do not favor bans on handguns, which means both Conservatives AND Liberas believe in the right to bear arems, Semiauto "assualt" rifles were banned and even law enforcement records showed that there was no impact on crime, that is why the ban was lifted. The problem is not the guns, it is gun owners that do not take responsiblity for their ownership and it is also as some have suggested a failing of our society which is for the young often influenced by video games and movies that glorify killing. The answer lies with US, each of us needs to become more aware of our role to play, if you own guns do so in a responsible manner, if you see that someone may become a threat to themselves of society bring it to someones attention and don't stop until someone acts upon it. Some say it is single parent families that is the issue, have you thought about beng a Big Brother to one of those kids to help guide them down the right paths in life, have you donated money to programs that helps kids that need it? Start by taking responsibility for your actions and if enough people do, tragic events such as the school shooting will become more rare. Will there always be tragic events yes, but we can reduce them, all you have to do is your own part.
This clarifies some of the the unknown. The weapons ban here was a result of WW2 if I'm not mistaken, so I do understand that any country not going through radical changes because of WW2 does not have the stickt gun regulations we may have here. I think I read someplace though that there are 300 million guns in the US. That's pretty much one for every citizen. If guns would make things secure the USA should be the safest place in the world. If you have 100 guns and just one or two get into the wrong hands the end result is devastating. The stat that scared me was that Britain has 30 - 40 people who get killed by guns annually and the USA have over 10.000. A very worrying figure... This is really shocking to me. I was 6 to 10 years old when the war in Yugoslavia started. I don't remember that much of it, but the little things I do, were more than enough to make me a pacifist. I can't even handle fake guns or shooter-games, never mind real weapons. It's sooo shocking to me that these things have such a wide acceptance... If 26% of Americans favor a ban on handguns, why doesn't a single party represent that notion. Even if you would start a 3rd party, that would be the slogan get a quoter of the votes at least...
Asking other people who know is another way of educating yourself. Although, I can see why someone might not want to ask questions when other people want to be (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)y about answering them.
CRAP! Thanks to the immoral agenda of the NRA many reasonable restrictions on the most dangerous of these types of weapons have been revoked and there can be no discussion of reasonable regulation. The NRA and its followers consider the murder of 20, 200, 200 or more children an acceptable cost so they can pay their executives those million dollar salaries.
Britain has always had fewer gun related deaths compared to the US. Mostly due to cultural differences stated before. They still do have some even with gun control but if we had the same gun control in both countries, the US would still have more because of culture. No society is inherently safe, either from each other or from the government. I would rather have the choice to be able to defend myself than have that taken away by bureaucrats afraid of the people. I have probably 40 guns dating from the civil war on. They are just collectors items to me and some I shoot at paper once in a great while. The only AR-15 I had was one I built from a kit with a globe and anchor etched in the receiver (the only part that is regulated with serial numbers) and gave to my daughter as a gift who was a Marine. I have shot since I was 10 so do not view guns as anything other than a tool nor do I view my kitchen knives as weapons like they are used in other countries with strong gun laws like the UK (where they are now trying to regulate them) or China.
As you've already discovered, we have very strict gun laws here. The places with the strictest gun control laws are the places with the highest gun crime rates. What "works" for the Euro-weenies won't work in America.
The previous Assault Weapons Ban would have done nothing to stop this shooting. You seem to think that law abiding citizens approve of killing children. If that is the case then you are accusing yourself of what you so arrogantly accuse others of.
Read this. It should answer all the qustions, especially those of Europeans. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-290.pdf
I was responding to the assertion the OP made about there being NO regulations. Asking questions is one thing. Coming in here with blatantly incorrect statements is another. I was in no way being (*)(*)(*)(*)ty about anything.
what regulations would have prevented this latest shooting? the shooter obtained the gun illegally. what reasonable restrictions are you talking about?
Look at it this way. There are about 100 million gun owners in America. So 10,000 killed means that only .01% of the total number of gun owners killed someone with their gun. I will be the first person to agree that murder is a horrible crime, I'm certainly not trying to minimize it. It just seems that most people don't look at the stats objectively or try to get any perspective on the situation. The fact of the matter is that 99.99% of gun owners in America are law abiding citizens. The notion is unAmerican. Its way too far to the extreme left. Generally speaking, America is a center-right leaning country. There are some idiots in the democratic party that actually do want to ban all handguns and every democrat that I know favors some form of gun control. Even conservative people on the right mostly favor "common sense" restrictions on guns in order to keep them out of the wrong hands. The divide mostly exists on what constitutes "common sense". Hope this helps
The idea is to create a society where constant security becomes obsolete. The "police-state"-type deal is very secure yet not the idea - at least not to me. The place where I saw most security was in Kenia. They were forced to armed guards at every door. And not with guns but with kalashnikovs. That removed the secure feeling I had in Europe where I only saw police on customs at the airport. The collecting of guns I do understand. And I'm all for it; I just wonder whether the purpose of the collecting the weapons would be greatly deceased if weapons build less than 100 years ago had to be disabled by law , but could be reenabled after the 100 year period had passed. It seems to me that the modern weapons might cause a problem. The Chris Rock idea wasn't bad either: Make bullets cost $5000 a piece That way mass murders would be really hard to pull off.
Chris Rocks idea would only put self protection out of reach but the wealthy. Then we would have to pass legislation for a bullet entitlement program.
It does help. The problem is that the .01% of the gun owners who are not law abiding citizens create a devastating environment for the 99.99%. I'm sure that there is a one in a million shot that a crazy person with a gun kills a few people in your neighborhood, but it still happens. And it happens to the most innocent people possible. The Newtown thing for example where the shooter shot 20 kids, 6 teachers, his mom and himself. He obviously chose the wrong order. He should have started with himself! But an entire community and country is now in a worse place because one of those crazies went completely mad. And don't forget the kids who didn't get shot. They might never psychologically recover from this... The notion that it's unAmerican I don't understand. Who decides what is American or what makes one an American? You don't need to downgrade to some stereotype for this. Many of my dear friends are Americans and I fully agree with the center-right leaning notion. What I don't agree with is the notion that only a flag-saluting gun-approving citizen is really "American". The most "American" thing could be to give something to some charity. You are the biggest contributors world wide!
Oh please...you're full of crap. NO ONE murdered is an acceptable cost The NRA preaches gun safety,with many police officers as NRA instructors...
I understand your point. It does happen and it is absolutely terrible, I agree with you whole-heartedly on that. The point I was trying to make is that the left wants to use the misdeeds of .01% as justification to infringe on the rights and freedoms of the 99.99% that are law abiding citizens. That makes no sense to me at all. I wasn't trying to downgrade to a sterotype. I think you've read too much into what I said, perhaps I worded my response poorly. What I mean is that banning handguns is government intrusion into the private lives of citizens. It would be the government telling me that one of my hobbies is now illegal and that I must either allow them to steal my private property (confiscation) or allow them to force me to sell my private property (Australian type buy-back program).That type of intrusion and authoritarian control is antithetical to the principles that this country was founded on and is offensive to the psyche of most Americans. Does that make more sense?
It makes more sense. And I'm really thankful that you're taking the time to honestly talk me through your view on the matter. For me on the other hand this is not an issue which should be up for debate, you have to understand. But I am willing to try to understand the views of others, so this debate is more than welcome. I consider myself leaning conservative. In most matters. Guns were basically build for the purpose of killing someone. As we as a nation dislike that other countries own nuklear weapons even if we support that our native country owns them themselves. I dislike that my neighbor can own weapons and carry them around, simply because I don't trust them to always make the right decision. It could be something as simple as somebody gets a hold of it who's mentally ill, it could be something as my neighbor being drunk or on drugs or it could be something as simple as jealousy to use that weapon against somebody. I'm sure my neighbor prefers me not having a weapon either for the same reasons. You don't want a weapon to shoot someone, you want a weapon for protection. So if nobody in your surrounding has a weapon the danger of getting killed for something as stupid as the three reasons I mentioned decreases. The last time a nuklear weapon was used by a country to attack another was in 1945 and we still want to restrict them. The last time people actually used guns for a reason of injustice in the city I live in was 1934, yet I still prefer practically nobody owning them. I figure if the access to weapons is very very limited, it is less likely for the .01% to get a hold of a weapon greater than a knife. It's not impossible, but it's less likely. And if we save one life annually because of this, it was worth it. The question I ask here is: Does my right to security outweigh your right to personal property? We as a society agree that we need highways (just an example) and that sometimes we force individuals to sell their personal property in order for something to be build. The society agrees that the need of two communities getting connected and the infrastructural improvements outweigh the individual's right to his/her property. Right now this is a debate in Europe because they want to build high-voltage power lines and these would have to be build on the personal properties of some citizens, who are unwilling to sell or allow their property being used for something like that. So what do you think? Is your house more secure or less secure by (nearly) everybody in your surrounding to own weapons?
The whole gun issue in the US is pretty simple. It all boils down to the fact that there's a subset of people in the US who love guns. That's it. There's a whole culture in the US of being around, and playing with guns. Now these people who love guns will come up with various excuses as to why they support guns. They'll say that it's important for self defense or to protect themselves from the government, or to prepare for the end of the world, and whatnot. But in the end, it's all a smoke-screen for the real reason these people want guns around.....it's simply because they like guns--they enjoy playing with them because they're fun to play with. Guns are easily available in the US for the same reason that alcohol is easily available to children in france - culture. The US has had a long culture of using and playing with guns. And because many Americans have grown up around guns, they feel that having guns around is an important part of their own personal lives, which is understandable. But lets not let this cloud basic math. People say that restricting guns would not prevent events like the one in Newton, CT. But of course they would. How did the shooter come into contact with guns? Well, his mom was one of those crazy survivalist types, and owned guns. Now what if his mom didn't own guns. Would the shooter also have come into the gun culture, learned how to use, fire, and acquire guns? Maybe. But maybe not. And that's the whole point. If America wasn't such a gun-crazy nation, many of these shooters would not have been introduced to guns, and many of these shootings would never have happened.
Explain to me why you cherry pick your data. Mexico has very strict gun laws and its violent crime rate greatly exceeds that of this country.
