Gun Control.

[Mutant Monster RAEG-HAPYP]

Discuss Gun Control, your stance, etc.

 

Personally, at least when it comes to the U.S., I do think we need some tougher gun laws. However, that has zero chance of happening as long as the Republicans are in control of Congress. But, I feel it's going to take more than gun control to fix the problem America has. We need more emphasis on gun safety and gun education as well.

 

So, discuss. And please, try not to get out of hand.

[Lunar Origins]

Open carry should not be allowed in any place within the U.S.  As a markswoman myself, however, I do advocate for the ability to possess your own personal firearm for recreational usage.  However, I think the regulation of firearm sales - or, rather, the regulation of ammunition - should be so much stricter, requiring evaluations of the customer in question before a sale is completed.  However, that's pretty bullshit and would never, ever realistically control guns more than they're controlled now.

[Tentacruel]

I'm generally pro-gun ownership, but I am very much in favor of due process when purchasing.  

 

ie: If you have a history of aggravated assault for instance, your purchase should be evaluated more carefully.  

 

IMHO, the goal of gun control should be to reduce gun-related deaths, but people get too wrapped up in the left-vs-right bullshit.  When some psychopath shoots up a school, instead of blaming "the rednecks," blame the psychopath and examine their motive, how they obtained the gun, etc.

 

There's definitely a negative stigma surrounding gun owners.  Treating people who own guns like criminals before they commit a crime is just creating more political opponents. 

 

And as stated in the OP. gun safety should be more heavily emphasized.  Guns are fucking dangerous. 

[Slinky]

In all seriousness. It still wouldn't happen even if the Democrats were in charge. The rednecks would throw a ridiculously huge hissy fit until it was fixed.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

In my opinion, all guns should be banned, other than certain shotguns and hunting rifles for farmers and hunters respectively. Granted this may just be because I live in a country where not even the police carry guns, but I really just don't see the upside of owning guns for a normal, ordinary citizen.

 

 

Peace and non-violence is great, you guys.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Honestly I agree that there's no real point to having guns for the general populace.

Oh god. I can here my dad screaming in my head for saying that. Trust me I've heard all the arguments for them. From somewhat reasonably to insane (Not even joking "THE GOVERNMENT WANTS US UNPROTECTED SO THEY CAN CONTROL US EASIER!")

And none of them really seemed to make me think different.

I mean, I guess if you're safe with them and can for sure prove you won't misuse them, whatever. But...in general, I don't see the point.

[Night]

There's definitely a negative stigma surrounding gun owners.  Treating people who own guns like criminals before they commit a crime is just creating more political opponents. 

 

The level of ignorance in this country is legitimately appalling.

 

My father has always been outspoken and vocal about the fact that we own guns, there are six hunting rifles in the living-room closet.

When I was a kid, my father put a sticker on the door that basically advertised being a gun owner, mainly to discourage anyone from fucking with us. One of our neighbors didn't really like that however so they peeled it off and replaced it with a sticky-note that read "murderer."

 

Guns aren't the issue, people are. 

[Cin]

People will always find a way to kill each other (remember killing each other is something that has gone back before us starting as a species), guns just make it easier, because you don't need to be close to do it.

I've never understood the need to own a gun, and we just settle with a house alarm to keep people who want to rob the house, which is a thing most people in the UK settle with. It's like the knife problem in the UK, people have a knife to protect from people who have a knife, a vicious cycle. 

[Cool Girl]

I think we do need gun control! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Obama tried to put a gun control law in place, but Congress didn't go through with it. I don't think the problems of murder by a citizen or stuff like that will be solved, but it will certainly prevent more situations like that from happening because then it's harder to get a gun.

[Cierfrost]

The level of ignorance in this country is legitimately appalling.

 

Ignorance itself is not the problem. Ignorance is a glorious thing in itself, meaning you have more to learn, more to achieve more to experience. What is the problem is that people are affecting the lives of others with their ignorance rather than seeking education before perception. At the core yes guns are terrifying, oh my heavens are they. 

 

I myself am not pro-gun or anti-gun. I am pro-responsibility in terms of firearms. It matters to me not if you own a gun or not but rather like Kate said above, necessary background checks should be cleared to determine if you're at risk or otherwise for using the explicitly murder-device (whether for hunting or otherwise it's still murder in some tangible context) on your fellow humans. If not? Go for it man, woman, intersex or some other iteration therein. Have fun with your new micro explosive pew-pew cannon.

[Slinky]

Ignorance itself is not the problem. Ignorance is a glorious thing in itself, meaning you have more to learn, more to achieve more to experience. What is the problem is that people are affecting the lives of others with their ignorance rather than seeking education before perception. At the core yes guns are terrifying, oh my heavens are they. 

 

I myself am not pro-gun or anti-gun. I am pro-responsibility in terms of firearms. It matters to me not if you own a gun or not but rather like Kate said above, necessary background checks should be cleared to determine if you're at risk or otherwise for using the explicitly murder-device (whether for hunting or otherwise it's still murder in some tangible context) on your fellow humans. If not? Go for it man, woman, intersex or some other iteration therein. Have fun with your new micro explosive pew-pew cannon.

 

..Micro explosive pew-pew cannon..... that's.. a new one.

 

Ignorance comes in many forms.

- You have your idiot ignorance (People who refuse to actually get education to actually learn). Generally referred to as "Morons", "Idiots", "Dumbfucks" and "People who should not breed". Unfortunately, this type of ignorance cannot be repaired. You can't make an idiot see logic. It just doesn't happen.

- You have your standard ignorance (If it doesn't affect me, it doesn't apply to me~~) These people you CAN convince, but this is also the rarest form of ignorance, and it's sometimes difficult to tell this apart from the "idiot ignorance"

- Then, you have those people that really just don't care (like the republi.. *shot*) Again, nothing you can do about it, they are usually just in it for themselves or are just heartless bastards.

[Fusion X. Denver]

Say what you will about CH, but I thought they made a good point here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5kPDr_gLgk

[Tentacruel]

Say what you will about CH, but I thought they made a good point here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5kPDr_gLgk

That was exactly what I expected of College Humor. 

 

Meaning, not really a good point, but the most cliche representation of the given topic. 

 

That made my brain cry. 

 

It was literately just them cramming in as many gun control cliche's as possible and using a really obvious strawman. 

[Fusion X. Denver]

I just rewatched it and it's a bit more of a blanket statement than I remembered. I don't think taking everyone's guns away, period, is the solution at all. But something like periodic check-ups to make sure owners are still mentally and emotionally sound would be good.

[epicmemesbro]

To be honest, I doubt Gun Control helps reduce fire arm related crime. Mexico has extremely strict gun laws to the point that only govt officials or VIPs can obtain them or maybe folk in the country side. But any caliber higher than .22 is outlawed. But look at all the stuff that's going on over there. Also look at places like Chicago where gun laws are rigorously imposed. That city had a large amount of firearm related deaths. Yet places like Switzerland where everyone who's an adult must be in the militia must own an assault rifle have low gun crime. You never hear any type of shooting going on over there not even in liberal media like MS NBC. I am ok with background checks, but the assault weapons ban isn't very clear. Most liberals think some pistol caliber semi rifles are "assault rifles" I am also against taxing people for having firearms. That's just ridiculous. If I may add, criminals will most likely go to the black market than obtain weapons legally since weapons there are OP anyways

[Aerion Brightflame]

I still struggle to see why a civilized populace, not involved in a war on home soil, needs wide-spread access to fire-arms. Like what does it achieve? People say it makes them feel safer, I'd argue it actually makes things less safe - It's easier to kill or threaten with a gun than a knife for example. 

 

I'll sound offensive when I say this I admit; but the number of mass shootings in America last year that I was made aware of on British news was astounding. There was like 3 in the course of two weeks or something silly at one point? Hell, not even just last year. Think back to the shooting at the premier of The Dark Knight Rises, and the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 (I know that legislation was put in place after the later incident against semi-automatic firearms, but it didn't seem to be enough). And what shocks me is that jack shit seemed to get done about it after each time other than to blame the shooters mental problems or the like. The shooter having mental problems isn't the reason why these massacres happened, because if they did not have access to guns, they simply could achieve the same level of chaos. 

 

Now I am aware that remove guns entirely from a country is near impossible, but you can go a very very long way to decreasing gun crime but simply making public access to them harder. Now I am probably wrong on that, but I'm speaking from my personal knowledge of how this happened in the UK after the Dunblane Massacre, which after a man with 4 handguns went into a primary school and killed 17 people (16 children and 1 teacher), which essentially made the private ownership of handguns illegal. And to my knowledge there have been a handful of similar occurrences of gun-violence in the UK since. Only 1 on the same scale to my knowledge. 

 

But my opinion is fairly distorted, because I just do not see a reason why the majority of the populace needs pretty easy access to fire-arms. Likewise I accept such things would be hard to impliment in America... But just yeah. It confuses me. 

[.Rai]

To be honest, I doubt Gun Control helps reduce fire arm related crime. Mexico has extremely strict gun laws to the point that only govt officials or VIPs can obtain them or maybe folk in the country side. But any caliber higher than .22 is outlawed. But look at all the stuff that's going on over there. Also look at places like Chicago where gun laws are rigorously imposed. That city had a large amount of firearm related deaths. Yet places like Switzerland where everyone who's an adult must be in the militia must own an assault rifle have low gun crime. You never hear any type of shooting going on over there not even in liberal media like MS NBC. I am ok with background checks, but the assault weapons ban isn't very clear. Most liberals think some pistol caliber semi rifles are "assault rifles" I am also against taxing people for having firearms. That's just ridiculous. If I may add, criminals will most likely go to the black market than obtain weapons legally since weapons there are OP anyways

Switzerland is the exception to the rule rather than the rule itself. I can understand the viewpoint of wanting to keep guns (especially since the idea is just so entrenched into American history now), but having been brought up in a country without guns and generally exposed to American news more than an American would to British news, the idea of the right to a gun is entirely, entirely foreign to me.

[Mutant Monster RAEG-HAPYP]

I still struggle to see why a civilized populace, not involved in a war on home soil, needs wide-spread access to fire-arms. Like what does it achieve? People say it makes them feel safer, I'd argue it actually makes things less safe - It's easier to kill or threaten with a gun than a knife for example. 

 

I'll sound offensive when I say this I admit; but the number of mass shootings in America last year that I was made aware of on British news was astounding. There was like 3 in the course of two weeks or something silly at one point? Hell, not even just last year. Think back to the shooting at the premier of The Dark Knight Rises, and the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 (I know that legislation was put in place after the later incident against semi-automatic firearms, but it didn't seem to be enough). And what shocks me is that jack s*** seemed to get done about it after each time other than to blame the shooters mental problems or the like. The shooter having mental problems isn't the reason why these massacres happened, because if they did not have access to guns, they simply could achieve the same level of chaos. 

 

Now I am aware that remove guns entirely from a country is near impossible, but you can go a very very long way to decreasing gun crime but simply making public access to them harder. Now I am probably wrong on that, but I'm speaking from my personal knowledge of how this happened in the UK after the Dunblane Massacre, which after a man with 4 handguns went into a primary school and killed 17 people (16 children and 1 teacher), which essentially made the private ownership of handguns illegal. And to my knowledge there have been a handful of similar occurrences of gun-violence in the UK since. Only 1 on the same scale to my knowledge. 

 

But my opinion is fairly distorted, because I just do not see a reason why the majority of the populace needs pretty easy access to fire-arms. Likewise I accept such things would be hard to impliment in America... But just yeah. It confuses me. 

 

Yeah, it's hard to pass any type of gun control especially since the NRA and the gun lobby will try their hardest to stop it. And even if it does pass, I can imagine a lot of outcry and anger. However, it's not impossible. A universal background check law passed in Washington state last month I believe. Don't know if that will do anything, though. Even if someone is not legally allowed to own a firearm, they can just get one at a gun show or something where there are no background checks IIRC.

 

EDIT: Actually, I'm not sure when that law passed. All I know is that it passed.

 

 

Switzerland is the exception to the rule rather than the rule itself. I can understand the viewpoint of wanting to keep guns (especially since the idea is just so entrenched into American history now), but having been brought up in a country without guns and generally exposed to American news more than an American would to British news, the idea of the right to a gun is entirely, entirely foreign to me.

 

He does bring up a good point though. Switzerland has a high number of guns but not the same problem as America does.

[Aerion Brightflame]

Yeah, it's hard to pass any type of gun control especially since the NRA and the gun-lobby will try their hardest to stop it. However, it's not impossible. A universal background check law passed in Washington state last month I believe. Don't know if that will do anything, though.

 

Problem is, even if someone is not legally allowed to own a firearm, they can just get one at a gun show or something where there are no background checks IIRC.

 

Then you ban, or force more regulations on the Gun Shows. In essence it's not hard to fix this issue. It's just politics gets in the way of practical solutions. 

 

I understand that because of the way certain amounts of money get given to particular US senators means that this kinds of legislation wouldn't get passed, but it doesn't change how you could solve these issues. Because they aren't complicated at the very base of it. 

 

Admittedly, the fact you are the country that has the highest military budget of any country in the world (By a long margin. Like, I think you spend more than like the 20 odd countries combined. And you are allied to most of them. Not entirely sure, but it fits with most of the numbers I'm seeing) shouldn't make it too suprising but... Again, it's just illogical to me. 

[Mutant Monster RAEG-HAPYP]

Personally, I also think America's gun culture is severely flawed. People want their guns but don't want to be responsible with their guns. It's not all gun owners, mind you, but I feel there are people like that. And when people aren't responsible with their guns, what happens? Accidents. We have a problem with accidents as well.

[Tentacruel]

Laws are as they are because a lot of people simply don't agree with those solutions. It's a debatable notion, but gun owners generally feel that they shouldn't have to give up their gun because someone else used one to commit a crime. It's definitely a very libretarion view on things.

Gun shows do make it very easy to purchase, but I'd think it'd be more practical to institute background checks at them rather than ban them outright.

[Simping For Hina]

Gun control? I have two guns on me all the time. My arms are under my control, don't worry people.