Rithrandil
SasqWatch
Personally, I don't really have a problem with gun ownership. After reading through the threads, a few comments:
- The US is - generally - a more violent place than other OECD countries in general. It's not just limited to gun violence.
- Overall rates of violent crime in the US have been dropping fairly heavily since the early 1990s.
- We have far less robust social services than many other Western countries, so we have the whole poverty/crime/etc thing going on that contributes to violent crime.
- There are reasonable restrictions we could put in place now, that the majority of gun owners (and I *believe* even a majority of NRA members) would support: closing the loopholes involving private sales of firearms and gun shows, etc.
- There's WAY too much focus on 'assault rifles' or 'assault weapons', and a lot of DELIBERATE obfuscation involving these terms. Most people who are killed by guns die from handguns, not assault rifles. Also, things like AR-15s are not assault rifles, by definition. They cannot fire on full auto. Secondly, 'assault weapon' is also a somewhat bogus term, since things like the Brady Bill focused more on how a weapon 'looked' vs. how dangerous it actually was. If they actually banned things like AR-15s as 'assault weapons', you would STILL be able to go out and buy very powerful, long-range rifles that you could use to kill quite a few people. DC sniper, anyone?
- There's also been a lot of focus on the whole 'mentally ill' thing, like in New York I'm personally extremely aggravated at the New York law that was passed, which will have very negative consequences on mental health care in New York state and will probably make quite a few problems worse.
- Finally, to all the non-Americans who were making derisive comments about " 'murican" culture and not being able to handle weapons/toys/whatever etc etc etc: Stop it. Yes, the US has lots of problems, but the amount of "let's just bash the US just because" is pretty laughable. I mean, I'm sure that a few of us Americans could start going over the lack of free expression allowed in some of your countries, but it's irrelevant. Stick to the issue, yo.
- The US is - generally - a more violent place than other OECD countries in general. It's not just limited to gun violence.
- Overall rates of violent crime in the US have been dropping fairly heavily since the early 1990s.
- We have far less robust social services than many other Western countries, so we have the whole poverty/crime/etc thing going on that contributes to violent crime.
- There are reasonable restrictions we could put in place now, that the majority of gun owners (and I *believe* even a majority of NRA members) would support: closing the loopholes involving private sales of firearms and gun shows, etc.
- There's WAY too much focus on 'assault rifles' or 'assault weapons', and a lot of DELIBERATE obfuscation involving these terms. Most people who are killed by guns die from handguns, not assault rifles. Also, things like AR-15s are not assault rifles, by definition. They cannot fire on full auto. Secondly, 'assault weapon' is also a somewhat bogus term, since things like the Brady Bill focused more on how a weapon 'looked' vs. how dangerous it actually was. If they actually banned things like AR-15s as 'assault weapons', you would STILL be able to go out and buy very powerful, long-range rifles that you could use to kill quite a few people. DC sniper, anyone?
- There's also been a lot of focus on the whole 'mentally ill' thing, like in New York I'm personally extremely aggravated at the New York law that was passed, which will have very negative consequences on mental health care in New York state and will probably make quite a few problems worse.
- Finally, to all the non-Americans who were making derisive comments about " 'murican" culture and not being able to handle weapons/toys/whatever etc etc etc: Stop it. Yes, the US has lots of problems, but the amount of "let's just bash the US just because" is pretty laughable. I mean, I'm sure that a few of us Americans could start going over the lack of free expression allowed in some of your countries, but it's irrelevant. Stick to the issue, yo.