Which guns in whose hands? Is it possible, in your mind, to be a legal and responsible gun owner?
Sure they can be, never said anything to the contrary but current regulations don't exactly make it hard for the 'other kind' to get their hands on a weapon, both legally and illegally
Yep. Hindsight is 20/20.
Switzerland and Serbia.
You'll find that regulations in both countries are more stringent, especially in Switzerland, where psychiatric evalutions are mandatory and, in comparison, only a rather limited range of weapons are legal. Also, the amount of guns per capita in the USA is more than double that of the runner up (Serbia) and nearly 5 times that of switzerland
You asked, I answered.
Too bad you're not on SCOTUS! Here in America, laws are interpreted by them. Go to Law School, get elected to the bench, become a Constitutional Scholar and you will get to tell us all about it...oh, and you would be in the minority in the current SCOTUS. For some background, read the Heller decision and get back to me.
Heller was decided 5v4, hardly a unanimous decision, yet hardly surprising given the NRA's lobbying prowess.
You might surprised how much "settled law" was a 5-4 decision in SCOTUS. There is a reason Trump touts Gorsuch as such a big deal!
Review that logic and get back to me. One doesn't follow the other.
What would you attribute the increase in gun violence to then?
The lack of high quality, low-to-no cost mental health care.
Or, maybe it is guns in the wrong hands that causes the problem, because I can assure you I could own a million guns and I would never be a mass murderer! But, then who decides who the "wrong hands" are without hindsight?
Having more guns in circulation increases the likelihood of those guns ending up in the wrong hands.
You are missing my point. Who, and how, determines "the wrong hands" BEFORE the event? The Minority Report and Precogs is just the movies. Until then, we do background checks and allow law enforcement to make a determination. Some people even believe that is too much, based on the actual wording of the 2A.
It is already ugly, and I hope there can be some realistic regulations imposed. However, as always, the response will be "bad guys don't give a fuck about the law...that's why we call them bad guys!
Do you think "the law" had ANY effect on this guy?
Well alright then you finally agree with what's being advocated,namely imposing more regulations.
And no, the current laws actually make it rather easy for him or any other bad guy to obtain such weapons
. A decent pshychiatric evaluation might have prevented it though.
And reducing accessibility to weapons decreases the chance of those weapons ending up in the wrong hands altogether, it's logic really.
Tell that to the people who get gunned down by gang members with criminal records who have zero legal access to guns! I appreciate that we are trying to put fingers in the dyke, but you are ignoring the fact that there are th Islands of people who don't share your (and my) law-abiding intentions and are walking around putting new holes in that same dyke every day.
I am very, very strong on law and order. I think it should be very hard to own a gun. As others have said, we can all wring with our hands every time some looney toon commits mass murder, but we are constantly trying to determine why good people go bad, not why they had a weapon. As others have said, they are ubiquitous, especially in some states, and there are laws in place to try to restrict ownership to only those people who meet those laws. I believe we may be able to do more, but there was little to no appetite for that when we had a Dem in power, so you can imagine how that will play to the Reps who run the Federal Government and the States...and who ar funded by the NRA.
As an aside, we recently had a politician on in stage at his pre-election rally wearing his cowboy hat and an alligator waistcoat. He started around the stage talking about his opponent telling people that he (the guy on stage) was not strong on 2A. So, what did he do? He took a gun and it of his pocket on stage at his own rally and waved it in the air to demonstrate he was a 2A advocate! This is a looney toon who has been struck down from the Judges bench TWICE, but he ran for Senate in Alabama and is now the Republican nominee in the election! He is a fucking certified religious nut looney toon, but he will probably win and become one of the most important 100 people in the USA!!
Did you hear the whooping and cheering?!
America is not Berkshire!
