Guns in the USA

Saw an interview with the little girl, who saw her teacher being shot in the head and smeared herself with blood of her classmates, and played dead. How awful for that little girl and all affected - ?

I heard part of the debate the other day in which someone said it was their God-given right to bear arms. Not the first time I've heard this of course, but this was part of the debate so presumably a politician. I feel that one's God-given right to live out one's full life-span is far more important. I'm shocked that apparently well-educated American people, many of them professing to be religious (as is the way with US politicians) cannot see this.

vegansrock

The answer to school shootings by the gun lobby - give the teachers guns! Can you imagine if those guns got into the hands of a disgruntled student.

I agree and would they ask the teachers if they were willing to bare arms? I know if I was teaching there I would refuse.
Luckily my family have returned from the USA. They try to explain it all not that they agree. I asked the grandchildren if they had drills and the poor little mites could tell me exactly what their weekly drill was.
My DD said a lot of friends had guns in handbags or the glove compartment of cars.

Surely, that would only spark the dubious underground manufacture of ammunition.

PollyDolly, the black market for guns, knives, etc is a problem too but it doesn't stop people for arguing for it. Personally, I'd like to see a ban on the semi-automatic arms just like we have in the UK. You can still protect yourself (if you feel it is necessary) but mass killings are far more difficult.

Aepgirl

Sadly, we have a similar problem in the UK with knife crime. I wish there was an answer.
I have a friend who was a teacher in Pittsburgh who to,d me years ago that all their teachers had guns.

That’s not true. Unless she’s at some home schooling commune.

Now all of you, why do you think I will never go to America?

More than 700 people have died in shootings since the Texas atrocity.

After the Dunblane massacre there was practically no dissent to strict gun control rules being introduced. How many such atrocities will it take for America to see sense?

The right to bear arms was of course written into the American constitution because at that time there were clashes with Native Americans over land and hunting grounds, pirates in coastal areas and various wild animals that constituted dangers.

Many of these dangers no longer exist, but unfortunately it will do no good to tell the defenders of the 2nd Amendment that times are changed.

One thing that might help is issuing gun licences conditional upon gun owners having attended shooting classes. If this had to be fufilled before the legal age at which you may buy and own a gun, I do not believe it would clash with the legal right to bear arms.

It should also be illegal, as it is in many European countries, not to keep your guns in a gun safe and your ammunition in another locked safe, when you are not actually carrying them. This prevents to a great extent the tragedy of children killing themselves or each other "in play".

Apart from these measures, responsible citizens who want more control will just have to go on and on demanding it and persuading others that it is necessary.

Only by doing so, have they any hope of the laws being changed.

I watched a news story from the USA on TV last night that showed a memorial to all the people killed by guns in the USA in the last 12 months. A rose for each one. There were 45,000 of them! Surely that can’t be right.

I work with advocates for stray and lost and found dogs in Ohio. I have many online friends who I am I touch with. Like you all I am horrified by the dreadful shootings. I wrote to my friends asking why the government has not changed the law arguing that the founding fathers who made the law were concerned with the individual freedom to engage with invaders and that automatic weapons were not invented then. It is true that the powerful NRA is supported by the conservative citizens and the Republicans. However, I was disappointed that neither President Obama nor President Biden has been able to modify the law with regard to any weapons. I suppose a federal system of government gives every state some autonomy on changing laws but I do not know. Many friends ( generally Democrats) do support change but not friends who live very rurally we’re offended that I even raised the subject. I simply do not understand their determination to carry guns.

Some years ago I accosted what I thought was a burglar in our house. As I walked from the kitchen to the hall I passed the knife block and fleetingly considered whether to pick up a knife. I decided against it partly because I realised that I could potentially be disarmed and the knife used against me, but mainly because in that split second I asked myself if I would be prepared to use a knife on someone and decided that I wouldn’t. I would hate to live somewhere where gun crime was such that a conscious decision would have to be made be made arming yourself ?

I love visiting the US but I'm afraid their attitude is completely different there. They find it unbelievable that police in the UK can go around unarmed. I can't bear to think of what the parents of those massacred innocents must be going through. That little girl who 'survived' was so quick and resourceful, but she has to live with that horrific nightmare in her mind for ever.

The impression I have of American advocates of 'the right to bear arms' is that they must live in. a constant state of fear 'masked' by macho posturing.....

I have just returned from visiting family in the USA, most of the people I spoke to still think they should be able to have guns but not automatic weapons. Of course they were appalled by the school shootings but the majority of people didn't think that strengthening gun law was the answer. Its such an entrenched mindset I don't see changes happening any time soon unless its to ban automatic weapons.

Well done MM
{no, not Meghan this time}!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-61726841

I just can’t imagine living in a country that has a free for all in regards to guns. The outcome is many deaths and disfigurement.
I’d move my family to another country. Why are sensible folk not doing this to protect their families.

Interestingly, Canada has more guns per head than the USA,but a fraction of the gun crime!

How are they even getting into schools. I work in a small primary school and you can’t even get into the building as every entrance is coded and it’s the same in all the schools in the borough.
Is this not the norm for schools everywhere now???
I’m in South Wales.

Why on earth does a so-called civilised country feel it needs to arm itself with semi-automatics (AR-15s are, I believe, the 'weapon of choice' for mass shootings)?

I can understand someone living in a isolated 'homestead' out on the prairie in the wilds of North America wanting to own a hand-gun for protection, but in towns and cities, why does anyone need to own a semi-automatic? They have Law and Order - a police force. Are Americans so lawless?

And their answer to gun violence and mass shootings - is more guns. As one American told me - if all the good guys have guns, they can 'take out' the bad guys before they have chance to kill or injure too many people. I asked him how he would know, in the confusion of these events, who - if everyone drew their semi-automatics at the sound of gun fire - was the good guy and who the bad guy. In the blind panic of these incidents, how do you know if the man standing in front of you with his weapon is the mass-shooter or the law-abidin' citizen? I didn't get an answer because he (the American) lost patience with me (we were in a bar in Florida) and told me that as a "god-damned liberal lime, I was too "soft in the head" to understand...

And why is it often the religious God-fearin' Right who are the most vocal - those same individuals who are incensed at the prospect of a woman terminating a pregnancy, calling it 'murder', yet who are seemingly well able to tolerate the murder of innocent people (and so many of them school children)?

According to the FBI’s latest report released on May 23, there were 61 active shooter incidents in the US in 2021 – a 52 percent increase from 2020 – and the highest year on record.

Some of the Americans I met were the nicest, friendliest people you could ever wish to meet. Others... not so much. But they were all very critical and suspicious of government(s) and they think that guns are the ultimate check on government power. So they are not only relaxed about killing each other - they want to, ahem, kill their political leaders, too, should the need arise.

Good job we don't have the same culture here at the moment. Joking of course but, much as I loathe the current incumbents in government, I would most certainly not like to see acts of violence perpetrated against them.

Sueki44

Interestingly, Canada has more guns per head than the USA,but a fraction of the gun crime!

Has anyone ever explained why they think that is, Sueki?

How sad to think normal people can't live without a gun . The trauma people go through, especially the children . Piers Morgan commented a few years ago about guns in a American, quite a few people didn't like it ... my late husband was a police officer here in the UK ... his answer to if he was made to have a gun ... he would resign ! I know he would have as he said if you have a gun you are a target !!! I was on a cruise few years ago, I over heard an American lady say she was taught to use a gun at 12 years old !!! Say no more !

They would have to have a mass confiscation of guns because there are so many there. Of course a lot of very powerful people are involved in their manufacture and that is one of the reasons their governments don’t want them removed. Money talks.

It would be interesting to see the difference in the type of guns owned in Canada compared to USA and find out how similar or different the reasons for Canadians owning guns? Is it more to protect from animal attacks ( bears?) rather than human crime?
I have extended family living in USA and they all (adults) have hand guns to protect themselves and attended training and regular practice. They live semi rurally. It was not a subject open for discussion when we last saw them ( before the latest mass school deaths).

There are several videos on You Tube where Americans have been asked how America has messed them up. Some of the answers are about guns. (Though, living outside of the US, they have come to see there are so many more problems).

Children have drills in school from a young age, on how to avoid being shot. They learn to zig-zag while running away from a gunman!

These adults have been so affected that they have dived for cover when it may only be a firework going off or a car back firing. They say they are looked at with pity by their friends and colleagues. "Oh yes, you're American".