Guns in the USA

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 - ?

How come the rest of us can live without guns?its time something was done about the situation

I was going to say that I cannot believe the carnage in America with so many mass shootings. But I can believe it. They think that they have a right to arm themselves, well yes they do but at what cost. The cost is so alarmingly high. I don't believe that this is what their for father's ever dreamed would happen in their beloved America, The land of the free. I think that they would be horrified. Well, it is not. They are chained to an outmoded, irrelevant and an ancient belief system that does not match the modern day society. Australian Prime Minister John Howard had the strength and the forsight to to go beyond any gun laws in our country and demand that guns be handed in to every Police Station in every town and in every state to be destroyed. They were destroyed by the millions. The year was 1996, when there was a massacre in Port Aurthur Tasmiania, 36 dead. It is illegal in Australia to bear arms, it is illegal to fire in public places it is illegal to possess any guns unless you are a collector or a member of law enforcement. I am very proud of Mr. Howard for having the strength to do this. They have to do this in America, it will not be popular and it will not earn the person any votes, we all know this but at the end of the day, he or she may say to his or her grandchildren, " I had a hand in this, I made this country a safer place to live."

How come the rest of us can live without guns? Its time something was done about the situation

icanhandthemback

I think we should let them keep their guns but ban the ammunition. That way they get their arms as per the constitution but can only beat each other to death with the guns.
There has to be a way forward.

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

I'm afraid it's like talking to a brick wall. We have very good friends in florida, the one topic we keep away from is guns. Walmart has a whole department where you can choose a gun and take it away. School shootings are routine they often don't make the local news. The response is always " guns don't kill people, people kill people " my response is always " people with guns kill people "

PunkWomble these school shootings were not carried out by criminals as such but by deranged people whose access to guns was far too easy.

So do we think that if citizens were banned from having guns in the USA the criminals wouldn’t get them anyway? Do criminals obey the law?

Some are trying but doomed to failure, dollars talk.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61742732

as someone living in the US, I am disgusted by the situation. it is terrible, and no one is willing to do anything about it.

Just been having another interesting conversation with a pro gun person. It seems they’ve got to stop communism which would kill millions of people. And what a mess Ukraine would be if they didn’t have guns. No reply to me asking how come their gun policy didn’t stop Putin from invading. And it seems I’m the one who’s deranged.

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 quote is so redolent of so many arguments in the U.K. over the past few years, and very depressing it is.

But I do feel optimistic that we now have a chance to get rid of these politicians who have caused such division and hate and reintroduce governments of trust, integrity and competence.

I so hope we don’t let this chance slip through our fingers.

I once had a conversation with a school head in charge of a group of schools in America. It was after yet another of their school shootings. I expected her to lament the American position on guns but oh no, she told me proudly,
'All our teachers are trained in how to use guns.' I could make absolutely no headway trying to get her to look at the situation in another way. Her view was that the way to control guns was more guns! Frightening.

Like most people I am heartily sick of learning about yet another mass shooting in the USA. It is beyond my understanding! Watching that 11 year old girl on tv news last night describing what happened in her classroom broke my heart. How would those who defend ' the right to bear arms ' feel if their children were shot dead or witnessed such unbelievable horror in school? The gun culture is so entrenched in people that I dread to think !!!!
I know there will be GN s here with GC in the USA, I can only imagine their fear. Thank goodness Trump is gone , Biden is a good man with an enormous task on his hands. I am not a religious person but I pray this slaughter will stop.

Can you imagine if the teacher then accidentally shot an innocent bystander/child instead of the shooter, but either way, they'd have to live with the fact that they shot someone, even if it was the shooter, for the rest of their life. And what is all this teaching the children? The mind boggles as to the idiocy of such thinking, and the dire effects it could have on decent people. This behaviour is instilled into the children, as normal and acceptable, it is unbelievably short-sighted and ignorant, and extremely dangerous. But of course, like you are all saying, it seems money and power are far more important than people these days! I wonder how US think most of the rest of the world manage to 'protect themselves' where guns are illegal?