M.O.A.B wrote:
Jay wrote:
Do you know how many weapons I own? Zero. Do you know how many weapons are in my immediate family? Between my three brothers, my two brother-in-laws, and my four sets of parents, there is one shotgun and maybe an old Civil War era musket if my dad still has it. None of my friends own guns that I know of. None of us really feel unsafe. We certainly don't walk around with a hand cannon stuffed down our pants. Of course, as Ken will point out, this is anecdotal, but I think we're fairly representative of the area we live in.
Most of the guns in this country are located in the South, Midwest and Southwest where there is indeed a lot of hunting to do, and people live in more rural settings where cops can't get to peoples homes very quickly. There was a time not all that long ago when nearly everyone in NYC was armed. If you go to a museum you can see the walking stick shotguns that were carried by the well-to-do. As the police force became more professional, this went away. Back in that time period, there were a lot more guns per capita in the country as a whole, and yet we didn't have issues with people going nuts and committing acts of mass murder. It's a new phenomena, and it's not something you can blame on easy access to weapons, because that's always been there. Something changed. Personally, I blame it on the lack of social interaction between people with the rise of the personal computer, the internet, video game systems, etc. I think people feel disconnected and isolated and this is their way of punishing society for those feelings.
Now, that said, I call you ignorant because you're talking about gun control when you can't even define what a gun is. As soon as you started talking about automatic weapons and machine guns I just wrote you off as stupid. Maybe you're not, but if you want to be taken seriously, do some research before you speak.
Here are the major types of firearm actions:
Automatic (also known as fully-automatic) - you pull the trigger and the gun fires until you release the trigger or it runs out of ammo.
Semi-automatic - you pull the trigger and the gun fires one bullet.
Revolver - you pull the trigger and the gun fires one bullet.
Bolt-action - you pull the trigger and it fires one bullet. You must work the bolt action to reload it.
Automatic weapons are not legal in the United States except under very special circumstances. They are so rare, that they can basically be ignored. The guy in Newtown also did not use 'assault rifles'. He used two semi-automatic handguns. Frankly, whatever weapons he used didn't really matter since his victims were 100% defenseless. He could've sat there reloading a revolver with a speed loader. Doesn't matter.
Anyway, I'm tired of this topic already.
I'm very aware of what defines a firearm's type, of SA, DA, DAO. I'm the kind of person who would specifiy weapon type (eg Type-56 for a full wood stock Sino-AK) as opposed to using the colloquial term. I would only term it an assault rifle because aside from the manner in which the trigger works, it's the same thing.
If somebody feels they
genuinely need to defend themselves with a firearm, that firearm should be restricted in terms of calibre and capacity. I never said all crimes would stop, I'd be naiive to think so. But why should nothing be done to try and at least reduce the number of severe crimes like this? I've seen a lot of pictures shot in combat showing the after effects of rifle ammunition, whether 5.56 and 7.62, and thinking about their effects on a 6 year old child is a horror I would never ever wish to see in person or upon anyone.
People will always kill each other over anything. Religion, politics, parking in their spot. But I don't see why it should be so easy for someone to get their hands on weaponry that was originally designed for warfare, the only real difference being that instead of churning out rounds with one pull, you yank the trigger a few times. It is still the same weapon with the same effects, and as far as I'm aware, actually puts it closer to military use of controllable semi-automatic fire. I'm sure they switched the M16A2 to three-round burst from the A1s automatic because it wasn't always effective.
A semi-auto Armalite-, Kalashnikov-, Norinco-, FN- or HK-pattern rifle using a variety of ammunition and feeding from magazines ranging from 10-100 rounds, additionally outfitted with any variety of optical devices being kept in someones house just makes no sense whatsoever. People need licenses and training to drive cars, ride bikes, and fly aircraft to try and maximise safety, things developed to transport people. Yet you need nothing of the sort for a piece of equipment whose sole purpose is to kill or severely wound something.
As I have said, I would have no problem going shooting at a range. I find weapons to be interesting. But anything above a pistol or shotgun should remain on a range where its usage can be monitored. You should not be allowed to take it home with you. Something like that is not necessary and poses more problems than benefits to your society. American is full of lovely, kind and respectable people. Unfortunately, there are a substantial number of people with acidic political and religious views, people with skewed beliefs who hate on others because of ethnicity and orientation or simply having a different opinion.
I'd imagine a lot of people, especially young men, from any number of countries would enjoy blasting rounds through a gun, but that should be regulated and supervised by responsible individuals. If you want to race cars you do it on a racetrack. The same should go for the more powerful end of firearms.
There is no single solution to the issue. It has to be hit from multiple angles. People need to be educated of the effects and trained in the usage. The mentally unstable need to monitored and helped. Sensationalism of shooters has to be nipped hard. You have to impose restrictions. Absolute freedom in any one area leads to too many problems. There are some things in life you should not be allowed to do, and carting around a weapon in your car (whether to go to a range or hunting or just kept there) or keeping it in a cabinet specifically designed to take out soldiers in body armour over distance, no matter how legitimate your intentions are or how many precautions you take, will never be safe.
You can't eradicate crime or the primal aspects of humanity, but you can damn well try and reduce the damage.
