Thoughts and Prayers Break out in Louisville Again, and in Dadeville, Alabama

@Harriet03 But "Thoughts and prayers" stop people from dying in the first place - and half of these people can't accept that making things illegal won't prevent deaths.

Bombs are already illegal - but bombings still happen.

@HootyTheNightOwl people still die in car accidents too. Should we get rid of seat belts, airbags, speed limits and traffic lights because they clearly don't stop people from dying?

@NerdyPotato They called me "stupid" because I said that we need to make cars illegal to prevent a repeat of the London Bridge ramming death of pedestrians...

Seems like it's a bad idea to ban cars, but guns need to be banned...

@HootyTheNightOwl
They ban things they dont like. Like books etc,etc.
When guns are mentioned, they say banning things dont work!
The hypocrisy is unbelievable...

@Harriet03 I can't see what good banning things, in particular, guns would do at this point, though.

You're never going to get all the guns that were sold when they were legal back and safely destroyed... so, what happens to all the guns that are still out there??? Some will be confiscated after future mass shootings - but the rest will fall off the radar. People won't bother to register their location because they're illegal now.

Those are the most dangerous guns to have because no one knows where they are or what they're doing. At one time, a lot of children were accidentally shooting themselves because an adult left their gun out in reach of the child - yet, no one really did anything to ensure that guns were stored in safes and inaccessible to children when removed from the owner's body.

There's also the problem of people converting legal to own guns to behave like their illegal counterparts, too.

The problem is already bigger than they can see - and, even countries where guns are illegal still have shootings. They just point at the lower statistics and won't accept that it's not XYZ guns that are illegal - but all guns are illegal.

@FoothillsPatriot
I have so much more for you to be mad about.
Just be patient dear!

@FoothillsPatriot Time out means time out. You have proven unable to contribute to the discussion and will continue to be deleted.

@HootyTheNightOwl banning guns after allowing them for so long is indeed extremely tricky. But very few people are pushing for a complete ban. Gun control isn't about prohibition, but about mandatory training to use them, a license to use them, registration of guns and gun owners. You know, just like with cars.

@NerdyPotato Even in countries where this type of regulation is a thing, guns are still a problem, though... despite the fact that the sheer number of guns available is so much lower.

We already know that safety isn't always what it seems on the surface. People in the next city over from here still have unlicensed and unregistered guns... people are still getting shot and stabbed.

@HootyTheNightOwl nobody expects regulation to stop all gun violence, just like nobody expects traffic laws to mean nobody ever gets injured or that prohibiting theft means nothing ever gets stolen. But regulation can significantly reduce harm, as shown in other countries. Nowhere is gun violence as much of a problem as in the USA and stabbing isn't as effective as shooting. And yeah, restrictions don't work if they don't apply in the next city and you can freely walk over from there. That's why it needs to be done on a national level.

@NerdyPotato But... I don't see how it would be effective, given the number of these guns already out there. The shooters aren't rocking up to the gun shop, making their purchase, then swinging by the local school on their way home to test fire their new addition to their arsenal.

More needs to be done to work out where these guns are coming from and tighten those regulations.

They already banned the mentally ill from owning guns - yet, how many recent shooters must have had some sort of mental illness to go out and shoot a few dozen unarmed children who's only crime was to attend class???

Maybe tightening the ability for others in the same household to own guns after a diagnosis of mental illness might help a bit - but who will agree to that???

Maybe the sale of second hand guns needs to be tightened further so that you can only buy and sell through licensed arms dealers who are responsible for carrying out the required background checks - that adds issues to being able to hand down sentimental guns through the family, though???

@HootyTheNightOwl It is a difficult problem, to be sure. We are almost 30 years past when assault weapons were banned, and 20 years past when the ban expired. So we've literally had decades where the problem has gotten worse, to reach the point where we find ourselves now. I think we have to take an equally long approach to fixing the problem

You aren't going to be able to ban guns that are still out there. But you could ban the manufacture and sale of new assault weapons (or whatever the right wing wants to call guns designed for quick and efficient mass murder), while grandfathering in existing weapons. Second hand sales could be further tightened, as you suggest. Ammunition could be limited to eliminate large clips or magazines. Over time, we should start to see improvement.

@FoothillsPatriot Go away and let the adults have a serious conversation here...

@HootyTheNightOwl He's been trolling for two days here. He's just a pimple on your buttocks. Eventually it will go away.

@windinhishair One problem that I keep seeing is the cut off level... obviously young children don't kill themselves and each other with assault rifles.

It'd be great if there was a way to stop that as well as teenagers shooting up their class mates.

@HootyTheNightOwl Well, we have erred on the side of too permissive for decades, and it has failed spectacularly. Perhaps we need more draconian measures for a time to compensate.

You are correct that kids aren't killing themselves with assault weapons. Yet guns are the number one cause of death for children in the US.

@FoothillsPatriot You may run along to the kid's table and let the adults talk.