Would gun control save lives?

@bijouxbroussard Citizens with guns are not the problem. Criminals are the problem. They very much prefer unarmed citizens!

@Nitedoc Why do people [b]not[/b] understand that not packing an AR-15 isn’t necessarily "unarmed" ? And maybe [b]you[/b] can explain why the same folks who think every man, woman & child should [b]be[/b] armed "because the problem isn’t guns, it’s ‘mental illness’", don’t want tax dollars spent on treating mental illness, [b]either[/b] ? 😳

@bijouxbroussard Most all people who are "packing" do so with a handgun and they don't feel unarmed at all. Quite the opposite I think. Nobody in his right mind thinks that EVERYBODY; man, woman and child; should be armed. Only people who meet some simple, common sense, criteria should be eligible to own or carry a firearm. Like every system in place in this country it is not perfect. Some people fall through he cracks. Some authorities who are supposed to evaluate who can be armed have failed miserably at their jobs. This has led to tragedy for many innocent people. Mental illness is a big problem in our country. It is difficult to evaluate a persons mental status under our current imperfect system. This problem needs to be addressed and "fixed" ASAP. IMHO. The mass shootings are terribly tragic to every sane person in this country. I think we all agree on that. Could mental evaluations help prevent some of these shootings? I think so. Sadly there is no mental evaluation for a firearm buyer right now. This omission should be addressed and "fixed" ASAP too! As I've said it's not a perfect system and I certainly don't have all the answers to these major problems. I do think the focus should be on the criminals themselves and not the inanimate weapons they use in the commission of their crimes. More and stricter gun laws does nothing to deter crime. That is a proven fact. These tougher laws just make it difficult for honest citizens to arm themselves for the protection of themselves and their families. Most people's only means of real time protection from these criminals is their firearms. Without them most people are sheep completely at the mercy of the next wolf that comes along.

@Nitedoc I’m actually old enough to remember a time when mass shootings were unusual enough to be shocking. So are you. What do you think has changed, other than the fact that weapons are easier to obtain ? For [b]everyone[/b], criminals included.

@bijouxbroussard Peoples attitudes. Total disregard for human life. Desensitization to killing and human suffering due primarily to violence on TV, video games, computers and other media. Society's lax approach to helping helping people with their mental illnesses even when they reach out try to get help. Mass shootings are not a gun problem, they're a people problem. I don't think we can stop them all but I believe we can prevent some of them by getting these people proper help. It's much easier said than. If the powers that be start chipping away at the real problem (mental health issues) then then some of these future shootings could be curtailed. It won't happen overnight but most of them could be stopped before they happen. If we revamp the present social/mental health system I believe we will begin to see the fruits of the effort. These tragic shootings will be fewer and farther in between just for starters. It's a tedious process at first but but we have to start to start somewhere, and the time to start is right now before another innocent life is tragically taken.

@Nitedoc That would make sense if video games and violent tv shows were only available here. But other countries have them, too, some ironically with fewer restrictions than here (I’m thinking of Japan) and their citizens haven’t lost their minds.

So however troubled the [b]people[/b] have become here, that mindset [b]plus[/b] having easy access to firearms, especially weapons that are designed specifically to kill large groups of people as quickly as possible, could [b]only[/b] be making things exponentially worse…

And this is what we’re seeing. 😞

@bijouxbroussard These are not easily fixed problems we are facing. Greater minds than mine have pondered this problem for many years with little result. I don't have the answer but I am sure that taking away all of the people's firearms will be devastating for the honest citizens. They will not have any way to protect themselves from the massive roaming criminal elements' that will surely prey upon the innocent peoples.

@Nitedoc But It doesn’t have to be all or nothing ! Some weapons aren’t appropriate for non-military use. They shouldn’t be available to civilians. And people who hoard weapons should be looked at. Otherwise, there’s still a lot a room for sane, legal gun ownership.

Some Americans go deaf when the subject of "gun control" is even introduced, and only hear "taking away [b]all[/b] of the people’s firearms" which isn’t practical here. The only folks who need to lose their weapons are the [b]criminals[/b] you mentioned. And we need to be a bit more careful about who can buy weapons going forward.

@bijouxbroussard I fully agree with most of what you said. We had better make some kind of positive changes because there is no doubt the gun violence is getting much worse. I'm all for more and better screening of gun buyers. This part of the equation is hardly addressed by our current gun laws and is very much lacking. I'm certainly willing to make reasonable compromises to the present firearm requirements for ownership.
The main problem with banning some guns, like "military style" firearms where will it stop? The AR-15 for example is not a military firearm. It looks like one and can use high-capacity magazines but that is it. But it's still just a semi-automatic rifle like a whole lot of common hunting and sport rifles. Magazines can be changed out in 2-3 seconds with a little practice so eliminating those magazine will just slow someone down a little, but not much. High capacity magazines were banned for 10 years by former president Bill Clinton. The various federal agencies, like the FBI, ATF, monitored the crime incidences very closely during this ban. They concluded that this ban did nothing to reduce gun crimes in any way. The ban was then overturned because it had no effect on gun crimes.