The Current Events Thread

[Madican]

That said preventing mass shootings wouldn't be that difficult.

That's what you said, I didn't need to put words in your mouth when you said it yourself. If it wasn't difficult then it would have been done already. The thing is that it's extraordinarily difficult, which is why there's no easy answer, which is why I called you on this.

[Turbro]

America has loose gun laws
America has high rates of gun related death

Other countries have more strict gun laws
Other countries have lower rates of gun related death

[Lambeth]

Turbo Punz tells it like it is.

[Mete]

That's communist talk.

[Dire]

Our shootings dropped when tighter gun control was put in place here.

Here's the thing about a lot of those gunmen. They aren't necessarily criminals to begin with. They're often normal people who snap and use the family guns to start shooting other people up.

[Madican]

No, he does not.

Loose gun laws? Take a look at California's some time. No concealed carry permits except for those who demonstrate a need for it, military or police. Guns and ammo must be stored separately. Guns must be secured during transport, which means locked in a box and kept in plain sight; it cannot be hidden. To buy a gun you must wait several weeks for a background check and not have committed any felonies. Even minor crimes can get you denied.

We have some of the strictest gun control laws there are outside of completely banning them. That didn't stop the Santa Monica shooter. It doesn't stop gang members from carrying them in public. It doesn't stop criminals from getting their hands on them.

There is no easy solution to the problem. Saying it's not difficult is bullshit. That's what I'm calling you on.

[D-vid]

The amount of gun crimes has steadily declined since around 1990. If anything, gun laws have been getting stricter in that time.

Also what Dire said. Mass shootings are more often than not committed by people like you and me, not hardened criminals or gang people. And it's true that most of those were committed with guns they or their family purchased legally.

[Syobon]

The problem is that there are too many guns circulating in America. If they really wanted a change they would have to not only tighten gun laws but also actively confiscate and destroy as many guns as possible, else it stays too easy to get your hands on a gun.

[Shad]

France has very strict firearms laws, but that didn't stop school shootings. Saying that it's not difficult to prevent them is naïve. It is true that tighter firearm laws would help make them less frequent, though.

[TheStranger]

Thing is, people are right when they say its not all about the guns, its also a matter of mental health, cultural attitudes and the glorification of the shooters, and we HAVE to deal with this, we cant just endlessly talk and argue about these things. You need to fund better mental health care, you need to make sure that the mentally ill dont slip through the cracks of society, and you need to stop with the 24/7 news obsession that immortalizes spree killers.

[SaintCrazy]

Yeah, I'm more quick to blame it on good ol' American sensationalism before gun laws or even the mental health system (even though both leave a lot to be desired).

From what I understand, American news media are especially prone to bringing tons of attention to the shooter, asking fear-loaded questions like "School Shootings at Elementary Schools: is Your Child Next??" and pointing the blame at things like gun control, the government, video games, religious beliefs, or whatever, depending on which way the bias leans.

The documentary Bowling for Columbine talks a lot about this. The media has created a fear-based system by breeding a fear and awe for criminals, especially violent ones, and by placing the blame on every day things that the average middle class family is concerned with, that audience feels as though they must act on those supposed causes. And of course, out of fear, they continue to soak up whatever that media outlet says.

[Shining Charizard]

No, he does not.

Loose gun laws? Take a look at California's some time. No concealed carry permits except for those who demonstrate a need for it, military or police. Guns and ammo must be stored separately. Guns must be secured during transport, which means locked in a box and kept in plain sight; it cannot be hidden. To buy a gun you must wait several weeks for a background check and not have committed any felonies. Even minor crimes can get you denied.

We have some of the strictest gun control laws there are outside of completely banning them. That didn't stop the Santa Monica shooter. It doesn't stop gang members from carrying them in public. It doesn't stop criminals from getting their hands on them.

There is no easy solution to the problem. Saying it's not difficult is bullshit. That's what I'm calling you on.

There's also the fact that we have this thing next to us called Mexico, with a large influx of drugs and weapons smuggling into, hey, what do you know, California.

Even if the US were to somehow remove every gun off the face of the country, anyone who really wanted to get their hands on one (and had the cheddar and connections to do so) would.

People who actively want to cause destruction are going to find ways to do so, if not with guns then with knives or bombs or their fists if they have to.

[Doormaster]

From what I understand about the gun laws in the US, if you buy a gun from an actual gun store you have to go through several checks and what not

but if you buy from a gun show or just from a personal sale, as long as the weapon itself isn't illegal you can sell to p much whoever you want

please correct me if I am wrong

[Topaz Luckdragon]

On the whole "What should we do about gun control" debate, I think that this article has a pretty good point.

[Lambeth]

From what I understand about the gun laws in the US, if you buy a gun from an actual gun store you have to go through several checks and what not

but if you buy from a gun show or just from a personal sale, as long as the weapon itself isn't illegal you can sell to p much whoever you want

please correct me if I am wrong

It varies from state to state.