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Biden renews call for assault weapons ban after ‘tragic and senseless’ spate of July 4 shootings
(www.independent.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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politics
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If you think there's any real conversation around "getting rid of guns" you are simply engaging in fantasy.
There will be no "getting rid of guns" in any of our lifetimes in the USA. Our rights to bear arms are practically set in stone with multiple SC precedents confirming the individual right that the Constitution gives us, and recent additional precedents show the sitting court interprets the legality of limiting those rights as an extremely narrow thing.
Even if all the above were not the case, the simple logistics of the matter are that we have 400 million guns in private hands, mostly unregistered, distributed across the USA. People will simply keep them no matter what you or the government tells them.
its true, never in the history of any nation has illegalising something made that thing less common
your disagreeing with the practicality of getting rid of guns does not, in fact, change the current conversation from being about how the usa should obviously get rid of guns, regardless of how difficult you lot will continue to make it 'in any of our lifetime'
That's kind of a generic reply that doesn't address the point that making them illegal is most likely impossible.
a generic reply that barely addresses any point was pretty appropriate for a generic statement that barely qualifies as having one to address, i felt like
it turns out 'the simple logistics of the matter' are that guns do not appear in the hands of criminals magically, rather the USA imports and manufactures ridiculous amounts of new killing machines for them entirely legally, making sure that getting your hands on one illegally remains as easy as absolutely possible
it turns out schoolkids and teenagers do not in fact get their military weaponry from their extensive mob/maffia/cartel ties, they take daddys entirely legally purchased firearm because having a country where millions of people can legally own guns means having a country where millions of kids can just grab one
it turns out people will not 'simply keep them no matter what you or the government tells them', because first, some people actually do care about following the law, and second, enforcement of bans on things does actually tend to lower the prevalence of those things
we know this because weve seen that happen, repeatedly, including in the USA, most every time anything was illegalised in recent history
we also know this because if a gun is confiscated from someone, it is physically impossible for that person to shoot someone else with that gun, because they do not have it
the literal only reason 'criminals can still get guns' is because theres so fucking many legal ones
Here's some info to educate yourself on the logistics I was speaking of - noncompliance with gun bans in New York, where even the county sheriffs refuse to enforce their "assault weapon" bans.
https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2016/07/07/massive-noncompliance-with-safe-act/
If those bans go so poorly in NY state, how well do you think they would work in states with more conservative populations?
Additionally, there are states with "gun ban bans" coded into law already, making compliance with federal gun bans illegal. Obviously the Supremacy Clause would nullify those laws, but they tell you how the state will be unlikely to comply on a practical level. Shit ain't gonna happen, no matter how much you fantasize it happening.
i am shocked that the US police, let alone the new york police, known for their immense professional, legal and moral integrity, are refusing to enforce the laws already in place
i am also shocked that your totally not generic reply that definitely addresses the point that the USA should obviously get rid of guns is just going 'yeah well they arent right now!!'
see
by the way, did you figure out an excuse for why you framed the conversation as being about picking between fewer guns and better mental healthcare yet?*
*did not realise you were not in fact the same guy i originally replied to
You have me confused with someone else, I never said anything about mental healthcare. We definitely need better resources for all Americans to get help with that if they need it though.
I'm opposed to gun bans because Freedom is more important than anything else, especially Security Theater. Banning "assault weapons" amounts to only Security Theater because only 3% or less of homicides in the USA involve rifles including "assault weapons" so it would not help anything but a possible small fraction of the overall violence. When you add the current small impact that they have on the overall amount of violence with the logistic nightmare of enforcing bans, and the unlikelyhood of any bans surviving Supreme Court review, it amounts to a hill of beans that accomplishes nothing except losing voters who value their liberty.