@Chris Craig , I apologize for this response taking so long, but here goes...
Most people here are not saying ban all guns. Maybe 2 posters have said that. Its not going to happen. It will never be on the table.
Most people here want restrictions. Restriction doesn't mean we want it banned, just harder to get.
Fair enough. I think most liberal republicans(non politicians) are willing to have some restrictions such as clip bullet limits, potentially upping the age to 21, etc. I am not sure if any gun ban will pass though. Regardless of my stance, congress just wants to fight and blame. So then details of what restrictions must be spelled out.
Though, I don't see a reason for civilians to have access to versions of military guns other than they are cool. That cool factor is part of what has led to a culture around guns like the AR-15.
So let's examine this. Why is this? Why are guns and shooting becoming increasingly cool amongst our youth? Where do these kids with gun fascinations come from and what is their daily life like? Without reading logs and logs of case studies, but going by my personal life experiences of entering MANY families homes over the years as a technician, I have come under the opinion it is largely due to parental neglect, which has many facets. It seems as if many parents have come to believe that they are not responsible for their children's education and that is the government and the school districts responsibility. I have personally witnessed parents who have kids still in diapers playing video games with soldiers and guns, while mom sits their chatting it up on the phone with her friend, getting rude when I need to ask some questions in order to complete my job. (Not many were rude, but the neglect of the child's need for attention was still apparent)
I believe that it is an extremely rare individual who is born evil regardless of good parenting. I believe most become this way due to early childhood neglect and lack of proper intellectual growth.
I do not claim this to be fact, nor do I claim to have seen the areas where these shooters have actually come from. But I strongly believe that lack of education breeds poverty, bad choices, anger issues(lack of self control/discipline) and I cant help be think this is a large contributor. The disintegration of family bonding and community coming togethers.
It's the gun of choice for mass shooters for a reason.
Rest assured. Take away the AR-15 and those who want to kill will find another gun of equal potential destruction or worse, go the bomb route. This is appauling to have to even compare, but what would be worse, an AR-15 shooting or a guy with a bomb strapped to himself walking into a classroom and setting it off?
You were talking about video games earlier. Well, the problem his gun makers, have taken the video game and made it real by offering versions of the guns in games. It's not the game itself, but the realization of that game via guns like Ar-15s
Are you sure about this? Seems to me guns have been around much longer than games and the games I play have guns mimicking what is out there already. Without some evidence I would find it hard to believe that video games are influencing gun makers, vs gun makers influencing video game makers.
Why do people kill is an age old question. Are they driven to it? Are they born with wicked capabilities and compulsions? Mental illness? Isolation? Bad parenting? The answer needs to be sought out yes, but there are things we can do in the meantime.
Some of this was addressed above. I do not disagree with trying all realistic avenues to curb mass shootings.
I believe that eventually better more accessible healthcare could help curb some of this. But, it's going to take time. Getting rid of poverty would be great and would help too, but it will never happen. The rich won't allow it.
I am not sure I am following. I believe most rich would love to see poverty go away. Poverty stricken people have less money to spend on the rich peoples goods.
The fastest things we can do now in the moment are:
- raising the age to buy guns. I agree. 21 would be fair to me for any fully automatic weapon, possibly semi autos as well. However the thing about raising the age is will it really have any affect on shootings? Are most mass shootings from individuals under 21 who bought the gun? or was it a parents gun? So yes, I can agree with raising the age because I believe it could be done with little overhead costs, but I don't think it will have a large impact or even a small one really.
- Making guns harder to get via background checks, etc. I am not privy to all the details, but do not most states have a 3-5 day wait time as the background check is done, before they can get a gun? If not, i'm fully on board with anyone buying a gun having to have a background check and possibly even a personal life investigation for fully automatic weapons.
- Offer gun buybacks to get some guns off the street. All for it
- Push for more responsible parenting To me this is the most important, but also the most complicated, as there isn't a universal answer for all families. But without this, I don't see much else working.
- Hold parents responsible if their kids gets ahold of their weapons and use them nefariously. All for it. This ties in with the parenting issues.
- Better school security upgrades (Doors that are locked from the outside, but can open from the inside and buzz in systems. Etc)I thought I remember being told by someone that most of the schools out there already have the locked outside but not inside doors? And the more I recall, my highschool and jr high's were like that back in the 80's-90's. But I am willing to entertain thoughts outside the box. how about schools with 12 foot ceilings with gun holes every so often and cameras with someone behind a joystick who could be alerted and take out a shooter walking down the hall? I know the costs and reality of that is pretty far fetched, but I believe this is an issue serious enough we should entertain all new ideas initially.
We could also look to ban military style rifles among other things but that's probably not going to happen, so I'm not including that. Though most of my ideas won't happen anyway.
See above in red.
Yes, banning guns from planes has deterred some hijackings. Not all, but some. Implementing other strategies has helped to deter them even more. It's nearly impossible to hijack a plane post 9-11 because we did what we needed to do. If we sat around saying oh it's not going to work and the such we would have likely had more hijackings. Can you name a hijacking post 9-11 here in the US?
We need to attack gun violence, especially school shootings like we did hijacking, with several solutions at once. That's how it stops.
I cannot. However, that came at a cost of longer lines and delayed entries while passengers go through the more extensive screening to get through, as well as a more intensive social media monitoring and tracking of suspected terrorists. ( all worth it) Is this something we should have at our schools? A guard at every entry able to pat down anything he thinks may have a gun, have all bags go through a scanner with another person watching the screen and then a metal detector to pass through? A higher level of governmental surveillance on kids social media pages? I would entertain that thought, but not sure if I would go for it without know many many more details of how things would work and cost.
I agree we should try all realistic options and entertain all ideas until scrutiny/studies show them not worthy of having an effect.
The key is though? people working together for a common goal to find a solution to a problem no one on either side of the political isle wants. Republicans don't want mass shootings to happen any more than Democrats. Republicans have children too.
It's sad that the few extremes on both sides have the loudest voices and make this issue a political one to be argued over ad nausium vs putting aside fringe differences and finding common ground to start building a foundation of trust off of, to be able to work together,instead of tear each other's respective party down. I am not sure we are not in an all time low regarding our elected officials capacity to put personal differences aside for the good of all.
I don't claim to have the answers, but I also don't want to see us make the wrong decisions. It could potentially exacerbate the problem into a civil war of chaos and destruction.
