General Board: Florida...jheeze another dark day in America

Nah, you're getting me wrong. Never meant to insult you or anyone else or something like that bro.

My bad. It's all love, though!

In the UK we barely have any guns and barely have any shootings. how do you explain that?

How does anything you said offer any help or offer any solution to what is the problem of gun crime or prevention of terrorist shootings?

simple. barely have guns = less gun crime. That was your answer. So you are aware that less guns means less gun crime.

So It doesn't make sense why you wouldnt want tighter restrictions.

Hmm,I work with ppl who have issues in mental health and learning disability,and
I feel it's wrong to pin blame on any group of ppl,what is needed is tougher Control,
its obvious America has a right to bare arms,the gun is inbeded in their lives,if America
is to rid itself of guns,all American have to be on board,and yes ppl will use other things
to replace gun's,ie knives clubs etc etc,but if I had a choice of being shot or stabbed,
guess which one would be my preference?,I do agree gun courses would be a step in
the right direction,as by seeing the need you also recognise the problem,and even
if America was to ban the gun laws,the black market would flourish, and guns would still be plentyful,and let's not forget here, ppl are the problem really not the gun itself
and that ain't no easy fix..peace.

Rutter knows best wrote: The mentally ill thing is the smokescreen not the guns. Guns were made for killing, and the easier you make it to kill some one the more killing there will be. What other countries have the right to bear arms? It's like negotiating with an autistic child. Where you accept its special needs while the rest of the children function by the same rules. Real change takes years. getting the gun take down safely could take decades but you have to start somewhere. You chip away and chip away slowly but surely and eventually this generation will die out. With each generation there will be less guns and it will be less and less of a part of the culture and start to become part of the history instead. You still had slaves 150 years ago and people said the same stuff when they said" if they try take our slaves away it will be the bloodiest civil war ever" , you managed it though even if at the time people said it wasn't possible. Black people didn't become equal over night it was a painstakingly gradual process in which some still are abused for their race. Same with guns it'll be gradual and there will always those who abuse it but a lot less people are the victims of it.

Beans wrote: Rutter knows best wrote: The mentally ill thing is the smokescreen not the guns. Guns were made for killing, and the easier you make it to kill some one the more killing there will be. What other countries have the right to bear arms? It's like negotiating with an autistic child. Where you accept its special needs while the rest of the children function by the same rules. Real change takes years. getting the gun take down safely could take decades but you have to start somewhere. You chip away and chip away slowly but surely and eventually this generation will die out. With each generation there will be less guns and it will be less and less of a part of the culture and start to become part of the history instead. You still had slaves 150 years ago and people said the same stuff when they said" if they try take our slaves away it will be the bloodiest civil war ever" , you managed it though even if at the time people said it wasn't possible. Black people didn't become equal over night it was a painstakingly gradual process in which some still are abused for their race. Same with guns it'll be gradual and there will always those who abuse it but a lot less people are the victims of it. I'll shoot you square in the face!

Fire twice to be sure

We used to have guns in the UK then we heavily licenced them and restricted/controlled them and shootings have gone down significantly. We also have superbly trained armed response units who can react literally within minutes in most urban populations. There is a gang related gun problem but in relative context it's not a big issue. In part that's in response to the removal of the "education" type programs they used to do in the 90s/00s in areas/communities where there were gun related issues.

In other words, in this country we have demonstrated that you can tackle gun crime through a concerted effort.

In America there seems to me to be 2 distinct issues that makes it more difficult...

1) "the right to bear arms" has been politicised and is interpreted almost as part of a universal human right. It isn't. Clearly, politically, I don't agree with owning weapons but I do understand that it's an important part of American history with the militias in the civil war.

At the same time, I don't think that gives citizens the right to own military grade assault rifles and stockpile as much ammunition as you like. Which is clearly one half of the issue when it comes to these horrific acts of mass murder that routinely occur.

2) there seems to be a subculture of mass murder/suicide that you rarely see at all in other countries, and even when you do see it there is of significantly less regularity...even when you normalize for the size of population. In one regard Rhet is right, you take away the guns you don't necessarily take away this half of the equation. But equally, if access to high powered, battlefield weaponry and ammunition was significantly more controlled then you would at the very least restrict fatalities and my personal belief is you would also reduce the instances of the acts in the longer term as I do think the two things are interlinked.

Bottom line, it's a completely solvable issue for me...lots of countries in the world have mental health issues. In no other country in the world does that mental health issue manifest itself in anywhere as nearly as many acts of murder suicide or anywhere near as many fatalities per person. Therefore it's both a policy issue and a political attitude issue.

Cuba wrote: We used to have guns in the UK then we heavily licenced them and restricted/controlled them and shootings have gone down significantly. We also have superbly trained armed response units who can react literally within minutes in most urban populations. There is a gang related gun problem but in relative context it's not a big issue. In part that's in response to the removal of the "education" type programs they used to do in the 90s/00s in areas/communities where there were gun related issues. In other words, in this country we have demonstrated that you can tackle gun crime through a concerted effort.