America - Why all the guns ?

[Davebrad]

Sheer madness. According to the news President Trump seems to be in favour of teachers carrying small arm guns

 

if God forbid a hospital is involved, what's trumps answer "arm the doctors and nurses".

[Davebrad]

from a basic laymans view of the 2nd amendment ie the right to bear arms signed in dec. 1791, when defence against Indians, wild animals, was nearly a daily occurrence.

Today if needed a pistol should be all a person needs for self defence or to protect property...unless a army is attacking you then you may need a AK47.

The gun lobby are saying (simplified by my understanding), if a person enters your house intent on robbing/hurting you he will be armed, so you need to be armed to deal with him, if he has a big gun, yours needs to be bigger...(and one of our members can sell you it).

As a aside when watching tv programmes you see a policeman shoot a suspect 1-2-or 3 times, why not shoot to disable? I know the body is a bigger target, but wounding in the leg will stop him running or make him loose interest in firing back. Or is that too simple? and coming from one who has never had the need or desire to own or fire a gun...

[Fozza19]

They've always been able to have them, so taking them away is a massive u-turn on the Second Amendment and they won't do it.

[Jacko51]

So you arm the teachers. And some loony rushes into a classroom with a big gun. Who is he going to shoot first?

[Jacko51]

Why is the second amendment sacrosanct? The 18th Ammendment which introduced prohibition, failed miserably in that it increased crime in general and organised crime in particular. So it was repealed. In what sense has the second ammendment been a success?

[Paul6754]

Unfortunately this is the logic of the nra and beyond belief that any president would spout the same utter crap.

 

Most schools in the USA have community police officers who spend much time in school to work with kids on drinking/driving/drugs etc, volunteers who man the main and only entrance although they are not usually armed and metal detectors so there is deterrent around but obviously they don’t work 100% of the time.

 

There is usually much sense of pride and community spirit in the school system within a town/city that it takes a really deranged individual to carry out these attacks.

 

When you’re talking about giving teachers guns and you can’t see you have a problem. Many countries don’t even arm their everyday police and America wants to arm teachers.

 

 

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[Trampilot]

Here's my thoughts, and I shoot. I love shooting. Really do. One of the best pastimes you can have. I welcome gun control (short of absolute bans) if it stops inappropriate people* getting hold of them and ruining the sport for everyone who is committed to shooting safely and responsibly ,then that's a very good thing for everyone.

 

This is something I can't understand about the NRA. Obviously they love shooting too so why not do something to protect themselves and their sport and their members by pushing for some simple id/background check, right across the US. I note even gun owners in the US are now asking for controls.

 

You'll never stop criminals getting hold of them that's a given. The problem is when seemingly normal people can get hold of them without a single check or confirmed id. A background check revealing a kid who poses with an air pistol (as the recent shooter did) and promises to do school shooting isnt responsible. Yes he might have got hold of a gun illegally eventually but its ludicrous to think he could go and buy one without anyone checking.

 

Stupid.

 

 

*be it age, mental health, criminal or antisocial behaviour, whatever. In the UK the police will take your licence off you if you are involved in road rage.

[Trampilot]

Oh and guns for self defence.

 

In the UK and you live in Northern Ireland you can apply to have a handgun for this purpose. But ONLY in Northern Ireland. One of the weirder bits of law we have. Anyway if anyone wanted to have a handgun purely for self defence - ie. shove it in a locked drawer/cabinet just in case, I would insist they do a shooting course on safe handling and safe storage (trigger locks and so on). This again to me seems completely logical. Why wouldnt you want to know how to use a gun if you took the time and expense to get one?

 

Then again, this is the US...

[RailwayRowdy]

So you arm the teachers. And some loony rushes into a classroom with a big gun. Who is he going to shoot first?

 

One of the kids probably. But seriously, how long is it before parents are calling for this course of action, ie arming their children ?

[Davebrad]

One of the kids probably. But seriously, how long is it before parents are calling for this course of action, ie arming their children ?

 

A vicious circle has to start somewhere...

[Andyregs]

The problem is, the people who are usually the most obsessed and fanatical about guns are usually the last people you actually want owning them.

 

 

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[Paul6754]

There is already a type of precedent that this type of logic isn’t the answer.

 

Recently a shooter in times sq was confronted by police, 8 people were hit before the gunman was stopped. When the Boston marathon bomber was identified as being holed up in a boat in Watertown, so many bullets were fired by the police that it was Considered a miracle that no policemen was killed, even the highly trained just fired at random.

 

Because this is so contentious, gun manufacturers or gun associations/interest groups should not be allowed to provide money in any way for politicians or be allowed to lobby on capital hillfor any reason but this would infringe some maniacs human rights so would never get off the ground.

[Davebrad]

On the news last night I saw I think the top man of the NRA and if it wasn't so serious i'd have laughed, he said " to stop a bad man with a gun, you need a good man with a gun", and i'm sure he didn't mean a policeman...their attitude well the mind boggles...

[Andyregs]

On the news last night I saw I think the top man of the NRA and if it wasn't so serious i'd have laughed, he said " to stop a bad man with a gun, you need a good man with a gun", and i'm sure he didn't mean a policeman...their attitude well the mind boggles...

 

They never wonder how badly that plan is working out right now. And unfortunately they had men with guns are the NRA.

 

 

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[Santa]

When that bloke in Vegas was picking people off at an open air concert from his hotel room, amid all the general confusion lots of people pulled out their guns and nobody in the crowd any idea who was 'good' or 'bad'. That must have been terrifying.