Pandora's Box is already open. We can't stop guns, we need to address the underlying causes

[dorksied]

of gun violence.



Understand, I dislike guns. I think they're one of the great evils of our time. But with the amount of guns in our society, the love people have for their death machines, the proliferation of gun companies and the ease of access have made it impossible to get rid of them.

So the question I have is why do these shootings keep happening? How can we stop them? What kind of proactive approaches can we take to tackle the underlying issues?

[NYC_SKP]

1. Solve poverty, inequity, hopelessness, and the violence will go away.

K/R

[dorksied]

3. I agree with this, but I think there are more causes... and lack of mental health care is one.

[HERVEPA]

9. Good to hear the NRA talking point is still alive and kicking.

[dorksied]

10. Explain how logic is an NRA talking point?

There is NO way we can get rid of all the guns. Period. There are millions of guns sold every year. There are hundreds of millions of guns in the hands of citizens in the USA. Are you going to suggest that the military go home to home to take them away?

http://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-guns-sold-in-us-each-year-2012-12

You cannot stop this. Even with passing some limited gun control, that still won't stop anything.

We need to address the causes of gun violence. Guns are just the implement.

I don't like guns. But we need to be realistic about this crap, instead of having a knee jerk response.

[HERVEPA]

17. This has been the consistently the NRA talking point since Sandy Hook

This is their way of trying to avoid any meaningful legislation.
If you don't know this you are poorly informed or else you're being disingenous.
More gun control could certainly help cut back on gun injuries and deaths.
That's the actual logic.

[NYC_SKP]

20. You are so certain this is a recent NRA talking point, then please show some proof.

NRA has a website, they have spokespeople.

I happen to think that you're wrong and that your claim is without merit.

Prove it with a link or two and I'll apologize and buy you a coffee.

[HERVEPA]

24. Well, I don't drink coffee and anyone who's been paying attention knows about the talking point.

No need to waste more time on this for me.

[NYC_SKP]

25. I thought so. (nt)

[premium]

33. Translation:

I can't prove what I claim.

[green for victory]

32. Michael Moore doesn't think it's an NRA talking point either

[FrodosPet]

13. If poverty is the root of crime

Why are there so many rich thieves and murderers?

[MoclipsHumptulips]

16. STOP destroying Public Schools

with Charters.

Now.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

30. Most of the mass shooters came from upper middle class families...

Poverty was only a definition in a textbook to them.

[Logical]

2. You are correct. 300 million guns. A million more sold monthly. 150,000 stolen a year. All the....

background checks in the world will not stop nuts with guns.

If we could remove all 300 million today and start over it would work.

Until then, we need to stop people from wanting to kill each other.

[NYC_SKP]

26. We would have to also remove them from the rest of the world.

Or build a mile high fence around the entire nation.

[moondust]

4. Have you noticed the gun buybacks?

Taking thousands of guns out of circulation. It will take a long time to get the situation under reasonable control but that's no excuse to give up and do nothing.

Also, gun ownership is on the decline meaning fewer and fewer owners to be concerned with.

[dookers]

11. What about gun buybacks?

You mean taking rusted broken pieces of junks out off the streets? Or little old ladies turning in their late-husbands' rusty revolver?

[HangOnKids]

12. Of Course!

That is what gun buy backs are all about. LOL.

[pscot]

5. Take away the guns save lives now

the underlying cause is guns in the wrong hands.

[davidn3600]

14. OK....how?

How do you ban the guns?

Don't you realize the federal government SUCKS at banning things? Did you not learn anything from the war on drugs? It's illegal but it's on every street corner. Same thing will happen with guns.

The way our government is set up makes it virtually impossible to enforce such bans.

If we do this and we still have mass killings...then what? How much more of the constitution are you willing to shred to try to achieve the illusion of a safe, crime-free society?

[pscot]

21. That last argument might carry some weight

if the gun lobby were as militant concerning abuses of the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments. The dirty truth is, the NRA and it's backers don't give a rats ass about the Constitution except as a guarantee of their right to create havoc in a civil society. They are the barbarians inside the gates

[pipoman]

6. Restore federal funding for mental health and addiction services

Make background checks available to anyone who wishes to transfer a gun for a low statutory fee. Federally mandated background checks on private intrastate sales can't happen and survive a challenge..it can and will happen at the state level if the system is available...it isn't available now,,

[dorksied]

31. YES! This, 1000%

[Robb]

7. No point in trying to stop the bleeding, the patient has high cholesterol!

[onehandle]

8. Stop both. Period. nt

[beevul]

15. Death machines? Really?

In America, these so called death machines, all 300 plus million of them, are responsible for 30 thousandish deaths.

That seems like a dismally low success rate, if in fact death machines is what they truly are.

That's like...1 death per ten thousand "death machines".

[HERVEPA]

18. Yeh, what the hell is 30,000 deaths and countless more injuries compared with..

the joy of the owners fondling their guns.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

23. Cue the infamous Stalin quote. nt

[HERVEPA]

28. I assume this one?

One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.
Joseph Stalin

[Tommy_Carcetti]

29. Right.

Apparently, it may have been misattributed to him, but certainly fit in line with his actions.

[riderinthestorm]

19. The real bottom line in ALL of these shootings is EASY ACCESS TO GUNS!!

I agree its impossible to get rid of them so I propose we approach it from another angle.

Go after the people who don't lock them up properly. Register every firearm - including anytime they are re-sold, so someone is always responsible for that firearm. When/if that gun is used in a crime (or a suicide or an accidental family accident), that person also pays a legal penalty. Jail? Fine? Whatever. But they also need to be held accountable in a painful enough way to ensure gun owners lock them up appropriately.

We'll never be able to "take away" everyone's guns. That battle's lost. So instead of trying to control the purchase, we go after those people who don't keep them under control.

[Peter cotton]

22. Some problems don't have solutions, only mitigations.

And sometimes the mitigations are ineffectual at best.

While this may not be an emotionally satisfying answer, it is a realistic one.

[zeeland]

27. When considering the difference between the US and countries

like Canada or Sweden with over 4,000,000 illicit guns and 138 deaths per year from guns, the difference to me is their culture does not worship the military. They have no interest in engaging
other nations in war, death and distruction. We have become such a violent, merciless people.

Maybe there was a time when we were the protector of the worlds good yet, vulnerable nations, no longer. We are the bully that the world fears and our "friends" or allies privately feel contempt
for.