• LemmysMum@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    No, it’s “not about guns”. We still have guns, I have friends who have guns, I’ve shot and hunted. It’s about having the adequate systems in place for BEFORE people get the guns. And yes there are lots of guns already, but not putting in limitations won’t make that number drop will it? Not trying voluntary buy-backs won’t get unwanted guns out of normal citizens homes. Not having adequate food, wealth, and access to education isn’t going to reduce the amount of crime that scared regular Americans into thinking they need emotional support weapons. Just do something, fucking anything. It’s not that nothing works, it’s that you refuse to try what works elsewhere because you’ve been fooled into thinking you’re special individual snowflakes, but your ravenous individuality has eroded any capacity you have for co-operation with your fellow Americans in securing your right to live.

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      There’s 500 million legal privately owned guns in the US. If you assume an average value of $450, that’s $225 billion.
      If I had $225 billion to spend, I sure as fuck wouldn’t spend it buying back guns. I’d fund mental health care, I’d fund education, I’d fund jobs programs.

      Not trying voluntary buy-backs

      These DO happen in a lot of places, on a local or state level. Doesn’t have much effect because the people who commit the crimes are the ones with illegal guns who aren’t gonna sell them.

      you refuse to try what works

      We are stupid in that we refuse to try things like single payer health care.
      But I suspect almost any gun policy you’d come up with has been tried somewhere in the USA.


      What you’re really missing is there are two kinds of gun owners in USA- law-abiding and criminal. The law-abiding ones aren’t committing most of the gun crime. Look at the stats for defensive gun use (when a law-abiding person uses a legal gun to stop or prevent a crime)- they aren’t tracked by government so the data has to come from statistical surveys, but even the anti-gun people agree that DGUs happen 5-6x more often than firearm homicide.
      Most DGUs end with no shots fired- criminal sees gun and runs away.


      It’s not that nothing works, it’s that you refuse to try what works elsewhere because you’ve been fooled into thinking you’re special individual snowflakes, but your ravenous individuality has eroded any capacity you have for co-operation with your fellow Americans in securing your right to live.

      And with respect, this is a totally ignorant comment that’s based on an anti-gun talking point and not any actual knowledge of American gun policy, gun ownership culture, stated reasons for owning guns, or anything other than conjecture and accusation.

      You say ‘try what works’ (presumably referring to European-style gun control) but show no concept of understanding how truly difficult (damn near impossible) it would be to implement, even if a majority of the nation wanted it (which they don’t). And you ignore the fact that much of what you call ‘what works’ HAS been tried, or is currently being tried.

      I don’t mean to insult you or personally attack you. But the fact is your accusations show little understanding of the REALITY of American gun ownership, why Americans buy and own guns, and what they do with them.
      I’m happy to share what I know. But if your mind is concluded and closed, if you’ve just decided ‘Americans are ammosexual hicks who refuse to give up their penis extenders to keep their own kids safe’ and you are not open to even entertaining the possibility that reality is much more complex than that, then there’s nothing I or anyone else can say.
      If you want to understand, at least from one American’s POV, like I said I’m happy to share. And IMHO it’s fascinating- I wasn’t always pro-gun, I wasn’t raised around guns or gun culture, so what I know comes from my own independent research without most of the emotion you see in many gun arguments.
      So my friend, can you try an open mind?