Dutch Wrote: The only thing is to join the civilized world and ban all private held guns. Amen. I'm getting a bit sick of this mentality; but time will tell, keep counting the dead and crippled. Common sense is optional in this country. Why have a gun if you can't use it?
Just reading through all the comments on this thread.. So, for the detractors against gun ownership, is this the ultimate solution? Just ban all guns? Every single gun in this country? Is this anywhere close to being realistic?
So lets just shut down all gun business in the country, make every firearm completely illegal, and then what, confiscate every single firearm any private citizen owns? Send armed people to gun owner's houses (that are registered and on the books of course) and take all their weapons? What if they say no? We do so by force? By threat of imprisonment or fines or, what? And then what of the unregistered firearms floating around (by the thousands to millions)? We crack down even harder, hire even more police officers solely tasked with rooting out and forever chasing down all those weapons for untold years/decades as well?
How do you see this playing out in the real world? Not the world where your opinion is that you find guns distasteful, but in the actual world where guns likely outnumber the 350 million citizens we have in this country.
Then what do we do with all the guns and bullets (I suppose those become illegal as well, punishable by what, again jail time or?) Do we lock them away forever? Give them to our military? Destroy them?
Does this include BB guns and pellet rifles too? How about slingshots or blow/dart guns? They 'shoot' projectiles... Where does that line get drawn?
I have a zillion questions about how in the world that is actually a feasible and realistic goal for our country that has the momentum of gun ownership that it currently does. To me, it's akin to Trump saying we should deport all illegal immigrants and put up a giant wall. Sounds great to a few zealots. Sounds ridiculous and impossible, and wildly unfair and massively expensive for a variety of reasons, to most sane people that think beyond the surface of the issue. The nuanced thinkers.
What about 3d printers? They have already been able to make guns, unregistered. And that tech is only going to get better and more readily available.. Do we ban that technology going forward because of its capability? And it's not like we can just track the material that one can use to 3d print a working gun, because they can use silicon/plastic/metal/etc. Can't ban/track all that material.. What in the world do you realistically propose to do about that capability??
Then we would also have to ban any import from other countries that obviously sell weapons in whole. Which brings up yet another hurdle.. what about people selling random parts that could in theory be assembled into a weapon? How in the world would you be able to stay on top of policing all of that manufacturing and distribution? Talk about billions and billions of man hours and resources, brand new govt departments that would need to 24/7 be on the ball with all that.
This also reminds me of the drug war. Treating citizens as if they are children, completely inept at the possibility of something that could be dangerous. Everyone's answer for drugs for a while has been zero policy. And now look where that idea has got us in this country? The War on Drugs has been a complete and utter disaster, in every single sense of the word. Can you seriously not see the parallels?
I am for sensible gun regulation, tougher training classes, and anything that would make a random, average gun owner most accountable and safe by owning a dangerous weapon. But even if I was for your proposal of just shutting down all gun ownership in this country for everyone, even if I was, I don't for one second think it's a realistic or feasible possibility.
Please explain to me why I am wrong. Please tell me how in the world we could ever seriously pull this off? And then explain to me why responsible citizens that have never harmed a person in their lives, and just like guns because they are fun, explain to me why that person should now have their property taken away from them? Reminds me of the way you treat children in a classroom, one child does something wrong, and the easiest solution for the teacher in charge is to just take that privilege away from everyone. Is that honestly fair?