Oh shit, you checkmate'd me...
I guess there's no way to stop gun violence at this point. We are fucked.
You can think of me as some asshole in Burgerland that likes to caress his guns while sleeping but its not that.
I do not think in terms of this battle or the next but in terms of the entire campaign. If you take a look at history of gun control laws in the United States you will see a pattern of behavior that has a goal to ban gun ownership. In the early 1970's and rising crime two organizations were founded,
Handgun Control, Inc. and
The Coalition to Ban Handguns. These organizations now know as the Brady Campaign and The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. As their name implies, the stated goal was to ban handguns for civilians.
Many of their legislative steps towards this goal were successful, like the 1968 Gun Control Act (licensed dealers) or the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 (which banned handguns in D.C.). Such, the NRA became more politically focused as they felt their rights were being infringed on instead of the often touted,
for no reason at all...
Such, even when they campaign for laws that they say are common sense and relatively innocuous, it is part of a larger plan to reduce gun owners to a point where more drastic legislation will not be met with such resistance. Boiling the frog so to speak.
Now let me address your proposals. A mental health check and a character interview. A through consultation with a psychiatrist is expensive and time consuming, perhaps taking even an entire day. Next comes with finding one that will do such an exam and an appointment. Such, many persons that may want a gun for protection might find this requirement too burdensome and choose not to do so.
Next, we have good moral character. I don't know what country you live in but the UK has investigated a man for painting I
slam is Questionable on his own house. In Austria, we have had a woman
punished for saying Muhammad was a pedophile. Such, the police that would make such a character determination are not even reliable. This is not even addressing the chance X might be a great person but perhaps the troon next door does not like them because they saw a Trump flag or some shit. Of course, the law will have some sort of appeals process where an individual must prove they are deserving on Constitutional rights , but those are expensive and takes time. Such, more qualified persons choose not to get a gun.
Slowly more and more grandfathered gun owners start dying and guns become more alien. This allows more restrictions to be put into place. This lowers the amount of gun owners and new shooters even more and 10 years later an even more restrictive law is proposed.
Sure, these proposals might save a few lives but it will cost lives too. A woman that might have been able to shoot her rapist is not sufficiently able to fight back, as the restrictions were too onerous. A man than could have just flashed a gun and have the robber flee, is shived and robbed. The innocent lives lost today are indeed tragic, but that does not give warrant to the government to in effect remove a gun from those that may use it for self defense via onerous regulation.
Australia had one mass shooting then (practically) banned guns in 1996.
Been a pretty safe 25 years since compared to elsewhere.
Perhaps but they counts things kindda funny:
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Monash University, 2 Dead / 5 Injured = Not a Mass Shooting
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Lindt Cafe, 3 Dead / 4 Injured = Not a Mass Shooting.
This is not even addressing that Australians seem to have a knack for
arson:
The Australian prime minister accused arsonists of "mass murder" today as the death toll from the deadliest bushfires in the country's history reached 135. Officials in Victoria believe some of the 400 fires that reduced towns to blackened ruins may have been deliberately set, or have been helped to jump containment lines. The incinerated towns have been officially declared as crime scenes.
The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, announced a $10m (£4.5m) emergency relief fund and said: "Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria ... many good people now lie dead."
Speaking about the fears that arson could have played a part, he said: "What do you say about anyone like that [an arsonist]? There's no words to describe it, other than it's mass murder.
As with the previous comment. Perhaps they reduced homicide by a little bit. But that comes at the cost of self defense. I don't trust a cop to take an accident report correctly much less will I trust them for my safety. In fact, when self defense was no longer an acceptable
reason to own a gun those that might have defended themselves with a gun have one way to turn...to the police.
But don't worry the cops pinky promise to be their in about
12 minutes:
Response times are reported annually in the NSW Police Force Annual Report and Budget Papers. The target for police response is to arrive at 80% of urgent duty jobs within 12 minutes, which is considered to be a realistic target given the size of the state of New South Wales. Response times are influenced by a range of factors including the number of calls being responded to at that time, the time of day, traffic and weather conditions and the distance to travel.
www.denverpost.com
