no, but you could at least consider making guns less available right?

no you cannot.

And it begins...

I don't know if that's directed at me or the US, but if it was up to me guns would be destroyed (world wide). I have no use for them and I wouldn't mind seeing the effects it could have on society. The UK seems to do alright.

I do however appreciate the pro-gun argument and understand that the majority of civilian incidents are from illegally obtained firearms.

there's no point in destroying weapons. you would have to destroy the ability to engineer weapons to make any real difference. but that is contrary to the very nature of our existence.

Yeh, that's a good point. It doesn't make me feel any differently about guns but I realize it's an unrealistic option at this time.

i've said it before but my stance on guns is basically that there should be a national database which is stringently enforced to prevent guns from getting on the black market. it won't stop school shootings and **** like that because those guns are often legal but it could cut down on ordinary gun crime in the same way the UK has.

the only real way around this working that i can see is if this dude is right about the upcoming proliferation of 3D printed guns:



in which case we are basically ****ed when it comes to stopping criminals from getting weapons. an interesting thought related to that is the nsa internet spying and the fact that these 3d files would most likely be transmitted over the web. this could make gun control in the future more about cracking down on file sharing than about restricting weapons owners and manufacturers.

The gun culture is so ingrained in this country that guns will never, ever be made illegal and gun restrictions will never be tightened to the point that anyone will have to resort to 3D printed weapons. Plus, those 3D printers are ridiculously expensive.

I think politicians learned after Newtown just how difficult a road it is to run anti-gun campaigns. If efforts failed to strengthen gun restrictions after 20 first graders were massacred then there's nothing that'll happen to change that tide.

What we need is better mental health screenings, closing gun show loopholes, and making penalties and sentences for gun related offenses ridiculously severe.

Disclosure: I was ridiculously anti-gun up until about 1.5 years ago. I read a few books, looked at the cold hard facts, and decided to purchase a hand gun to add to my disaster preparedness supplies - living in Southern California the threat of a bad earthquake is always right around the corner.

3D printers are ridiculously expensive right now. computers were ridiculously expensive in the 1950's. capitalism has a way of working that **** out. plus they might be expensive but not too expensive for a cartel or gang, which are precisely the people who commit the most gun crimes. i'm not saying it's going to play out that way but it remains a possibility. if no laws are ever enforced to make it really difficult to leak legally manufactured guns onto the black market then i would tend to agree that it probably won't be worth the hassle of messing with 3d printers any time soon.

I don't think that will help. A majority of the problems are from guns people are getting by avoiding the proper steps to be certified to carry.

Idk about these loopholes you speak of. Care to enlighten me?

If you're buying a gun from a store there's a waiting period, but if two people are just having their own personal exchange, then there isn't. And gun shows are basically just a bunch of individuals selling other individuals guns, so there is no waiting period. Don't ask me why this is.