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But its not guns or gun control per say that directly effects the murder rate, Canada is awash with guns, but their murder rate is much lower than the US.
Better gun control in the US would probably help a bit, but in reality there are much more fundamental issues of society which need to be looked at.
Those cases are so overwhelmingly rare in the overall gun crime rate that they could hardly serve as a good basis for legislation. Most deaths involving guns are inter-personal conflicts, not kill crazy rampages, even if those are what get the most media attention.
How many lives have to be taken before guns are banned?
There really are some seriously fucked up things in that country...
They will never be banned. At least not while we keep our same government. And that is something many of us are actually thankful for. Even if there were, hypothetically, enough votes in the congress and the states to repeal the second amendment, firearms are one of those things that prohibition couldn't get rid of. The domestic black market trade would just sky-rocket.
Aaron Zelman
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
Good night.
Indeed. Apart from totalitarian countries (where the army also fights its own population) the army isn't a means of protection from internal issues, but from external enemies only. And it doesn't have to be a question about private gun ownership in the US either, because even in many european countries people with a clean record may claim gun ownership if you are an active member of a shooters society. But the difference is what kind of weapons you're allowed and to some extent what prerequisites you have to fulfill in order to purchase a weapon. In many US states, you have the right to buy automatic weapons for home defense purposes. And the crime associated with these weapons was going up.
It's a good point, but only relevant in an armed society. We do alright in this country sending unarmed coppers to people wielding knives, and if it happened to me I wouldn't really expect anything else.
What has happened to educating society?
Why does any crime happen? Not just gun crime that is affecting society.
Care to elaborate on that?
There will always be crime around unfortunately. There will always be resourceful people around and then less resourceful people envying them. Poverty will always generate crime.
Poverty is not always why crime is committed. I know of young people who committ crime and they come from wealthy homes.
I agree, all this is good, but there will always be trigger happy people around that won't comply to the normal "ethics" or standards and more liberal the weapon legislation will usually mean more people having access to firearms and then more crime involving firearms. For example, there are many who means it is a good idea to arm police officers on a general basis, but officers being injured or killed by their own weapons is big problem in the US.
I agree, I've seen that too, but these youngsters may suffers from other problems making them "distinct" from the rest of us. Poverty in this context doesn't necessarily mean short on money, but also shortage of other more "personal" resources, such as the ability to do well in school and have a network of friends etc. Persons or a group of people that are isolated are very often prone to commitment of crime
A personal resource can be anything that helps you get on with others and have a decent life, like the ability to work and/or study, good social antennas so you get on well with others. Simply the means to "function well" in society, that's why I tried to extend the poverty definition to include some non-monetary assets that I think affect crime as well
I certainly cannot tackle this problem on my own I believe we have to work together to try and help. Yes, government laws need to be more secure and yes why should unarmed police go to a scene where there has been a shooting. I am sure that they would call in special armed police if the gunman was still alive. America is a law unto themselves.....