I think taxpayers are fed up and are showing up at school board meetings demanding accountability and getting it.
It has happened in Uvalde. Happened in Newport News. Happened in Nashville. I applaud all of them for taking a stand.
General Gun Violence/Gun Control
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It has happened in Uvalde. Happened in Newport News. Happened in Nashville. I applaud all of them for taking a stand.
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How often do you go to the range?
If you can center your group with an Armalite Rifle, your hunting & self-defense will improve.
Competitive shooting is a sport.
Many aspects of sport involve danger.
jmhexperience ymmv lrr
AngTxGal
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Shooting is a sport in the Olympics and many universities have rifle teams. I have a friend whose daughter is on one of those teams- on scholarship.
AR-15’s are not used in any competitive shooting sports At any prize winning level.
If men want to continue to have AR-15 toys- they need to treat their right to do so with more care. It should be a privilege, not a right. They should be restricted IMO.
I own at least 20 guns, but I do not question nor am I angry that I can’t buy a grenade, machine gun, or armor piercing bullets or chemical weapons.
Some people do not want these restrictions- they want access to it all.
Our gun laws should be based on common sense- IMO they currently are not.
JMO
AngTxGal
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Foreign perspective
'The US attitude to guns generally perplexes those in other developed countries, many of which do not understand the unusual permissiveness of American gun laws, and believe that the American public should push for harsher gun control measures in the face of mass shootings.'
Gun culture in the United States - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I would also add that the gun ownership stats are likely way off.
If someone came to ask me how many guns I have, I would lie.
Dad gave me many guns, over 20 that I have used and many more that are collector guns and tucked away. I have four siblings and Dad’s guns are divided among all four of us. I’ve never bought a gun- none are in my name. Dad had about 150 guns, he dealt in guns as a hobby.
If someone asks me how many guns I own, I would believe they have an agenda and it is none of their business. So, the stats are wrong.
I would lie and say I own two guns, for protection.
IMO
Armalite Rifles are not being used for self-defense or hunting, they are being used to commit mass murder and the number of mass shootings have dramatically increased.
I agree that many aspects of sport involve danger but when the danger exceeds the value of the sport, Americans expect an intervention by lawmakers. Public safety, rather than the sport, is supposed to be the priority.
JMO
AngTxGal
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Many aspects of sailing are dangerous, but they should not be dangerous to the children walking along the beach.
Football is a dangerous sport to those who play, but it isn’t dangerous to the children in the stands.
I’m ashamed when gun owners demand their rights without any thought to the impact their right could have on the mental well being and lives of children and teachers in schools.
They haven‘t had to shuffle 20 small children into a closet and ask them to be quiet for a lockdown drill, designed to prepare in the event a shooter is on campus.
These gun owners have no idea the fear that goes through a teacher‘s mind when these drills happen with out prior notice. The kids and teachers think they are real!
People must not realize that the #1 cause of death in children and teens in the US is gun violence- over 4500 in 2020. To me, that price is too high. IMO
We must do better!
IMO
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BBM. Several years ago, I read that parents forced the School Board to stop holding those drills unless the teachers and children knew it was a drill because of the emotional trauma being inflicted.
I agree we, as a nation, must do better!
SouthAussie
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Maybe the US is slowly, slowly, slowly moving in the right direction?
20% of US states (10 of them) have now banned assault firearms. And those US states hold almost 27% of the US population (by my google search calculation).
In addition, 3 states now regulate assault firearms. Those 3 states hold 6.5% of the US population (again by my google search calculation).
So that makes 26% of states with restrictions on assault firearms, and those states hold about 1/3 of the US population.
www.bbc.com
20% of US states (10 of them) have now banned assault firearms. And those US states hold almost 27% of the US population (by my google search calculation).
In addition, 3 states now regulate assault firearms. Those 3 states hold 6.5% of the US population (again by my google search calculation).
So that makes 26% of states with restrictions on assault firearms, and those states hold about 1/3 of the US population.
How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023?
Explaining some of the key statistics behind gun ownership and attacks linked to guns in the US.
www.bbc.com
Lexiintoronto
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‘The U.S. Is the Only Country Among Its Peers in Which Guns Are the Leading Cause of Death Among Children and Teens’
Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries | KFF
Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.
www.kff.org
I’m Canadian in Nova Scotia and I was here during NS shootings that went on for 18 hours where 22 people died. In the wake of the shootings the government announced a ban of ‘assault style’ weapons.
‘Canada bans assault-style weapons in aftermath of mass shooting
By Moira WarburtonOTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is banning the sale of military-grade assault weapons in the aftermath of the country’s deadliest mass shooting two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” Trudeau said at a daily media briefing in Ottawa. “There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.”’
Canada bans assault-style weapons in aftermath of mass shooting
Canada is banning the sale of military-grade assault weapons in the aftermath of the country's deadliest mass shooting two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
www.reuters.com
Owners of the weapons had a grace period to destroy the weapons and compensation was announced, and an offer to ‘buy back’ the weapons, but to date I think they’re still settling the details.
More recently handguns were banned.
‘Canada's new nationwide ban on handgun sales, purchases and transfers goes into effect Friday in the government's latest move to reduce gun violence across the country.
Beginning Friday, people cannot buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada, nor can they bring newly acquired handguns into the country, according to the announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.’
Canada bans all handgun sales in latest gun-control move
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a nationwide ban on handgun sales, purchases and transfers would go into effect to reduce gun violence
www.usatoday.com
There’s a misconception that guns are not readily available here or are difficult to purchase. I can tell you that there is a quaint market in the town I live in that sells fresh deli products, breads, groceries, animal feed and the biggest selection of guns I have ever seen in my life. To purchase one I’d just need to pay and pass an LE background check. (ETA: I think you may need basic training as well.)
The main differences I can see between us in terms of firearms is that you have a constitutional right to bear arms, where here it’s a privilege. You have some laws in different areas where you have the right to stand your ground and use lethal force, and firearms seem more culturally acceptable, imo.
It just breaks me every time there’s a mass shooting, especially in a school. We have had them here. I know we don’t have the answers, but we’re trying to curb the trend and making the weapons unavailable and undesirable.
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AngTxGal
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Maybe the US is slowly, slowly, slowly moving in the right direction?
20% of US states (10 of them) have now banned assault firearms. And those US states hold almost 27% of the US population (by my google search calculation).
In addition, 3 states now regulate assault firearms. Those 3 states hold 6.5% of the US population (again by my google search calculation).
So that makes 26% of states with restrictions on assault firearms, and those states hold about 1/3 of the US population.
View attachment 414977
How many US mass shootings have there been in 2023?
Explaining some of the key statistics behind gun ownership and attacks linked to guns in the US.
There are so many loopholes, and all it takes is someone to buy guns in one state and drive to another to sell them.
People are not nearly angry enough, and they won’t be until a shooting happens near them… and someone they love is terrorized or hurt or killed.
Without that, people stick their heads in the sand as if what happens to others has no impact on their lives.
Our nation is too divided, we can’t seem to find common ground, politics and issues are avoided because people can’t talk to each other anymore. We are in a fix
JMO
Lexiintoronto
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Look to your peer countries who are taking action that may or may not work, but we’re trying. I think Canada and the US should work together on the issue.
It’s similar to COVID, imo. Just locking down one area and enforcing restrictions meant little if the city next to you had its own set of rules. And people’s attitudes made a difference. Peer pressure helped, imo.
SouthAussie
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Yes, you are. Eventually, everyone will be personally affected.
Sometimes, in Australia, we have referendums. When the country does not seem cohesive about an important issue.
We all go and vote on our opinion. This is most frequently (not that referendums are frequent) about Constitutional matters. Referendums point the current government in the direction the majority of the people want to go.
Gun control didn't need a referendum. All it took was one huge massacre in Port Arthur, in little Tasmania. and gun control was an agreed-upon done deal. We now know it was one of the best things to happen here, as we watch the US spiral out of control with the mass shootings.
It took one massacre: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur
SouthAussie
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A secret tape made after Columbine shows the NRA's evolution on school shootings
Soon after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, senior leaders of the National Rifle Association huddled on a conference call to consider canceling their annual convention, scheduled just days later and a few miles away.
The NRA strategists on the call sounded shaken and panicked as they pondered their next step into what would become an era of routine and horrific mass school shootings.
And in those private moments, the NRA considered a strikingly more sympathetic posture toward mass shootings than the uncompromising stance it has taken publicly in the decades since, even considering a $1 million fund to care for the victims.
[Lots of content contained in that secret recording, in the article. Worth reading imo. They could have helped a lot, considering that they know the firearm manufacturers would do what they say, according to them.]
... then-NRA President Charlton Heston delivered the defiant message that its leaders had planned out in their private calls — a message very similar to the group's position on mass shootings today: The national media is not to be trusted, and any conversation about guns and the NRA after mass shootings is an untoward politicization of the issue.
Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools.
ilovewings
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That will never ever happen here in the United States.
Lexiintoronto
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Why not?
You’re so fortunate to live in a country that promotes such sensible policies.‘The U.S. Is the Only Country Among Its Peers in Which Guns Are the Leading Cause of Death Among Children and Teens’View attachment 414976
Child and Teen Firearm Mortality in the U.S. and Peer Countries | KFF
Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.
I’m Canadian in Nova Scotia and I was here during NS shootings that went on for 18 hours where 22 people died. In the wake of the shootings the government announced a ban of ‘assault style’ weapons.
‘Canada bans assault-style weapons in aftermath of mass shooting
By Moira Warburton
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada is banning the sale of military-grade assault weapons in the aftermath of the country’s deadliest mass shooting two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
“These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time,” Trudeau said at a daily media briefing in Ottawa. “There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada.”’
Canada bans assault-style weapons in aftermath of mass shooting
Canada is banning the sale of military-grade assault weapons in the aftermath of the country's deadliest mass shooting two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday.
Owners of the weapons had a grace period to destroy the weapons and compensation was announced, and an offer to ‘buy back’ the weapons, but to date I think they’re still settling the details.
More recently handguns were banned.
‘Canada's new nationwide ban on handgun sales, purchases and transfers goes into effect Friday in the government's latest move to reduce gun violence across the country.
Beginning Friday, people cannot buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada, nor can they bring newly acquired handguns into the country, according to the announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.’
Canada bans all handgun sales in latest gun-control move
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a nationwide ban on handgun sales, purchases and transfers would go into effect to reduce gun violencewww.usatoday.com
There’s a misconception that guns are not readily available here or are difficult to purchase. I can tell you that there is a quaint market in the town I live in that sells fresh deli products, breads, groceries, animal feed and the biggest selection of guns I have ever seen in my life. To purchase one I’d just need to pay and pass an LE background check. (ETA: I think you may need basic training as well.)
The main differences I can see between us in terms of firearms is that you have a constitutional right to bear arms, where here it’s a privilege. You have some laws in different areas where you have the right to stand your ground and use lethal force, and firearms seem more culturally acceptable, imo.
It just breaks me every time there’s a mass shooting, especially in a school. We have had them here. I know we don’t have the answers, but we’re trying to curb the trend and making the weapons unavailable and undesirable.
SouthAussie
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Agree. I don't think the US has the legal mechanism to hold a national referendum at all.
It is a shame though, because the polls seem to indicate that the majority want assault firearms banned (from the links supplied on this thread).
I'm optimistic a federal Red Flag law and other protective public safety measures will be passed.
worm
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This is an important statement to this topic and I’m old enough to remember when America was fixated on everything around 2 ice skaters in a fight. I think there could be some draconian gun rules if the tide ever turns, tho I’m not for that either.
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