gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

I am starting this thread with the optimistic goal of having a reasonable and informative discussion about guns. I admit that I know very little about guns and I need more information to be able to discuss our gun situation in a knowledgable way. I want to hear sugestions from gun experts about what might effectively be changed in order to lessen the frequency of mass shootings and the number of victims in a single event. I hope that emotional extremists and political partisans from both sides will refrain from the unproductive vitriolic angry rants that are so common in this forum. My question is "What can we reasonably do to prevent these tragedies?".

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

We have had these discussions ad infinitum over the past years. To Liberals the reasonable discussion calls for and ends with confiscation of either all firearms or those they feel are the most dangerous. But the Conservatives look at it from another more common sense viewpoint. AR15 and AK assault rifle look alike are the most called for to be banned and confiscated. Now that is pretty dumb in my viewpoint since of all firearms in America those types of firearms are used less than other firearms in any type of crime. Yes I realize that movies show gangsters using these weapons in all kinds of scenarios but in real life they are seldom used in crimes. Yet the non common sense Liberals want to ban/confiscate these exact rifles.

On another view perhaps we should get back to blaming the shooter rather than what he is shooting. Murders are committed all over the world including America with other than firearms, knives, hatchets, automobiles, baseball bats, frying pans, poison and so on. In none of these murders is the weapon at blame. The murderer is at blame and rightly so. But only with firearms is the firearm blamed. Also perhaps we should stop looking at the murderer to see if he is a Left Wing or a Right Wing supporter. Who cares? It is still a crime no matter what political side he/she supports.

There is a start for you. Good luck.

Dennis

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

First thing is to learn the classifications of each type of weapon and what they can do.
The liberal media doesn't care about those details as they scream about people not needing AK-47's, which are illegal to begin with because they are fully automatic and not the same as publicly owned AR's.

The second is that the shooters generally search out safe zones to commit their crime figuring nobody will be there to return fire.

After you grasp and understand them along with understanding the Constitution, then a serious discussion is possible.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Banning the AR15 is nothing more than a liberal feel good law.It will accomplish nothing as there are many sem-auto rifles available. The phrase that's most used is "assault weapon". That phrase is a made up name as there really no such thing as an assault weapon. The phrase is purposefully used to confuse people as assualt RIFLE is a military automatic rifle. In fact many gun ignorant folks don't know the difference and assume that the the AR 15 . is a fully automatic weapon.. I do not hunt, so I only need a weapon for personal protaction. My weapon of choice is a Mossberg 12 gauge. If you shoot a home invader you better make sure he is dead. Thats why thye shot gun. Nothing will make that invader empty his colon faster than the sound of a pump action. By the way the single most deadly semi auto weapon, responsible for mor dearhs than any other rifle is the M-1 Garand. And they are still available.

Rose42

There’s an increasing amount of anger and mental instability in our society that is exacerbated by social media. People have no idea how to address that and there is no easy solution. So instead of working toward a real solution they turn to tighter restrictions.

Drugs - perscription and otherwise also play a part in it.

There is one solution - Jesus Christ.

gorgehiker Loc: Lexington, Ky

Would it lessen the carnage in a mass shooting if the capacity of magazines was limited? I am not promoting this. I just want to know your opinions.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Personally I am not opposed to making 30 round clips illegal, not sure that it would do much good though but I honestly don't really see a need for them other than convenience, it just means a shooter will carry more 15 round clips and have to pause momentarily to exchange clips, for the average shooter it just means that his fun will be interrupted more frequently.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

There are laws in som states the limit thye number of rounds in a clip. Problem here is that a trained user can change a clip(magazine) in a fraction of a second. So a shooter will carry a number of them and prehaps reduce the number of deaths or injuries by 2 0r 3 in a mass shooting. So again a liberal feel good law.

jhigbie Loc: Ventura, CA

A book named "1775--A good year for revolution" discusses the build up that was required to start the country: organizing committees of correspondence, forming rump legislatures, smuggling of gunpowder, organizing local militias, robbing weapons depots, identifying and outing "loyalists", vying for the loyalty of the local tribe, etc.
You will understand why militias were so important since they were the local organizing groups which eventually grew into Washington's army.
It's easy to see where the content of the 2nd amendment came from: taking you gun away was what the local loyalist authority did to you to minimize your ability to fight his authority. And also guns at that time were an everyday tool on the frontier west of the coastal regions for feeding your family and protection in the more lawless regions.
In comparison to the civilization that included the 2nd amendment in the constitution, fast forward 250 years to our land of interstates, instant communication, tall buildings and Burger Kings: what place do guns have in this country in 2020?. Is there a tribe of Cherokee over the next hill whose hunting ground you are building your home on? Did the local Krogers run out of burger so you need to run out and bag a 'possum? Did you refuse to pay for your used car so the bank is sending a posse over to take it out of you by force? And with the massive firepower that every police, sheriff, national guard now has, do you really think you and your little band of 5 revolutionaries are going to take back the country?
No, you don't and you won't. But guns do have a place now...as collector items like old swords from the civil war, for sport like target practice, and for animal hunting in the wilderness.
The on-going slaughter of our countryman requires the "cold-dead hands" crowd to be reasonable. No one wants to take your gun away. However I do want to have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Which means not being gunned down while you're out grabbing a beer at the local pop stand. You don't NEED an auto or semi-automatic weapon, you don't NEED a monster load of ammo. But I NEED to feel free to live my life day-to-day without being gunned down. I expected to get shot while on ambush patrol in VN, but I don't expect to get shot while buying paper towels at Wal-Mart.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Many jurisdictions limit the cartridge capacity of magazines to 10 cartridges. When you consider it takes literally only a second to change magazines the reduction from 20-30 cartridges doesn't make much sense. Think of this as well. If I am an honest citizen there is no reason I should not have a 100 round magazine. Rapid fire at a safe range is a lot of fun and that is why people have large capacity magazines. The other reason of course is that in a self defense situation more cartridges may be needed as has been evidences numerous times in the news where one person fought off up to 5 intruders/criminals. Ten cartridges would not have sufficed. If the person is a criminal with murder on his mind does anyone really think a magazine ban will force him to only use 10 round magazines?

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

And if the shooter is an honest citizen why should he be inconvenienced at all? Do you think a criminal will use the 15 round (they are not clips but magazines) just because the higher capacity magazines are illegal? Can you even possibly envision a criminal/murderer saying to himself, I need to get some more 10 or 15 round magazines to shoot up the playground as these 30 round magazines are illegal?

Dennis

BigBear Loc: Northern CT

Gun free zones are an invitation to those who are intent on taking multiple lives without being very concerned about return fire.
Eliminating them will go a long way toward reducing crime overall.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

1-Have the state do their job early on. The Dayton shooter had a long history leading up to this ... several instances were criminal and would have stopped him from getting a gun.

2-Do away with ‘GUN FREE ZONES’ such as the WALMART in El Paso and Ned Peppers is Dayton. At the very least require whoever declared the ‘GUN FREE ZONE’ to be responsible for security, and damages is a shooting happens.

3-Actually prosecute people who fail the background check.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I seriously doubt that there will be a ban on semi-automatic firearms. As far as your concern goes.... let's say that this year we have 4 more days like this past weekend, even one would be too many, but even so that would mean that we would have about 150 deaths caused by these mal adjusted freaks, but you and I know that is an improvability, but were it to be the case the odds of your being shot would be less than 1/2,000,000th, a highly unlikely event.

There are real issues, and there is room for discussions, but there are also 300,000,000 guns in this country so your calling for the removal of semi-autos is just not going to happen, people are not going to simply give up their firearms. You would do better to talk about things that can be achieved instead of things that clearly will not be achieved.

LWW Loc: Banana Republic of America

Probably not.

The last time it was attempted the 10 round limit was usually, maybe always, achieved by installing a block in the bottom and a shorter spring in the unit.