(04-11-2018 11:25 AM)nomad2u2001 Wrote: (04-11-2018 11:18 AM)Kronke Wrote: The left never letting a good crisis go to waste, exploiting unsuspecting teens as their useful idiot, foot soldiers, and attempting to tear down our society for their own political gain is indeed a microcosm of today's society.
If you believe that, then sure. I'd rather not get into left v right arguments on this, because unless you're making money off of them like the media/the leadership of the NRA, it doesn't get anywhere.
Honestly, this is one of the few threads that has potential to be a good one on this site right now, based on its subject. There's a real conversation to be had about our collective behaviors.
I agree it is high time to have a serious conversation about this subject. I think "common sense" gun policy would satisfy two objectives:
1) achieving a significant reduction in gun violence, while
2) avoiding or minimizing any infringement on the 2nd Amendment right that "shall not be infringed."
An "assault weapons ban" or "gun registration" meet neither of those tests. Neither has ever brought about a significant reduction in gun violence where tried. No, Australia and UK are not examples where gun controls have made a difference. They have strict gun laws and low gun crime, but they had low gun crime before they had strict gun laws, so it's not the gun laws that accomplished the low rates. Actually, on a worldwide basis, places that have low rates of gun violence and enact strict gun laws tend to maintain the same low levels, while places with high rates that enact strict gun laws tend to get higher rates afterwards. "Assault weapons" account for roughly a minuscule 0.3% of our gun deaths.
What has reduced gun casualties by about 20% when tried is a gun license, that you must have in order to acquire or possess guns or ammo, and which requires a training course and written and practical exam, and which is linked to the criminal database. When you want to buy a gun or ammo, they simply scan the card like a credit card to verify that you are okay. This is a lot less cumbersome than having to run a background check.
The only way to solve the problem of gun-free zones is to require access restrictions and provide armed guards to enforce it. Just putting up a sign with no enforcement invites would-be mass killers with a clear statement, "here is a very soft target."
Those things aside, look at the drivers of our gun statistics. 2/3 of our gun deaths are suicides, and 2/3 of the remainder are homicides by repeat offenders. The suicide problem is a mental health problem, not a gun problem. Our total suicide rate is pretty much in line with other developed countries, and significantly less than in some countries with very strict gun laws. It's just that we do it with guns and they do it with something else. I think we need to refocus our mental health efforts away from giving people pills to make them feel better and back towards identifying people who are a threat to themselves or others and treating them or removing them from any means to carry out such threats. A revision to the HIPAA privacy rules would appear be in order.
I also believe legalization, or at least decriminalization, of marijuana and possibly other recreational drugs would have a significant impact. Remove a revenue source from gangs, remove an incentive to commit violent crime to support a drug habit, open prison cells so violent criminals can serve full terms instead of being released early to commit repeat offenses, and are up law enforcement assets to attack the gang problem head on. Also, reform those prisons to incorporate procedures that have proved to reduce recidivism elsewhere.
One unique driver is that the gun suicide rate is high among whites, but actually quite low among blacks and hispanics, while the homicide rate is low among whites, but high among blacks and hispanics. Our white homicide rate looks like western Europe, our hispanic homicide rate looks like Latin America, and our black homicide rate looks like sub-Saharan Africa. That suggests some strong cultural and/or economic forces are involved.
Instead of hyping the one-off but highly emotional incidents, it seems to me that we should focus on the significant drivers and deal with them if we are going to effect a meaningful reduction. For the record, yes, I do believe that teen-agers are being exploited as useful idiots to advance an emotional agenda when what is really needed is sensible actions based on actual data.
![[Image: School-Firearm-Deaths-K-12-Univ.jpeg]](https://crimeresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/School-Firearm-Deaths-K-12-Univ.jpeg)
