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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica's gun problem is so much bigger than mass shootings
(thoroughly depressing article with some excellent, informative graphics)
America's gun problem is so much bigger than mass shootings
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US politicians often cite Australia as providing a model of impactful reform. Heres why such blueprints likely wont work to combat gun violence in the US
A disturbed man with an AR-15-style rifle walked through a popular historic site in 1996, shooting up the cafe and gift shop. He left 35 people dead and 19 seriously injured. The countrys conservative leader pushed through immediate, sweeping changes to gun laws. Chief among them was a ban and mandatory buyback of more than 600,000 semiautomatic rifles and other long guns, which were then melted down. In all, one researcher estimates, the government ultimately destroyed about a million weapons roughly one-third of its total gun stock. That was in Australia, a country that has not had another large-casualty mass shooting since. Officials repeatedly ask: why cant America do the same?
. . . . .
One reason America cant emulate Australia is purely political: American gun rights advocates say this kind of confiscation would prompt a civil war. Its confiscation of private property and the threat of jail, and thats not the American way, said Philip Alpers, a gun violence researcher at the University of Sydney.
. . .
Americas gun problem is dramatically larger in scale than Australias was. In the US, more than 10,000 Americans will likely be killed in gun murders this year. Another 20,000 will likely be lost to gun suicide. The total number of gun deaths and violent injuries will be close to 100,000.
. . . .
Mass shootings are a growing and alarming phenomenon in the US. By a purely numerical count, the United States has seen more than 1,000 mass shootings in 1,260 days. By a stricter definition, the number is smaller but still sobering: 19 public mass shootings since the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in December 2012.
. . .
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/21/gun-control-debate-mass-shootings-gun-violence
-none
(1,884 posts)And we wonder why the problem keeps getting worse.
niyad
(113,552 posts)-none
(1,884 posts)I'm not. Too many firearms are in the hands of too many people that should not be having them in the first place.
We need ideas and solutions.
niyad
(113,552 posts)American is filled with gun humping cowards
niyad
(113,552 posts)Jerry442
(1,265 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)It seems like this is always ignored by people who thinks guns are Literally Satan, probably because it goes against their scaremongering narrative of having to suspend our rights in order to deal with "increasing violence".
I have a history of Depression, so should I have the guns I use for hunting taken away just because I might kill myself with them? I'm sorry, but that is Totalitarian as fuck.