Reply #56: I agree with your point about responsible gun ownership [View All]

[TheBaldyMan]

if all gun owners were responsible, i.e. trained in their use and stored them safely, that would be a huge improvement. Sadly the are a lot of assholes in the world and some of them get their mitts on firearms.

btw we always have had a low homicide rate but it wasn't pre-gun control, we have never really had any controls. After the Dunblane massacre handguns were banned but before this there were always a lot of 'souvenirs' from foreign wars kicking around as well as legally held firearms.

Nobody took our guns away. There are still occassional amnesties where people can voluntarily hand in illegally held firearms and other weapons. You are guaranteed a surprising assortment turned in. These periodic amnesties are usually in response to a series of violent incidents in an area and everybody comes round to thinking that we are safer without weapons in our communities.

I think that is the difference between our countries. In the UK a public appeal to get guns, knives and other weapons off our streets meets with a surpisingly enthusiastic response. I don't know how that would play in Washington DC, especially in the most deprived areas that are inevitably the ones that suffer the most from violent crime. It is an appeal to the community to consider each other as people that are worth giving a damn about. I can't concieve that Americans would rather live in a heavily armed hellhole than make a small move towards a safer enviroment for everybody to live in. I definately agree with you on compulsion to give up arms, in order to make any lasting headway it would have to be voluntary and based on a communual decision made locally.

To be fair I didn't mention Northern Ireland but even there the gun culture has begun to be dismantled, it'll take time to return to normality but they'll get there.