I would hope that most mass shootings are preventable given the appropriate analysis.
An example I like to use is the guy who shot up Michigan State. He had a prior arrest on a felony gun charge, pled down to a misdemeanor, did his time, did his probation, cleared his background, bought a gun and shot up the place.
So prevention?
How about we make it so that, when it comes to gun charges, there are no plea deals. If he had been a convicted felon, he would not have passed the background check.
Failing that, how about we make gun convictions, felony or misdemeanor, be a blocker for future gun ownership. He already proved he wasn’t a responsible gun owner.
This isn’t about banning guns, this is about controlling what goes on to a background check.
How about we make it so that, when it comes to gun charges, there are no plea deals. If he had been a convicted felon, he would not have passed the background check.
“Get rid of prosecutorial and judicial discretion and force people into prison regardless of anything.”
Brilliant. /s
It was ubiquity and easy access to guns in the first place that made mass murder an option in his mind.
Getting rid of access to guns will not happen because of the 2nd amendment. Changing prosecutorial discretion when it comes to gun charges would be far easier.
20% of 494 million is 98,800,000. So we would have to run the equivalent of the Australian program 152 times (!) to have the same level of impact.
On top of that, we don’t have the facilities to collect and destroy weapons on that scale. We don’t have the personnel or the disposal space, and the track record we DO have on gun confiscations, well, it’s less than stellar:
“Hundreds of towns and cities have turned to a growing industry that offers to destroy guns used in crimes, surrendered in buybacks or replaced by police force upgrades. But these communities are in fact fueling a secondary arms market, where weapons slated for destruction are recycled into civilian hands, often with no background check required, according to interviews and a review of gun disposal contracts, patent records and online listings for firearms parts.”
Yep, Australia had less guns in civ hands that most states that have strong gun laws. It’s a joke when people try and act like a buy back would work…and if it’s a forced one, well good luck finding the law enforcement to go do that and be willing to do so.
I would hope that most mass shootings are preventable given the appropriate analysis.
An example I like to use is the guy who shot up Michigan State. He had a prior arrest on a felony gun charge, pled down to a misdemeanor, did his time, did his probation, cleared his background, bought a gun and shot up the place.
So prevention?
How about we make it so that, when it comes to gun charges, there are no plea deals. If he had been a convicted felon, he would not have passed the background check.
Failing that, how about we make gun convictions, felony or misdemeanor, be a blocker for future gun ownership. He already proved he wasn’t a responsible gun owner.
This isn’t about banning guns, this is about controlling what goes on to a background check.
Wacky, right?
“Get rid of prosecutorial and judicial discretion and force people into prison regardless of anything.”
Brilliant. /s
It was ubiquity and easy access to guns in the first place that made mass murder an option in his mind.
Getting rid of access to guns will not happen because of the 2nd amendment. Changing prosecutorial discretion when it comes to gun charges would be far easier.
Even if the 2nd disappeared today, there are 450+ million firearms in civ hands… criminals will not be the ones turning them in.
Oh, most definitely. Typically in threads like this someone pulls the “Buh, buh, Australia…” card without realizing the scale of the problem.
In '96/'97 Australia confiscated 650,000 guns. It was about 20% of all available guns in the country:
https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9212725/australia-buyback
Here’s an estimate of 494 million guns in the US:
https://www.thetrace.org/2023/03/guns-america-data-atf-total/
20% of 494 million is 98,800,000. So we would have to run the equivalent of the Australian program 152 times (!) to have the same level of impact.
On top of that, we don’t have the facilities to collect and destroy weapons on that scale. We don’t have the personnel or the disposal space, and the track record we DO have on gun confiscations, well, it’s less than stellar:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/us/guns-disposal-recycling.html
“Hundreds of towns and cities have turned to a growing industry that offers to destroy guns used in crimes, surrendered in buybacks or replaced by police force upgrades. But these communities are in fact fueling a secondary arms market, where weapons slated for destruction are recycled into civilian hands, often with no background check required, according to interviews and a review of gun disposal contracts, patent records and online listings for firearms parts.”
Yep, Australia had less guns in civ hands that most states that have strong gun laws. It’s a joke when people try and act like a buy back would work…and if it’s a forced one, well good luck finding the law enforcement to go do that and be willing to do so.
“Hey, let’s go door to door looking for armed people so we can take their guns! What could possibly go wrong??!?!”