I thought there were all sorts of barriers in place and background checks and such for getting a license as well as purchasing the weapon itself. Perhaps I’m not remembering correctly.
I paid about $75 for a lifetime concealed carry permit. They supposedly did a background check and fingerprinted me for it, but it took like two days, so fuck knows how hard they actually looked. On top of that, I was gifted a 1911A1 handgun and was shocked to discover that I don’t have to register it in any way, shape, or form. So if I go out and shoot someone in the head with it, wipe my prints off really well, and ditch the gun, there’s nothing to tie it back to me.
These are serious problems that need to be fixed. So different states have different laws on this stuff? It should definitely have federal regulation if it doesn’t.
If more protections were put in place, the people who have a desire to mutilate other human beings will go to the trouble of acquiring weapons anyway, legally or not.
I’m so fucking sick of hearing this excuse. “They’ll get guns illegally anyway, so why bother?” Fuck everything about that.
Not everything about that. Illegal crap will still be out there. Even if guns were outright banned and confiscated, there would still be an underground gun trade going on. And I don’t take statistics from any other countries as proof to the contrary.
And yes, I know you followed it up with:
It won’t inherently solve the problem, just make it so that it doesn’t occur as often because it’s more difficult for them. Though of course that’s better than nothing.
Yep, that’s better than nothing, but “they’ll get them illegally anyway” is literally the excuse that’s been used for years to do exactly that - nothing. And people keep fucking dying.
I don’t use it as an excuse for anything, though I do think that it is the biggest thing to consider when talking about exactly how to place more control on guns. I think people should be allowed their guns, just with proper federal licensing.