I have grappled with the gun issue a while and see no reason not to implement intensive restrictions and ban assault rifles and such. I think I lean more towards the gun-control side of things as of right now and for those of you who agree, I am curious how you respond to the following argument from gun activists. I hear it often and don’t really have an adequate response and am curious what your thoughts are. The basic idea is the following:
“No matter what gun laws are put in place, it will not change the fact that criminals and people who wish to do harm will always be able to illegally acquire guns.”
It doesn’t really change my views all that much but it seems like a good point. Is there any form of gun control that would help make it more difficult for criminals to illegally attain guns?
Looking forward to some responses as it’s definitely an important discussion to be having as a country right now.
I think the response is that mass shootings might be stopped even if most other gun crimes still occur. A gang member might get a gun to kill rivals and the occasional bystander, but a teenager won’t be able to shoot up a school.
If we’re talking about imposing strict requirements for most gun ownership we may reduce certain gun crimes, such as occurs in domestic situations. It really depends on what one expects to accomplish and whether the proposal serves that end.
I think there is a dream of stopping almost all gun crime - which is obviously ideal - but requires enormous restrictions and unless we are actually going to try to confiscate the many millions of guns in the country it will take a very very long time to solve the problem of gun deaths.