The Problem With School Shooting Is Schools

Not at all.

But statistics show that the total number of households in the US that owned firearms has remained relatively the same since the 70s ranging from around 37-47%. These sorts of mass shootings weren't as frequent 40 years ago as they are today. Yes there are more total firearms in the US now than before but the per capita remained roughly the same when counting for the population increase. Columbine was infamous and remained so for years due to the fact that such things just didn't happen. Over the past 2 decades we've had how many mass shootings? Not talking about gang warfare or anything but the type of mass shootings as in somebody targets a crowd of innocent people and just starts mowing them down? Off the top of my head Aurora, Sandy Hook, Orlando, Vegas, Virginia Tech, Buffalo, now Texas. I've missed quite a few for sure.

What the hell changed? Why did the US not have this problem even before the 1994 AWB? Mental illness didn't magically appear as a disease in the 2000's and in fact nowadays it's much more open and socially acceptable to be treated for it than it was in the 70s. Guns that could kill a whole lot of folks quickly didn't magically appear in the 2000's you could buy those prior to 1994 and if you already had them prior to the bill becoming law you could keep them.

What has changed in the past 20 or so years? Not the guns, not the mental illness, not standard 30 round magazines, not the bullets. Something in the culture has changed and that absolutely is a topic worth discussing if people are serious about tackling this issue. You could buy an "AR-15" or a variant of one in the 60s and 70s as a civilian just as you can today and civilians did so by the tens of thousands in the 70s yet they weren't going out in public and mowing people down with the things on a relatively routine basis (in the grand scheme of things).

Why not? I'm not asking this rhetorically but genuinely. What has changed?

 

Well lets say we ban "assault weapons" (semi-auto rifles as I believe you are referring). I can no longer purchase one. What do we do about the ones I already have? As far as this most recent shooting (Texas) the shooter was able to purchase his rifles from the gun store and pass a background check. So making it illegal to purchase semi-auto rifles may have stopped HIM. I say may because there is no way to definitively tell if he would have stopped there or simply purchased a different gun and did the same thing or attempted to purchase one off market. In other documented mass shooting cases the rifle wasn't purchased but simply acquired from the home, as in it was already there. If we ban the sale of rifles tomorrow what do we do about the mass shooter who just uses one they already have? Or takes it from his parents as was the case in a different mass shooting that happened a few years ago (forgot which one).

Being able to go out and purchase one at the store isn't really a metric we can use to determine whether or not it would reduce the amount of shootings because history shows that guns used to kill aren't always legally purchased. In fact the vast majority of guns used in killing overall are in the hands of people who are not legally allowed to even own one.

Lets take me for example. I own guns but I own no actual guns. Tomorrow the government goes on TV and says Congress has passed a law banning the possession and sale of all semi-auto rifles. All must be turned in by June 1 to the local LEO. How exactly do you enforce that? None of my firearms are registered, there is no way to even register them in my state even if I wanted to. My county is in the top 3 most heavily armed counties in the US to where virtually EVERYBODY has guns according to the ATF data. How do you know that I turned mine in? How do you know if I even have any? How do you know if the one I turned in was the only one I have and I don't have 5 more in the closet?

If I'm a nutcase who wants to do something horrible then why would I comply with that anyway? And if I'm a nutcase who wanted to do something horrible like go out and massacre a bunch of people would I seriously just throw my hands up and say nevermind if I walked into the store looking for an AR-15 and found out that they no longer sell them? I'd just buy a different gun then. As in the case that has sparked this conversation we are talking about an elementary school here...These are children...whether it's a 6 shooter or a shotgun or an AR-15 if I walked in there wishing to do these children harm then there isn't exactly much they can do about it to stop me even if I have to reload more often because the government only let me buy a 6 shooter instead of an AR...

I'm playing devils advocate for a reason not to be purposefully obtuse but to make a point. If somebody wants to hurt a bunch of kids they by no means need an AR to do it, taking the AR from that person isn't going to stop them from doing it. It's whatever the hell is causing that person to want to harm a bunch of children that we need to address and address NOW.

 

Not saying that. I'm saying present a recommendation that would actually have an effect.

If I were a nutcase who wishes to do harm to a bunch of kids and I take my standard run of the mill pump shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot and walk into a school and kill a dozen kids what would your recommendation be to mitigate that ever happening again in the future? Would your solution be to ban the sale of pump shotguns to the civilian public?

 

You mentioned banning semi-auto rifles in your post. Are you in favor of banning semi-auto pistols as well?

Out of the approximately 14,000 documented homicides committed in the United States in 2019 approximately 6,300 were committed using handguns compared to 364 committed with rifles including semi-automatic. (45% vs 2.6%). This data is from the government FBI database.

Based on this data it is safe to assume that banning handguns would reduce the amount of homicides via handguns by at least 5% if not more. Are you in favor of banning handguns? 5% of even 14000 is 700 lives saved. That is roughly double the amount of lives we could save than lives taken via rifles overall.

 

What do you mean by repeal all gun laws and regulations? As in make owning guns illegal in general without a special permit?

When you say confiscate all guns what is your plan to do so in the United States that literally has more guns than citizens the majority of which are unregistered in any database?

Again, devils advocate here not to be purposefully obtuse but to ask the real world questions. I will again use myself as an example. I have an undisclosed amount of guns, none of my guns are registered in any database and there is no way for me to even register them in my state if I wanted to. You are the government/local law enforcement/ATF, etc. You are tasked with confiscating ALL GUNS via your theoretical law.

How do you confiscate my guns? I say "me" as a placeholder for the majority of American gun owners who are in possession of unregistered firearms.