Another mass shooting. Augusta Ga this time

That is what happened in other states that made guns more accessible, why wouldn't we expect to see gun violence rise here when we do the things that led to more gun violence there?

 

It's really simple. The more people carry guns with them the more gun violence there will be. You can't have gun violence without the gun.

 

Bad people who carry guns don't care about laws

 

Then why have any laws?

 

Good and bad seems like a spectrum to me. Probably all of us have done bad things in a moment of anger but are also capable of compassion and love our families. The two road ragers who shot each others' daughters likely didn't wake up planning to shoot innocent girls, but that's what they did. Hard to imagine that policy and culture aren't both relevant to how people in our society handle their problems.

 

Cops seem to care about laws, at least sometimes

 

If gang members want to kill each other so be it.

I don’t give a rats butt as long as no one else gets hurt.

Shoot away boys and girls and please don’t miss.

 

Yes, almost every single "illegal" gun was "legal" at some point. They are, in general, produced by a variety of gun manufacturers and shipped to licensed gun dealers in the US. At that point, the movement of a legal gun to an illegal gun happens in several ways.

First, a gun can be purchased by somebody with the intent of giving it to somebody not legally allowed to own the gun or to smuggle it into another country (what is known as the Iron River flowing into Mexico and Central and even South America and the Caribbean). Most guns used by criminal organizations in those countries come from this pathway. Second, a legal purchaser can engage in a private sale at a later date with somebody unable to purchase a gun. Third, a gun can be stolen, often (although not always) with poor storage and care associated.

Dealing with this would likely require some level of tracking. All sales need to be recorded, no private sales without government record that a specific gun with a specific number went from Person A to Person B. This cuts off one pathway to guns becoming illegal. Think about the auto market for an example. Because we track cars by owner, it is hard to steal a car and then sell it to somebody in the US to use as their car.

Second, we need to start following purchasing behavior of gun buyers more closely and looking for patterns that suggest illegal activity. For example, if a resident of California is regularly driving to Nevada to purchase guns, it needs to be verified that they remain in possession of all of those guns. That activity is highly tied to criminal organizations sending guns to cartels in Mexico and Central America. We also need to start to inspect cars going South for firearms.

Finally, people should be required to purchase insurance to internalize the externalities with gun ownership. This will incentivize proper handling and storage of guns to discourage threats. Insurance will utilize markets to limit bad behavior (by charging people with a history of thefts more for their guns).

Add this to a far stricter mental health screening (in which all gun purchasers have to affirmatively demonstrate some level of mental stability to filter out the obvious cases like the MSD shooter and the Uvalde shooter) and you have the a system that begins to makes sense.

However, none of this will happen because gun owners would find each of these inconvenient. And that is more important than the carnage to them.

 

I have to say that may be the first fully thought out gun purchasing comment on this board ever

 

I don’t think it’s accurate to say you cannot control the legal side of gun purchases without controlling the dark side. Basically, you are saying we can’t take a layup until we can hit the three pointer. The legal side is as easy as legislation and enforcement. The illegal side… criminals with illegal guns, underground prohibited sales, and/or people refusing to turn in illegal guns is the much harder issue. Makes no sense to make fixing illegal guns the gateway to fixing legal guns.

 

Gun violence is not limited to the two groups of active shooters or gang members. I’d guess that most criminals are not gang-affiliated.

 

Yes, I really believe making guns easier to obtain and carry around in public will lead to more gun deaths.

 

Were the "real" mass shootings, you know . . . the ones in Uvalde, Buffalo, Allen TX, Louisville, Nashville, etc. not enough to raise legitimate concern?

 

Do violent gang members who senselessly kill each other get to hide behind the “mental illness” excuse, or is mental illness only brought up when the shooter looks a certain way?

 

Sure they do, because they are affected by them. Ban, with certain exceptions, the public carrying of guns (open or concealed) and put some teeth into the punishment for breaking the law. So, if a bad guy is caught with a gun in public, he is going to the slammer for 5 years. My guess is that the bad guy, as a general rule, is not going to carry a gun in public.

 

It is already a stiff penalty and they don't care

In Florida, convicted felons who are found guilty of firearm possession can be sentenced to 15 years in prison or probation. Fines of up to $10,000 can also be assessed. One important note is that those found to be in actual possession of firearms as a convicted felon are subject to a minimum sentence of three years.

 

I didn’t say it was.

 

When you look at Mass shootings
Crime on crime
Domestic
Vehicle to suicide
Mentally ill whack jobs

That is a broad swatch where almost every preventative measure fails, sans one.

Would not surprise me if this one is mentally ill and wanting to be killed. The number of adolescents is baffling to me.

 

Guns are here to stay. Assault weapons are the only middle ground where compromise can happen in this country. They are as much a part of American life as Baseball and Apple Pie and there is no changing that.