Are school shootings the focus of gun control efforts?

I think right now school shootings are the “poster boy” for gun violence. I’ll take the focus on it any way I can get it.

It’s a good place to start. I don’t think anyone wants to be known as being for school shootings.

It’s a bit like supporting the abortion debate by allowing it for violent rape victims under the age of 15. What kind of a monster would be against that? (I’m sure there are some.)

Here’s what I’d do if I were King.:
– Change the legal age to 21 for purchasing – like we have for cigarettes, alcohol.
– Institute a 5–10 day waiting period – like many states have for abortion
– Perform a background check for first purchase – like some states do already
– Ban the over the counter sale of AR-15 and AK-47 and their related clones – like we do now for hand grenades, M-72 LAW anti-tank weapons and their clones.
– Offer a reasonable buy back program for 1 year so people who bought and have the guns legally can turn them in with limited financial loss.
– Give the law an expiration date, say 5 years, so it can be studied and modified.

Don’t get bogged down in all the details now. Just do something!

It gets the emotional side of it really rolling, and firearm control lobbyists will take whatever they can to try and move forward with stricter gun control laws.

@LuckyGuy I know you said ban over the counter sales like they have for hand grenades,M-72LAW anti-tank weapons and there clones??
Could a civilian actually get those types of weapons? LEGALY?? and use them??
and my next question, for what??

If I were king:
Below 18, operation legal only under direct adult supervision.

Over 18, typical small cal arms such as a 22, air rifles and break barrel pellet guns. No licensing requirements.

Age 21 for high powered rifles (not semiautomatic) with a fixed magazine not exceeding seven rounds. Handguns can be semi auto but not exceeding ten rounds. This would be typical for recreation, hunting and self defense needs. These weapons are covered by a first tier licensing system that does basic background checks, safety testing and basic skills testing.

2nd Tier licensing system where access to higher cal, higher capacity rifles and handguns above what is mentioned below are restricted to those passing types of strong background checks and skills tests that are normally used to give someone access to say a nuclear power plant. The trade off is that for these people there is no such thing as a “gun free zone” these people are not specifically state or federally employed to do so or are otherwise regulated outside of the licensing system. This is available to anyone who can pass the requirements. An independent auditing body shall monitor both the licensing boards and handle appeals to maintain impartiality.

Strict codes for storage of ammunition and firearms subject to inspection and steep fines (but not confiscation)

Only failure of periodic skills tests, certain convictions, medications or mental diagnosis from a medical professional should lead to confiscation.

Private sale is legal but only to those with an appropriate license. Certain weapons such as semi autos with a detachable magazine are titled like cars and a transfer or sale handled in a similar way. People in posession of 2nd tier weapons must have either a declared 2nd tier beneficiary or the weapons are to be surrendered upon death.

Mass shootings are just the most dramatic and the most shocking to the populace. Kids being shot while they’re in school makes more of an impact than gang members shooting other gang members, even though gun violence in cities like Chicago is through the roof, and it’s places like that where the majority of American gun violence occurs. It also could theoretically be easier to approach the gun issue with non-mass shooting gun violence, as it’s difficult to prevent people from “snapping” and violating all societal norms by carrying out a mass shooting. Gang violence is more predictable.

@SQUEEKY2 No. We can’t get M72 or hand grenades legally. They are for items for the military. I’d classify the AR-15 and AK-47 in that category. The US banned large fireworks around 1964. Before that we bought them from the ice cream man. They were powerful enough to launch garbage cans 40 ft.! They could lift a car! But they were banned because they were dangerous and could injure the public. (The pre-ban M-80s had 60 times the largest legal firework for sale today!) We survived without them.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I like your breakdown. I, too, would leave small cal .22, pellet guns etc. at age 18. (Maybe 16). But for simplicity if the age ad to be 21, so be it.
Where i grew up, we typically got our first .22 at age 12 or 13 from our parents if we could be trusted. Parents did not buy and give their kids a .22 if they didn’t behave. Only “the good kids” had them. (I still have mine.)

I also like the tier I and tier II licensing. I would be afraid to implement it as that would give lawmakers an excuse to argue and diddle around for years without passing anything. Simple is better for a start.

No. Gun control issues were present before mass killings became a fad.

@LuckyGuy I believe the 2nd amendment specifically covers weapons like the AR-15 and it was intended to give ordinary citizens access to the typical arms a foot soldier would carry. This is not actually a matter of opinion, it’s a fact. That 2nd tier I mentioned is effectively a militia which is not the police or national guard. I don’t think jimbo the sketchy a little off mentally gun nut should fill that role. Hence strict regular background checks, mental evaluation, skills testing and a lot of self policing. We do this sort of thing all the time for other things, I think we can do this too.

SUPER GREAT ANSWER @ARE_you_kidding_me and totally agree^^^^

@LuckyGuy I had my first bb gun at 9 and a somewhat powerfull pellet gun at around 11. I did not get a 22 until I was an adult but my parents were not “gun people” so I learned to shoot in scouts. Plenty of kids had 22s by about 12–14 as you mention though.

This makes me feel really good since I love the shit out of luckyguy and thought he was a bit of a gun nutter. But what he outlined pretty much lines up with how I would roll. So the world is great again.

They are, at the moment. Which is pretty sad. People are focusing on the AR, while most crimes/killings are done with handguns. By far…

I guess it’s a matter of priorities. Several people dying every day in just one US city, doesn’t garner the same attention. Even if it’s children being killed in Chicago too.

I hate to inject race into any argument, but with mostly black and brown people dying on the streets, you have to wonder why they don’t have as many people calling for action…

Schools are important? Of course. But if they are so important, why is education neglected so much, in the US?

We want our kids safe in school. Of course we do. What about the kids shot in their own neighborhoods, or homes?

The focus on school shootings, seems merely political. Otherwise, our government would be trying to protect ALL citizens. Trump seems to be trying to act. Seems to be trying to protect our children. Where has he been? Parts of Chicago are a war zone. Have been since crack got big, in the 1980’s.

The tireless efforts to improve gun control, that are being put forth now, are commendable. But is it the straw that broke the camel’s back, or just politicians riding the hot button topic to reelection?

I think school shootings are something that can be politicized when it comes to gun control debates. And why? Because of how the flow of discussion always goes. Someone will tout out the statistic that there are 30,000 gun deaths a year in this country and loosely tie in the horrible event that just happened. But what they aren’t saying is that ⅔ of those gun deaths are suicides and another 8,000+ are gang related shootings and another 1,000 are police shootings. When you start adding up the numbers, there really aren’t many deaths that stronger gun control laws would stop. But the gun control proponents don’t want to address that. So they take the horror of a school shooting to try expanding the gun control arguments. Now don’t get me wrong…school shootings are horrors. I’m not trying to downplay that. But what ends up happening is that the almost frantic call for gun control actually does take away from that horror. It moves people’s minds off the causes of these shootings and focuses them on the tool that was used.

There is something different about the reaction to the school shooting in Florida. For whatever reason, this issue is not just going away.

Several large companies have cut ties with the NRA. Corporations don’t en masse do this kind of thing out of the goodness of their hearts. Their primary goal is to make more money, so we have to conclude that they are responding to their customers. A sign that things may have been changing for a while is that the Remington company has filed for bankruptcy.

@thisismyusername In the sense that we advertise schools as “gun free” zones it could be that encourages the shooters.

“There is something different about the reaction to the school shooting in Florida. For whatever reason, this issue is not just going away.”

I think it’s because we just witnessed Vegas and it’s still fresh on everyones mind. The media is also giving student activists a voice. It’s mainly Vegas I think. Most gun people did not even know what the hell a bump stock was until this. It left a lot of them questioning things too so there is more momentum behind it right now.