And the race is on to see if more Ukrainians or more Americans are killed by non-self-inflicted small arms fire in 2022.
If it's only small arms than this probabyl goes to the US.
I mean the US has more gun death per capita than many countries with an ongoing (civil) war.
Let's not discuss America's legally enshrined gun fetish and the completely predictable result of it. Until Americans want fewer mass shootings rather than easy access to firearms, there doesn't seem to be any point.
So hopes and prayers again . . . because anything more concrete is out of the question.
To be fair, huge majorities of Americans favor stronger regulation of firearms. What's needed is for that support to translate into action, either through a very wise statute revision plan that gets advanced with a lot of effort and luck, or a broader upgrade of American politics that brings USA closer to democratic functioning (aka, results consistently reflect the people's desires).
Since legislation is less unlikely than broad reform, here's a plausible suggestion from an American gun aficionado (not me, the anonymous contributor in the article below). Hope and pray for this, please! :)
From Charlie Sykes in The Bulwark:
Laws (and culture) make a difference, and other countries have, in fact, “fixed” the gun problem — or at least the problem of mass shootings:
Image
And, even here, there are gun control laws that would make a difference.
Red flag laws (David French makes a great case here.)
Raising age for gun purchases
Banning high capacity magazines
Banning bump stocks
Universal background checks
A few years back Nicholas Kristof noted how safety measures/laws had dramatically reduced automobile-related deaths. “What would a public health approach look like for guns if it were modeled after cars?” he asked. It would include:
(long list of stuff in an image that didn't transmit to this forum; the list components individually plausible, arguably - BB)
Actual experience also shows that laws can make a difference:
(Bikey: Sykes' column showed a graph, in which connecticut passed a gun licensing law and Missouri repealed one; CT's gun deaths went up, Missouri's down)
All of this is perfectly reasonable. It’s also important to recognize two political realities:
(1) the GOP’s refusal to consider any realistic gun laws is nearly absolute, but
(2) several measures continue to enjoy widespread public support.
Strong majorities of Americans still back common-sense measures. Here’s a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll conducted entirely after the shooting in Uvalde:
Requiring background checks on all gun sales: Eighty-eight percent strongly or somewhat support; 8% strongly or somewhat oppose. Net approval: +80
Creating a national database with info about each gun sale: Seventy-five percent strongly or somewhat support; 18% strongly or somewhat oppose. Net approval: +57
Banning assault-style weapons: Sixty-seven percent strongly or somewhat support; 25% strongly or somewhat oppose. Net approval: +42
Preventing sales of all firearms to people reported as dangerous to law enforcement by a mental health provider: Eighty-four percent strongly or somewhat support; 9% strongly or somewhat oppose. Net approval: +75
Making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks: Eighty-one percent strongly or somewhat support; 11% strongly or somewhat oppose. Net approval: +70
**
Some more suggestions from a Bulwark reader, (who asked that his name be withheld.)
I’m m an avid firearms enthusiast a NRA life member since I was 16. I support more restrictions however and they will affect me. Here are some ideas I have never heard discussed.
Instead of trying to ban sales of “assault weapons” with all the definition challenges that made the Clinton AWB pretty much a moot point – defining features were tweaked and the basic firearm platform continued to sell . . .
Amend the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) which outlawed fully automatic weapons outside of stringent special NFA licensing of same.
•Add to the NFA controls – magazine fed, centerfire semi-auto rifles/carbines (this does sweep up some traditional hunting rifles with AKs and AR’s but not that many)
•Add to the NFA controls – rifle caliber pistols (AK pistols and AR pistols have been a hot commodity for years among the law abiding and the criminal gangs). “Rifle caliber” is not that hard to legally define in the gun world and there could be a mechanism to append a named caliber list the ATF publishes)
•Those two bullet points reflect a more easily defined class of firearms than previous attempts.
•All the good people who feel they must own one can; they just have to go through some pretty rigorous ATF screening and licensing then have to secure their NFA firearm from access to anyone not named in the registration.
•We’re never going to get rid of all the tens of millions of these anyway.
•Those who retain them without NFA licensing – are committing a felony. Enforce that.
•Create a channel for liquidating specimens to a LEO entity and qualify for a state or federal tax deduction of say, “a thousand bucks”. Most of them aren’t worth that. This worked pretty well for full auto weapons and “sawed off” shotguns back in the day.
Exit take: Failure to act is not inevitable. It’s a choice. And it means that there will be more mass shootings. More dead kids. And that’s a choice too.
Topic: Ukraine (Read 772373 times)
