Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
All the polling I've seen says a vast majority of Americans are unhappy with the state of gun crime and think something needs to be done about it but do not want to lose their access to guns because they need them to feel safe, if at some point in time the sheer number of these incidents causes Americans not to feel safe even with their own guns things could turn around in a hurry.
Even the tenor of conversations has changed recently, gun nuts tend to not even bother with the old stand bys of 'it's the American way' or 'freedom from government tyranny' mostly they argue 'there are too many guns out there so there's no point in gun control'.
That's a huge change that invites the obvious challenge that if the government could take away all the guns they would go along with it.
Remember the last big gun limit, the automatic weapon ban, came about because Black Panthers started marching around with guns.
Once you are forced to recognize your greatest fear, black dudes ISIS will use your loose gun laws against you it gets harder to defend them without looking like you are defending them.
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its my understanding that the federal assault weapon ban of 1994 was the direct result of a school shooting in stockton california, where 5 children were killed and 34 teachers and students were wounded....
never heard anything about black panthers since the 60s.
that particular ban only lasted 10 years and then failed to get renewed by congress in 2004... clearly, either those elected officials chose not to listen to their constituents or there simply wasn't enough public pressure to force congress to renew the bill.
the former suggests the power of the gun lobby, while the latter suggests that there isn't a large public outcry against guns. Incidentally, that AWB did limit magazine sizes as well...
i think americans would be happy with "common sense" gun laws, like trying to limit assault weapons, reducing magazine clips etc... However i think that most americans, including many Democrats would never support any kind of ban approaching countries like Austrailia, UK and Canada...
i happen to think its too late for gun control myself, but I find it bizarre how the NRA has a Svengali like hold over americans using the 2nd Amendment as as a truncheon against anyone that dares suggests limitations to access