Texas School shooting 19 children and 2 adults murdered

I would argue that a lot of their laws are better thought out than ours. Black powder shooting is more popular there, reloading is common, antiques are exempt from licence (which takes a lot of guns off the books for ownership figures). From an owners perspective the system there is better run and fairer. Here a lot of it comes down to the attitude of local Gardai and the knowledge of the local superintendents and firearms officers.

Kind of ironic how it coincides with the annual event the NRA are running this weekend in Houston, TX. Trump will be there and Abbott is expected to make an appearance...

The number of antiques and deactivated guns there is enormous, its just not common here at all so most people in Irela d ha e no frame of reference. You can walk into an antiques shop in the UK and buy a gun that wouldnt just require a .icence here, but would require a restricted licence because our firearms laws never made any allowance for it.

I lived there for a few years a d many of my friends had owned pistols pre-Dunblaine. The government bought back their guns or allowed them to ha e them deactivated. Most stayed shooting but moved on to black-powder and other areas of shooting/collecting.

what are the numbers

it would in no way explain the difference in the numbers, even if there were the same number of antiques

The NRA went ahead with there national convention in Denver days after Columbine. They couldn't care less.

The 2nd amendment refers to an era where the US was a wild place which law enforcement agencies could not cover. People needed to defend themselves, families and property back then. 250 years that's a long time ago. There needs to be a complete de-armament of the entire US civilian population. No guns, no rifles, no firearms of any kind. Those that want to hunt, can do so with crossbows or similar. Alternatively, make it wildly expensive to have a license and a rifle for hunting and limit it to models with only 2 shots max capacity and nothing else. No high calibers and no scopes. In the cases where someone is allowed to have a rifle for hunting or a gun for professional reasons (e.g. top tier licensed security) they should be forced not only to be on a register, but to undergo constant psychiatric and security tests every 3 months and their gun and license taken and revoked at the slightest infringement or sign of emotional trouble. No handguns of any kind for sale nor ownership for anyone apart from law enforcement for any reason whatever, not even private security except for top tier and only under the conditions outlined before. Provide an amnesty to handover all guns first, then make it a 5-year mandatory sentence to carry one in public without a valid license plus a 500k fine (same for imitation guns). For using a firearm or an imitation firearm to facilitate (no discharge) the commission of a crime, add 20 years mandatory to the sentence for the crime. For actual use (firing) of a firearm in a public place or in the commission of any crime - life in prison or death depending on the state and whether there are any victims (the death penalty part where there is a choice between that and life in prison). No appeal allowed, no clemency, no parole associated with all these minimum sentences. Guns serve no purpose other than to kill and facilitate violence/crime. Protective or defensive use of guns should only be licensed to professional law enforcement or private security both under massively strict and monitored conditions with all the consequences mentioned before applying to misuse plus 25% increase in severity applicable to any additional sentences for breaching public trust. Even as a police officer, carrying a gun should be a massive burden as it is a serious privilege granted by society to protect us, is not a right they have or an easy to reach for "solution" to any situation. Don't have the balls to put your life in danger to stop crime? then don't be a cop/security. Background checks don't solve human nature. Someone could have a really clean background when they buy a gun, but that doesn't account for changes in personal circumstances or mentally/emotionally over time or on any given day in the future. Also, yes there are still knives, swords, bows/crossbows, etc... but anyone without cerebral palsy clearly understands that it isn't going to be possible to kill 19+ people in a few minutes with a crossbow or a knife, at least not before someone makes fine dust out of their jaw or they get stopped/killed by police. With weapons other than firearms, people can run away from the assailant and to safety. No one can outrun bullets. We have this really bad habit of killing each other, and we really need to get serious about correcting it. I know none of this will happen in the next 100 years, but this is where things need to go or these murders and worse will continue.

you think criminals register their firearms? This doesn't make any sense

it was unpopular in the UK and Oz too but they pressed on, governments fell etc

The now restricted guns were worthless so the amount in the buy back was fairly low

The US has no shortage of cash and the savings in the long run would be massive and sure theyd end up spending the money anyway

there are a certain number of weapons in this country, registered right, most are used for hunting

are you saying say 75% of them are just antiques here? Because if so the deaths dont tally

or that people in the Uk are using antiques or illegally reactivated, because the guns here are mostly in use, you expect that the amount of use in the UK would be similar socially or even higher given the amount of hunting

because the numbers dont add up and neither do the deaths, unless people with reactivated guns dont shoot themselves

Gun of choice when 2nd Amendment was written

What the shooter used

First one is used for personal protection, what the 2nd amendment was about, the right to protect

Second one is designed to kill many people fast. Which is the opposite of protection, it's murdering

Light , light enough recoil , modular .

I never said anyone is getting shot with antiques or reactivating deactivated guns, where the **** are you reading that? Im saying their ownership levels might seem low but there are a large number of guns there that arent on the books whereas in this country there are guns from the 1800s that require a restricted licence. Going back to my original point: their laws are in many ways fairer than ours and not necessarily more restrictive.

Just ban the manufacture of ammunition, except for law enforcement agencies / army etc., and clamp down and police it strictly . It would take a long number of years, but eventually , the ammo would run out. You could have 100 guns in the house if you want, but if you’ve no ammo, you can’t shoot any schoolkids.

I got talking to a young American couple in a bar in France not long after Columbine. I was asking them about it , and they were amazed that you just cannot walk in and buy a gun in Ireland. But the thing that really floored me was when I asked them had they guns at home themselves, he said no, but she had three. She told me that she had got her first gun as a present from her father for her SEVENTH birthday. I asked her what in the name of God did she need a gun for at seven, she said it was for target practice in the back yard. This is the mentality that you are up against, it’s is so different to ours. I got Scalextrix for my seventh birthday.

you can make your own ammo, I mean its a pain, but doable

I am guessing ted Cruz (who takes more money from gun rights groups than any other senator...) and Greg Abbott will still be at it...classy.

There are places that control guns, you can't walk around NYC with a rifle slung over your shoulder. But there are no hard borders to prevent the movement of guns. Gun control would only be as strong as the state with the weakest enforcement. California is pretty strict as states go but they have their share of school shootings nonetheless.

I believe the ATF arent even allowed have computerized records, an indication of how much resistqnce there would be to registration if anything is. Im not saying there arent answers, Im just highly pessimistic that anything will happen this time that didn't happen last time.

The UK vs Irish legislation commentary was a it of a tangent as I was surprised by the difference in gun crime given how many "gun people" I know there. It would explain whytheyre so focused on tackling knife crime in London though, so theyve done something right. I think fairer legislation playsinto that.