Texas School shooting 19 children and 2 adults murdered

Are you a US citizen? Do you/have you lived in the US? I'm guessing no because I don't think the vast majority of US gun owners would return their guns on a buyback scheme. Where's your evidence for thinking that the vast majority of gun owners would return them and claim the buyback rate?

You have to remember how entrenched the right to bear arms is in many of the US population. Yes, some guns would be returned, but I can't see the vast majority of them being handed in. The evidence is mixed as to whether gun buybacks are actually effective in reducing gun violence. Earlier studies showed that they weren't effective at reducing gun violence but more recent studies show they have some effect when combined with education programmes.

If you try to make the buyback scheme compulsory as your second paragraph above seems to point to, straight away you are on to a loser. There isn't a hope in hell of the cops going out to remove guns from the general population. And for starters, the cops don't know who owns most of the guns as most of them are unregistered. And watch what will happen if the US threaten to ban certain guns. Gun sales will actually go way up. After Sandy Hook there was talk of banning certain types of guns with the result that gun sales actually went up 3,000,000 more than would normally be expected.

There's no "there may well be armed resistance". There will be armed resistance, by millions of US gun owners if the Government ban guns and send cops out to confiscate them. There would be civil war if the US Government tried to go after people who didn't hand in their guns.

And just to clarify, are you saying all gun owners in the US are criminals or terrorists? Really? This might come as a surprise but the vast majority of gun owners are actually normal law abiding citizens.

I think if you dive deep into the US populace, you'll find that not all gun owners are right wing extremists either. Plenty of people on both sides of the political spectrum are gun owners. And you'll find that most of them won't want to give up their guns either. I mean, if they wanted to give up their guns, they could give them up for free or sell them. And that simply isn't happening on any sort of scale worth mentioning.

Sad to say it but I'm honestly surprised that there are not a lot more of these types of shootings in America. Given the toxic individualism and narcissism prevalent in that country nowadays, combined with the easy access sick people have to guns, it's almost showing restraint that there are not more attacks.

I would have said it'll take something like the kid of a NRA politician getting killed in a school shooting to wake them up, but I think they are so lacking in morals they would even exploit that for their own gain. Long term I can see some sort of civil war happening, maybe not in my lifetime, but they are well on the road to it. And they'll probably need that, either to clear out the bad blood or else divide it up into different countries.

Indeed. And I think the NRA is a large chunk of the problem. They seem to have driven this near fetishisation or worship of guns in the US. Other countries, including Ireland, have guns. Not in the same numbers and generally with heavier restrictions but they are around. It just isn't a healthy way to view an object which is designed to be lethal. They can be useful but should be seen as dangerous tools whenever their use is needed.

This culture mixed in with the easy access of weapons just creates a dangerous cocktail to encourage mass shootings.

Certainly mental health facilities should be improved but that is going to also be as tough a sell to Republicans as gun control.

I think 80s action movies and male insecurities have a lot to answer for! Tough guys with guns. Could they not take up boxing or something? Actually that would require some effort. Much easier to buy a gun in the store.

My deterrent to these school shootings and the like: take the shooter alive, throw him in prison in gen pop and live stream his life in prison on YouTube. Let the others see what awaits them if they get any urges.

And, elsewhere on the US holiday weekend:

FWIW Uvalde went GOP big time the last few election cycles, including Cruz, Trump, Abbott. Nothing will change for them, maybe the PD will get reshuffled at best.

It's the easy access to military grade weapons. That's it, anything else is whataboutery. Other countries have mental health issues, violence on tv/movies, loose security around schools etc but it's only in America where these shootings happen with any sort of regularity.

No civilian needs an AR-15 (or similar). These are not for hunting or protection, these are for war zones. These could be banned immediately without infringing on 2A rights. The fact that this 200+ old piece of legislation is constantly used to defend the ownership of these weapons is beyond mental.

Sadly I don't think anything will change. It didn't after Sandy Hook and there's nothing to think think time will be any different. The interview of the paramedic on CNN who found out from an injured child that his child had been murdered was beyond heartbreaking and should be played constantly on loop.

America is a really messed up country at the moment. There's a huge push to overturn Roe v Wade to protect the "unborn", once they're born they don't give a fiddlers f**k after that.

If there there are laws and situations where something is legal, it is by definition not illegal. Saying something is only legal within the law is completely redundant. That applies to everything. By the above logic it is illegal to drive a car in Ireland (except when in full compliance with legislation abd license conditions) - anyone claiming that made drinking a car illegal would not be taken seriously.

Not quite. A person with a firearm licensed for hunting is perfectly entitled to bring his firearm to a range to target shot. A collector could shot clays with his antique shotguns, if he wished.

Self defence or protection is not a valid reason.

If you read back in this thread you’ll see that I was the one who referred to safe storage requirements in Ireland.

For the sake of correctness, for shotgun owner, it only applies applies to 2 or more. A single shotgun does not require a safe.

Of course. I don’t think that counter anything I’ve said?

If you drove a car into a shop you’d also be breaking multiple laws.

Completely agree. Ireland’s gun laws, while not perfect, are a good example of effective gun control, and safe, legal firearm ownership. defacto proof that it is possible.

Saying that guns are illegal, and implying gun owners are all acting illegally is categorically false. I understand that it may have been slip, in which case a reasonable poster might have simple said "sorry my mistake, I meant regulated". But Instead he decided to double down, insult other posters. Yeah, good luck with that.

The gun lobby and the conservative politicians have done a great job of making this about schools, all the talk is of security in schools and doors. The narrow conversation just pushes on like mass shootings only happen in schools.

They really are a bunch of sh1ts with the controlling of the narrative.