The appearance of a prison. Walls so no one can get in. One main entrance, which would require a metal detector. People can get out through other doors, which of course Columbine type duos would just go open for the other shooter.
I didn't say it shouldn't be discussed. I've encouraged the discussion. I appreciate it. My point is that we should put the bulk of our efforts behind the changes that could be most easily attained and have the greatest impact.
A kid who just turned 18yrs old and only worked part-time at a Wendy's was able to purchase 2 AR-15s, 60 magazines, and over 1000 rounds of ammunition. It was too easy and too cheap for a kid to be able to buy that much of an arsenal.
No metal detectors necessary. Our school doesn't look like a prison at all. It looks like an incredibly inviting campus, with nice green fields surrounding it and play equipment, etc. Our kids absolutely love it. If a kid wants to bring a gun to school in his backpack there is nothing you're going to do to stop that. Except maybe disallow backpacks and put them in uniforms. Even then, you can buy under clothes holsters. And as we've already discussed, it would take literally hundreds of years to remove enough guns to limit access this much.
Greatest impact would be restricting access to the tools that make these kinds of crimes so easy, I would agree that it is far from the most easily attained given the marriage a lot of people have to this antiquated document and the political currency it carries. So, I disagree with the idea that repeatedly pointing the real issue is a mistake, but I agree that there are other elements that should be done.
You are welcome to keep trying to limit the access to 400 million items. That will take hundreds of years. 1 per minute, every day, 24hrs per day is 760 years.
I honestly think this would make the problem worse. And again, I'm not a fan of the AR-15. I don't own one, and never have. Though building one does look like a fun project...
You are outlining the removal of 400m weapons. The rest of us are talking about restricting access, making it more difficult, creating harsher penalties, and so on. Taxing, penalizing, requiring better safeguarding and so on. I have yet to read a single person say we need to go get 400m guns and melt them.
He spent over $1000 on that. Likely closer to $2000. This kid was stupid. If guns get much more expensive we're going to start seeing black market homemade guns far more often. And it's much easier to make a fully automatic gun than a semi-automatic. And they sell for a lot more. targeting a specific model or feature, or magazine size, is a big mistake, IMO.
To any response, you quickly say it's not gonna happen. That's not encouraging discussion, IMO. Asking for 200 billion to renovate every school seems less likely. We can't get places to have clean drinking water. We can't fix crumbling bridges. We can't fund universal Healthcare. We seem to only have $$ for weapons of different varieties.
I agree with Phats, way too hard to get rid of all the guns. And we should improve school safety. So $1000 "school safety improvement fee" for handguns and long guns, $5000 "school safety improvement fee" for AR-15 type weapons. $100 "school safety improvement fee" per box of ammo. If gun owners don't want regulations then they can pay for the needed safety improvements.
If they sell for a lot more, it's going to be far more difficult to get. Win! If someone has to find someone with a 3d printer and know how versus just walking in to a Walmart, that makes getting a gun far more difficult. Also a win.
Okay, okay. I'll say it. We need to go get 400 million guns and melt them. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
We have doors for emergency exit such as in a fire. This is also why you cannot lock doors for exiting by building code (Fire Protective Code).
Absolutely, people have said ban all guns in this thread. Didn't find it with a quick search, but it has certainly been said. And this kid spent $2k on this arsenals that he didn't even use 10% of. Make them much more expensive than that and you are just encouraging a black market. If you don't remove most of the guns you simply haven't restricted access to them. People will still need guns to defend themselves criminals with guns. So keeping them in a locked safe at all times is not an option and will never happen. I fully support raising the age of buying firearms. Have said so several times in this very thread. I've actually proposed this as well. I fully support preventing dangerous people from buying firearms. Have also said so many times in this thread. Universal background checks will never happen, even if we can get the republicans to allow a bill to go up for vote in the senate, and it somehow passes, MAGA states will not enforce it, as we've seen over and over. They will undermine gun control until it's not successful and it will be sunsetted or voted out. I am advocating that we spend our time and effort on stuff that could actually make a difference.
