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Comment by BadassFractal | Hacker News Reader

Yes, gun violence is a problem, however:

How do you remove 400 million active firearms from the entirety of the nation? The situation with Australia is not analogous, you cannot map that one solution to a completely different context.

Constituents do not want to have their firearms taken away, the politicians aren't corrupt in this situation, they're doing exactly what they were elected to do. NRA's contributions to politicians aren't that impressive, what's impressive is that the organization has millions of members who very actively vote for their interests.

How do you explain a Breivik that happened in a heavily regulated country like Norway?

What do you want to do about trucks? Should we ban them too?

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> How do you explain a Breivik that happened in a heavily regulated country like Norway?

One can't say much good about Breivik, but he was committed. Most of the mass shootings in the US are done by some "looser" who a semi automatic from his mom.

You can't prevent murder, but you can make it harder.

Locks don't stops theft, but they sure make it harder.

And you also make it harder for innocent people to defend themselves.

People act like guns are only useful for committing crimes and mass shootings. Guns are a tool; we have a cultural problem, not a simple gun problem.

Legal gun owners were unable to do anything against the Vegas gunman, legally held guns were useless in that situation. But I agree it is a cultural issue and guns are a tool. However I don't let my kids okay with the circular saw because they cannot get be trusted with it so same goes for guns. Take them all away and when you can show that you are mature enough to have one you can have them back. It won't be easy but it can be done, doesn't mean all guns disappear tomorrow but you can start by preventing new guns from entering the market and work from there.

Mass shootings cause approximately 50ish deaths or so each year in the US. Actual firearm homicides are around 15,000 a year. That's 0.3% of all deaths. How much effort do you suggest the nation invest into this blip on the radar?

You could say the same for terrorism...

> People act like guns are only useful for committing crimes and mass shootings. Guns are a tool; we have a cultural problem, not a simple gun problem.

You have: a gun problem; poverty; a lack of opportunities (education); (mental) healthcare problems; police violence/murder; drug problems; prison condition problem; a sentencing problem; money in politics; issues with due process; ... the list goes on.

These all contribute to people feeling powerless, which presumably causes things like this. You should fix these issues, the rest of the civilized world has.

But hey, an obvious start to fixing this is strong regulation of firearms.

Who do you think is going to disdisarm willingly? Educated, well off middle-upper class, or those you describe? Why must the middle and upper classes sacrifice their safety when a substantial subset of the population violently dehumanizes them? Simply for having more, at that.

You're also imposing your cultural norms onto others. Guns and violence are simply a way of life for millions of people. Good luck taking those guns from your ivory tower.

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