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The United States needs to seriously reevaluate and increase its gun-control laws.
Today a man killed twenty children and half a dozen adults in a school using a legally purchased semiautomatic assault rifle.
This comes days after a public shooting in an Oregon Mall.
Which came less than six months after the largest mass shooting in U.S. history took place in a Colorado movie theater, also using legally obtained semiautomatic weapons.
In 1997, the year following a school shooting that left seventeen dead, also using legally obtained weapons, the United Kingdom enacted strict gun legislation that "introduced a ban on all cartridge ammunition handguns with the exception of .22 calibre single-shot weapons in England, Scotland and Wales." Later that year, further legislation banned "the remaining .22 cartridge handguns in England, Scotland and Wales, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. "Long-Arms") that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a "Handgun" due to their dimensions," effectively banning all firearms in the UK not designed for use in hunting. Gun-related deaths following passage of the legislature remained more or less consistent, but it's gun-related homicide per capita now falls near the bottom of reporting countries, and well below the United States.
The United States has the twelfth highest rate (not number; rate) of gun-related homicides among reporting countries in the world. The countries above it are South Africa, the Phillipines, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, Swaziland, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica and El Salvador. Many of those countries are marked by flourishing drug trades or are currently involved in civil wars. Some countries that fall below the U.S. on this list are also involved in civil wars.
Japan has nearly zero gun availability. It also reports less than ten gun-related deaths a year on average. Gun violence has dissapated among yakuza (criminal syndicates) as well. Like the United States, Japan has high-population centers, income inequality and violent mainstream media. Less than ten gun-related deaths a year, even among organized criminal groups.
Isreal and Switzerland, among the only developed nations to have laxer (only arguably) gun control that the United States are marked by either war of their own (Isreal) or a near lack of income inequality and a socialized infrastructure for providing mental health treatment (Switzerland). EDIT -- Also Switzerland's high gun-ownership rate is due to mandatory military service for young men, after which they keep their gun and equipment at home under certain regulations.
Since the Columbine, there have been 31 school shootings in the United States and only 14 in the rest of the world combined. Nearly all the weapons were obtained legally. Here is a timeline.
What are we doing?
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Now, will someone please tell me why the United States should not restrict its gun legislation to ban at least semiautomatic weapons? Will someone please let me know why anyone needs any gun that could be used for anything other than sporting or is immobile and slow-firing enough to not be used outside of home protection? Can someone explain why we should not move to not only requiring criminal background checks in order to purchase firearms, but require psychological evaluations and months of review as well?
Because crazies will be crazies. Today, the same day as a shooter in the U.S. killed 27 people with his legally purchased semiautomatic gun, a man weilding a kinfe attacked 22 in a school in Chengping, China.
All of them survived.
The United States needs to seriously reevaluate and increase its gun-control laws.
Today a man killed twenty children and half a dozen adults in a school using a legally purchased semiautomatic assault rifle.
This comes days after a public shooting in an Oregon Mall.
Which came less than six months after the largest mass shooting in U.S. history took place in a Colorado movie theater, also using legally obtained semiautomatic weapons.
In 1997, the year following a school shooting that left seventeen dead, also using legally obtained weapons, the United Kingdom enacted strict gun legislation that "introduced a ban on all cartridge ammunition handguns with the exception of .22 calibre single-shot weapons in England, Scotland and Wales." Later that year, further legislation banned "the remaining .22 cartridge handguns in England, Scotland and Wales, and leaving only muzzle-loading and historic handguns legal, as well as certain sporting handguns (e.g. "Long-Arms") that fall outside the Home Office Definition of a "Handgun" due to their dimensions," effectively banning all firearms in the UK not designed for use in hunting. Gun-related deaths following passage of the legislature remained more or less consistent, but it's gun-related homicide per capita now falls near the bottom of reporting countries, and well below the United States.
The United States has the twelfth highest rate (not number; rate) of gun-related homicides among reporting countries in the world. The countries above it are South Africa, the Phillipines, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, Swaziland, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica and El Salvador. Many of those countries are marked by flourishing drug trades or are currently involved in civil wars. Some countries that fall below the U.S. on this list are also involved in civil wars.
Japan has nearly zero gun availability. It also reports less than ten gun-related deaths a year on average. Gun violence has dissapated among yakuza (criminal syndicates) as well. Like the United States, Japan has high-population centers, income inequality and violent mainstream media. Less than ten gun-related deaths a year, even among organized criminal groups.
Isreal and Switzerland, among the only developed nations to have laxer (only arguably) gun control that the United States are marked by either war of their own (Isreal) or a near lack of income inequality and a socialized infrastructure for providing mental health treatment (Switzerland). EDIT -- Also Switzerland's high gun-ownership rate is due to mandatory military service for young men, after which they keep their gun and equipment at home under certain regulations.
Since the Columbine, there have been 31 school shootings in the United States and only 14 in the rest of the world combined. Nearly all the weapons were obtained legally. Here is a timeline.
What are we doing?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, will someone please tell me why the United States should not restrict its gun legislation to ban at least semiautomatic weapons? Will someone please let me know why anyone needs any gun that could be used for anything other than sporting or is immobile and slow-firing enough to not be used outside of home protection? Can someone explain why we should not move to not only requiring criminal background checks in order to purchase firearms, but require psychological evaluations and months of review as well?
Because crazies will be crazies. Today, the same day as a shooter in the U.S. killed 27 people with his legally purchased semiautomatic gun, a man weilding a kinfe attacked 22 in a school in Chengping, China.
All of them survived.
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