I'll be the 99th gun thread...

[snooper2]

We are not going to as a country to get rid of all guns under private ownership. It's not going to happen. If people want to take this tragedy and turn it into a "call for action" it would be best to unite under one common front.

Re-enact the assault weapons ban- period.

Any other discussion outside of that in regards to gun laws is just wasting bandwidth on the Intertubes.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. regulate ammunition.

[Canuckistanian]

18. A popular idea, apparently

[Loudly]

2. But what about going to war with the police and the army?

Isn't that the actual (mostly unspoken) justification for the 2A?

The more frequently you can get gun worshippers to admit that out loud, the worse their public relations becomes.

[cthulu2016]

3. You're a little late to be the 99th

[lunatica]

4. Thanks for jumping in

I agree with your solution as part of what should be done.

[Posteritatis]

5. Define "assault weapons," for the purposes of the discussion

Without using pictures or simply naming specific models.

I'm actually curious as to responses to that, mind - if you (or Congress) are going to call for a ban there needs to be some definition of terms. It's easy to say "all we have to do is X, period," but reacting-to-one-event laws are almost never written carefully enough to do what they were meant to do.

So we can start there. As a non-gun-owning Canadian, I'm interested in the criteria people would use for such a law. (Also curious about criteria people would avoid, actually.)

[snooper2]

6. Any gun that holds more than 16 rounds..

re-instate the previous assault weapons ban that expired. You can look up the text...

Outside of that for the most part existing gun laws are fine.

[Logical]

7. So you are talking a "clip" ban, that has NOTHING to do with guns.

[sadbear]

10. I'm sure some here on DU would vehemently disagree with you.

[snooper2]

11. I don't claim to be a gun expert, but 16 sounded like a good number..

One of the 10 gauges my dad had when I was growing up held like five or six, but there was a plug/cork you could remove and hold two or three more shells...

regardless, that's plenty..

[Logical]

12. I agree. Really 10 should be enough. But what to do about all the clips already in circulation. n-t

[Kaleva]

13. To make it work, they'd have to be banned too

A problem with the old AWB was that there was a grandfather clause on those mags that were made before the ban went into effect. As there were millions made, there was no shortage of them during the 10 years the AWB was in effect.

[Logical]

14. It is hard to take property from people. Has that ever happened? n-t

[oneshooter]

15. It would be east exept for that pesky 5th Amendment.

Just how do you plan to pay for those 3-4million magazines?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#.22Just_compensation.22

[Logical]

16. Thanks for the link! n-t

[Marrah_G]

17. Mass has a limit of 10

[sadbear]

8. That's a good starting place.

[Kaleva]

9. Ah. There wasn't a outright ban on that.

Extended or high capacity magazines were still legal to purchase and own during the AWB.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. 6.

Strictly regulate semi automatic weapons and make it a felony to possess a clip with more than 6 rounds. Apply the same limit to other weapons, such as shot guns. Allow a moratorium period for people to dispose of existing clips.

[Canuckistanian]

20. Weapons that are DESIGNED to kill many, many PEOPLE in the shortest time

Large calibre, large capacity magazines, lightweight, easily converted to automatic....

You know, all the things that hunters DON'T need to hunt their prey.

[Posteritatis]

21. What are the cutoffs?

Easy automatic conversion maybe (but how easy is another discussion and I'm pretty clueless about that anyway), but what would constitute lightweight? Or the capacity of magazines? (10 seems to be the usual cutoff, but I've been seeing people object to even single-shot firearms lately.)

Caliber's probably not as simple as you'd think, since contemporary military rifles are usually fairly low caliber. There's hunting rifles out there that would easily pass your other tests that throw a significantly larger round than the rifles Western armies are usually issued.

I'm partly devil's-advocating here, but my main point is that it's easier said than done to boil this down to a few "simple" definitions or cosmetic features, something Congress found out awhile back. If people want to push for something like this it needs more work than the time to have a thereoughtabealaw reflex usually offers.

[ileus]

19. Another AWB believer...

Tee Hee Hee....


You do of course realize there wasn't much to that ban...right?

It made people feel good and that's about it.

[Warren Stupidity]

23. Well then, tee hee hee, there shouldn't be any opposition to it.

It doesn't do much other than make people feel good, right?