General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What law would have stopped even half of the last 10 mass shootings? [View all]Robot_Ears
(10 posts)I agree with the first part, there are more guns than people in the country and it would be nearly impossible to get rid of them all.
Even this idea of magazine bans is nothing but a pipe dream, most guns come with at least 1-3 magazines. So for every semi-automatic in circulations there are even more magazines. Most people who are serious about self defense have any where from 3-10 magazines per weapon and every time a magazine or AWB comes up people go out and buy in droves.
When it comes to common magazine fed semi-automatic rifles (AR-15s, AK-47s, etc) the estimates range from 5-20 million in circulation (out of roughly 350 million plus guns in circulation) and as someone who goes to the range I think these estimates are fairly low. I say this is because there is no record of what is out there and every time I go to the range at least half of the people on the range with me have at least one magazine fed semi-auto rifle.
As for your comment that the second amendment only applies to a "well regulated militia" Heller made clear that the Second Amendment protects an individual's Right to keep and bear arms.
Essentially - I'm in the boat that due to the second amendment love it or hate it, firearms have become too prevalent in the United States to do anything about. It's nice to dream about us getting rid of all of them and starting from scratch, but the genie just isn't going to go back in the bottle.