General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Gun culture" begins with parents. Any law that doesn't restrict parents won't change gun culture. [View all]branford
(4,462 posts)the vast majority of legal owners are indeed peaceful, law abiding people.
There are 80-100+ million legal gun owners, with over 1 in 3 American owning at least one firearm. Even with our notoriously high rate of gun crime, this still represents a very tiny fraction of gun owners. More significantly, most gun crime is committed by people who are proscribed from owning firearms and are not part of the 80+ million figure.
That is why when discussing remedies to gun crime and accidents, it is essential not to accuse or imply, as many do, that all these people are essentially heartless (pre-)criminals, and to ensure that the gun control proposals are actually targeted at the people statistically committing the crimes without depriving the law-abiding of their constitutional rights because of the malfeasance, no matter how terrible, of the very, very few.
Every time I read about "gun humpers," "ammosexuals," and similar juvenile and counterproductive drivel on DU, to say nothing of the authoritarian fantasies repealing the Second Amendment and confiscating over 300 million firearms, I sadly know that compromise on any legislation that might actually be helpful, such as universal background checks, becomes far harder to achieve.