Does America have a gun problem
Does America have a gun problem? I'm from Europe so this is from European perspective opinion. Does it makes sense to ban guns or heavily regulate them or is there a better solution to make sure that mass shootings never happen again.
A couple of days ago March for our lives was held, requesting tighter regulations on guns. Many signs I saw were calling to ban assault rifles, but assault rifles are already banned, arguably since 1986. Many had problems with AR - 15 rifle which is semi-automatic, which means that it fires one round per trigger pull. I don't understand the problem with this gun because they are far 'worse' guns legal than this gun. In 2012, Barrack Obama ordered the agency to review existing studies on causes of and ways to reduce gun violence. CDC reported that between 500,000 to 3 million per year guns were used for defensive purposes. That number definitely should not be overlooked when deciding on what kind of restrictions on guns is going to be. About 30,000 people are killed per year using guns, which about 60 percent are suicides. And here is the graph of gun deaths compared to other countries.
I know most of this is sparked by mass shootings, which accounts for about 1 % of deaths by guns per year. Many do mention the UK which after 1996 school shooting made tighter restrictions on guns and say that after that there were no more school shootings, but don't mention that mass shootings were not existing before tighter restrictions on guns. Switzerland doesn't have this issue and has guns in almost every household. Even in the USA number of mass shootings is going down. Maybe it's not a problem of gun availability, certainly horrible stuff will happen if guns are easily available but maybe there is another solution to this problem without harsh restrictions on guns.
Certainly, they are things that can be done without outright banning guns. Stop reporting the names and faces of criminals that do it, research shows that it could decrease the number of mass shootings. Of course tighter background checks, which I've been told that its the case already. I'm sure that they are many other things that can be done without banning guns or even arming school teachers.
I should mention that 2 amendment in the USA exists sorta to keep the government in check to not go tyrannical on its people, a pretty good reason not to ban guns, I'd say. I would say its more about mental health issues, then anything else. Should work on a solution with that on the mind. There needs to be a solution to this problem to make sure that it never happens again. I don't think the USA has a gun problem, a gun culture certainly. Those who do not like guns, there right is to fight to ban them, I personally don't like guns too, but allowing to be banned is not good for freedom than the question is whats next.
Here you will find links to information that helped me form my opinion: https://libertydotreport.wordpress.com/2018/03/28/american-gun-problem-my-opinion/