Living in the UK, we have legal firearms here. My job includes providing information on licences to the police who are responsible for the decision to issue them. I have no issues with legal firearms being used for hunting and also for sport.
I type this due to two videos recently released in the US about the lack of gun controls.In the UK, in 1996, following the mass shooting in a school, a ban on handguns was imposed. Before this, following a mass shooting in 1987, semi-automatic weapons had been banned. Since then, we have had incidents where the murder of more than one person has occurred, but these have been relatively rare, one example being, how Derrick Bird killed many innocent people, followed by the murderous rampage of Raoul Moat. But this was in 2010 and while mass murder has occurred since then on several occasions, firearms have not been used as frequently to kill as many as occurs in the USA. Gun crime exists here, but the rates are far lower than in nations like the USA, just like how the overall murder rate in the USA is higher than in other developed nations.
The call in the USA by many is for assault weapons to be banned. Those who are against it cite the second amendment to the US constitution which allows the right to bear arms. But this was made in a time when a well trained person would take almost a minute to shoot three times.
I have discussed this with my wife, and she is of the view that nothing will change in the USA. And to be fair, she may be right. Despite the murder of many young children in Sandy Hook, assault weapons are still legal, and this is probably due to the campaign contributions made by organisations like the NRA to protect the right of Americans to have assault rifles, though this has meant the continued murder of children in schools. Something that does not happen anywhere near as often outside the USA.
There is an argument for firearms to be used to defend schools in the USA, but they forget how Scot Peterson was the "Good Guy with a Gun" at the Parkland mass shooting affecting the Stoneman Douglas High School.
Others point to mental health being an issue, not guns, but we have mental health issues in the UK and other nations without mass shootings. Also the party in the US associated with fighting against Gun Controls, has also worked to limit access to healthcare.
Thoughts and Prayers will not reduce the level of gun violence in the USA, action to bring in sensible gun controls will.
