General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why does anybody need more than 7 bullets at a time? [View all]sofa king
(10,857 posts)I simply cannot see how to take away these weapons. We just don't know where many of them are--like millions and millions of them.
The President and Congress could make all weapons capable of holding seven or more rounds illegal by the end of next week, and demand their return, but all that would do is create millions of new criminals, and lower their inhibitions against using such weapons, because now they're already criminals.
The President's executive actions this week, of which I applaud, will go a long way toward making such a move possible in the far distant future, when a majority of these weapons change hands and are recorded in a better record keeping system than the disparate and unconnected ones we use today.
Until then I continue to see the situation as one in which guns of any type cannot be practically controlled.
But we can easily and dramatically change our society for the worse with a stroke of a pen by decreeing that such weapons are illegal, or cannot be sold. That will merely create new criminals out of whole cloth, instantly create an enormous black market and a huge demand, and effectively shuffle the gun pool under the table so that future efforts to track the weapons are rendered impossible, because hidden, illegal weapons will emerge every day for decades or centuries to come.
I would love for someone to show me a proposed mechanism by which the actual, current situation is addressed (aside from what the President has just done, which I think is a very good start). Maybe someone can provide examples of partial disarmament in other countries with representative government. I am not claiming to be an expert of any sort, but I do not think that I am underestimating the magnitude of the problem and the effort which will be required to exert any positive control over it.