modern gun control jurisprudence started in 2008. The way to uncomplicate gun control is to ban whole categories like semi-auto and require licensure for ownership of any gun. we uncomplicate things by broadening not by diving into obfuscating details. we regulate plenty of things more complicated
I mean it didn't actually. that's just a false statement. the whole individual right to bear arms thing is quite new but gun laws related to what qualifies as a firearm and how accessories are regulated and when and how they might be carried do go back centuries
and the you're simply not going to ban semi automatics without completely changing the supreme Court or the constitution. categorical bans like that are unconstitutional under present law.
In a year or three SCOTUS is going to have to rule on the constitutionality of the NFA as a whole, and I think that'll be the point when the rubber meets the road. The fact that SCOTUS hasn't chimed in on the new assault-style weapons bans, yet, may or may not mean something.
New constitution is the floor if we’re ever gonna make this continent livable again
I get what you’re saying, but the list of our constitutional rights that have been trampled and ignored is so big and discarded as the whims of those in power it wouldn’t be a hindrance to someone in power committed enough.
Banning them is a nonstarter for lots of people. But it shouldn't be impossible to simply make them so expensive and cumbersome to own (i.e. mandated home safety inspections, heavy taxes, long license approval timelines) that it significantly slows the ability/desire to acquire them.
that just makes them even more inaccessible to already vulnerable minorities, domestic violence survivors and the working class which makes them all the easier to oppress because they can’t defend their communities and then there is still nothing to stop a bored rich kid from going on a rampage.
gun control laws were initially put into place to deter the Black Panther Party and the Black Power movement after all and such a decision to make them more expensive would only serve to further prevent a people’s revolt. an armed minority however is more difficult to oppress.
Ok you say that *should* be possible. Is this based on any knowledge of what's been tried and passed constitutional muster?
California is trying the heavy taxes approach, and fighting that in the courts right now. Requiring home visits by law enforcement is unlikely to pass constitutional muster. Waiting periods exist and are one of the most proven effective methods of reducing certain kinds of gun deaths
Now the issue is waiting periods only reduce some kinds of gun deaths. They don't really stop for example dedicated spree killers or terrorists but they can reduce deaths from people who are suicidal or domestic abusers acquiring a weapon in a moment of passion
Once you finally succeed in writing a law that selects for high performance rifles your reward is blowing the ghost gun problem sky high.
A whole 'nother issue is the raw # of these weapons already floating around the country. The only country I'm aware of that actually manage to handle this is Australia (successful gov't "buy-back" program, because Aussies don't share our collective death wish -- or at least they didn't back then)
So we need rhe US to do what it does best, steal a black persons Idea and Chris Rock this shit. The guns will STARVE.
I spent literal decades explaining why the AR-15 was banned and the Mini 14 was not, and how they are functionally equivalent, and why the legislation must be specific and encompassing...
Waiting periods work just fine for legal purchasers who have been "thinking about doing something" for months or years. Additionally there are plenty of weapons that can be borrowed or stolen.
do we know if offering eye-wateringly high payments for people to hand in their guns would work?
I'm not sure we've even tried sustained periods of mediocre payments. When I've looked at buyback programs in the past, I think they only lasted like three days at a time
And do nothing for those who take/borrow/steal guns from their friends and family
And worth noting: ~60% of all gun deaths in the US are suicides. Preventing as many of them as possible is a very valid and noble intent for gun control!
I could easily see them stopping quite a few school shootings. Making someone wait weeks, and truly confront what they’re about to do, doesn’t get enough credit for potentially causing people to chicken out.
I feel like the biggest problem facing a lot of American issues is the concept of the Constitution as an inviolate monolith that must only be worshipped, never changed. Y'all need a new foundational document if you want to unfuck some of these issues.
Great news about the Constitution: it was designed to be amended!
This take feels a little dated. It turns out Americans can stop caring about the constitution whenever we want.
Preaching to the choir.
Hypothetical limit for all weapons sold to single action, non-semi-auto with required minimum force or travel distance to re chamber a round. (FRTs etc prove that trigger pull quanta is nonsense method of measurement)
I agree that waiting periods are a good stop Gap approach that prevent the vast majority of gun deaths, suicides. I do still think they're a stopgap but stop gaps are better than nothing. while I want broader regulation gun control advocates should take what we can get where we can, pragmatism wins
It was found in Canada and Australia that suicidal males who were unable to obtain firearms hung themselves instead, so it's disingenuous to say that lack of access prevents suicides. It prevents suicide by firearm.
suicide by firearm is much more dangerous than other methods because of its almost guaranteed success. there's a reason we banned the kind of stoves that you could stick your head in and asphyxiate yourself. ease of action is very important in suicide cases and hanging yourself isn't as easy.
Studies do not bear out the idea that reducing access to firearms reduces suicide rates. Studies do not show this, AT ALL. You do not reduce suicide rates by reducing access to firearms. You reduce the rate of suicide by firearm.
Yes I was specific when I said "gun deaths"
This is flatly untrue. Studies show clearly that you can reduce overall suicide rates by restricting gun access, and people do not simply switch to other methods.
help prevent*
Nope, not in the US anyway. There are blueprints abroad, but I’m certainly no conlaw person to speak on feasibility.
I think you could make an argument to push back the start of modern gun control to 1934, but Heller in my view is a better starting point because without the individual right broader gun control legislation becomes more possible, like the handgun law in contention in heller.
for instance, accessories were not regulated until the NFA, a technological reality as much as a legal one, as you probably know better than I do. it is true concealment and where a gun could be carried is as old as the country. but those regulations aren't in contention here. classifying guns is.
The kind of broad regulation that would actually have a meaningful impact was made impossible by Heller and bruen. frankly, it's a miracle that the NFA has survived this long. whatever turmoil is coming in this country and anyway we find out of it will necessitate a broad political reset.
part of that reset is going to be a fundamental reconfiguration of the American constitutional order, including the supreme Court and the current amendment system. to put it plainly, America on the other side of fascism, if we get there, will not have the current supreme Court and it's jurisprudence
our lack of gun control is not because we havent found the right legal framework for regulating guns. Americans simply don't want to regulate guns and any regulation, poorly written or well written, is picked apart by those who still want unrestricted gun access. it is a matter of political will