Gun violence
My heart breaks— I can’t even keep up with these #massshooting crises in the US. I’m just sick.
Other countries have mental health problems. Other countries have video games. Other countries have bullies, incels, rap music, atheism, neglectful parents, and every other factor we hear. What other countries DON’T have is a definitional blurring between high-capacity bullet sprayers and small self-defense pieces. #Guns should be limited purpose tools of necessity, not power fetishes.
Gun Law
@LouisIngenthron thank you for your informative post. I should’ve clarified what I meant by blurring the line, but was both emotional and at the character limit. I was referring in more of a psychological and sociological sense; the gun’s place in our society. What we think of when we think of gun ownership and gun rights here, and what we’ve normalized, what’s aspirational, and so forth, which seems out-of-step with the norms of other countries.
Gun Law
@AmberWavesofFlame Fair. Although it certainly seems like, especially in the last decade or two, guns are going the way of cigarettes in the cultural subconscious.
Gun Law
@AmberWavesofFlame Other countries absolutely have mid-range weapons. Just off the top of my head:
The Israelis invented the Uzi, an automatic weapon with the form-factor of a pistol.
The Spanish & Brazilian governments both made a bunch of select-fire Mauser pistols.
The British produced the STEN, a full-auto weapon that fired standard 9mm pistol rounds.
And for something more recent, we have the P90, known for being compact and having an extremely fast firing speed, coming out of Belgium.
US Law is actually pretty good about drawing a clear line in the sand between semi-automatic and fully-automatic weapons, making all of the above illegal for regular citizens in the US. Which is why loophole devices, like bump-stocks, remain so contentious.