• Drgon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Lately I’ve been thinking that if congress got shot up as often as schools did, we would have sane gun control with bipartisan support

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      That’s basically how it’s been, only with a very racist bent. Gun control only really became a thing once Black people started arming themselves.

      I agree with you that once people start popping off politicians that we’ll see real change on the matter. And then the right wing will be signaled to fight once they see mass disarmament programs begin, and it’ll be downhill from there.

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        Gun control only really became a thing once Black people started arming themselves.

        Negative. Gun Control in the United States predates the founding of the country and it was both racist and classist from the very outset. As documented in that link Gun Control laws have been around for over 200 years and were instituted against Blacks but also against the Irish, the Chinese, and Native Americans.

        Your comment is based on The Mulford Act, a stupid and racist piece of California legislation passed with bi-partisan effort and signed by then Governor Ronald Reagan in response to publicly armed Black Panthers. It wasn’t even close the first serious gun control law to get passed.

        For instance Mulford was modeled on The Sullivan Act enacted by New York State in 1911. It intentionally targeted Italian immigrants, another distinct minority at the time.

        This country has ALWAYS enacted Gun Control in response to racial and class elements.

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Okay, fair, my bad. You’re right.

          Also holy shit, why would any reasonable person support stupid shit like gun control in that light?

          • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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            1 year ago

            Also holy shit, why would any reasonable person support stupid shit like gun control in that light?

            In yesterday’s society it was to protect the wealth and position of the Upper and Middle classes. In today’s society it’s because it seems like an obvious response to things like Mass Shootings and Gun Crime. The hidden in plain sight truth though is that modern day Gun Control proposals are doing the same thing as yesterday’s Gun Control proposals because if you have enough money they will not apply to you.

            Pass a new Federal Assault Weapons Ban? No problem for the wealthy, they’ll just drop $20,000 on a pre-ban machine gun that can be legally transferred to them. Pass a Federal “Red Flag” law? They don’t care as they know it’ll never be enforced against them; their connections, money, and lawyers will see to it. Federal UBC? Again, no worries as their connections, money, and lawyers all make sure they won’t be impacted. Remove the 2nd Amendment and ban the private ownership of firearms? No worries, the bodyguards surrounding them and their families will still be armed, just like they are everywhere else in the world.

            What makes it even more stupid is that no direct causal link between the number of guns in circulation and the amount of “Gun Crime”, however you define that, has ever been shown. In fact the data shows something very different than the reality most people believe in.

            The household ownership rate has been bouncing around the low to mid 40s since 1972.. The population of the US grew from 240M in 1972 to 322M in 2014 too, so that 40% household ownership rate includes an addition 80 Million people.

            The number of NICS (Federal Background Checks) in the United States quadrupled from 10 Million per year to 40 Million per year between 1998 and 2020.

            Meanwhile Intentional Homicide fell from it’s high of 9.82 in 1991 to 4.4 in 2014, a decrease of 50%. Gun Crime specifically peaked in 1993 and then declined by 49% over the next 20 years.

            In short US Citizens bought a SHIT ton of guns starting in the 90s and tens of millions of new owners were added as our population grew…all while both Violent and Gun Crime continued to drop. We have a problem for sure, but it ain’t the number of guns in circulation.

              • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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                1 year ago

                It’s a good theory and one that I bought into as well but the statistics should have stayed down if that was the cause. Since they didn’t there must have been another factor.