How to stop gun atrocities in the USA....

It's a question most of the World has been asking VQ, it seems the Americans are things differently to the rest of us.

sadly a lot of Americans think they still live in the wild west ,and people are dying because of it.They wont see reason and keep saying its written into the constitution..but surely things written IN can just as easily be written OUT .NO civilised country needs gun toting civilians ...most dont have gun toting police.I visit the Scottish Police college on a regular basis ,last year there was a visit from Police based in NY city.They were visibly astounded to see police working WITHOUT guns .When they were taken round Glasgow on a Saturday night they were even more taken aback to see the banter BETWEEN police an drunks and it was said that had any member of their public spoken to a PC like that they'd have been huckled to the floor and handcuffed .Maybe we need more international help from our Police force to show it can be done and that guns aren't a necessity in this century .We live in hope that a;l these mass shootings will come to an end soon

A population of 323 million people, most of whom seem to think that they need to protect themselves from each other with powerful firearms. Perhaps what would stop the killings is for them to learn how people can live together in a civilised country.

There is no way of stopping it because they simply won't have gun control and that is what is needed.
There was a man this morning saying it was a God given right that he could hold firearms!!! (He has a very poor understanding of Christianity- but any amount of Christian teaching won't change it)

I was stunned yesterday to hear an American on breakfast TV say that the way to stop people getting shot in church was for people to take their guns to church!!!

There is nothing else to be said.......

Unbelievable NanaandGrampy - if I hadn't heard it myself!
You can tell the problem from the reaction of Trump- if a Muslim does it he has a lot to say about it but he is remarkably quiet on a white man and a gun and puts it down to mental problems!
He misses the logic that having said there are a lot of people with mental problems the obvious answer is to not let people have guns!

Trump actually made it easier for people with mental health issues to get guns. It used to be one of the few reasons they were refused the right to bear arms.

And the fact that the killer was shot by a passer-by will be taken to prove that everyone should carry a gun.

Mind you, if the constitution is so inviolable, then perhaps it should only apply to the guns available in the 1770s: muskets, flintlock pistols and blunderbusses.

I heard on TV the other day that there are more than 300 million guns in private ownership. People can walk into a gun shop and buy a gun. We can't do that in England. Now, here's the strange part, although we can't buy guns, kids can go into shops and buy fireworks. People cannot do that in America. The sale of fireworks is not allowed. We don't have guns but we allow kids to wander the streets with explosives in their pockets. Work that one out..

The law bans stores from selling fireworks to under-18s, and traders caught flouting the rules face six months' jail or a £5,000 fine.

There was an American on R4 yesterday, (I wish I could remember who, but he was an authoratitive figure) who said that the genie is out of the bottle and there is really nothing they can do about future attrocities.

You took the words out of my mouth Elegran! Unless 18 year olds are still considered to be 'kids'.

I remember seeing a programme not long ago on tv about the sale of guns in America - they have huge supermarkets solely for the purpose of selling hundreds of different types of firearms.

'There was a man this morning saying it was a God given right that he could hold firearms!!! (He has a very poor understanding of Christianity- but any amount of Christian teaching won't change it'; is this the same guy that was talking on Radio 5 the other night/early morning? I didn't catch his name, but the man being interviewed with him just couldn't get his point across that if the gunman hadn't had access to a gun in the first place this wouldn't have happened. I listened to it in disbelief.

I think Americans have loved their guns since Jamestowne in the Virginias. How could they destroy 300m guns? They just need to make new laws to guns.

Selling guns is big business.

Financially supporting presidential campaigns is even bigger business. The NRA have a stranglehold on American politics and, therefore, policies. Any Republican Senator who has benefitted from their support won’t raise a voice in dissent.

It seems impossible to even have the debate in the US.
I agree with ffinnochio. The amount of money the NRA gives to politicians of both parties is staggering and they in turn get hundreds of millions from the gun manufacturers.
The question of how to do it is a difficult one but they are not even debating that. It would probably make things worse before it gets better as happened in Chicago but that seems to me to be a price that the current generation have to pay to make things better for the next.
Those against are speaking more loudly but I can't see it happening any time soon.
It is a massive part of their economy as is making larger weapons which they then seek excuses to use.

This is a bit like young men carrying knives, in case they are knifed only worse!
I appreciate that guns can be useful for vermin, say, or god forbid, war. but at home? Really???

My American friends tell me, that the constitution gives them the right to bear arms in case they need to overthrow an opressive government at any time, as well as for self protection.

They were visiting me last week, they have recently had bear troubles due to fires in the smokey mountain area where they live, the bears are arriving in the town. There are times when a gun is necessary to them.

How prepared are we, to do without sink and drain cleaners and other acids that are being used as weapons now, anyone prepared to undergo a mental health check before buying chemicals for the home? Or maybe before hiring a van?

Swiss people are required to have guns as they have no army. They don't seem to suffer from these shootings.

America is a huge country, with massive problems due to the poverty in many places and social breakdown. We are a small island facing the same proliferation of problems.

I would have a gun if I lived there, I would rather like one here. Kids here carry knives routinely because they are cheap and the kids are afraid, life is becoming very violent.

When we have resolved all our own social issues and violence, I expect the Americans would love our advice, until then..................

Devils advocate?
Has anyone noticed that in our own country, and indeed many others, the real people you want to take the guns off of still have them. The only people who abide by the law are the everyday folk, they handed their gun in under the amnesty. Criminals still have guns - just not so openly.

I think gun culture is absorbed from birth. I cannot for one minute understand the USA logic here but they can't grasp mine either. So it will continue I fear.

Prince Philip once said “You can kill people with a cricket bat, so should cricket bats be banned?” That argument, like “Guns don’t kill people, people do”, never makes sense. Only guns can kill so many, so quickly. Walk into a church with your cricket bat and try to murder 26 people. Even if you’re armed with a knife, you’re not going to be able to kill as many as you can with a gun, particularly if it’s a semi- automatic. Only a gun will allow you to stand at a hotel window and massacre people.

The US has 4.4 per cent of the world’s population and 42 per cent of the world’s guns. It is sad and absurd. I wish that my grandkids over there were living somewhere that didn’t have such appalling amounts of crime and where their schools didn’t have to have drills to teach them what to do if there was a gunman in the school.

My heart bleeds for the victims, particularly the children shot in the head because they were too scared to lie still and play dead. Is this just going to keep happening, or will the American people ever decide that something must be done?

By “crime”, I meant gun crime, of course.

I agree with Kim19 - the right to bear arms isn't just written into their constitution, it's written into their very DNA. How on earth can anyone have a hope of changing the American culture?