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[Kayin]

I feel bad because we're buying a bunch of 40 round AK-47 magazines before any ban can come down. Magazine limitations are something I find to be a reasonable restriction, but at the same time, hey if I can still get them for now, I'm getting them. D: This is kinda the problem with not having a buyback program, but that's not really feasible.

Also I found this, which is a great illustration about the difficulty of assault weapon bans. These are all the same guns. They're all semi automatic. They all accept magazines. They all shoot the same round. The only difference is one looks a lot more like an assault weapon and is slightly easier to mount obnoxious accessories too. This isn't a weird situation either.

The Truth About Semi-Auto Firearms

This is also a decent video describing part of the problem. Most stuff I've found is... way too rednecky, but while this clearly has it's bias, it doesn't really seem to bend the truth.

[Malikial]

*with hi-cap magazines omgomgomg

We own half a dozen pistols and every one that we own except the revolver has hi-cap magazines....

[Disposable Ninja]

I've been thinking. The only way we're ever going to have a meaningful discussion about gun control is if there's a mass shooting at a gun show.

On the other hand that could just be my desire for schadenfreude.

[Bal]

I think that might be the one situation where pulling a gun on a bunch of gun owners would go exactly as the gunwank lobby would have you believe.

[Healy]

There's been a really good discussion here about gun control (especially Kayin's blogpost about assault weapons). What I'm wondering is, would any of you responsible gun owners like to write to your representatives about this? I feel like this kind of information would do some real good if more people were aware of it, especially people who need to make the laws that will prevent these mass shootings from happening again.

[Catloaf]

So basically, the NRA has too much power and any legislator who isn't bought off by them is ill-informed so the situation is ultimately hopeless.

Or did I read the last few pages incorrectly?

[Kayin]

Pretty much, Catloaf.

I think I have the same feeling toward the NRA as like, thoses Vegans or animal rights people do that trash PETA. It's like "Yeah we share a cause, but those people are crazy and embarrassing". I was talking to my father today about this, who has been a long time NRA member. Like, dude, they're making you look like a fool. You're a member, more people like you should tell them to STOP UNDERMINING THEIR CAUSE. If I was paying dues to the NRA, I'd be even more furious. I'm not sure what sick reality you have to exist in to say all the things they have recently said and think that those positions would help protect gunrights in America. If anything, it's going to cause the hilariously uninformed to double down their efforts. I can't even blame them -- how can you trust anything ANYONE says about guns when the main firearm mouthpiece of America wants registries for peoples mental health instead of for peoples guns?

While I think the rational thing to do as a politician would be in depth self education, the SECOND most logical thing, unfortunately, is to just assume all these peoples are crazy liars! While I think a lot of pro-gun bitterness over the years HAS come from poorly thought out laws and regulation, nothing excuses going this far off the deep end.

Maybe you're right Healy, maybe Is should write some letters. I'm generally pretty cynical about that aspect of the political system, But I'm going to consider it.

[Thad]

Remember, postal mail and phone calls work a lot better than E-Mail.

Unfortunately I'm inclined to agree that they won't have much of an impact -- but hey, it couldn't hurt.

[Rico]

It's a complicated problem, but not so complicated that legislators couldn't inform themselves, nor would it take that much time for them to do so. The only thing keeping fixes from moving forward is raw constituency numbers.

[Thad]

Mother Jones has A Non-Gun-Owner's Guide to Guns.  Mostly stuff already covered in the thread, but could be a handy resource for people.  I think it's geared more toward bloggers and reporters than politicians, though.

[Catloaf]

Mother Jones has A Non-Gun-Owner's Guide to Guns.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have any useful statistics for gun violence.  But apparently it's actually really hard to find such data that is actually accurate and/or specific and/or up-to-date.  Nope, you only get one of those three at best.

[Kayin]

The individual statistics shouldn't be a big matter here anyways. But just some general trends you'll find..

*Gun violence is going down
*Mass violence has been following the same raising trajectory for some time
*Handgun counts for the vast majority of gun crimes
*The cartels don't smuggle in illegal guns. They get them from US.
*So while it's hard to tell how many crimes are committed with 'legally owned' guns, criminal weapons come from legal sources, be it through theft or gangs using their girlfriends to purchase weapons(a thing that really happens).
*Class 2 and 3 weapons have virtually no crime.

The exacts don't matter because a lot of this is a civil liberty question. Just because doing something would in theory save more lives doesn't mean we should do it. Banning pools would save lives. The issue is the sliding scale of Civil Liberties <-> Security and no one agrees where that slider should be.