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Old 10-11-17, 07:37 AM   #10
malvachat
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Oxford uk
Posts: 1,409
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazer View Post
Many gun-owning Americans support this point of view. Incidentally, so does federal law. An assault rifle (this term has a precise definition in law) is not available to the average American since it qualifies as a machine gun, and machine guns have been heavily restricted for three decades. The term you used—assault weapon—is harder to pin down in legal terms. It is essentially any semi-automatic rifle with certain cosmetic features which make it no deadlier than a simple hunting rifle. There are military assault rifles but, respectfully malva, a 'military assault weapon' is not a thing.

I agree that proper checks are necessary. We may disagree what a proper check is, and as we've recently learned, even proper checks fail to catch everybody. Sadly, the Texas shooter this week had passed a background check despite his disqualifying history of violent crime. And the Las Vegas shooter passed every background check as well because he had no criminal past to speak of. After a month we still don't know his motive. Perhaps a psychological evaluation would have somehow indicated his intentions, but to me, requiring a psych-eval for gun buyers with no marks against them would be improper. For the government to limit a basic human right requires a damn good reason, and the remote possibility that any one gun might be used to commit a crime isn't a good enough reason, given the vast majority of guns are never aimed at people (that's rule #1 of gun safety, after all).

By the way, I'm not proud of what I said to albed, but I'm glad you got a kick out of it.
Quite right name calling is not something to be proud of.
As to this gun thing.
Of course I don't know the details of what guns are what.
I have used a shotgun years ago.
Also I used a firing range in the USA many years ago for the experience.
I can't say I liked it really.
I know it's in the DNA of many,Americans this love of guns.
It's just not something I can get my head around.
Surly something needs to be done not just repeating the same old arguments over and over again.
As to owning a gun being a "basic human right"
I find that hard to understand that sort of thinking
Britain's police on the whole are still unarmed.
Despite all the troubles in the world most police want to keep it that way.
We do have armed response units which may need expanding in the present climate but I'm not really in favour of more guns on the street.
There is gun crime in Britain but not enough to justify arming all of our police.
It's a debate that we in Britain maybe shouldn't get involved in concerning American.
A country that has so many great things going for it's way of life.
Lets it's self down with this issue I feel.
But we have a phrase here in Britain.
"Non players stay off the green"
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