The USA has literally more than one mass shooting1 per day. It has reached the point where these don’t even reach the news any longer unless there’s some special angle to make them “interesting”. The reaction to this, from an outsider perspective, should be “maybe we should do something about the proliferation of freely available guns”. The reaction to this, again from an outsider perspective, seems to be rather “OMG I BETTER BUY MORE GUNS!!!111oneoneoneeleventy!”
What gives? How come the USA has not yet figured out that doubling down on the strategy that led to the nation having a shocking murder rate for the developed world is not a working solution?
What is it about the USA and guns that makes you tolerate this state when you’ve got a culturally-similar nation to the north of you that, despite your cultural problems being imported, still doesn’t have your kill rate?
1 Defined as a shooting event in which at least 4 people other than the shooter are injured or killed.
I own two long rifles, three handguns and three AR-15s. (Contrary to popular belief, AR-15s are not assault rifles.) Down in my basement, I have about 50 lbs of various types of gun powder, along with thousands of bullets and maybe about 50k primers. Additionally, I have maybe 20k loaded cartridges total for all of my firearms. When I go to the range, I will expend several hundred rounds in a trip to keep up my practice and maintain my skill.
I was raised around firearms and they have never been a big deal. As far as I know, me or anyone in my family or circle of friends has ever shot up a school or committed a mass murder. When I am out and about, I only carry a firearm if absolutely necessary and that is rare. However, there are some places here in Denver you need to be armed. Period.
I was in the military, I hold a good job and support my family. Since I started my career, I have been in something related to security for as long as I can remember. Now, I am a professional infosec engineer. What I am saying, is that I am a somewhat normal and responsible person.
For me, it’s really about the engineering that is involved in precision shooting at long distances of about 1000 yards or more. The physics is absolutely amazing!
With all of that said, guns do not define who I am. They are a super interesting and fun part of my life, but that is about it. Now, I can go on about what others can do to prevent the wrong people from misusing firearms, but I will pass on that today and talk about me instead.
Why should my rights be restricted because a few other people are idiots? Why go out of the way to punish the millions of responsible owners for the tragic mistakes of others?
At the end of the day, if someone wants to kill others, they are going to do it. Be it with a vehicle, 747 or explosives put together from chemicals obtained at the grocery store, it’s going to happen.
We can throw numbers around about who was killed by what and twist them how we want for the sake of argument. That is a waste of time. If there were several problems that I could identify, it’s the shitty education, shitty mental health service and the horrid law enforcement that is here in the US that are the culprits. This, of course, is the fault of our broken government.
Fix that shit first before you punish citizens that go out of their way to uphold the current laws.
If I could take you to the range for one day with this rifle, you might end up falling in love with the sport as well!
(P.S. I’ve fired larger. Far larger. About 100mm larger, give or take a few mm… The other branch of my 50% hunting family is former military. Including me.)
Sounds like you’ve got a radically different problem than “I NEED GUNZZZZZ!” to solve.
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An AR-15 is a superb hunting weapon, so I am not quite sure where you get your information. 22 caliber is quite good for small deer (when used in the proper circumstances) and 6.5mm and up is great for hogs or the like. It’s perfect for the field and you can easily modify it any way you need to match the environment as you did describe perfectly yourself. I can actually carry an AR pistol as well as my primary rifle while hiking through very rough terrain.
While I appreciate, and even respect, the ELI5 on AR-15s there is much more to know about different calibers and their specific functions.
While ARs can tolerate many of the shitty modifications people do to them, they can be extremely finicky at the same time. A poorly planned hair trigger or full auto mod can cause massive, destructive, malfunctions. Most of the redneck videos you see on YouTube are mostly bullshit. I have broken enough AR parts to know this firsthand.
I should also note that the enjoyment of firearms is not just stick go boom, it’s the engineering precision of it all that I love. The seductive power of it all is great for a bit. However, when that is over, the engineering aspects dominate for me.