I'll give my take on some of this. I'll say it again to be clear. I have guns and intend to keep them.
I'm very disappointed that he US congress passed a law that federal money cannot be used to actually study gun violence. That means we don't know what we are talking about because we don't have data to back it up, we can only assume. Even what data we can get is tainted because there are no standard terms for what the categories are. Something can mean one thing in one state but something different in another when there is data to start with, often there is not. Reporting is often not mandatory. You often compare apples and oranges.
With this lack of data those that do try to study it see little actual difference in death by guns in crimes with the variation of open carry, concealed carry, or ease of having guns in a state. They give different reasons for that. Of course there is no real data to back that up but it seems to be a trend. Where they do see a huge increase in death by guns where guns are easy to get is in suicides. There are mixed feelings on how much difference ease of having guns make in crimes of passion, mainly family disputes. I thought those would go up but that’s not a given.
In reading up on it there seems to be two things that left wing and right wind constitutional law experts agree on. We have a right to bear arms. The government does have the right to set limits on that right to bear arms. This is where all the disagreement in constitutional law experts comes from, what are the limits on those limits.
Locks are to keep honest people honest. Laws are for the law-abiding but they at least make it possible to punish some people for doing something stupid. At least they are guidelines of what is acceptable behavior. You are never going to stop something from ever happening again. You are dealing with people, mental health is not that precise a field, anyone that wants a gun can get a gun. But just because you will never stop a mass killing from ever happening again doesn’t mean you quit trying. Your goal should not be to stop each and every one, it should be to stop one. Even stopping one is a success.
I believe background checks and requiring training before you carry in public are reasonable steps to prevent one and make us all safer.
