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Why are Americans so against banning guns?

Just wondering. I live in the UK and there isn't really much of a culture about recreational shooting - at least not so much as there is in the US. I just wonder because surely, restricting the ownership of guns would limit the ability of potentially dangerous people getting hold of them and being able to use them. Wouldn't that be worth giving them up for or making them more exclusive?

Update:

What's with all the butt hurt? it was a genuine question, not an attempt at causing offence. I'll take the time to read the studies you've posted.

Update 2:

I know I posted this question ages ago, but I just got round to having a proper look at the answers. I just want to clarify that the question was in no way meant to cause offence or come across as sarcastic. I genuinely didn't understand and hadn't seen any studies regarding the correlation between gun ownership and gun crime. So thank you to those of you that gave me a genuine answer, I understand the issue much better now. Being English I have never read any of the constitutions or ammendments

20 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    7 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Well you have an excuse for not having read the Constitution but never the less you have no understanding of it. With regard to guns I will site the portion that first covered your question.

    Since nobody speaks English like the English please pay attention to the clever precise and carefully chosen wording of it.

    There were two writings of the Second Amendment. The ratified version which makes it part of the Constitution says this. "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

    Notice the first phrase as it declares the a militia (armed populace) is necessary to the security of a free state. That means that the right given to the people in the second phrase is to preserve the freedom and defend it from an overreach government. This is not about recreation.

    The free state is that created by the Bill of Rights which is the first founding document to afford citizens any rights or freedoms. This is not about defending the nation or its territory from outside invasion as the Army and the Navy were created in Article One which should also be thought of as the first order of business to be taken care of.

  • Anonymous
    7 years ago

    People are so against it because it violates the second amendment of the Constitution which gives us the right to bear arms and the right to a militia, but under the circumstances and reasons why it was put into the constitution the first place (to protect the people from a tyrannical government or invasion), it's practicality and use has been questionable given how literally anyone with minimal training literally has the power over another man/woman's life, even if they did nothing wrong. This has shown to be especially true given the number of mass shootings that has occurred the past decade.

    Although, whenever talks about restrictions come up, they only really apply to responsible gun owners. If would-be murderers and criminals can't get guns, then they'd smuggle, steal, and trade for them, or they could alternatively buy them from some shady back-alley cat from the Black Market. With the 3D printer gun debate, that's an entire argument in itself (This is what I would consider a legitimate security issue). Had guns been banned altogether, there's no telling what the result would be. Mexico would be a good example of this.

    Aside for the reasons against it, guns have also proved to be somewhat helpful for the US. If the US were ever invaded, as once stated (Sources say Hirohito, but other's disagree), "There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass", so to validate, guns do contribute to America's security.

    Source(s): Trying to give an unbiased answer based on my background knowledge
  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    "That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law." The Bill of Rights 1689. England.

    The US was only copying what was regarded as a fundamental right and protection against tyranny in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution. The first control Acts were aimed at violent beggars and poachers. In 1870 you had to get a licence to take our gun out of your home. People still had personal handguns into the late 19th century and you will re-call Sherlock Holmes sometimes asks Dr Watson to bring his old Army revolver along. In the early 20th century there was something of a gun mania in the UK as Germany began to be seen as a threat. Youth organisations like the Scouts and Boys Brigade paraded with real rifles, the Railwaymen were famous for their rifle clubs, and shooting ranges were to be found as frequently as golf courses.

    It was not until 1920 that real gun control came in and the Bill of Rights protection was lost. This was against the background of armed Irish insurgency, increasing amounts of armed crime using weapons brought back from WWI, and fear of a Bolshevik style uprising in some of the big cities.

    Culturally the UK had not been a place where one needed personal protection since the early 19th century and the spread of Police Forces. Significantly even the new Police did not carry guns or swords, like their Continental equivalents, but a simple baton (albeit a rather heavy one). Amazingly neither did the first New York police officers. Using firearms was not even part of most criminal culture.

    The USA was different from the start. Most of the Founding Fathers had personally participated in the French-Indian Wars. The Frontier and the hazards of Indians, outlaws and wild beasts were a theme of US history until the late-19th century. Homesteads were often much more isolated and people had to take personal responsibility for their safety. Despite this most people by 1900 only owned a squirrel gun or at most a deer hunting rifle. They did not feel the need to carry concealed weapons in a lady's purse. More than anything Prohibition and its modern equivalent the Drugs War helped create the climate of fear in which people wanted to arm themselves. Have a look at the homicide charts below. Personal weapons are today cheaper than they ever were and gun stores more prolific. The pornography of weapons seems respectable.

    Americans are more likely to commit suicide with their handgun than they are to prevent a crime, it is the most popular form of suicide. Most criminal handguns are stolen from licensed owners. Fear has reached the point where in some States it is dangerous to knock on a door after dark as you may legally be shot as an intruder. In none of the recent mass murders has anyone with a personal weapon made a successful intervention. The places where one is most likely to get killed by an armed offender are the Inner Cities in a Black on Black assault, not the white rural suburbs which feature in NRA propaganda. Guns are not the cause of the USA's high homicide rate, other countries with a hunting culture have widespread gun ownership. The Swiss famously kept their military carbine at home. The reasons are more to do with social factors particularly in the large cities among the ethnic minorities. Rural America, even when dirt poor, does not go shooting its neighbours.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    Because banning guns violates the 2ed Amendment and infringes upon our rights.

    Gun crime actually isn't very high in the U.S. 300,000,000 and around 15,000 homicides annually ( mostly gang related)

    That is 1:20,000.

    And many use guns in self defense.

    Unlike the UK the U.S has always had wide gun ownership so bans only help criminals.

    Most gun crimes occur in places with strict gun laws in the U.S.

    Source(s): Pro gunner/ shooting since 13 when I got my first shotgun.
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  • 7 years ago

    Hello,

    Tip for you, There are Conservatives who are fighting to keep the 2nd intact. There are Liberals...... who are tearing America apart and remove the 2nd Ammendment. The Liberals are also tearing apart our 1st Ammendment... and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We are in doom here. If the Republicans fail to come up a better plan to help our economy and gain democratic voters to vote Republican, by November 2016.... we will be suffering evermore because we will get another Liberal for a President. Thing is,,, we need more Conservatives to get off their butt to Vote **== .

    Also, Republicans nee to have the Majority of the Senate. Republicans now have the Majority of the House. Obama's Party (Democrat) had both the House and Senate his 1st two years in office and still failed. In other words, Obama had Congrees in the palm of his hands then. Even with his Executives orders flying around and bypassing Congress,, he still fails to this day. Conservatives want to keep their Gun Rights. **==

  • ?
    Lv 5
    7 years ago

    Every successive wave of immigrants to the US has dealt with a good deal of government issued racism. It doesn't lead to inspiring thoughts when our government tries to tell us with one breath that we shouldn't own guns. And in the next breath tries to downplay the fact that almost one million civilians were killed by our military in Iraq. It is an attempt to keep our government honest, if at least we can only do that domestically.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    Go take a look at what happened to your violent crime rate after the gun ban and get back to me, in the U.S. there are four times as many defensive gun uses per year as there are gun deaths, and that's the most conservative study, others have put it as high as 10 times as many. Also the U.K. government isn't as likely to call in a bunch of stormtroopers with attack dogs and helicopters and seize your property on behalf of a backroom business deal.

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  • 7 years ago

    Constitutional arguments aside, the population of the UK is 1/6 that of the US, and the space considerations are unimaginable to one from a smaller island.

    Advertised police response time in my town is 42 minutes, You are on your own, with animals, with criminals, and medical emergencies, in many places. It breeds a self sufficiency, (or causes one not to loose it).

    I have been to Europe a couple of times, in several countries, What works for you may not work for us, or for other places.

    Restricting the ownership of guns will restrict owner ship of those who follow laws, and they are not the problem,

    Criminal activity is the problem, with or without guns. Get serious on crime and you will capture those who commit crimes with guns, and not restrict the legal ownership of law abiding people.

  • 5 years ago

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  • 7 years ago

    Partly because of the error that you so easily made: equating more responsible control with banning.

    Most Americans are FOR more gun control 60 - 90 percent.

    74 percent of NRA members supported universal background checks for all firearm sales.

    It is the same ignorant, Conservative 35% percent that live in their own ignorant fantasy world that block progress in this area and ensure decades more of children and other innocents being gunned down.

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