[0762]

0762, Chicago’s gun control laws actually do work, its a lot harder now to buy a gun there.  Problem is the cities and states around Chicago do not have the same strict laws, so if you want to buy a gun you just go over the border to a different city or state and bingo, you have a gun!!!  I lived there for 12 years and have number of friends there who are big hunters, this is exactly what they could do if they were new to a gun license.  The only way their stricter gun laws will be effective is if other cities and states around them follow suit.

The “I have a gun to protect myself” line that gun advocates use all the time is also a total fabrication.  It is rare that someone uses a gun to defend or protect themselves to any effect and if they did it would probably end up them getting into a far serious situation!!  You are right about the obsession Americans have with guns, it stems from the Wild West, a time that was actually just over 100 years ago, so its still relatively recent in European terms!!  The NRA are the main problem to any changes as you state, Trump can say whatever he wants but he will never get the votes to actually change the law.  Lobby money and campaign donations laws probably need to change first to reduce their influence on key senate and house elections.

There is no way you can ban guns in the US, will never happen, but you can put control measures in place that will restrict certain weapons and certain people from having them.  Other countries with high gun ownership don’t have the same rate of deaths as the USA, I can’t help thinking that the American attitudes to each other is partly to blame as well as mental health and lax gun laws.  Americans seem to accept killing each other far more than other societies in the world and thats something that needs to change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43352078
And Florida signs up to new gun control laws. OK, it may not work but at least it is a step forward in recognising the problem and trying to deal with it effectively. The NRA reaction just confirms what an insidious group the America public are dealing with and this obsession with the gun and it's capability of killing other fellow human beings not just in the USA but worldwide as, on home UK soil, the British govt sells 40 typhoon jet fighters to Saudi Arabia!!!!?????? I despair and spit on some of the people/politicians who have dared to utter some form of justification to do this! It is a case of 'being bought off' with dosh, pure n simple, with no principles or values whatsoever and 'turning a blind eye' to the mass casualties of supplying ordnance etc to these countries.