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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29424 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 19, 2024

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Changing the 2nd Amendment now would likely be a bad idea for the simple reason that there are already so many guns in the US that there is no plausible way that simply getting rid of the 2nd Amendment would lead to any outcome than a bunch of pro-social people handing in their guns while a huge fraction of anti-social people keep them.

That's where I stand. It seems to have worked in Australia, but it's much easier to smuggle guns into the US.

I'm fine with background checks to hopefully forestall some of the impulsively murdersome and going back to the assault weapons ban. The book should continue to be thrown very forcefully at people who use guns in the commission of a crime.

I wonder how many guns involved in crime are originally purchased by shady elements versus upstanding citizens who turn into shady elements. Like that maine shooter, the army knew the guy was clearly fucked in the head and openly talking about doing a shooting, they even wrote down "don't give this guy guns anymore", and yet no one bothered taking away the guns that the military guy obviously still had?

The breakdown of guns that were stolen and guns that were straw purchased changes based on location, time, etc.

I looked up similar stats recently. According to an ATF study somewhere between 58% and 87% of gun crimes were committed by someone other than the purchaser. This next stat is somewhat old (2004), but probably still reasonably reliable. About 43% are bought off the street, 12% are bought from legal markets, 25% are consensually given by a family member or friend, and 8% are stolen - Source 1, Source 2.

I wonder how many guns involved in crime are originally purchased by shady elements versus upstanding citizens who turn into shady elements.

This question seems malformed.

My understanding is that the large majority of guns involved in crime which begin their involvement in crime immediately after purchase are purchased by either criminals or by the criminally-adjacent for those criminals, and that almost no guns are bought by upstanding citizens who then subsequently turn to crime with their legitimately-purchased firearm. But this excludes the guns that were purchased by upstanding citizens for legitimate use, used legitimately, and are then stolen or otherwise transferred years or decades later, unwittingly, to criminals for use in crime.

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