Florida transwoman still in process to transition. Guns are a necessity for many deals of life and in many pockets in the US, where armed police still take a long while, where patrols are limited, and where crazy people with a hardon for "the day of the rope" threaten what little peace and security every minority group has.
It's no secret that these crazies tend to be heavily armed, and they also tend to be riled up by politics and their poor choice of media. The gist of my experience with guns are mostly handguns, some long rifles, including the ar-15 platform. Up to last year, I owned a Beretta 92fs, that was bought to protect myself in areas I was uncertain of, or certain were dangerous.
The majority of deaths are by handguns. They are relatively easy to conceal, ammunition and the gun itself are cheap abd plentiful. In recent years though, semiauto rifles have been used beyond hunting, in vicious crimes.
My thoughts on the matter can be summed up as somewhere in the middle. A better system to keep track of guns owned by whom, a system to quickly and easily report losses or theft, and regulation of rifles, linked to a hunting license. Semiauto rifles play a valuable part in hunting for small game and medium sized game both. Deer need to be culled or they will need to uncontrollable numbers and push into roads, often killing people who drive into them. Boar cause damage to crops, fenceline and smaller livestock, and are aggressive and deadly. Being able to follow up a shot with another ensures that the animals do not suffer needlessly, and ensures that they don't escape to continue doing what they do.
Handguns, conversely, are the great equalizer. Because police cannot be relied upon to protect and serve as a cohesive whole, and because people with ill will exist, people still need to be able to protect themselves.
This brings other problems with our. Parents or children killed by children who play with it like a toy, because the parent did not lock it up enough, or was concealed carryibg and not losing attention enough, all are mostly preventable. Regulation of training, local databases for a registry only accessible by warrant by federal authorities, or consistently checked by police to ensure that the gun is in working order and secured... Securely, would be the best bet.
More generally, moving everything to computers and having a consistent data base for background checks would reduce waoting periods for things while also making it more consistent in denying people who should not have guns. Doing it in localities would provide extra steps for the federal government to gain access without significantly reducing efficacy.
The most pressing thing is that politicians don't bother learning about guns on one side, and on the other, don't bother learning about ways to adequately tamp down on gun deaths. Where yes, I am of the opinion that banning guns outside of designated hunting zones would work in practice and on paper, i also think that is politically impossible.
The causes of purposeful gun violence stem from abuse, myriad mental conditions, and survival. Proper economic development and a strong safety net, lead free water, and universal Healthcare with the ability to get people consistently treated whether they think they need it or not (when it is extreme) could do more to combat gun violence than attempting to ban guns at this moment every will without significant changes to our political makeup.
Edit: phone is a terrible way to post this.
