I don't have any guns so I would not really know. I just thought it was an interesting approach.

@GreatNani if you want a genuine discussion on gun issues, I'm 100% willing bc it seems like you're at least willing to think a bit and consider new ideas.

My main thought on extreme taxes for ammo is it seems like an obvious ploy for significantly decreasing people who can or will exercise a constitutional rights. Thank goddes (Aphrodite seems appropriate here) we didn't tolerate that idiocy when TX tried to close a bunch of abortion clinics with pseudo scientific sounding language and we shouldn't tolerate any agenda to make exercising rights nearly impossible.

IMO the agenda for any right should be increasing responsibility, effective interventions to decrease/change what we want different while maximizing freedoms. I think these are good standards for any discussion from drugs and education to guns and immigration.

I have a few specific thoughts on decreasing gun violence. I also criticize gun enthusiasts for dismissing 30k annual deaths and rarely coming up with anything beyond dismissive talking points aimed at shutting others down.

What is your suggestion?

@GreatNani IMO we should start by changing the discussion around gun violence to mirror how we discuss other problems. Right now we barely discuss informal ways to decrease gun issues.

I'd love to see efforts to increase responsibility among gun owners v always demonizing guns and the NRA

Many gun owners despise the NRA-ILA (their political wing) but few non gun people know the regular NRA is the US's biggest push for gun training, education and safe storage of firearms.

I'm convinced we could cut gun homicides and accidents considerably wt restricting rights for law abiding citizens

A genuine emphasis on mental health, instead of the normal dismissive talking points, should decrease suicides overall and 2/3 of the 30k annual gun detahs are suicide

I agree. People will reload. Just like you say black market. Look at what Al Capone did during prohibition.

@educatedredneck All great ideas and worth implementing but there is a strong correlation between the number of guns per capita in a country and the number of gun deaths; at least in the wealthier countries.
[researchgate.net]

@kmdskit3 I've seen those studies as well. The USA has continued fixating on decreasing guns via decreasing gun rights for a long time....repeating the same thing and expecting different results isn't working so well.

If you want or would tolerate a genuine, nuanced and likely longer discussion, I'm 100% up for that.

Of course, I'll keep asking why do we keep fixating on restrictive legislation as the main or ONLY solution here? We don't have that fixation on legislation while ignoring other interventions with any other problem in recent history...and we know how alcohol prohibition worked out when we tried the pure legislation approach.

Please notice I'm somewhat agreeing with your assertion that more guns = more issues. I bet countries that have extreme penalties for dealing or using drugs have very few overdoes. I'm also not saying legislation has no utility. I'm just saying we restrictive legislation and decreasing rights shouldn't be our focus or primary goal for reducing gun violence.

@educatedredneck Overall, except for a few cities and California, acquiring a gun has gotten easier not harder. We haven't really done much in the way of making gun ownership more difficult much less 'fixating' on it. How many gun laws does the NRA make sure aren't even enforced? Unless the NRA gets neutered I'm not sure anything will change. Another reason I'm wondering if staying here is worth it...

@kmdskit3 again, I mostly agree but nearly all our proposed solutions for gun issues continue revolving around restrictive legislation.

BTW, while many gun owners decry the NRA-ILA's political activities the regular NRA is still the biggest push for gun safety, training and safe storage of firearms we have.

Neutering the NRA won't magically make people here accept sweeping bans and confiscation, which I stated is the key difference between the US and UK/Oz.

I keep asking variants of the same question, why do we fixate on restrictive legislation for gun issues? Why is the evil NRA our biggest push for gun safety? Why doesn't the government and other groups push for education and training for guns when we push those types of interventions with pretty much every other problem?

@kmdskit3 I want to give you a huge, sincere THANK YOU for engaging me several times here.

We need ongoing discussions on all political issues, I promise to continue discussing gun issues, rights, gun laws, interventions, solutions...respectfully as long as anyone is willing to engage me.

I'll acknowledge valid points and dig deeper into what I think is valid then discuss how and why it's good if asked.

I'll also offer specific counter points and criticisms with things I disagree with and can usually back up things I assert but will also acknowledge my own lack of information where appropriate and also acknowledge my own errors