therisingblues wrote:Change the second amendment to something along the lines of "Every U.S citizen has the right to live peacefully without the threat of other citizens bearing arms."
Or just get rid of the second amendment altogether and make whatever the third amendment is the second amendment.
Either action will go a long long way to changing their gun culture for the better.
The citizens were given the right to arms to ensure the government was in soughts scared of its citizens, Americans would not give this up, there would be outrage and a no confidence in the government. Although, I think it is ridiculous that Americans seem to believe what was written into their Constitution 100's of years ago will necessarily be applicable forever. IMO the Constitution should be seen as a living document.
You just have to look at snippets of interviews with gun loving rednecks to see how much deeper this issue is than just banning guns. It may be hard to fathom their relationship with guns when you consider how we think of guns in Aus, but solving the problem goes far beyond simple legislative change.
Maybe a recent example in Aus that might have application to the gun control laws in the US is how we have changed our attitude to cigarette smoking. We all know smoking is bad for us, so why not just ban it? Because its just not that simple, by making it illegal you create another list of problems, and problems you can no longer regulate. However, over time we have taken measures to make it quite socially unacceptable to smoke. Slowly our attitudes have changed, and whilst it's still legal to smoke, we are reducing the problem.
Could you imagine in Aus with our drinking culture what would happen if we banned alcohol! We all know it has negative effects on us and society, but we all do it and would be outraged if it was banned. Imagine what the residual problems would be!
Unless absolutely necessary, taking away peoples rights is not the answer.
In this case I think gun control IS absolutely necessary and fewer guns IS the answer, but it is not the first step.
Stop looking at this issue so narrowly, it must be looked at in its proper context.