Gun control

[21Kid]

I think when it's a law regarding a tool designed to kill, it should be important enough for a nationwide law. IMO, of course.

[speedpimp]

Our elected officials are too worried about not getting re-elected if they voted for such legislation.

[Jason]

Because getting 50 states with 50 different opinions to agree on anything is incredibly difficult, and none of the states are particularly enthused when the Federal government steps in and starts barking orders. Not unexpectedly, the states that will be most resistant to new control (of any type) laws will be even more resistant when it's the Feds creating them.

"State Rights" is one of our country's biggest roadblocks in joining the developed world in multiple areas.

[Godson]

... and exactly why the idea of "commonsense policies" are so bloody difficult to create much less enforce.

The problem is obvious. The solution is not.

Are you reading my mind or something?

[Alan P]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Make all the guns pink with flowers on them and they won't be half as popular.

[Alan P]

Our elected officials are too worried about not getting re-elected if they voted for such legislation.

And therein lies part of the problem. Politicians more concerned with getting re-elected than doing what's right.

[thesameguy]

"State Rights" is one of our country's biggest roadblocks in joining the developed world in multiple areas.

It is, but there really isn't a good solution. It's a lot of land and a lot of very different people. Comparing America against *most* of the developed world is pretty rough - we have a lot more going on. Throwing everything we have under one roof might be just as ineffective as 50 little ones. Reading car forums like I do I am blown away by the sheer outrage folks in Michigan have over the wacko stuff we Californians do, etc. I think it's entirely possible one of the reasons we've all been able to stick together is the solace afforded to "locals" being able to band together under the roof of statehood and feel that they aren't being affected by nutjobs 1000 miles away. I don't think applying the template of Europe, Japan, or Australia is really all that useful. In composition, we're more like the EU than any discrete European nation. And we don't get along internally any better than they do, for the same reasons.

[Dicknose]

And therein lies part of the problem. Politicians more concerned with getting re-elected than doing what's right.

That is true in most democracies.

I think TGS and Jason are closer to why this is a harder problem to solve in the USA than other countries. States rights is a nice idea, but most other countries deal with "big issues" at a federal level.

[21Kid]

Background Check Flaw Let Dylann Roof Buy Gun, F.B.I. Says

WASHINGTON — The man accused of killing nine people in a historically black church in South Carolina last month should not have been able to buy the gun he used in the attack, the F.B.I. said Friday, in what was the latest acknowledgment of flaws in the national background check system.

A loophole in the system and an error by the F.B.I. allowed the man, Dylann Roof, to buy the .45-caliber handgun despite having previously admitted to drug possession, officials said.

[Godson]

And there you have it. More laws don't make it better. We need better screening.