What Should We Do About Guns? | 5 Minute Video

Would stricter gun laws reduce gun violence? Could gun control measures in places like Australia work in America? Nicholas Johnson, professor of Law at Fordham University, explains.

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Script:

The next time you hear a politician call for “common sense gun control,” listen for the details.

You are likely to be treated to a torrent of platitudes about assault weapons, gun show sales and other half-measures.

These sorts of proposals are rooted in a theory of gun control that has been around since the 1960s. The basic idea is that fewer guns equal less gun crime.

But for this theory to have even a chance of working, drastic reductions in the supply of guns will be necessary. Everything else amounts to security theatre.

The late Senator Howard Metzenbaum, a strong gun control advocate, explained it this way: “If you don’t ban all guns you might as well ban none of them.”

But few, if any, politicians who call for “common sense gun control” have the courage to propose this.

Even putting aside the issue of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which affirms the right to keep and bear arms, a gun ban has no broad popular support. Never mind the conservative states, handgun ban referendums failed in two of our most liberal states - Massachusetts in 1976 and California in 1982 – by large margins. No serious attempts have been made since then.

Recently Australia’s gun control efforts have gained new prominence as a possible model for the United States to follow.

Let’s take a closer look at Australia.

In 1996, after a lunatic used a semiautomatic rifle to murder 34 people in Tasmania, the Australian government banned all semi-automatic rifles and repeating shotguns.

Owners of roughly 700,000 registered firearms – about a quarter of the country’s three million total guns – were required to turn them in for destruction. The government called this a “buyback,” but in fact no one had a choice.

As my research shows, this model will not work in the United States for the simple reason that the US has roughly 325 million guns. This is orders of magnitude more than any other country. Even if the Australian plan were tried in the US and worked to perfection, we’d still be left with over 200 million guns, including handguns which account for nearly 80 percent of gun crime.

[waitosnanke]

Here on brazil we have 5% the guns that the US has and 5x more crimes

[huehue]

Guns are forbidden in Brazil and every thug has one, the ban just works against good and honest people.

[NGHTSVN]

Like I've always said
Murder is illegal, but it still happens
Rape is illegal, but it still happens
Robbery is illegal, but it still happens
Abduction is illegal, but it still happens
Now the definition of a criminal is someone who does not abide by the laws.
If they made gun control a law, then good people who just want to defend themselves would lose their weapons. But remember the definition of a criminal. Criminals do not follow the law, so guess what, they'd still have assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons because they don't care about the law. They will just buy their guns from the black market. Gun control will do absolutely nothing to stop the problem. It'll just probably make it worse

[mudpuddle]

What should we do about guns? Three things, in this order:
Clean them,
Lubricate them,
Load them.

[dantemaule]

They're say guns kill but in Brazil where only one percent of the people have arms homicides are 5 time more common than in the USA.

[kanegillett]

As an Australian, it's a disgrace that we can't keep guns for personal safety. Now only bikie gangs and immigrant gangs have guns. So yeah, criminals can defend themselves, shame good citizens can't.

[BrianGivensYtube]

Some people don't realize this, but, gun bans only affect people who follow the law i.e. Law Abiding Citizens. Criminals live outside the law, therefore, they will not turn in their guns! What does this mean? People who abide the law can no longer defend against people who do not!

[jasonsachs]

Gun control means hitting your target.

[stevemymind]

Aussie here, would just like to point out that Martin Bryant the shooter that sparked our gun law changes, had all his guns illegally, so the law change did not address that issue...do NOT give up your guns...keep the bastards honest!

[nonmihiseddeo]

"When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." It's literally that simple.

[elr]

In my country Argentina is really hard to get a gun by the legal way, but every criminal (even those under 18 years old) have one because is easy to get one in the black market, the ban only benefits bad guys and black markets

[GUNMETALGUYUSA]

What To Do About If You Don't Want A Gun Don't Buy A Gun...Oh And Leave Other Free Citizen's RIGHTS Alone.

[ROGER]

Gun laws cannot stop criminals because, by law, criminals are exempt from obeying laws. (That's the definition of a criminal.) Laws only apply to people who obey laws, and people who obey laws are not a problem.

To stop criminals, they must be made to fear the consequences of committing crimes.

[jimmytheclinicallydepresse]

I'm an Australian (and a patriot) and one thing that I found was that the Australian Homicide rate only went down slightly after the gun laws imposed after Port Arthur. The problem though is that the homicide rate was already going down beforehand and the gun laws didn't change to homicide rate at all.

[bobbell]

A single shipment into America of illegal drugs can be as big as a few metric tons. Banning all firearms will only result in shipments of metric tons of illegal firearms being smuggled into America.

[tommygringo]

When you must ask permission to exercise a right, that right has been reduced to a privilege

[travesmcclanahan]

"God Created Man, But Sam Colt Made Them Equal."

[sbrazenor]

I just want to say that I have a very controversial position on guns and gun control. I believe in gun control, and by that, I mean that you should securely manage your weapon with both hands. Accuracy and safety are important when handling a gun, so make sure you stay in control of it... And that's about as far as my 'gun control' opinion goes. As for confiscation, they can take my guns when I've run out of ammo, if they want them that badly.

Before we ban guns, we need to also get rid of those high capacity assault trucks, like the one that killed 86 people in Nice, France.

[kristofferhaugstad]

in norway we have extremely strict gun laws, and still a maniac like anders breivik was able to kill 80 people.

[Totes_ma_Goat]

“The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."