I actually agree that our gun control need to be updated and strengthen. However, that doesn’t solve the underlying problem that we live in a country where violence is an attractive and alluring solution. In countries like Switzerland and Sweden who have very strict gun laws, they work because underneath them is a culture that isn’t crazy about violence that we are here. (Sweden feels unsatisfied that they have a murder rate of 3 deaths per year or something similar.) When similar attempts in America are tried to restrict or remove guns, the results are mixed at best.

I suspect you probably live in an urban or suburban area where you would be upset if the police or fire department doesn’t come to a problem within 5 minutes, and so you rightly believe that having a gun in simply unnecessary. I spent most of my life life living in a rural setting where, at least for me, you’re resigned to taking steps to self secure yourself and home. And for most people, they require guns, because they see it as an acceptable violent solution. When that sense of acceptable need for violence as a solution spreads to the police and to the public at large, particularly in urban communities, then you’ll have a problem.

Even if you accept that removing of guns takes away the possibility of there being a mass shooting, as it has shown in Australia, it doesn’t translate strictly to a reduction of violent crime in general. Most often violent crimes is a one on one matter.

Furthermore, the article I was originally commenting on was about a personal reflection about how a basically white police force too easily uses violence (and guns which will never be removed) as a solution against people unfairly assumed to be bad through racial profiling and general discrimination.

What I’m trying to say is this: I agree we need to remove guns, even if it means removing them from those people who would obviously use them for such activities as hunting or self defence. I think we’ve lost that right as an American society. However, unless we can work on the underlying problem of how easy it is for ourselves to see violence as a solution to our problems, I’m not convinced strictly removing guns will solve all the violence.