You clearly have never seen women try to find what they are looking for in their bags. "Stay back I'm armed with a deadly ... lipstick? ... Oh crap!"
Rather than arming an entire nation of emotionally traumatised women wouldn't it be better to find a way to deal with abusive partners more effectively? I realise that's the harder, longer term approach.
I think you should also be responding to the post that I was responding to with this: "rather than disamring an entire nation of law-abiding gun owners wouldn't it be better to find a way to deal with abusive partners more effectively?" Banning guns in the name of domestic violence seems like a pretty poor band-aid compared to actually addressing domestic violence.
If people feel so insecure in their lives they need to have a weapon close to hand at all times and have it on display, I'd say there is clearly a problem. And as it happens in Israel there are very deep social divides. Citizens are used as shields by their government to secure territory by being encouraged to build settlements that have been declared illegal by the UN. Israel's neighbours all want to see it eradicated. The country is routinely attacks by terrorist groups or freedom fighters. Whichever version you want to believe. And skirmishes between Palestinians and Jews on the west bank can be a daily occurrence.
There's probably a better example than Israel for what you're trying to say.
Depends on what you mean by "prone to domestic violence."
If they're a convicted felon, they're not allowed to own or possess firearms under existing law. Their abused ex-girlfriends, however, are. Seems to me that's better than disarming the ex-girlfriends as well.
For the rest of people, how do you determine if someone is "prone to" a crime they haven't committed yet?
I didn't realise there was a hair to be split here. Do we really need to define the well used and very common phrase "domestic violence"? If your argument hinges on getting that pedantic then you just don't have an argument.
Isn't it a federal law(US) that no one convicted of a domestic violence charge is not allowed to have a gun. I remember this law passing in the 90's but it might have been allowed to expire or overturned.
We all know what domestic violence is, but being "prone to" a crime is more vague. Some people use "prone to crime X" to refer to people with a history of committing crime X. Some people use "prone to crime X" to mean people who may not have committed it, but may commit it in the future. Did you even read the rest of my post? I thought it was obvious what I was talking about.
We've ALREADY barred people with a history of DV from getting guns. I don't see how we place restrictions on people who are "prone to" a crime they haven't yet committed without going full-on Minority Report.
Like I said, it's already law that someone with a DV conviction can't get a gun. I raise an eyebrow at the suggestion that victims of DV would be better off if we disarmed them too.
I think it would be a good idea if we added that anyone with 3 or more DUI's not be allowed to own a gun as well. If you have 3 you have shown that you can not be trusted to behave in a responsible manner.
I don't think there's been any rash of mass drunk shootings, so I don't think it's the most pressing issue we have in terms of gun ownership and gun control, but regardless, I wouldn't have a problem with that as part of background checks (that I support).
I wasn't thinking about mass drunken shootings. IMO anyone who gets a third DUI should have it be considered as a red flag that this person is unfit for gun ownership and treat it the same as you would a felony.
Edit, I wasn't thinking mass shootings at all just that this is not the type of person who should have guns available for them to own.
Seems to me it would be hard to defend someone like this having a right or need to own guns. Who knows it may cut down on the number of accidental shootings and shootings being used in anger due to alcohol over-consumption.
Just so Frodo doesn't rip my face off and beat me with a cake: The video is an interview with some big blog/news personalities on Youtube (I follow Phillip De Franco) and they all got together with some Google thing to have a discussion with Vice President Biden about what's going on with the issue. Thought people in this thread might be interested.
White House Hangout with Vice President Joe Biden on Reducing Gun Violence - YouTube
What I think is that victims of DV would be better off if EVERYONE was disarmed of guns.
Which is not quite what you are saying I said.
If there's a gun in the house (belonging to anyone, even the victim) then there is a high likelihood that it will be used by an abusive partner.
You can't stop domestic violence (it is reducing though).
You can restrict gun ownership.
There seems to be two different approachs here.
I think people will always be "people" (they are fallible, get angry, have mental health issues, flip out, have poor judgment, etc etc).
As such they should have restictions in place on how much deadly force they have access to.
The pro-gun people seem to be placing themselves above being "normal" ("I'm responsible...it's everyone else that is the problem") and instead want restrictions in place that target people that aren't like them, and thus leaving them free to own guns.
I don't think you can have your cake and eat it. If I can own a gun (no criminal record, adult, no real history of mental health issues) then that means other people just like me can own guns too.
And I don't trust other people because, by and large, people are pretty dumb (myself included).