You keep mentioning “gun crimes” and “gun deaths” as if the manner of committing a crime is what matters. I don’t care if someone commits a murder with a knife, a gun, a car, or some other weapon. The ONLY thing that matters is that a homicide occured.
If banning spray paint, guns, alcohol, drugs, etc. worked…then we wouldn’t have given so much power to the mafia and other gangs. It’s the creation of these black markets that allows many violent criminals to thrive. Banning guns won’t turn criminals into law-abiding citizens (though it would turn a good number of law-abiding, totally non-violent citizens into criminals) and there is NO EVIDENCE that these gun bans would eliminate or reduce homicides or violent attacks. Criminals are going to commit whatever crimes they want because **laws do not matter to them.**
What we need to do is stop glorifying and “normalizing” violence through violent, sadistic video games, movies, etc. We also need to get VERY tough on violent criminals, and allow citizens to fully protect themselves and their property from violent attackers without any fear of legal repercussions. We also need to get serious about mental health problems in our society. Psychopaths have pretty obvious characteristics, even from young childhood, and while I understand there are some civil liberty issues regarding this, they should be observed and possibly institutionalized in some way in order to protect society. Not an easy answer, but this is where a lot of our problems lie, IMHO.
