Putting Chicago violence in perspective

I lived in Chicago for 23 years. Of the the three major cities NY, LA and Chicago, Chicago was by far the only city I felt comfortable in roaming the downtown area after dark. Now yes you go outside the loop to the south and west and you are in some pretty rough neighborhoods Garfield Park, Gresham, Englewood and Lawndale are probably the worst. The biggest problem with the gun violence is that nobody will talk. If somebody was to see a shooting they won't tell anybody about it for fear of retaliation. Until these neighborhoods stand up and say we're not going to take it anymore and report and testify against the thugs nothing will happen.

Republicans, More guns won't fix the problem, Democrats, more money won't fix the problem.

Hearing one side say we need more cops is a joke, they have enough cops. Hearing the other side say "look Chicago has the some of the toughest gun laws and still everybody is killing each other." The problem with that is the guns being bought in Indiana and Wisconsin at gun shows and brought in by the gangs. I can walk into a gun show in Indiana and buy a gun no questions asked from a private seller, I don't need a background check or any of that other shit. The gangs in Chicago use proxy buyers, they go to the gun shows buy up all the guns from private sellers and then sell them back to the gangs.

Just like taxes the loophole need to be fixed.

The only viable solution is to make guns illegal. Period. Let Americans kill other Americans by some other method.

Australia took the courageous step of doing exactly that, and one year later, its homicide rate dropped to 1/12 of what it had been. And of course, the more-enlightened-than-us nations of Western Europe have made private gun ownership illegal pretty much since WWII.

The gun nut idiots react to this concept with shock and horror, saying what if "they" come for us and we don't have guns to defend ourselves? I tell them, well, bro, if "they" come for you, having an AK-47 in your basement isn't going to help.

If Republicans hadn't deliberately prevented the CDC from studying the problem, we'd know precisely how many gun deaths there are each year in this country and why. But the NRA is like a fourth branch of government. Plus, the yahoo cowboy culture that dominates so much of this country equates guns with manhood and virility. You can't take away our substitute penises, uh, guns!

Looking at Chicago, the root causes of gang violence will never be addressed as long as Republicans make it a racial and political issue. Chicago's full of Black people and run by Democrats, they say, so of course there's violence. Then they write big checks to the NRA and vote down legislation for things as mild as mandatory background checks.

I've heard idiots say, well, illegal gun sales will still happen. But what these idiots don't understand is that if we stop private (legal) gun ownership, there won't be a legitimate market, and these gun companies will gradually fold.

Another thing we have to do, of course, is make it illegal--a felony--to carry a loaded gun around other people. And waving a gun at people to try to stop them from voting? Life sentence without parole.

Using Austrailia is not an apples to aaples comparison. Austrailia doesn't have any borders with other countries. Pretty hard to just drive them in over the border. Ask any insurance company what the most stolen vehicle is along the Mexican border in the US is and they will undoubtedly say trucks. Two reasons 1. to run in illegals and 2. weapons and drugs

We funnel weapons to the Mexican cartels right now. But if you made all guns illegal in the US I guarantee they will come right back over.

Life sentence without parole? 8th admendment I think covers that. It would most definitly be unusual punishment. Not saying it would be cruel but unusual.

Threatening people who are trying to exercise their right to vote is a fundamental violation of American values on so many levels, and can have such terrible consequences, that I favor drastic punishment for it. And it wouldn't be "unusual" if everyone who committed such an offense was punished in the same way.

And just so you know--Australia has borders. Billions of dollars' worth of goods cross those borders every day.

An ocean isn't a border. Semantics.

You were using the term in the context of goods crossing borders, and goods certainly do cross Australia's borders in great volume every day. You can't "just drive guns" over the border there, but there are these things called boats and airplanes.

The reason why Australia doesn't have guns or gun violence isn't because it's an island. It's because of the laws there.

We have laws about speeding, murder, stealing, wearing a seatbelt. Are these laws not broken every day?

Are you seriously suggesting there would not be more of those things if they weren't illegal?

You said the reason that Australia doesn't have guns and gun violence is because of laws.

Just saying the laws will be, as always are, broken. And that the fact that it is an island makes it that much easier to control the gun population.