Should semiautomatic weapons be banned?

[Tender Branson]

Yes.

Gun laws in the US need to be significantly restricted, with only regular handguns and rifles available and a restriction to 10-shot capacity magazines.

Automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines must be completely banned.

The restrictions should also include:

* An age limit of 21 years to buy a gun (the brain still develops after the age of 18)
* A mandatory psychological test and certificate by a professional psychiatrist
* A gun handling license and a safety course that has to be passed, costing at least 300-500$
* A waiting period of 2 weeks before a gun can be purchased after getting the license
* Restrictions of ammunition purchases
* An annual background check by the police in the home of the buyer if the guns are properly stored
* A 3-year mandatory checkup with a psychiatrist to renew the license based on changing mental situation (similar to renewing the driving license for old drivers)
* An open- or concealed-carry permit should only be available to professions who are at risk at their job, such as taxi drivers being robbed or jewelry store workers. The public should get no carrying permits, only permits to keep the gun stored at home.

In general, I believe that handguns should be restricted to the police and military and that the public should only have access to guns under very strict regulations like the one above. Hunters should be exempted from the carrying restrictions, but should only be allowed to buy low-capacity rifles.

The restrictions and hurdles mentioned above would easily scare off many potential weirdos and killers, but the real problem is the huge number of guns already in circulation.

Still, these restrictions would send a first signal and an eventual lower number of handguns and ammo in circulation would start to appear after some decades (as more and more old guns are destroyed or returned).

[Tender Branson]

No. We need to focus on getting guns out of the wrong hands and addressing mental health challenges, not trying to limit the 2nd amendment, a way of life in rural areas.

The 2nd amendment and stricter regulations for the public can co-exist. We need to remember that the NRA was once founded as an advisory group for rural hunters and only in the early 1970s decided to scrap their common-sense approach and instead decided to pump millions of $ into political campaigns as a lobby group, which changed everything to the worse.

Rural hunters would still be able to defend themselves against wild animals under the restrictions I mentioned above while poorer people in urban areas would be more secure.

More common sense is needed again.

[Tender Branson]

It's true what many posters here said:

The US is an extremely chauvinistic/militaristic society, with many people being very paranoid that they are invaded by Russians, North Koreans, the Chinese or Aliens (from space and abroad). And they are bombarded daily by a disturbing level of media coverage about killings and warfare.

A first step would therefore be for these paranoid Americans to lay off daily media consumption and for the US (government) to stop meddling in other countries business. Has there ever been a single year in the existence of the US when the country was not at war or militarily involved somewhere ?

Only then and after a period of 20 years of military non-involvement could US politics change and vote in favour of an Australian/European-style gun law ...

Plus, the NRA needs to be dissolved and banned for being a domestic terrorist-supporting organisation.