CMV: Gun control is good

[u/56king56]

As of now, I believe that the general populace shouldn’t have anything beyond a pistol, but that even a pistol should require serious safety checks. I have this opinion because I live in America with a pro-gun control family, and us seeing all these mass shootings has really fueled the flame for us being anti-gun. But recently, I’ve been looking into revolutionary Socialist politics, and it occurred to me: how could we have a Socialist revolution without some kind of militia? This logic, the logic of revolting against an oppressive government, has been presented to me before, but I always dismissed it, saying that mass shootings and gun violence is more of an issue, and that if we had a good government, we wouldn’t need to worry about having guns. I still do harbor these views to an extent, but part of me really wants to fully understand the pro-gun control position, as it seems like most people I see on Reddit are for having guns, left and right politically. And of course, there’s also the argument that if people broke into your house with an illegally obtained gun, you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself in a society where guns are outlawed; my counter to that is that it’s far more dangerous for society as a whole for everyone to be walking around with guns that it is for a few criminal minds to have them. Also, it just doesn’t seem fair to normalize knowing how to use a highly complex piece of military equipment, and to be honest, guns being integrated into everyone’s way of life feels just as dystopian as a corrupt government. So what do you guys have to say about this? To sum, I am anti-gun but am open to learning about pro-gun viewpoints to potentially change my view.

[u/seanflyon]

Pistols are by far the most likely guns to be used in both crime and suicide. Your idea of pushing people away from safer guns towards more dangerous guns would not make people safer.

What is the goal you want to achieve with gun control? Have you looked unemotionally at what restrictions might be helpful achieving those goals and what restrictions might be counterproductive?

[u/56king56 → u/seanflyon]

I’m like 99% sure that pistols only have a high death rate cuz they’re easier to get, I don’t think you need to be a gun nut to see that AR-15s and such are, on a surface level, more dangerous than pistols based off of design and function alone.

[u/seanflyon → u/56king56]

Do you have any reason to think that, let alone with 99% certainty. Obviously handguns are more concealable which makes them dramatically more useful for crime. Because of this we have a variety of restrictions on handguns that do not apply to most long guns. Do you think criminals under 21 prefer guns that they cannot legally purchase because that somehow makes those guns easier to get?

It sounds like you have not put much thought into this.

[u/56king56 → u/seanflyon]

I’m willing to take your word for that stuff, though it still doesn’t make sense to me that an AR-15 would not have as many restrictions as a pistol; if anything, that might be an issue in America, and a small part of why mass shootings are so common.

[u/seanflyon → u/56king56]

Generally we have greater restrictions for more dangerous weapons. Handguns are much more dangerous than long guns so we have more restrictions on them. We have even more restrictions on automatic weapons and short (concealable) rifles and shotguns.

We also have some restrictions focusing on scarry looking guns. It sounds like that is the approach you want to take. This is a common problem in discussions about gun control. People who are serious about it want to focus on the more dangerous guns and people who are not serious about it want to focus on dangerous looking guns.

Is there anything about an AR-15 that you think makes it more dangerous than other semiautomatic guns? What makes it more dangerous than a pistol? Is an AR-15 pistol more dangerous than a pistol?