California is about to tax guns more like alcohol and tobacco − and that could put a dent in gun violence

jeffw@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 473 points –
California is about to tax guns more like alcohol and tobacco − and that could put a dent in gun violence
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the guns i see the criminals use

Are you running up to folks during a bank robbery and asking them for receipts?

Or is this, like, guns you saw criminals use in a cartoon show?

over 80% of mass shooters at K-12 schools stole guns from family members, according to research funded by the National Institute of Justice

Stolen and ghost guns absolutely make up a large percentage of the weapons used in crimes, there are many reports and statistics to back this up. If you need some hard data I'll be happy to provide or you could do a quick web search as well.

How is this relevant at all? If the tax slows the sale of guns, then there will be fewer guns in the future compared to the projected numbers without a tax.

Fewer guns = less gun violence. This is a well understood dynamic.

I'm really fucking tired of people like you arguing against harm reduction just because it doesn't go far enough to actually solve the gun crisis. We never take a step forward because of this attitude.

Stolen and ghost guns absolutely make up a large percentage of the weapons used in crimes

You're leaning hard on the term "stolen" to describe a teenager using a parent's firearm, particularly when the teen already has regular access to the weapon for target practice.

Similarly, guns that have been anonymized after purchase aren't something you can regulate against.

Sure, that’s one of the missing links: owners need to be responsible for safeguarding their weapons or face consequences. Either it was an actual theft and the kid faces legal consequences for that too or it was careless behavior on the owner and they face partial consequences for the deaths and devastation

owners need to be responsible for safeguarding their weapons or face consequences

We played this game with Beto O'Rourke. He tanked his electoral prospects by suggesting he'd enforce gun laws like any other governor would enforce drug laws.

Between the Sandy Hook style conspiracy theories and the NRA hysteria, the onus is never on the gun owners. It's always on the victims to not get shot.

So fewer guns to steal = few crimes?

Sounds like extra taxes are a good idea.

I assume they mean the ones they show on the news after a mass shooting.

Those are usually legal.

I assume they're more likely to show pictures of the weapon when the gun isn't legal or has unusual features. I hadn't even seen a bump stock before that shooting in Navada made them big news.

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