This is a pretty complicated situation and unfortunately it seems like logical and rational discussions are rarely held on these forums anymore. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I am objective and I can use some critical thinking. Gun Laws are pretty strict in this country and I know people will say it’s not true, but it is. And let’s not compare ourselves to other countries like the UK or Australia who don’t allow guns at all as benchmarks for comparison. Because we for sure have more gun related incidents, but they have a proportional amount of knife/blade related incidents to their population. The amount of firearms in circulation in this country is staggering but the fact that our numbers aren’t higher is a testament to solid laws, owner rights and practices. Now I worked in local gun shop in this state for little bit so I gained some additional incite. In RI you’re required to take a basic firearm safety course provided by DEM in order to purchase a pistol. The test is multiple choice but isn’t something anybody off the street can just wing it. It covers proper firearm safety, nomenclature, and storage. Once the test is completed the gun shop sends it to DEM where it can take several weeks to be scored. It’s a pass or fail test. You’ll know you passed if you receive your “Blue Card” in the mail. Until then we wouldn’t even let you touch a pistol in the shop. Now that’s to buy a pistol. To buy a rifle in this country you have to be at least 18 (although I think they may have passed some bills to up that age to 21 recently). This is an area that for sure could use some tightening up, because this is where the “assault weapon” class is. And theres plenty to debate on both sides of what is and what isn’t an “assault weapon” what an “automatic” (a firearm that shoots continuously while the trigger is held) and “semi-automatic” ( a firearm that shoots one round when the trigger is pulled and has to be released in order to fire again) essentially every known firearm today are semiautomatic. Automatic firearms are banned entirely in most states and even if the state allowed (which RI does not) the cost to own one of these is unrealistic for most of us. Do I think 18 year olds with no formal gun training be allowed to purchase any type of firearm and the answer is no. I don’t think you should let someone without any driving experience get behind the wheel of car for the first time because they turned 16 either, but at least they have a permitting process for the car. There is nothing like that for firearms. And I know the Bill of Rights protects us for a lot of what we have that other counties don’t, but I think in this area we could add some realistic training expectations. I’m definitely not for abolishing gun rights in this country. So in RI and every other state that I’m aware of you have to be 18/21+, (have a “Blue Card” for pistol purchases) can pass a local law enforcement background check conducted by the State Troopers, and pass a federal background check in order to purchase a pistol or rifle. The state background check could take a week or so and they run your name through the local LE databases to see if you are or have ever been arrested, charged, or under active investigation for a violent crime. Automatically disqualifies you from owning a firearm. The federal check does the same thing except at the federal law enforcement level (FBI, ATF,DEA etc). Those checks used to come back pretty quick. If you made it though all those checks then you would be approved to pickup the firearm in 7-8 business days known as “cool down” period. And there’s some other areas where the wait period is decreased due to military status, law enforcement/first responder, or you have a conceal carry permit. Those all have their vetting process in addition to the other background checks. I know this wasn’t part of the discussion topic but I wanted to outline the process of gun ownership in the state to show that it isn’t as easy to get your hands on a firearm as easy as the media makes it out to be…legally. Illegally I wouldn’t know but could assume there isn’t too many checks and balances in place. To answer the question about school safety is no I don’t feel 100 percent confident. I have 2 school aged kids that we are highly considering on homeschooling for various reasons but this being a big point in the decision process. At minimum there should be 1-2 school
Resource officers on site at all times. Even having a police car parked outside of a school is enough of a deterrent. As proved by this recent school shooting where according to local police departments the shooter choose the school due to the decreased security as the first choice had too much security. We pay a crazy amount in state taxes for dumb shit honestly, the least we could do is spend some of it on our kids safety. Lastly we need to be having conversations about the uncomfortable elephants in the room too. We seem to be having an uptick in mental health concerns as contributing factors to these incidents and to say that’s not it and that’s it’s the gun fault then we will never work towards a solution. No person who is mentally sound shoots kids. We don’t tolerate it anywhere else in the world but for some reason here we can’t admit that it plays a big part of the problem. These conversations need to be taking place at our local towns and cities level. We can’t expect the government to solve our problems and nor should we. We need civil discourse to achieve solutions. Starts in our communities.
ChuckM4 t1_jea4lmx wrote
Reply to School safety by Imjusthereforgossip3
This is a pretty complicated situation and unfortunately it seems like logical and rational discussions are rarely held on these forums anymore. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I am objective and I can use some critical thinking. Gun Laws are pretty strict in this country and I know people will say it’s not true, but it is. And let’s not compare ourselves to other countries like the UK or Australia who don’t allow guns at all as benchmarks for comparison. Because we for sure have more gun related incidents, but they have a proportional amount of knife/blade related incidents to their population. The amount of firearms in circulation in this country is staggering but the fact that our numbers aren’t higher is a testament to solid laws, owner rights and practices. Now I worked in local gun shop in this state for little bit so I gained some additional incite. In RI you’re required to take a basic firearm safety course provided by DEM in order to purchase a pistol. The test is multiple choice but isn’t something anybody off the street can just wing it. It covers proper firearm safety, nomenclature, and storage. Once the test is completed the gun shop sends it to DEM where it can take several weeks to be scored. It’s a pass or fail test. You’ll know you passed if you receive your “Blue Card” in the mail. Until then we wouldn’t even let you touch a pistol in the shop. Now that’s to buy a pistol. To buy a rifle in this country you have to be at least 18 (although I think they may have passed some bills to up that age to 21 recently). This is an area that for sure could use some tightening up, because this is where the “assault weapon” class is. And theres plenty to debate on both sides of what is and what isn’t an “assault weapon” what an “automatic” (a firearm that shoots continuously while the trigger is held) and “semi-automatic” ( a firearm that shoots one round when the trigger is pulled and has to be released in order to fire again) essentially every known firearm today are semiautomatic. Automatic firearms are banned entirely in most states and even if the state allowed (which RI does not) the cost to own one of these is unrealistic for most of us. Do I think 18 year olds with no formal gun training be allowed to purchase any type of firearm and the answer is no. I don’t think you should let someone without any driving experience get behind the wheel of car for the first time because they turned 16 either, but at least they have a permitting process for the car. There is nothing like that for firearms. And I know the Bill of Rights protects us for a lot of what we have that other counties don’t, but I think in this area we could add some realistic training expectations. I’m definitely not for abolishing gun rights in this country. So in RI and every other state that I’m aware of you have to be 18/21+, (have a “Blue Card” for pistol purchases) can pass a local law enforcement background check conducted by the State Troopers, and pass a federal background check in order to purchase a pistol or rifle. The state background check could take a week or so and they run your name through the local LE databases to see if you are or have ever been arrested, charged, or under active investigation for a violent crime. Automatically disqualifies you from owning a firearm. The federal check does the same thing except at the federal law enforcement level (FBI, ATF,DEA etc). Those checks used to come back pretty quick. If you made it though all those checks then you would be approved to pickup the firearm in 7-8 business days known as “cool down” period. And there’s some other areas where the wait period is decreased due to military status, law enforcement/first responder, or you have a conceal carry permit. Those all have their vetting process in addition to the other background checks. I know this wasn’t part of the discussion topic but I wanted to outline the process of gun ownership in the state to show that it isn’t as easy to get your hands on a firearm as easy as the media makes it out to be…legally. Illegally I wouldn’t know but could assume there isn’t too many checks and balances in place. To answer the question about school safety is no I don’t feel 100 percent confident. I have 2 school aged kids that we are highly considering on homeschooling for various reasons but this being a big point in the decision process. At minimum there should be 1-2 school Resource officers on site at all times. Even having a police car parked outside of a school is enough of a deterrent. As proved by this recent school shooting where according to local police departments the shooter choose the school due to the decreased security as the first choice had too much security. We pay a crazy amount in state taxes for dumb shit honestly, the least we could do is spend some of it on our kids safety. Lastly we need to be having conversations about the uncomfortable elephants in the room too. We seem to be having an uptick in mental health concerns as contributing factors to these incidents and to say that’s not it and that’s it’s the gun fault then we will never work towards a solution. No person who is mentally sound shoots kids. We don’t tolerate it anywhere else in the world but for some reason here we can’t admit that it plays a big part of the problem. These conversations need to be taking place at our local towns and cities level. We can’t expect the government to solve our problems and nor should we. We need civil discourse to achieve solutions. Starts in our communities.