unlike other people, I am not using suicide stats from other countries to rail against the evil guns.
USA suicide stats have been used as evidence of evil gun deaths. It's part of the anti-gun narrative that you say you are trying to fend off, so it is germane, even if you have never brought it up.
As you pointed out, most if not all of the recent mass shooters bought their guns legally. THAT'S THE PROBLEM.
How is that a problem? Seriously. If someone drinks a bottle of whiskey and kills someone in a DUI collision, which happens all the time, every day (more than mass shootings), what are we as a society going to do about it? Nothing. Not a damn thing. Year after year after year.
The suite of regulations we have in place right now aren't working. They don't stop mass shootings
So I asked you what can we do--short of banning firearms--that would stop Christopher Harper-Mercer, Dylann Roof, Eliot Rodgers, James Holmes, Seung-Hui Cho, Ivan Lopez, Nidal Malik Hasan, Aaron Alexis, Andrew John Engeldinger, Jerad and Amanda Miller, and Jared Loughner from obtaining a gun? You haven't proposed one single thing that would have stopped those shootings.
they don't stop gun trafficking
News flash--criminals break laws. Criminals will traffic in guns. So will the ATF, but that's another story.
But unlike you and many of the other OC enthusiasts, I'm not willing to throw up my hands and say "oh well".
I am not throwing up my hands and saying, "oh well." I am advocating for more gun rights, not less. I think America needs Constitutional Carry. I think non-violent felons should have their gun and voting rights restored. I think we should abolish GFZs. I think we should void the NFA. I think we should reopen all firearms importation.
I think we can and should do better.
We aren't doing anything wrong now, other than not standing strong enough for 2A.
How are you going to stop corrupt FFLs? By fulling funding the ATF to do their job, strictly enforcing the laws already on the books, and tracking gun registration numbers from owner to owner.
LOL! You don't know what you are talking about. You think the ATF is underfunded? What a joke. The ATF receives over $1.2 billion (that we know of) each year. That is "on the books" spending. The ATF often knows about bad FFLs. There aren't that many, but the ones they know about they continue to let traffic (just like other agencies allow illegal activities to go on) so they can build up a better case against them and get more people involved so they can make a "big bust" and bring more glory on themselves. Not only do they get the FFL but they get a lot of buyers. In the meantime, hundreds of guns are going out on the street while the ATF watches. This is well documented by former ATF agents. I won't even bother going into the agency corruption.
The ATF has plenty of time and resources to devote to petty stuff like throwing an entire office--nay, one section of the entire US agency--behind prosecuting a police officer for a straw purchase for using his First Responder discount to save his dad a few bucks buying a Glock. They fought that all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States. Even though his dad was not a prohibited person who the law was supposed to prevent obtaining a gun. Yet when a REAL straw buyer came on the scene, one who shared responsibility for the Columbine murders, they never even bothered prosecuting that person responsible for the REAL straw purchase that enabled the shooters to murder all those people.
I won't even mention some of the more obvious things.
I'm not telling your mom she has to take a course that I approve. She would be taking a course that WE approved.
So one can't defend his or her own life unless he or she takes an approved class? If she doesn't take the class she should be murdered because she has no effective means of self-defense?
We approved it because we the gun owners took responsibility for our sport
There's your problem. It's not a sport. You can regulate a sport. You can't regulate someone's inherent right to self-defense.
Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.
I don't want to do the same thing, I want to expand gun ownership. That will effect a positive change on crime.
I'm up in the middle of the night for work reasons. What's your excuse?
Normally I'd be in bed or the same as you, up for work. But in this case I'm coming off from about a month of vacation, mostly traveling. And my calendar this week is very light.