There is already a federal law mandating background checks for gun purchases.

Cavern91--

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I am aware-- when I purchased both of my handguns, I was required to go through a background check; and-- since my state requires it --I also had to register them with the state police.

I was referring to "universal background checks"; I've gone back and edited my original post.

I'm bumping this, in view of the other discussion on the Las Vegas shootings here on the Celebrity board.

Others feel free to contribute.

I think it's worth pointing out that even in battles nowadays, the U.S. military does not suffer casualties like this in a single day . . . almost 60 dead and more than 450 injured. Not since Vietnam have our troops suffered casualties that high in a single battle.

But here at home, our people are slaughtered and maimed in high numbers.

There is no problem.

@northcoast said: But, now, under a Republican President, with a Republican House and Senate, serious gun control at the Federal level might actually get passed-- a ban on "bump stocks", and possibly even the passage of a law requiring universal background checks?

Talk about irony!

Yeah, sure. As expected, nothing is happening. Republicans are the dirtiest people in the history of the world. It's all about $$$ to them. The NRA controls what Trump does and says. The bump stock thing is all that has and will happen on "controlling" guns under this dumbass. Big whoop. No universal background checks because Trump said one day he is for them and the very next that he is against them. Slippery slope he says!! Why have any laws at all then? We have a lunatic president and I'm tired of it. We MUST vote this ridiculous bastard OUT in 2020.

Kewl Kat--

The older I get, the more I feel that BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans are not to be trusted; but I do agree with you that Trump is an awful president. So many of the things he has done would never have been tolerated by the GOP, if a Democrat president had done/said the very same things. The Republicans have really sold themselves out, and Trump, in my opinion, should not get a second term.

But (as I implied), I do fear that the Democrats would just be a different kind of bad.

I wish we as Americans had better choices, all around.

Well, I agree there can be bad Democrats as well as bad Republicans. It just appears to me that lately, the dirtiest and most greedy have been Republicans. They deny science and they are putting us all in danger because their lobbyists will stop giving them $$$ if they don't do what they want. So they tell us scientists are stupid and say climate change is "a hoax." Give me a break. Or they say that gun control will never work so the solution is MORE guns. Why? Because the NRA is funded by gun manufacturers. That's why. Or they say that single-payer health care will NEVER work. Why? It works everywhere else in the entire world! Of course it works. But Republicans are given billions by private insurance companies to keep things the same. This is all obvious to anybody with a brain.

Now, you can say that the Dems talk about things that are unrealistic: reparations for African Americans, free college, forgiving student load debt. That all sounds like stuff that will never fly. But they aren't coming from a greedy, dirty place. They are just being unrealistic. But it still isn't good to run on impossible promises. This is why we need a moderate president and we have to try and find compromise. Lately, the loud voices are people on the extreme right and extreme left. That won't work. The answer is in the middle. I would vote for either Biden (D) or Kasich (R) The letters by their names don't matter to me at this point because they are both moderates. We need a return to sanity.