We all know the type of person who is dead set in their opinion, or better yet, the opinion they’ve been told to have. No matter how much you dispel the myths and bogus info they have, they’ll end it with “Well, I still think they should be illegal”
For the ones who are misinformed but almost more neutral on the subject, I find that being able to present facts to dispel their myths goes a long way. Correcting them in an educational way, not in a way to prove they don’t know what they’re talking about; automatic vs semi-automatic, safety reasons of why hollow points are better than FMJ, the average miss ratio of up to 70% in police shootings to dispel the notion that “If you can’t hit your target with six bullets you shouldn’t own a gun”, police response times varying greatly in different regions (“When seconds count, the police are minutes away!” Maybe quite a few), the fact that the majority of gun violence is committed by criminals who illegally possess a firearm that they got on the black market, with no limit to how many rounds their magazine can hold. Take ours away and they still have theirs, along with the knowledge that we don’t have them anymore, and there are more than 20,000 gun laws already on the books. You could triple it, and the criminals will still not adhere to the law. That’s what makes them criminals.
I also like to point out the myriad of high profile cases where the gun laws that are championed were not enforced, or other info was ignored, which led to tragedy; the Parkland shooting was a complete failure on the end of the FBI, school committee, administrators and guidance counselor, the sheriff’s department etc. all prior to the first shot being fired. I’d go so far as saying the system failed the gunman years ago, big time. The shooting at the bar in California. Months prior police were called to the gunmans mother’s house for reports that he was physically assaulting her. Police showed up, a standoff ensued with shots being fired by the gunman. Eventually he’s arrested with recommendation for detention in a mental health facility, but the State of California let him out instead. Three law enforcement officers were killed last year due to a lack of enforcement of Massachusetts gun laws; two in MA, one in Maine. Career criminals, one with over 100 convictions. The one who killed a deputy in Maine was arrested the week prior in Massachusetts illegally in possession of a firearm. One week later he’s killing a sheriff’s deputy. Multiple cases in MA where people are arrested illegally in possession of a firearm for the fourth or fifth time, but walk. There have been shooting homicides in Boston recently where the killer is found and has a lengthy record of firearms crimes but never did time.
Then the success stories we never hear about. A month or so after Parkland a school shooting in MD ended quickly by an armed resource officer in the school who shot the gunman. Another one in Illinois happened around the same time, with pretty much the same result. Each year on average 2.5 million crimes are stopped by a good guy/gal with a gun, most without a single shot being fired.