Twenty or so people shot to death. It just keeps happening and happening in America. It used to be post offices now its schools or uni's.
Surely its time for Americans to kerb their obsession with guns?
The NRA will argue that if the other students had been armed, they would have been able to stop the shooter.
The NRA will argue that if the other students had been armed, they would have been able to stop the shooter.
I'm sure they would. But can you imagine the bloodbath that would have ensued as various students let rip at each other and the police tried to impose order.
Bit like Iraq really. :roll:
WEdont know the complete story yet if he used a *unlicensed gun * what good would banning guns do just take them away from those responsible citizens who use them inteligently .
much like taken way the cars becouse some unlicensed driver killed a pedestrian .
gus are stictly licensed the are loopholes in the law that need closing .
Always i hear if we banned guns it would have happened .. never hear when somebody stops a killing by shooting the perpetrator that its a good thing they had a gun .
is it a good thing that cops have guns ???
If so why they shot inocent citizens to
once again who would you allocate guns to .just cops and military??? they go wild sometimes and shoot innocent victims to. and a legally held gun can be stolen to use in a crime ...
the administation has to much power now would.nt like to like in a society where only those in power and there laceys have guns .
"Unlicenced guns" come from legitimate sources, from straw buyers or stolen from legit owners.
There is no way that the NRA, with all it's members, would have enough firepower to stop the government, if the military sided with the government. If the military didn't side with the government, there would be no need for the existing, unconstitutional, unregulated, bunches of penile inadequacy compensators, pretending to be special forces units. lol
Always here if we banned guns it would have happened .. never here when somebody kstops a killing by shooting the perpetrator that its a good thing they had a gun .
John, the number of occasions when an armed member of the public stops or prevents a crime are miniscule and insignificant when compared to the number of crimes commited with firearms. This includes those crimes commited by people who legitimately own weapons, particularly domestic violence cases.
Of course it is people who pull the trigger and if they don't have a gun they will find something else. However, it is sooo much harder to murder 30 people with a gun than with a gun.
Why don't they only let nice people have guns not people who'd do this kind of thing?
Rob what would you propose to do ??
you cant put back the clock ,guns or with us and there will always be a souce of supply for those who choose to own one legal or other wise ..
making them illegal wont stop the need for one .
learn from history and real life
alcohol was illegal in the us in the 30s .
did those who choose to drink find where to get it ..YES ...
drugs are illegal ,
does that stop those who are addicts getting there fix NO .
poeple who wish to own a firearm if and when they are illegal would disobey the law .. thats why they are called criminals .
no such thing as a *gun free society * just societies where some folks are allowed to own some arnt .
I have just as much right under the contitution to own a weapon as the policemen next door has providing like him I follow all rules and act responsibly .
to change the law drasticly to allow only a few *chosen* citizens to possess a firearm would mean changing the constitution and a MAJORITY VOTE OF ALL THE STATES would take at least 5 years , from conception if thats what the poeple wanted
strict laws and education will go a long way to solving the issue .
If folks like you succeded in taking away another *right *we have lost to many already you would have another croup of citizerns disatified with a over restictive govt the gun owners . another step towards dictatorship and rule by fear .
Always here if we banned guns it would have happened .. never here when somebody kstops a killing by shooting the perpetrator that its a good thing they had a gun .
John, the number of occasions when an armed member of the public stops or prevents a crime are miniscule and insignificant when compared to the number of crimes commited with firearms. This includes those crimes commited by people who legitimately own weapons, particularly domestic violence cases.
Of course it is people who pull the trigger and if they don't have a gun they will find something else. However, it is sooo much harder to murder 30 people with a gun than with a gun.
Until we know the whole facts ( or at least those they chose to share with us ) it is feasable that even if there was a total BAN on privatly owned firarms he could have abtained one illegally and still caried out his heinous crime .
The BBC News this morning had two of the biggest idiots they could find to talk about gun control. The first guy was an overnight conservative talk show host who managed to blame the whole thing on Hillary Clinton. Other than that he argued the usual "if everyone had a gun they all could have shot him..." line. He even managed to point out that Europeans couldn't possibly understand. The other guy was an elitist slob, loose with his facts and seemingly of the opinion that anyone who owns a gun wants to kill your children. He tossed in the very dubious statistic that 80% of all Americans would like to see guns banned but that the gun lobby is too strong. He then went through a litany of generalisations about how Virginians are demented violent hicks who basically buy a gun for the new born baby on the way home from the hospital. Therefore, he really wasn't all that surprised that crazy Virginians were shooting each other.
I'm not arguing either way, but for such a sensitive and complex topic it was just downright shoddy journalism. My basic questions are what is it in US culture that seems to lead to more of these incidents than in other countries, such as Switzerland, which have equal or higher gun ownership stats? And why is it that certain subsets of American society turn to gun crime? For example, why in the 4 years I lived outside Buffalo was almost every gun-related death in the city rather than in Amherst, an area larger in size?
My old neighbour Greg once outlined the irony of the 2nd Amendment and gun control. If it seems that gun controls don't work, which it certainly seems that way to me, then the only option is to ban guns outright. At which point the government must go collect them from those who do not wish to return them, who will in turn feel that the 2nd Amendment is very much on their side at that precise moment.
How about only allowing women to own guns? It's rarely the "gunwoman" is it? They should have the ammunition in the tampon aisle at the stores, and guns should be stored in locked cabinets attached to washing machines and opened using the washind machine controls. Then guns would be safe from the gunmen and women would have easy access at "those" times when they really really need to shoot someone :twisted:
:lol:
It's definitely time for something to be done. The TV is all full of "shock and horror" and I find myself relatively unmoved by "yet another US school shooting" and wondering when they plan to take steps to prevent this sort of incident. And yes, I have kids, no I can't put myself in their parents shoes, it's too unreal to me. Right now, I don't feel they're at seriopus risk, there's not a whole lot I can realistically do about it and I can't solve all the problems of the world. Surely someone else can deal with this one -hopefully before my kids get to high school. I'm sure I should feel more, but I don't.
I was saddened to hear of the death of a local kindergartener who was hit by the school flagpole when the strong wind blew it down. Now that felt real. But I don't worry about it. It was a freak deal. It could happen again, It sould happen to my kindergartener. But I don't think it's preventable, so I'm not going to lose sleep over it -I'd be a bigger basket case than I already am. And I'm not going to lose sleep worrying about my children being shot at school, either.
I don't necessarily think thats the case. 'Career criminals' might have been in the criminal underworld enough to be able to know someone who could get them a gun. This kid was a fresh faced college kid and I doubt he would have had the contacts to be able to get him a gun if firearms were heavily restricted..
Until we know the whole facts ( or at least those they chose to share with us ) it is feasable that even if there was a total BAN on privatly owned firarms he could have abtained one illegally and still caried out his heinous crime .
It's a touhgie. I used to be very much in favour of tight gun control but over time (living here) have been becoming more open minded.
If we banned guns then less law-abiding people would have them and the number of criminals with guns would change very little. At the same time perhaps it would be harder for someone to just go nuts and get that gun out.
On the other hand, if guns were made more available perhaps there would be more of a "cowboy" society whereby the citizens gang-up on the one nutcase and save a few lives. On the other hand, this also makes it easier for disturbed people to go out and do this sort of thing in the first place. The other thing about this is that it renders the police fairly pointless in this situation.
I don't necessarily think thats the case. 'Career criminals' might have been in the criminal underworld enough to be able to know someone who could get them a gun. This kid was a fresh faced college kid and I doubt he would have had the contacts to be able to get him a gun if firearms were heavily restricted..
Until we know the whole facts ( or at least those they chose to share with us ) it is feasable that even if there was a total BAN on privatly owned firarms he could have abtained one illegally and still caried out his heinous crime .
I lived in VA gun control laws are strict, in fact he must have had a *enabler* cus he was a alien on a student visa .. as such not a citizen and not allowed to own firearms .