The number of crimes that would be prevented if everyone had a gun would not be nearly as high as the number of new crimes that would be generated. Think of the number of people every day that get depressed about their lives. Some of them will get drunk or find some other way to vent their frustrations. Do we honestly want these people to have a gun in their hand? I can't think of a worse world to live in. And that's just a specific example. At the end of the day, more guns in peoples' hands=more chances to kill people. Also, deepest thoughts go out to the families affected by today's horrific tragedy.
That's such a mind-numblingly simplistic idea. Please see Benjamin's reply for a perfect summary of my thoughts.
This is a time for mourning. The fact that these kids and teachers and their families were looking forward to Christmas just 11 days away makes this ever moreso tragic. These kids had barely even began to live before their lives were taken away. Not to mention the children and faculty who will now be permenantly scarred by todays events. It's heartbreaking. RIP.
Gotta love how a thread about mourning, turned into a jumping point for political bullshit. No more. This is to mourn those who died. Gun control and "what's wrong with this country"/political views can be discussed in another serious chat thread.
The OP mentions it being time to have a serious discussion about fire-arms in this country, which I took to imply that this thread was about everything related to what happened today. I realize some people get sensitive about discussing stuff like this so close to the event, but it's not like what happened is ever going to be okay. I apologize if I offended you.
I don't get the whole line of thinking that this isn't the time to discuss gun control. It is the PERFECT time to talk about this. What better motivation exists to have this conversation? Pushing for stricter gun laws turns these deaths from something senseless to something meaningful. It turns our anger and grief into progress and change. If someone here doesn't understand the senseless to meaningful comment and wants to try and twist my words, I have no hope for you or your reading comprehension. What happened was incredibly sad and when I heard about it at work I felt sick to my stomach. It affected the rest of my afternoon. But this isn't politically-motivated, it's emotionally-motivated. I'm not bashing republicans or admonishing democrats. Gun ownership is an issue that pervades both parties. It's a societal issue.
I've said my peace about gun control in other serious threads, like the Aurora one. I don't really want to start it up again. I've been down that road. Anyway, the only thing I wanted to say besides how terrible this tragedy was that the guns were registered to his mother. If he stole the guns, which is what this appears to be, gun control in this situation is a dead issue in my eyes.
I was referring to Travz posting stupid politically charged cartoons in a sad thread. And we don't need full hardcore gun control as much as we need a full ban on assault weapons. It's easier to buy an assault weapon then it is to buy fireworks in this country. There is zero need for anyone to own assault weapons in this country at all.
A cursory Google search revealed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#United_States Interesting how except for the #1 (and most unusual exception of them all), the top states tend to be in the states where gun controls are most lax. And I agree, this shouldn't be a partisan political issue. Then again I feel that way about a number of issues.
Bingo. After the shooting in Oregon on Tuesday, it wasn't time to discuss gun control. It might have been time today, until this happened. Will it be time Monday, assuming we don't have another mass shooting over the weekend? The time is now.
Take a look at Chicago, DC, or New York if you want an example of what happens to crime in the strictest areas of gun control. Or the UK. Or Australia. Or Canada. The before and afters are apparent. The stricter the gun control, the fewer law-abiding citizens there are that own guns. It does very little to the amount of criminals that own guns. Do you see why?
Perhaps you didn't see my chart, where it shows the states with the laxest gun control laws are also the ones with the highest homicide rates per capita.
At the risk of sounding cold and cynical I'm kind of numb to it at this point. Welcome to fucking humanity.
Well, this is just horrible and sad on so many levels.. The more I think about it, the more depressing it gets. No wonder even your President couldn't contain his emotions while talking about it. And I thought Columbine was the worst it could get... Well, regarding gun control, let me take an example of my own country. India has a VERY restrictive regulation on gun ownership. An applicant must give a sufficient reason for allowing him or her to have a gun, for example, personal protection, security, hunting. And yeah, the minimum age for gun ownership in India is 21. The worst gun-related incident we had as a country was the Mumbai attack on 26/11/2008, which I guess everyone has heard about? It was more a case of terrorism than breaking law though. Apart from that, the only places where most gun-related crimes happen are the remote villages of North India, which are poorly neglected, and the Maoist-affected areas. Taking those as exceptions, I think our restrictive gun laws have worked wonderfully. The crime we most frequently hear about in cities nowadays is rape, which is a serious problem, but usually has nothing to do with weapons. Anyways, it was just something I thought you guys would like to know. A "Case Study", if you will.
I live about 2 hours away from where this happened today. Horrible, horrible tragedy... My Mom is a teacher in elementary school so this kind of hit home with her in a way. I feel bad. I would like to find out more information about the shooter and his motives... Again, I feel bad for all the victims and their families. RIP.
And know everybody's blaming "Mass Effect" because of this. Because they thought that the killer was a Mass Effect player. Problem is that his brother was a ME player and not him. Fuck Fox News, they always doing the shit for Mass Effect and I only have one message for Fox News and for everyone who posted on Mass Effect's FB page:
I don't live in the U.S., but I think that this tragedy should start some discussions regarding the guns' possession. My prayers are with the families and friends of the people who were killed. God bless them!
Horrible. So sorry this happened. If the shooter was in his 20s, why did he shoot children between 5-10?