Even better question, why did he shoot innocent people period? I still can't get over this, it literally makes me sick thinking about it.
If Westboro Baptist Church really intends on protesting at the funerals of those killed during this, that is just so wrong on so many degrees. More than just public outrage, they need to leave the grieving families and the entire grieving city alone. That is, it's just fucking sick.
Horrible. I think it boils down to the killer's motive. Why? My sympathy to the victims families. It's just so bad.
I'm with you on that. You can have gun laws from here to the sun but there will always be bad people willing to break it in order to get paid and 15 minutes of fame.
From 1900-1986 governments murdered 169.2 million people (the vast majority of which occurred in places with unarmed citizen populations) From 1900-1999, there were about 8.5 million murders by private citizens worldwide. 169.2 vs 8.5 I don't think private gun ownership is the problem here. Sources: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat8.htm
Sad. RIP to the victims and condolences to their families and woe to the lazy American habit of ascribing blame on video games, movies, mental illnesses, anything other than putting the onus and responsibility in the hands of the perpetrator.
To think that another one of these type of incidences occured once again... A crazed man in China went around slashing children. Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-23-children-attacks-schoolgirl-machete.html What in the fuck.
I'm completely in agreement that the problem is much more mental health issues than it is guns, and I'm all for protecting the Second Amendment, but I don't think that citizens should be allowed to purchase assault rifles and the like. Handguns? Sure, please get one to protect yourself. Shotgun? Sure. Rifle? Sure. But not anything that freaking soldiers use, with big ass magazines that serve no practical purpose.
Mental health services for would-be attackers is important, but I believe it's also important to restrict access to guns where mental health services fail, because they kinda do sometimes anyway. There always has to be a failsafe.
More people get killed from bare hands and feet than assault rifles. More people get killed from knives than assault rifles. Around the same number of people die from cars as compared to guns.
Of course any mad man would be able to find endless horrible ways to kill people, but the bottom line is Guns just make it plan easier. I suffer from the "Batman Complex". No guns. Not ever. Maybe that's because I'm British? or maybe its just cause how I've be brought up? Guns are made to kill, with ease and asurity. Of course its ever persons right to defend themselves, but at what cost? If every person had a gun at hand would the world be a better place? Not likely. And what one thing these horrible killings in the US has proved is that even if there where armed guards in every cinema or school, could they have predicted or at least prevented the massacre that would follow?
The difference is that those tools are used for some other purpose besides killing people. What purpose do assault rifles use? They were MADE to kill people. Mental health screenings aren't guaranteed to work either. Massacres with guns tend to be on the spot, something done in a moment of mental collapse, so you can never predict if someone is going to do it. The answer to gun control is not completely take away guns, but it isn't adding more guns to the equation either.
More guns = less crime. I've already provided numerous links with statistical significance. And banning assault rifles (or any/all guns) does nothing regarding crime except give criminals peace of mind knowing that nobody else has them to defend themselves. This is why crime goes up when there is a ban. The guns that the criminals use don't disappear, just the law-abiding citizens' guns. Kinda like how banning drugs does nothing regarding the supply of drugs. Banning something with high demand doesn't extinguish that demand, it just shifts who supplies the product. It creates a more dangerous environment because people get their stuff from the underground instead of out buying it normally from competitive businesses. Prices are higher, crime is higher, death is higher. This is what banning high demand products creates.
Your statistical significance would mean something if there weren't stats against your stats. Argument #1: More Guns, Fewer Murders This argument is simply untrue. See the below stats from 2009 (granted they're 3 years old, but our laws haven't changed since then): Number of Murders, United States, 2009: 15,241 Number of Murders by Firearms, US, 2009: 9,146 Number of Murders, Britain, 2008*: 648 (Since Britain’s population is 1/5 that of US, this is equivalent to 3,240 US murders) Number of Murders by[pdf] firearms, Britain, 2008* 39 (equivalent to 195 US murders) *The Home office reported murder statistics in the UK for the 12 months to March 2009, but these are 12-month figures). --- The UK is far more restrictive in their access to guns than in the United States. By your logic this would mean crime would be more rampant, and yet through equivalating their murders to ours (because of the difference in population), we're STILL almost 40 times worse. ...More guns, less crime you say? Tell me why the facts show differently then. *EDIT* In 2011 there were 12,664 murders in the US. Of those, 8,583 were caused by firearms. Argument #2 - A Gun Filled Home, Is A Safer Home Quoting an from an article, which contains several links to scientific research on that very statement proves it wrong as well: There's more of a risk of gun related deaths purely by accident inside of your home, than there is without one. Not to mention the intentional deaths that can happen if your son becomes an Adam Lanza, or your wife goes crazy and shoots you. It's common sense. You have a gun in your home, your child can accidentally kill himself, or someone can easily gain access to said gun. No gun freely available? Your kid can't accidentally kill himself, deliberately kill you if he's mental, and your wife can't shoot you if she goes mental. Common sense. It's not rocket science.