JCC school shooting in Conn.

Suitcase nukes for everyone!

 

Well they certainly don't help...

 

And I bet a lot more mass murders involve guns than knives. It's a lot easier to keep pulling a trigger than running around stabbing people. If I had to choose, I'd rather be in a situation where a nutjob has a knife than a gun... especially some semi-automatic piece of **** like this guy had.

 

But one shouldn't ignore any the factors that played a part in this. 8 children died in the Osaka massacre. At least 18 children died in Sandy Hook. Who says some of the children might not have survived had the attacker used a knife? Using a gun, after all, lets him stay and block the entrance/exit and trap those poor kids.

Why do regular citizens need access to these high-power weapons? Why access to assault weapons?

Why aren't more stringent psychiatric evaluations required for those who wish to purchase guns?

Why are child abusers allowed to purchase and own weapons?

All of these points strike me as requiring re-evaluation.

When we point this out, we do so not for political gain, but because we are looking at what could have been done to prevent (or, at the very least, minimize) such a tragedy from occurring.

 

Doing something about mental health care is going to be a very long-term action, which means in the duration we'll still have incidents like this. I absolutely believe this is a "people" problem and to heal this problem we need to look at people, but in the short-term, certain advanced toys have to be taken away from a certain highly questionable age-group.

 

i dunno shane, maybe just take a step back and try to have a little respect for the victims of this senseless tragedy, a little sympathy for their families, a little basic human decency, before you hop on your gun toting soap box. there's a time and a place for that debate, and this really isn't it.

 

I got teary-eyed when I heard about this. My prayers go out to all the families affected by this and all the children who had to see it happen. It's unthinkable...

 

what happend to people in the last 20 years? when my dad was a kid they wouldn't bat an eye if somone had a loaded shotgun in their car in high school. now school shootings have gotten so bad that one of the kids when i went to high school got suspended for having empty shotgun shells in his car with no gun. I know there's been mass killings since the beginning of time but why is it so common for this kind of thing to happen?

my point is what has happend now that this is happening when 20-30 years ago school shootings didn't exist. Also it seem the bastard that does it always kills themselves so they don't have to deal with the consequences.

 

I agree with all the bold points. I'm not for allowing everyone to own any type of gun at any time. Reasonable gun regulation is fine. But to come in and use this tragedy as a platform for gun control.....well it certainly wasn't a handgun used today.

I just think many people have gone bugnuts in this society and people are looking for surface answers when there is something deeper at work here. Something more sinister and serious.

The post above talking about mental health issues touched on it a bit.

 

KW went there on the fourth post in this thread. So you should direct that at him.

 

Seems to me you're mixing up cause and consequence here Shane. I'm pretty sure that the most important reason for people to want stricter gun laws in the U.S. is to prevent tragedies like this.

 

Mustafar_66 already touched on the fact that it has to do with how both (mental) healthcare and gun control in the United States really suck, but hey, things are never multi-faceted.

 

I agree with this, and it's definitely high time for a more comprehensive debate on gun control (reviving the Brady law would be a start), but we've also swept mental illnesses under that same rug for so long that perhaps it's time to have a comprehensive conversation about that as well.

 

Excuse me but KW brought politics into it. Frankly, his schtick is old.

Okay, my rant is done. Sorry this thread got off track.

The reason we wont have the discussion about mental health issues is it's easier to blame a thing, an object, for societies ills, than it is to look in the mirror.
That's more complex. More difficult to pin down.

 

you're right, but anti-gun sentiment in the wake of something like this can at least be seen to come from a place of compassion. entering a conversation like this with pro-gun rhetoric just looks detached, tactless, callous, insensitive, and cold. i'm not asking you to change your position. just maybe wait a day before you start spouting it so angrily. again, just have a little respect.

 

People, KW and company brought it up, not shane and company.

 

there is no non-tragic reason for gun control - the entire impetus is to PREVENT TRAGEDIES. so really, there's absolutely no time like in the wake of a gun-tragedy to talk about gun control. again:

 

I don't really understand why it shouldn't be brought up anyway. What are we going to do, post sad faces and roses and talk about how tragic this thing was? I find Shane's defensiveness hilarious, though, as though the prospect of being denied killing tools is a personal affront.

 

It doesn't matter. What does matter is that some sicko ended too many lives way too soon.

Very very sad.

 

Conn. Governor is having a press conference on this now.

 

You make the same argument as death penalty advocates. Doesn't work.

 

Somewhere in China, someone is saying "If banning knives would put an end to this stuff, it would be worth it . . ."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...-attacks-school-children-in-china?ft=1&f=1001

 

what argument is that

 

The point is that this thread isn't the time or place for EITHER SIDE