So before I get verbally assaulted by NRA types — for the record. I am a gun owner. I have a Beretta 9 millimeter pistol. I would like to get a .40 calibre, I like how they handle. I have been trained to use said weapon. I enjoy shooting.
AND THIS IS FUCKING NUTS!
Please people some rational limits on this please. Register the guns. Make people take a safety course before they can buy a gun. We make make people learn to try and pass a test before they get to drive because cars can be weapons to. We have incredible computing power now. Let’s get a decent database of people with emotional and mental issues, and known felons, and how about we not sell them guns? It really does not require an assault weapon to kill a deer. Frankly, it isn’t very sporting. Other than that the reason for an assault rifle is to kill a lot of people quickly. If you’re not a soldier you don’t need to be doing that. A criminal or crazy person might, but that takes us back to rule number 2. Let’s not sell guns to crazier or criminals. I shot off Uzi’s and other assault weapons for fun and to do research by renting them from a licensed range. Then they take back the rifle and keep the gun under lock and key. ‘Cause I really don’t need an Uzi. I’m writer.
Gabriel Giffords, Two days ago Oregon at a Mall, a movie theater in Aurora during Batman, workplaces, and now this horror in a Conn. school. 18 children are dead. This is madness. It’s time — past time — for rational, sensible rules.
at this moment I don’t think anyone would verbally disagree with you about some type of safety being needed. The problem with a database of the “mentally ill” is who makes the database. What guidelines do they use. I like the government less and less as time goes on but I also have moments of faith in it. Yet I would never trust them to create such a database. Not because of the intention behind it, but because a database that excludes anyone can be made to exclude anyone you don’t like. If a revolution ever really did happen I’m fairly sure both sides would line me up against a wall and shot.
Gun supporters will cozy up to the second amendment and say how if the teachers or parents were armed this would not have happened. Just like they made that claim after the Aurora shootings. The problem is that’s just not so. Any gun being used around children, even in the hands of someone trained, presents problems and dangers to the children. Granted I got up late today, but have they said what guns he used or if they were legally bought? There are no easy solutions, if he was really a madman then he would have found a way to commit this violence. And I can easily think of ways this could have been worse without using a gun.
Agreed, 100 percent.
I think mental health professionals have a duty to warn law enforcement if a patient is potentially violent and dangerous. At gun shows there is no requirement of a background check, and you can buy massive amounts of ammo by mail. No background check there.
And no, if he hadn’t had a gun I can’t picture anything this horrific. Yeah, with a knife he probably would have hurt and killed a few people, but it’s a lot easier to hit a guy with a chair when he only has a knife. Or you can swarm him. Get four or five adults to jump him. Some people would have gotten hurt, but there wouldn’t be 27 dead, 18 of them children. The power of guns is that they reach out and touch you, and they can do it across a long distance depending on the weapon.
There are over 300 million guns in this country. That’s practically the entire population, and if you figure a good percentage of those citizens are children it means we are awash in guns. There is a way to have sensible regulation that preserves hunters, and hand gun owners. Do you know I can go to a gun show and buy a 50 calibre machine gun? If people want guns of this size and power so badly they should join the army.
Yes mental health providers have a legal obligation to report anyone gt suspect if commuting violent acts. And yes we need better mental health, not just or people lik te person who murdered those children but for children with problems or who have lost a parent. And I know a lot about buying guns threw gun shows and online as well. That being partly due to my military experience and the inherent duties. As well as th exposure to weapons.
As for him only having a knife or similar melee type if weapon your right he could have been stopped much easier with far lower loss if life. When I mentioned it could have been worse I was specifically dreading the use of homemade bombs and Molotov cocktails that are far to easy to construct and also perfectly legal to purchase the parts for.
The laws we currently have are not sensible, the ease with which the criminally inclined and mentally unstable are far too many. What we need is for people to realize that te 2nd amendment is not a declaration for owning whatever gun you want.
I think you mean “before they buy a gun”, not a guy… Freudian slip there? 😀
Oops, good catch, Jack. I’ll go edit it. Thanks for catching that. I was writing in a white hot fury.