Look to the causes of most gun violence, many recent events are reactions to problematic situations and could be prevented. Why does someone shoot up a school? What led them down that path, were they bullied, left out, ignored, repressed. Did they seek help, talk about their problems, become antisocial, etc? Was help offered/given, denied? Was the situation handled appropriately or allowed to continue unhindered? Was their actions a last resort to bring light to problems?
I am going to say this and still believe it. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. The tragedy in Florida could have been stopped if people in the right places had actually investigated the tips given. Law enforcement, parents, school system all failed in doing what was being shown to them. Why did they not respond I have no idea but it seems to be a regular thing now to ignore a situation or turn away from it so you don't have to deal with the realities of life.
I think the laws we have now are sufficient, just need to be enforced better. Oh, and every single one of the people ELECTED into the government should pass a test on the Constitution as part of the hiring process.
We do not have a gun problem in this country, we have a people problem, hold people accountable for their actions, put morals, values, responsibility back in the home. Teach the children of today, the adults of tomorrow the difference between right and wrong. As a society we need to quit picking the low hanging fruit off the tree and concentrate on what the real issues are. Homicide by any type weapon is 15th by the CDC and the bureau of statistics on death which equates to less than .7 percent
The Sunday Times reports that London has had a deadlier month of February than New York City for the first time in modern history due to a "dramatic surge in knife crime.".... Guns aren't the problem, people are.
Any rifle is an assault rifle if used to commit assault. a rifle is a rifle and very damned few of them have a range of a mile. When the founding Fathers wrote the Constitution the Second Amendment was included as a way for free people to preserve that freedom from oppressive Government forces, foreign or domestic.
Where are the like buttons.
There are at least, AT LEAST, 90 million guns in the United States, There are millions of gun owners. What is the percentage of gun owners who go on mass murder shooting sprees? The number is miniscule.
Trickster, what is the maximum effective range of 5.56 x45mm 55 grain full metal jacket ammunition? It isn't a mile. In fact common hunting rifle calibers like the 30-06, 308 and 270 have a much longer range. Please educate yourself before commenting.
FYI 67% of all homicides in the U.S. were committed using a firearm. 64% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides. 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm.Yet In 2016, 10,497 people died in drunk driving crashes – one every 50 minutes – and 290,000 were injured in drunk driving crashes Each day, people drive drunk more than 300,000 times, but only about 3200 are arrested
There were approximately 358 people shot and killed with rifles (includes shotguns) of any kind. There were 1,604 people killed with “knives or cutting instruments and roughly 656 people were beaten to death with “hands, fists, feet, etc. In Japan where guns have been banned, a 26-year-old broke through a window of a facility for the disabled in Sagamihara and went on a stabbing rampage that killed 19 of the 150 patients in the facility, wounding 25 others.
0 (ZERO) gun control...anybody in favor of gun control is un-American as well as extremely ignorant. I can only hope that you will be in a position of needing a firearm in order to protect themselves and/or themselves...and they, then get their just desserts of gun control!
i was wondering when someone would comment on such an asinine statement I dont know why people have to interject with such absurd statements in an otherwise serious controversial topic (SHR)
We have a ton of laws to start with about buying guns already on the books. The founders wanted us armed and dangerous. We are all the militia. I own 2 and I'll never give em up.
It's more of a mind problem. Proper Gun Safety Classes, Hunter Education Programs, Ethics, Morals....all come into play. Even if you have all the proper training on gun safety, accidents and non-accidents occur. In a perfect world, only mentally stable people should own guns. LOL
When I was in high school we had rifles on racks in our pick up trucks, we made flintlock rifles in shop class. We never had a mass shooting in our school. There were no mass shootings on the news. Someone tell me what happened in the last 35 years that has screwed things up. Knee-jerk reactions get bad legislation. There are plenty of laws on the books now. Enforce the laws we have.
I have to agree with Prime. Most students at my high school had gun racks with guns in the school parking lot. Never had any gun related problems. Blaming guns is an easy out and doesn't address the real issues.
That mentality comes from not having the Pledge, the Prayer and the Paddle in school anymore. Kids have no loyalty to their fellow countrymen, no spiritual guidance and no discipline these days.
Kids in today's "everyone gets a trophy" society have not been taught to deal with adversity so their thought process is screwed up. They think you settle differences the way it's done in a video game.
Dismantle and discard the prevailing, officially mandated and legally enforced twatcuckcracy that is doomed to produce almost nothing more than either sniveling, pathetic, delusional and dependent entitled wretches who cannot effectively deal with the vicissitudes of real life, which will always include adversity, disappointment, rejection, and struggle, or psychopathic predators who have no empathy or conscience that extend beyond their own immediate gratification and and lusts.
Educate and arm everyone so they can protect themselves from the bad people who kill others. It is not a gun that kills it is a person.
You will never stop people from killing others but you can stop them from killing more if you are armed and take them down before they kill others.
Explain what a "better" background check would be. Access to medical records? Mental illness that is untreated, unrecognized, so on is the problem with many shooters... so their illness wouldn't be in medical records.... not to mention that medical records are private.
good luck with that...a typical mental illness is gender dysphoria, which is rampant and yet socially acceptable these days and I doubt it will ever be considered as a disqualifying factor for the suspension of 2A rights from its sufferers without the backlash of public outcry of discrimination.
Hi Haigan. Very interesting re: gender dysphoria. It seems that it is socially acceptable, even encouraged, as being derigueur and chic in these misguided times. However, it's hard to believe it is rampant in the real world outside of what certain agenda driven proponents who revel in promoting such an idea want the general population to believe. My sense of real life here in the worldly trenches is that the overwhelming majority of people are not conflicted about their gender at all.
Follow the conversation, "Mental illness that is untreated, unrecognized, so on is the problem with many shooters..." You mentioned mental illness, I stated a common example of one type to illustrate the point, the question being "which mental illnesses do you plan to screen gun ownership with, all of them or just the ones that fit the progressive liberal narrative?"
I don't propose screening for any. Medical records are private. My question is... what does "better background checks" even mean? What does the question propose if not a violation of HIPAA laws?
I apologize for misunderstanding your intent. "Better background checks" means "we don't want to admit failing to enforce existing laws," in My opinion.
I have a federal firearms license. I am also a retired police officer. I was a police officer for 27 years. The last 13 years I was a criminal investigator. In my department we were general investigators. We would handle anything that dropped on our desk. We tended to have specialties but they weren't our only case type. I handled everything from petty thefts to homicides. One of my specialties was dealing with people trying to purchase guns when they weren't supposed to.
My jurisdiction had a Bass Pro Shops and a few smaller shops and dealers. I'd get to handle the cases when people who were not supposed to buy guns attempted to do so. Most of these folks had some kind of criminal history. Many of them had mental health issues. The reason those who were deemed mentally deficient were caught is because their diagnosis was reported to the proper authorities. So background checks do work the way they are supposed to but the information has to be passed on.
Better background checks, sadly if guns are made illegal that wont stop the bad guys from getting them. Their already criminals and there is a black market for everything.
