In light of wednesday’s church massacre, and now the philadelphia and detroit shootings this evening, what are your general thoughts? Also, what do you think the next step is in gun control? Will Obama impose any radical laws this late into his presidency, or will the future candidates propose their “cures” to gun violence?
This is not a gun problem.
It’s a people problem and we’ve had those for quite some time now.
If someone wants to kill a bunch of people they’ll figure out a way to do it, guns or not. I think the root of the problem lies in mental illnesses and/or psychological problems. I mean, there are (sadly) plenty of people who are just as racist as the Charleston shooter but THEY don’t start shooting people. Figuring out just what makes a person decide to do something so horrible and learning how to stop it would probably be more effective. (But that’s just what I think!)
Must watch for hilarious commentary on gun ownership…
@radmadeline I’d like to use your same rational and say it’s and evil /hate problem and not a mental illness problem. There are millions of mentally ill people in this world who never have the thought process of "
I’d like to kill or hurt a lot of people."
@radmadeline Its kinda hard to kill that many people so quickly without a gun. Yeah a bomb maybe but you can’t buy a bomb at Walmart, maybe a fire, well that’s arson its illegal, guns aren’t
In Australia the mass murder at Port Arthur is the largest in the history of the world, in 1996, after that Australia banned assault weapons and multi shot weapons figuring Australians only need one or a couple of bullets to protect themselves, they have a pretty good army you know, and the people thought it was good idea. There have been no mass murders since then all deaths by gun are now in single digits, Maybe not due to the ban, could be coincidence or maybe all the crazies felt bad and stopped ?
n the six years prior to Port Arthur there were 2 other major mass murders, since the ban (18 years) there have been none…
Obviously the bad guys have not figured out “If someone wants to kill a bunch of people they’ll figure out a way to do it, guns or not”
Maybe you have info you can tell them???
@carolinamom2boys very true. I hope I didn’t sound like I was trying to generalize mental illnesses. I just figure that something must have gone horribly wrong in these people’s heads at some point in their lives, and that includes just being plain evil.
@Jssaab1 I’ve heard that brought up before, and I don’t think it would hurt to try except…what about all the guns currently in circulation in the US? Would banning them mean people who already own guns have to give them up, or would it only stop the purchase of new guns? Either way, I can’t imagine it going over well with a lot of people. If the right to bear arms wasn’t a part of the Constitution maybe it would be different, but trying to amend the Constitution is hard to do and takes awhile (especially since we have a more conservative Congress right now).
“maybe a fire, well that’s arson its illegal, guns aren’t”. Arson is illegal and so is shooting people. But matches and guns aren’t banned.
I should note that I really only support people owning pistols and hunting guns because those are tools. I live in an area where just about everyone owns guns and we haven’t had any kind of mass violence problem, which is what leads me to believe that getting rid of guns isn’t going to magically fix everything. If it did, then I would wholeheartedly support banning guns, but I just don’t think that’s the only or even correct solution.
Also, “maybe you have info you can tell them” was that comment really necessary? The Boston bombing and 9/11 are two examples I can think of right off the bat that achieved horrible violence by means other than guns.
@radmadeline So because the mass murders did not happen on your back yard too bad for those people i guess.
Yes lots of people would be unhappy that you took away their guns, but how about we only take away assault rifles and only leave people with protection rifles? How about we trade them even up? The right to arms is an AMENDMENT, it can be repealed ( just like prohibition) there were a lot of people annoyed when that was taken away, heck there are still places where selling alcohol is not allowed.
After my area got built up there was a horrific accident on a country road that killed 4 High school honors students, speed was to blame i have driven that road for 20 years and never killed anyone but they lowered the speed limit… so that annoyed me but that’s how it is, one rotten apple can ruin it for everyone, that’s the way the world has worked since the dawn of time…
“So because the mass murders did not happen on your back yard too bad for those people i guess.” Uh, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all. What I was saying is that large groups of people can and do own guns without it being a problem. Since the number of gun owners as compared to the number of mass killers is very few, I just think we should see if there’s any way we can prevent those people from wanting to do any killing in the first place.
From what I read (idk how much of this is true or not), the Charleston killer legally bought his gun after passing a background check, although he supposedly already had some criminal history. Maybe we should work on enforcing and improving the laws we have before making any new ones.
I’m fine with regulating guns because I don’t think just anyone should be able to waltz in and buy one. I’d be all for banning assault rifles, since there’s no practical reason to own one imo, but otherwise I don’t think completely banning of guns is the solution is all.
The way the media covers these incidents needs some overhaul too. Maybe the killers would feel less motivated to kill if they didn’t think they’d get any recognition for it, but with the way the media reports things now they become (in)famous overnight. The Charleston killer supposedly wanted to start a race war. He shouldn’t have gotten ANY kind of publicity imo. Now when people think of the Charleston killer they’re going to think of him instead of the victims who died.