Forum

Well how about now? Now can we outlaw assault rifles? Is it too much to try and make our spree killers reload a couple more times before they can continue shooting more children in the face?

Jesus titty-fucking Christ.

Politicians and media are talking about it again at least. Not sure if they'll do something but at least they're talking.
Democrats are blamed for stealing guns when they do nothing so why not actually pass some bills?

A lot of other factors are more important in causing massacres and other violent crimes than guns, but guns are relatively easy to deal with. Every country has violent people, you can't stop that. You can limit the chance they will do damage.Some people will do damage anyway but less is good right.?

I didn't realize the "video games caused columbine" rumor was started by the NRA. Trying to shift blame from themselves to everything else. Fun to see them jump from target to target until they find something that sticks.

If any other disaster happened, people wouldn't consider trying to stop it happening again as soon as possible disrespectful.
While legislation based on rare tragedies is unlikely to be successful (less than 1% of murder victims in the US die in mass shootings) the emotional aftermath of these things is the only time the political will to pass legislation exists. We already know what to do, from all the past massacres, finding the causes of this particular event are not needed for the purpose of preventing things like it.
Even if it does exploit the tragedy, surely that's a small price to pay if it stops similar things happening again?

I'm not exactly educated on the matter, but here's my emotional response:

"The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world - there are 89 guns for every 100 Americans, compared to 6 in England and Wales.

And the murder figures themselves are astounding for Brits used to around 550 murders per year. In 2011 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,664 murders in the US. Of those, 8,583 were caused by firearms."

Those statistics pretty much end the discussion.

It's completely f*cking stupid not to ban guns/make them illegal.

Any f*cking nutcase can buy a gun and shoot whoever he wants. What a horribly stupid idea that is...and the statistics are right there staring you in the face. More people are being murdered by guns in the US because it's easier to get them.

And, of course (goes without saying): focus more on mental health. These nutters buying guns are mainly shooting other people due to how f*cking nutty they are.

Switzerland has no gun control; everyone who reaches age 18 is required to own a gun...and Switzerland has a low crime rate.

By the way, the leading cause of death is heart disease, followed closely by diabetes. Not guns.

Who said the leading cause of death was gun shootings? Certainly not I.

Ahem...

Leading Causes of Death

(Data are for the U.S. and are final 2010 data)


Number of deaths for leading causes of death

1. Heart disease: 597,689
2. Cancer: 574,743
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
4. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859
6. Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
7. Diabetes: 69,071
8. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
9. Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364

??. Gun: 31,076 (suicides - 19,392, homicides - 11,078, and unintentional shootings - 606)

So half of all suicides three years ago were committed with a gun, but we hear more about gun-related homicides than about gun-related suicides.

Wow, that's a blatant mischaracterization of Switzerland's militia style defense strategy.

Read up on it; it's actually very interesting. Basically, the Swiss conscript military aged males to be in the national militia. They go through training and are issued a weapon to keep in their residence in a secure location. They don't give them any bullets, though, and all firearm and ammunition sales are highly restricted requiring special permits that need to be renewed every few years. They have one of those national gun owner registries the gun industry lobby is always strawmanning the gun safety debate with in America.

Rather than no gun control, Switzerland has incredibly tight gun laws, like the rest of the civilized world except the US.