Republicans claim shootings are exploited to take away gun freedom, while democrats call for more gun control. However, though, I agree with democrats, a little, because why are "weapons of war" on the street? Most violent crime can be stopped with regular weapons or the threat of them.
Gun Control
- Thread starter Jason76
- Start date
If a guy uses a truck to ram into a crowd of people, we don't stop trucks from being on the street because we realize it's the person behind the vehicle causing the damage. Why isn't it like that with guns?
Exactly, it's not the guns killing people. It's people killing people. We don't ban knives because of all of the serial stabbings.
I believe that you should be able to carry a gun to protect you and your family. I however do also believe that there needs to be a little bit more done when it comes to background checks to try and prevent this from happening so many times. Mental illness is the root cause of most shootings, and society still has a long way to go when it comes to the stigma of mental health. Pay attention to your children, if you see any weird behaviors do not feel bad for getting them the help they need. Lock up your guns as much as possible if you live with someone who is mentally unstable.
I could be accused of lighting the blue touch paper here but that's not my intention so I won't directly quote anyone because I don't want to offend.
We don't have this problem in the UK, for one simple reason. The vast majority of UK citizens do not have access to firearms. It's even illegal to carry a knife in public without good reason, unless it has a manual folding blade, less than 3 inches long.
Roll back 50 or more years and children used to bring firearms to school, usually taken from German troops during the second world war. I used to spend many happy hours in the school firing range firing live rounds at a target with a Lee Enfield .22 or 303 bolt action rifle. We were also let loose with the same firearms, loaded with blanks, to play war games in public areas.
Roll on a few years and we started to suffer the occasional atrocity, Dunblane being the worst, the one and only time we have had a school shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in UK history. Even so we didn't ban firearms as a result, we just placed restrictions on who could own them.
To cut to the chase, our gradual removal of firearms and other weapons from the public domain has been as a direct result of atrocities committed or an increase in undesirable statistics. We don't have groups of people complaining about a loss of rights because nobody wants to have to even think about protecting themselves from an armed intrusion whether it be a home, a school or anywhere else.
The argument that we need to protect ourselves against the mentally ill, terrorists or anybody with bad intent doesn't hold water because atrocities committed by these groups are a rare event. The argument that such groups will resort to other potentially lethal methods of mass annihilation e.g. the use of vehicles or knives holds even less water because it almost never happens. The number of massacres of any kind in the UK since 61AD when the Romans conquered Anglesey is less than 50.
The UK has one of the lowest death rates from firearms in the world, the police are not routinely armed and fatal shootings by the police are almost unheard of, at roughly 3 in any 10 year period.
If you've read this far it might surprise you to know I am a legal gun owner, I have a firearm certificate and own a number of firearms. My sole reason for posting is an attempt to demonstrate that people can still own firearms but still be assured that their children will return home safely from school. In this day and age no one should have to suffer the loss of a child due to a school shooting.
We don't have this problem in the UK, for one simple reason. The vast majority of UK citizens do not have access to firearms. It's even illegal to carry a knife in public without good reason, unless it has a manual folding blade, less than 3 inches long.
Roll back 50 or more years and children used to bring firearms to school, usually taken from German troops during the second world war. I used to spend many happy hours in the school firing range firing live rounds at a target with a Lee Enfield .22 or 303 bolt action rifle. We were also let loose with the same firearms, loaded with blanks, to play war games in public areas.
Roll on a few years and we started to suffer the occasional atrocity, Dunblane being the worst, the one and only time we have had a school shooting, the deadliest mass shooting in UK history. Even so we didn't ban firearms as a result, we just placed restrictions on who could own them.
To cut to the chase, our gradual removal of firearms and other weapons from the public domain has been as a direct result of atrocities committed or an increase in undesirable statistics. We don't have groups of people complaining about a loss of rights because nobody wants to have to even think about protecting themselves from an armed intrusion whether it be a home, a school or anywhere else.
The argument that we need to protect ourselves against the mentally ill, terrorists or anybody with bad intent doesn't hold water because atrocities committed by these groups are a rare event. The argument that such groups will resort to other potentially lethal methods of mass annihilation e.g. the use of vehicles or knives holds even less water because it almost never happens. The number of massacres of any kind in the UK since 61AD when the Romans conquered Anglesey is less than 50.
The UK has one of the lowest death rates from firearms in the world, the police are not routinely armed and fatal shootings by the police are almost unheard of, at roughly 3 in any 10 year period.
If you've read this far it might surprise you to know I am a legal gun owner, I have a firearm certificate and own a number of firearms. My sole reason for posting is an attempt to demonstrate that people can still own firearms but still be assured that their children will return home safely from school. In this day and age no one should have to suffer the loss of a child due to a school shooting.
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Demon_skeith
Paragon
We need gun control that people aren't owning weapons that you see in a war zone, but we also need more mental health help in the country so people don't get lost in a 'lets shoot everything up' mindscape.
Sadly our leaders are as divided as this nation was in the civil war, so let the count begin to the next shooting, unfortunately 🙁
Sadly our leaders are as divided as this nation was in the civil war, so let the count begin to the next shooting, unfortunately 🙁
Chicago, a city where I went to school at and worked for years, has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US. And it's not working. People who want to commit crimes are going to get guns no matter what. We are too huge of a country to try control who has access to guns because they aren't all owned legally. The gangs in Chicago don't care about your gun control laws. They don't care about your drug laws. They laugh because there is no accountability when crimes are committed. That's part of the problem.
We can't compare a huge nation such as the US to smaller countries where it's easier to find out who has guns and stop them from owning them. When I was in my 20s I hated the thought of anyone owning a gun. I honestly thought that most people were like me and didn't want to hurt others but I woke up from that fantasy and realize there are some very evil people in this world. Sometimes having a gun will actually save lives and those types of news stories aren't as publicly broadcasted. But maybe they should be.
We can't compare a huge nation such as the US to smaller countries where it's easier to find out who has guns and stop them from owning them. When I was in my 20s I hated the thought of anyone owning a gun. I honestly thought that most people were like me and didn't want to hurt others but I woke up from that fantasy and realize there are some very evil people in this world. Sometimes having a gun will actually save lives and those types of news stories aren't as publicly broadcasted. But maybe they should be.
I was listening to an interview with a parent who lost a child at another school shooting. In his view the parents of the 19 students who were shot dead are to blame for not carrying out due diligence into the school's safety procedures. I'm literally lost for words.
Does this mean that buying a gun should be as easy as buying a truck? I don't know.
Obviously we cannot live in a world where students have to have bulletproof padding in their backpacks, and the solution "give all the good people guns" is malarkey. Sure, let's have every teacher rocking a glock to work everyday. There has to be a middle ground somewhere, but we can't find it because these politicians are playing tug-a-war while they're busy strategizing their re-elections.
If increasing gun control in some way isn't the answer, what is?
I didn't say that buying a gun should be easy and my point was that some people want NO guns to be owned by the people, but that's ridiculous if you apply the same logic to acts by people who use trucks/cars to kill.
I haven't heard updated information, but one news source last night said the school door was unlocked. If that's true, there is one thing that could have slowed down the event if the door had been locked.
I worked as a substitute teacher in the past and the doors were ALWAYS locked. I also subbed for the school secretary and was told the rules of how to let people in and when not to. Even back then I worried about letting in the wrong person. We had a former student get into the school...and he didn't leave! They saw him on the video feed and early the next morning we were all on lock down in the rooms for hours until they made sure the student was no longer there. That was scary to think about but I knew which teachers (subs) carried guns and they were texting their locations so we could know who to turn to if something happened.
There are people in this world who will commit a crime because of the hate in their hearts for others. This man was bullied for being a cross dresser, as well as for being poor and talking differently. He didn't graduate with his peers the day before. He was filled with rage. Months earlier he left his mother's home to live with his grandmother. No one could have foreseen this event happening although they could see he was troubled. He could have passed all kinds of tests to get a gun because he didn't have a mental health history. But he was mentally ill and hostile.
We want to fix things but we have to start by fixing people.
No. But what about the criminals who break the law, break into someone's home or steal a gun from someone they know to commit their atrocities?
Most of the kids who committed school shootings stole household guns from their parents. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did a straw purchase from dealers in their towns without back ground checks. Their parents knew nothing about it because these kids lied and kept secrets from their parents, not to mention they were mentally ill.
I agree. But I'm a little confused by your comment. Can you be more specific by what you mean? They did a background check on me when I bought mine both times and I signed a form.
Armed police officers and metal detectors are helping with the issue. It's not 100 percent effective. Nothing is. But it's a start. They need to step up security in schools to deter school shooters from acting out.
Do Armed Guards Prevent School Shootings?
Can increasing armed school security reduce deaths from active shootings or deter the attacks in the first place? Experts say the data is not encouraging.
www.thetrace.org
They have armed police officers present at some schools and they have their own office. They have 2 police officers on duty at my son's elementary school where I live. But oddly they don't have any police security at the Middle School where my daughter attends. When I was in middle school, they always had a cop on duty there. When I was in high school, they had to bring in more police officers when kids were writing gun threats as well as calling in bomb threats to the principles office and vandalizing the bathroom giving dates when they were going to do a school shooting.
There is an answer. You may not like this answer. But it this applies to school shooters & criminals who abuse guns and politicians who would love to take away the 2nd Amendment.
"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain status of Independence from any who might attempt or abuse them, which would include their own government." - George Washington.
Moral law abiding citizens shouldn't lose their firearms on the accounts of the actions of those who acted immorally and illegally. Guns are no different. In fact Maybe we should take away alcohol because of drunk drivers. Because when you start taking one set of freedoms away over the actions of several idiots, you're giving your government more excuses to taking more and more of those freedoms. Not all of us should be held responsible and lose our rights and privileges. That doesn't mean we're apathetic towards the victims who suffered on the wrong end of those crimes. It's a shame it happened. But that's like saying, everyone should pay for that particular someone's crimes by giving up their guns or give up alcohol because of drunk drivers or your nice set of kitchen knives because a serial killer stabbed a woman and her children to death. We shouldn't punish everyone. By taking away guns, we're punishing those who are innocent and are law abiding.
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