School Shooting

Finding guns off the market (ie. illegal or less than legal) only requires than you approach the less upstanding part of your local society. If you've got shady friends or know shady people, you can find shady guns. People rob houses and steal the guns all the time. Those guns in up in the hands of criminals, and they pass them around.

Now I'm not familiar with how well law enforcement does on cracking down on these people. Obviously they can't just go through a rough neighborhood and just start searching houses. But I know they could certainly do more to make sure convicted felons aren't allowed to buy ammunition.

I also think that if people want to go forward with reasonable legislation, they should focus on enforcing the existing laws. For instance it's illegal to purchase a firearm if you have any mental issues. The problem is they expect you to answer truthfully by check marking a box. If they actual required a mental examination of the purchaser, it would have a lot more meaning.

Another thing they could do is crack down on the transfer of weapons without federal background checks. I think a viable option would be making the owner of a firearm legally liable for whatever crime the purchaser commits if they do not first go through a federal background check and vouch for their mental stability.

It should also go without saying that anyone who has a person in their home who has known mental issues should not have any unsecured guns in the household (they should probably not have any guns in the household period, but under certain circumstances, that might not be applicable).

With all of that said, I think the assault rifle ban is a joke. People want something done, but an assault rifle ban is nothing more than a worthless political ploy. An assault rifle ban is geared toward weapons that "look dangerous." What people really want, if they stop to think about it, is a high capacity magazine ban. The two issues should not be confused and they should not be merged together. If people will drop the assault rifle ban talk and just promote a high capacity magazine ban, more pro-gun people would listen.

Even then, I think at the very least people should be able to apply for high capacity magazine permit. It would require a federal background check, finger printing, sheriff's signature, and a mental health examination.

That's my opinion. I also agree with increased funding of the mental health sector.
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The real problem is the gun obsessed ethos America has. Little by little this has to be remedied, although I don't know how you could do it practically. A little more trust has to be placed in the police and the law. I understand the concern of the government having guns and the people not having guns, but when you enter society, you surrender your "right" to personal retribution and give it to the state. You can't have people carrying AK-47s out in the open (as the NRA envisions) ready to take the law into their own hands in a civilized society. If the NRA honestly wants this, they can leave the States and start their own anarchist nation on some island somewhere.
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Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter east.

Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4417 Location: Korriban

Last edited by Reepicheep on Fri Dec 21, 2012 1:08 pm; edited 1 time in total

Since the Meditation Grove is open now, I'm going to go ahead and move this thread there.
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I can't speak for other countries, states, or even cities, but in St. Louis, it can be dangerous at night. There's a lot of violence in the city. If you get attacked, there's no time to call for help and you ability to run for help is next to nil. Your best defense is a concealed carry handgun. By law, you have to take a concealed carry course, you have to go to your local sheriff's office to get a federal background check, finger printed, and the approval of your local sheriff. Once all this is done, you can then get your license.

If you have the desire to protect yourself, and since the right to bear arms is covered by the Bill of Rights, I see no reason why there is anything wrong with this or why it should be stopped and handguns outlawed.

I've been doing a little bit of reading on the subject of school shootings and I discovered something I did not know before. Both Columbine and the Virginia Tech school had armed guards. In both cases the guards were not in the building where the shooting took place and their ability to respond to the incident was too slow to stop the carnage. While there are a lot of people who don't like the idea, this is still a pretty good reason for allowing teachers to conceal carry if they want. In these shootings, teachers are often among the targets, and we be the fastest response to an issue.

Regardless, the situation is complex and certainly requires more than one field of approach. Lots of factors need to be addressed, especially mental healthcare and awareness.
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Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1410

Actually the guards at Columbine engaged the shooters twice but were unable to stop them. this is straight from the police report. If the guards couldn't stop them, why would anyone think that armed teachers could? Arming teachers is just such a bad idea.

I think there needs to be a lot more discussion on solutions to the problem of gun violence, but I don't see any viable solution that excludes banning certain guns and the amount of ammo in a magazine or drum.

I whole heartedly reject Wayne LaPierre's suggestion of a national data base of the mentally ill. First off, it stigmatizes all mentally ill individuals. Secondly, a national database that actually tracks all gun and ammo purchases would be much more about addressing the real problem. And close the gun show loophole.

We're never going to be able to eliminate all violence. Mankind has never been able to do that. But that doesn't mean we throw our hands up in the air, and do nothing to minimize it.
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4417 Location: Korriban

Master Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 1349

Master Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 4417 Location: Korriban

Master Joined: 09 Jun 2009 Posts: 1410

Let's not forget about Fort Hood: 13 killed and 29 wounded.

Virginia Tech had it's own police force. 32 killed and 17 wounded.

Columbine guards unsuccessfully engaged the shooters twice: 13 killed and 21 wounded.

In 2012 alone there have been 121 killed in mass shootings in the U.S.

1976-2010: 2,956 killed in mass shootings.

A mass killing is defined by the FBI as 4 or more victims. So this doesn't count the thousands and thousands of other gun homicides.

In 2011 there were 8, 583 gun homicides.
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Roqoo Depot co-founder.

Here's an idea from an ex-SEAL that does not involve arming teachers with guns.

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