It’s astounding that in the age of the modern internet lots of Americans are still so isolated in their thinking. So many mass shootings and still no change in gun control. Almost all other western country have banned guns for the better. Some people just don’t learn from their mistakes at all!
That's because enough of us understand principles and don't have a myopic focus on a particular method of violence. Take legal guns out of the situation in this shooting and the body count goes up.
But it makes it a lot easier! Just look at the statistics around the world. Deaths caused by radical Terrorism pale in comparison with gun violence. Terrorist attacks without guns happen everywhere in the world, but mass shootings? Predominantly US only!
You act like eliminating legal guns will also eliminate non-terrorist violence. James Holmes for example (Aurora theater shooting in Colorado) had plans for bombs, and stabbing attacks that he ultimately didn't execute (although he rigged his apartment with bombs). He doesn't suddenly become a happy law abiding citizen in the absence of guns. He still would go on to kill people, quite possibly a lot more than 12.
Actually quite easy.
1. Bann guns (except law inforcement)
2. Destroy “legal” guns in circulation
3. Reduce production of guns and bullets
4. Increase punishment for gun ownership (fines and prison) guns are more dangerous then drugs
5. Instead of drug raids, focus on weapons raids
6. Gun ownership only in shooting clubs (you cannot take your gun home) and extensive vetting.
7. If there still is a mass shooting... don’t shout that if the victims had guns they wouldn’t have been able to protect themselves (that is total BS). That means more focus on illegal gun trade.
If an automatic costs Xxx dollars when it’s legal. It will cost a lot more on the black market (xxxx dollars). That makes it a lot more difficult for mentally disturbed people to get them.
There are gangs all over the world. There are much less deadly with knives then with guns. Also if there are no more guns, any black market gun in circulation will be much easier to spot then in combination with a circulation of legal and illegal guns.
Yes, governments can violate the rights of their citizenry and do all of the above. You'd drastically reduce the number of legal guns out there, and would probably get me to turn in mine (which are hurting no one). You might even reduce the number of illegal guns out there. You'd probably reduce gun deaths too, because people would commit suicide with their car running in their garage instead of shooting themselves (that's really the way to do it anyway). You'd probably reduce accidental gun death, and might even stop of a few of these mass shootings from happening. Other crime would go up though, and mass shooters like this guy would use trucks as weapons or bombs. Light aircraft would also make a good weapon. Rigged explosives, random stabbings, and of course illegal guns would continue to be available for would-be mass-killers.
You might be able to slosh the statistics around. Gun deaths down, vehicular homicides up. Gun deaths down, armed robbery, assault, and rape all up. Ultimately you accomplish nothing except sensationalism over having "done" something. And you manage to trample human rights and torch any semblance of a principled government in the process.
With freedom comes responsibility, that is one of the problems our society is struggling with and the lazies will eventually win.
It sounds nice to live in a dream where there are no guns or violence at all, big brother brings you fancy steaks for dinner and cleans your teeth.
What needs to be addressed is what happened to this guy to push him off the deep end, escape from a mental ward?(I've read), angry at his mother in law, and whatever else. Start there and not with an inanimate object.
This guy fractured a baby's skull, and beat his previous wife. No normal person does that.
Our system for legal gun ownership failed in this instance. We had someone we knew was violent and a threat and did not act on it. The failure is regulatory. This is our big challenge, tracking people like this, incarcerating them if they commit crimes, preventing them from owning weapons... I don't even really know how to stop them.
When you can rent a truck from u-haul and pack it with fertilizer and kill hundreds of people and destroy buildings... I don't know how to actually stop someone that you know is dangerous short of locking them up. You can try, but ultimately you'd have to remove all of their freedom to succeed. I'd hate to see a wife be able to lie about being beaten and have an innocent guy barred from owning or renting a vehicle for the rest of his life as a result. On the otherhand, when someone beats his wife and then goes out and rents a truck and runs people over, we'd think "gosh, why was that guy allowed to have a truck".
Psychiatric help is really the only thing I can think of. And that's not exactly a magic bullet. Ultimately, for people we know might be dangerous, we can try to take guns away. But we have to know that if we don't have enough to incarcerate them forever, they may ultimately kill people. That's just the price for living in a free society. Not that the US is free, but it is free in at least some respects still.
