Comments about ‘What others say: Stricter gun laws’

There is more going on here than just access to guns. There is a deeper issue. What is going on that is causing more and more individuals to choose to deal with their problems by hurting others? Could it be sense of entitlement? Could it be that more and more people are lacking in self responsibility and blame all their problems on external factors?
Those are the things that we need to look at in order to prevent these kinds of crimes.

I'm not someone who believes that every person should be armed with a gun, but even if all guns disappeared, bad things would still happen. Because that would only be a band-aid solution to a deeper problem. These sick individuals would simply find other ways/weapons to hurt innocent victims.

Rynn is right. Blaming guns for our sick society is like blaming spoons for obesity or blaming matches for arson. Secular progressivism, moral relativism is the cultural disease that has lead America to this, not guns!

Yet as we seek to cut spending, will we cut even further the already non-existent treatment options for mentally ill people?

Why is there never an outcry to ban alcohol? Drunk drivers kill far more people each year than any of these mass murderers.

Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Criminals don't obey laws. Citizens need to be armed to protect themselves against criminals. It works in Israel where I lived for a decade. Everyone is armed and not with pistols. Most have Uzi sub-machine guns. They guard their schools and all public buildings.

Mental illness has been around for 6,000 years
Guns have been around for 1,000 years.

Mass shootings have erupted the last 20 years,
SSRI type medications were introduced in the last 20 years,
Each and everyone of these shooters were taking these medications.

Co-incedence?

Lets talk about closing loopholes great. Banning guns is a long way off, but those who want that also have patience, so lets be cautious as to what passes. I would feel myself in grave danger if all the guns were only in the hands of licensed government officials.

LDS lib
"Mass shootings have erupted the last 20 years,"

not so, read John Fund's article published in the DN 17 hours ago.

from the article

"In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections."

Sorry to burst your bubble.

@lost in DC
West Jordan, UT

"In fact, the high point for mass killings in the U.S. was 1929, according to criminologist Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections."

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I read those articles.
That was in total number of incidents - mostly gang related, and not 20-30 people at a time.

I'm talking about depressed, isolated, desparate people -- taking medications to "help" -- then shooting indiscriminately at innocent by-standers, and finally ending it by suicide.

Suicide has been around since the beginning of time,
What's changed is it used to be silent, and only harming one's self.

The meds drop inhibitions like alcohol does, and a person looking for an out - takes it - but not before taking out as many others as possible first.

You have to investigate ALL the options with an open mind and without preconcieved notions to see the truth.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

So, according to conservatives, the answer is to slash spending on treating mental illness and arm everyone with assault rifles? What is their answer to this problem, other than to throw up their hands and say we have to preserve our freedoms? Freedom is a complex topic. We restrict it constantly and in a variety of ways. Why is the freedom to purchase a weapon designed specifically to kill people in large numbers a right in this country? The NRA is silent since the massacre. They're just biding their time until this all blows over. Then it will be back to business as usual. We can't let this one blow over. Not this time.

Gun control from a president who kills children in drone strikes everyday? I think these anti-gun people will shoot all the pro-gun people with guns in the name of banning guns.

LDS lib

You have to investigate ALL the options with an open mind and without preconcieved notions to see the truth.

I've never known you to do that. It would be good for you to practice what you preach.

"arm everyone with assault rifles" Can you identify your concept of what an assault rifle is? Label the items that make it such.

@jsf To a liberal, any gun is an assault rifle. If you want to really confuse them, ask them how it was possible for Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin and Moa ste Tung to murder millions of UNARMED citizens of their own country? They will just give you a blank stare because they can not connect the obvious connections between secular progressivism, moral relativism and these murdering dictators.

@Mountanman
Hayden, ID
@jsf To a liberal, any gun is an assault rifle. If you want to really confuse them, ask them how it was possible for Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin and Moa ste Tung to murder millions of UNARMED citizens of their own country?

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The same way Kim Jong Ill in North Korean did --
They starved them to death.

What does that have to do with guns?

Gun Free Zones are the problem every nut job know he has unarmed victims in Gun Free Zone. Let us who are responsible CCL Carry everywhere. Most all of these shooting happen in these Crazy Gun Free Zone.

The gun industry has been incredibly irresponsible fighting against anything that could avoid these mass shootings.

Bottom line is if you gun nuts don't get a handle on promoting a healthier industry and gun usage, society is going to regulate your beloved guns.

So I would suggest the NRA start talking more about the 10 commandments of firearm safety, that gun owners secure their guns and letting congress assure background checks. I'm appalled every time I go to a public range how many people point their guns in my direction.

If you don't do a better job regulating yourselves you deserve whatever regulation your hobby gets. And in my opinion your hobby doesn't merit the danger to society in the first place.

Your Switzerland example is crumbling, many provinces are requiring citizens to keep those army reserve rifles in the city armory and domestic homicide has gone down. Israel is now not letting the soldiers take the guns home anymore because too many were committing suicide with them.

Switzerland and Israel also have a 100% mandatory Military service.

If you are going to keep using Switzerland and Israel as the shimmering example,
then one needs to remember that Switzerland and Israel also have a 100% mandatory Military requirement.

Then I say only allow those of us who have actually served in the military (or police departments),
for whom these types of weapons were orginally designed to be used in the 1st place,
and have been properly trained, OSI background checked and thoughly investigated,
be the only ones allowed to have/use assault weapons.

Keep them only in the hands of those of us certified (and sensible enough) to use them.

Firearm death rates in the United States vary by state. The five states with the highest firearm
death rates are Louisiana, Alaska, Nevada, Mississippi and Alabama. The states with the lowest
rates include Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

Utah (19) has a higher firearm death rate than CA (20) due to a significantly higher suicide rate (#10 in the nation). As a parent of 3 (now adults) boys, I made sure we didn't have guns in the house while they were growing up. I learned in teen parenting classes that when young men get emotionally upset it triggers physical activity--"don't give your sons the keys to the car" when they are upset, while in young women emotional upset triggers verbal activity. Firearms are the most commonly used method of suicide among males. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among persons aged 15-24 years.

re:LDS Liberal
Sources? for info about the medications the Conn. assailant and others were on? Medical records are usually private and not released to the public.

JSF, mountainman, good example. All guns are made to assault people so we should ban them all.

A casualty of the all or nothing argument. Good job.

Care to use ad hominem or a false equivalency next?

It's easy to attack the credibility of the NRA and gun owners that have been irresponsible. And if you want an assault rifle you may as well have the bazooka and hand grenades to go with it because they are also made to assault people.

I think it is already illegal for a mentally ill person to own a gun and take for anyone to take it to school. What will more gun laws do? Totally classless when people use a tragedy that will bring no one back to advance there agenda.