[DrCMS]

How likely is gun control in the aftermath of the most recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut?

I'm guessing there wil be some talk but no real changes made and this will become just another mass killing among way too many.

Looking in from the sidelines the case for gun control seems to be so strong but it never happens; what is the feeling over there?  Is this case with such young children different?

[Doc Oc]

I'm guessing there wil be some talk but no real changes made and this will become just another mass killing among way too many.

This.  Every time the debate comes up in the midst of a tragedy like this, there's little more than posturing that occurs.  Neither side will budge and both will trot out the same tired arguments they've always used.

I'm not pro-gun by any means, but I don't necessarily think banning them will end this type of problem.  We have deeper issues in this country where people are deciding that they're going to solve their problems by killing a bunch of innocent bystanders.  Whether you do that with a gun, a knife, or a bomb, those types of things seem to be growing disturbingly more common.  Maybe we shouldn't let Hollywood glamorize cases like Casey Anthony's; I think we can all agree that there's no way she should be getting anything but a good stiff beating.

[DrCMS]

I'm not pro-gun by any means, but I don't necessarily think banning them will end this type of problem.  We have deeper issues in this country where people are deciding that they're going to solve their problems by killing a bunch of innocent bystanders.  Whether you do that with a gun, a knife, or a bomb, those types of things seem to be growing disturbingly more common.

I agree with this to a degree but you only need to look at what happened in Chenpeng village in Henan province the day before this shooting at Sandy Hook to see the difference having easy access to guns makes to those people who decide to hurt others because they are f*$#&@ up losers.

• In China using a knife a madman injured 22 children but killed no-one.
• In the USA the following day another madman armed with an assault rifle killed 20 children and 6 adults.

How can any sane adult justify the sale of assault rifles and handguns in their country.  The only use these weapons have is killing another human being and I am very glad I live in a country that prevents my fellow countrymen from arming themselves with weapons like this they could turn on me if they have a bad day.

[curiouscat]

I'm no fan of guns either but I'll add the caveat that if a determined, intelligent man wants to commit mass murder, modern  life offers ample ways to do it and it really is a losing battle to stop him. I guess we should still try though.  (My irritation is against items the govt. starts controlling and licensing just because someone could potentially use them to kill e.g. fertilizer) Or this new zest to control almost all chemicals and equipment beyond easy access by the common man.

Maybe we can just hope for less intelligent psychopaths for the future.

[Doc Oc]

Well stated curiouscat.

DrCMS, I have no problem with guns being outlawed wholesale.  I just don't think that people who are set on doing evil will allow that to stop them.

[DrCMS]

As I said earlier I agree with you totally that if someone is hell bent on hurting Innocent people because they have messed up their own life they will find a way to do that. 
However, easy access to guns with large magazines make killing lots of other people much too easy. 

I can not understand why Americans are so insistent on the right to bear arms in the 21st century.  So what if that was a good idea 200 odd years ago; today it is a terrible idea.  Your constitution should not be an unchangeable monolith.  It should be adapted and updated to work in the modern world we live in otherwise it becomes a historic anachronism with little value.

[curiouscat]

As I said earlier I agree with you totally that if someone is hell bent on hurting Innocent people because they have messed up their own life they will find a way to do that. 
However, easy access to guns with large magazines make killing lots of other people much too easy. 

Agreed.

[Mitch]

I just wish that mentally ill people wouldn't be allowed near guns. Perhaps teaching a mentally handikapped person to shoot isn't a good idea. That being said, my nephew loves shooting and has mental problems, makes me nervous.

[Doc Oc]

As I said earlier I agree with you totally that if someone is hell bent on hurting Innocent people because they have messed up their own life they will find a way to do that. 
However, easy access to guns with large magazines make killing lots of other people much too easy. 

I can not understand why Americans are so insistent on the right to bear arms in the 21st century.  So what if that was a good idea 200 odd years ago; today it is a terrible idea.  Your constitution should not be an unchangeable monolith.  It should be adapted and updated to work in the modern world we live in otherwise it becomes a historic anachronism with little value.

DrCMS, I have no problem with guns being outlawed wholesale.

You don't have to convince me.

As a society, the US has bigger problems than just gun control.  People have decided that the proper way to vent their feelings is to take it out on the people around them.  While this act itself is not new, the frequency appears to be increasing.  When you see Casey Anthony getting paid a lot of money for a book and movie deal that tell the story of how she murdered her own daughter and got away with it, well, that might be worth society thinking you're a scumbag, right?  Whether all of these people should be considered mentally ill is even at question.  Would anyone have considered Amy Bishop, a university professor, to be mentally ill prior to her rampage?  It's easy to do after the fact.  Then you can ignore it and move on with your life.  It was easy for Harvard to setup mental health counselors after Jason Altom killed himself.  Those programs conveniently lost their funding as the years went by.  It's easier to throw a band-aid on something than to deal with the real issue (fair treatment of grad students in Harvard's case).  Collectively, we as a society need to stop doing that if we want these types of things to stop.  I wish I knew how to get this process started, but I don't.

[OC pro]

We´ve have had deadly shootings on schools here in Germany too, but: all of these kids had easy access to guns since their parents were huntsmen or involved in shooting sport clubs. Most often, these guns were not locked away or were simple hanging in the living room. Recently, government put strict rules here. Every gun is registered and since you own one you have to lock them away in special gun racks (of course when this law came out 2 years ago prices dramatically increased for this stuff). And this will be controlled at least once a year.

[curiouscat]

We´ve have had deadly shootings on schools here in Germany too, but: all of these kids had easy access to guns since their parents were huntsmen or involved in shooting sport clubs. Most often, these guns were not locked away or were simple hanging in the living room. Recently, government put strict rules here. Every gun is registered and since you own one you have to lock them away in special gun racks (of course when this law came out 2 years ago prices dramatically increased for this stuff). And this will be controlled at least once a year.

As an aside the hunting / gun safety classes they make you undergo in Germany seem far more rigorous and longer than the perfunctory stuff in the US, I think?

[OC pro]

Yes of course. Being a huntsman is a very expensive hobby over here. 

[DrCMS]

I see the NRA have now come up with the suggestion of having armed guards in schools!?!

Their solution to guns in schools is to have more guns in every school.  It really doesn't matter what the problem is to them every solution involves more guns.  Just like an alcoholic "fixes" everything with more alcohol and left wing politicians "fix" everything by borrowing more money to spend on one stupid project after another you can always trust the NRA to "fix" everything with a gun.

[Doc Oc]

The pro-gun crowd always uses this argument.  "If a good guy has a gun, he can kill the bad guy before the bad guy can kill too many civilians."  This, of course, assumes that you're capable of maintaining your cool and shooting with accuracy when bullets start whizzing by you.  I have a friend who is in law enforcement and he said criminals have significantly better aim than the police because they get into shootouts more often.  The pro-gun crowd doesn't pay heed to things like that.  Ask them if they could have stopped the shootout in Colorado, they will always respond yes.  A dark movie theater full of people panicking and running for the exits, a gunman spraying bullets at random into the crowd; yes, they believe they'd be able to spot him and put him down with precision without losing their cool.

[408]

I almost wrote a multiple page response to this a couple times, but got bored in the middle.  Here is a link that is close to what I would have wrote.  And I am a non-American.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencehunter/2012/12/28/gun-control-tramples-on-the-certain-virtues-of-a-heavily-armed-citizenry/