On the Subject of Today's Shooting

[i_17bingo]

I don't want to get shot dead, at random, in a parking lot, or at a movie theater, or in church, or in a mall, or at a school, or anywhere for that matter, by someone who just wants to shoot bullets at a lot of people for reasons that have nothing at all to do with me. Off the top of my head, I can think of more than two dozen people who felt this

Comments

[basric]

I oqn guns, I have a permit to carry. This is for target shooting enjoyment and protection working late shifts.

You can outlaw guns and confiscate every registered gun in the US, but if a criminal wants a gun he doesn't go to the local gun store to buy it, steal it but not buy it.

Stronger sentences for crimes involving guns, three strike laws these are what the public needs to be clamoring for.

What happened today could it have been prevented by gun laws. No. A crazy is going to find a way. And they are always such cowards as to kill themselves instead of facing what they have done.

I do believe internet rifle and gun part buying should be stopped and someone should be at gun shows to record gun sales.

My heart goes out to those parents who will be mourning Christmas day rather than celebrating.

[hosticle_fifer]

I generally agree with this sentiment. The situation has made me just sick, especially as a parent and a responsible gun owner who keeps his guns in a locker and out of reach.

I did want to throw out there that there is a lot of misinformation swirling around about gun shows. There's no loophole. You need to pass the same background check at a gun show that you do at a store.

I also don't think restricting the online purchase of gun parts is going in the right direction. If it's a receiver (aka, the legal "body" of the gun), then it's shipped to a FFL dealer and background checks are run. Otherwise it's all just optics and plastic and replacement parts.

[basric]

In Nashville at a gun show I bought a 38 paid and walked out with it. It was my responsibility to file with the police registry.

I'll give you the internet as I really don't know but what I see on TV & in the movies and I read. You seem more credible so I'll go with you.

[hosticle_fifer]

Huh. Maybe Tennessee laws are different? I thought the NICS check was national, though. I would have called what you just described "heavily illegal".

You certainly can't do that in PA, and I thought you couldn't nationwide. Oddly, there is further no need to file anything with any police registry, as there is no firearm registration system in the States. So I officially don't know what's going on there.

[basric]

You have to register all your guns in Tennessee. I've seen guns sold here at flea markets.

[hosticle_fifer]

Really? Not according to several internet sites I've looked on. Here's Wikipedia as an example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Tennessee

If formal registration were happening anywhere in the US, there would be a MAJOR fight about it. Whether informal registration is happening based on sales records is a matter for conspiracy theorists.

I have seen and even purchased firearms at flea markets too. This is because the sale of private possessions between citizens is not restricted. This is only legal for occasional transfers, though. If you're making any income doing this, making repeated sales, or are otherwise anything analogous to a dealer, then not doing a background check is SUPER illegal.

"NICS" stands for "National Instant Check System"...so the only way you could have legally walked out with that .38 is if you bought it from another attendee, and not a dealer. If it WAS a dealer, he's playing with fire, I think. :\

[theafaye]

Before I lived in NZ, I would have believed that guns shouldn't be publicly available. But my husband had guns down there, guns are readily available and there aren't the same kind of massacres in NZ that you get in the States. Criminalise the guns and the only people who have them are criminals. I must admit that I would actually rather like it if we had a gun in the house and I never thought I would say that.

What happened today is a terrible, terrible tragedy. But guns aren't the problem. It would be better to be putting effort into understanding why this happens so often in the States and then working on dealing with the root cause (and I have no idea what that may be, just interested in the fact that this is overwhelmingly an American problem).

[basric]

I own guns but every gun has a trigger lock and is in a gun cabinet that is also locked. My husband took book our girls starting at 10 years old to the gun range and taught them to respect their power, that they weren't toys and were dangerous if used without that respect.

My oldest doesn't have guns in her house with three small children-her reason. My youngest is still here and shoots like a pro and has a pernmit to carry though she only does when out at night.