Why the fuck are there so many crazy people?

[roxybisquaint]

I don't even know what else to say because without the answer to that question, we have no hope of reversing what seems to be an upward trend of crazy fuckers comitting nightmarish acts of violent. Yeah, this is because of that school shooting-that horrible, awful, straight-out-of-the-depths-of-hell kind of evil that can only be comitted by a

Comments

[roxybisquaint]

No, all that proves is that your gun control laws worked for your country. Switzerland has TONS of guns and almost no gun crime. In the US, we have lots of crime and lots of guns, but our crime rate has been declining. I read recently that despite there being more guns in the US than there were a few decades ago, fewer households have guns. So that could be a factor: Maybe fewer bad guys have guns while good guys have more guns.

I'm pretty satisfied with our gun laws as-is. I think they do a good job of preventing known criminals and crazies from buying guns. The problem, of course, is there's no way to set up a system that can weed out people who will commit their first violent crime in the future. So we accept the fact a tiny percentage of people who legally own guns will one day murder someone with it. And we also know that cops can't catch every illegal gun sale.

I think the only way we could improve on the system we have is by making it a federal law (meaning all of our states would have to comply) that private gun sales have to go through a licensed dealer so the normal FBI background check would be performed. As it is now, some states still don't regulate private guns sales. But that's it for any changes I'd want to see. Actually, I'd like it if we had open-carry everywhere, but I don't see that happening in every state ;)

Yes, the American attitude about guns is very different because we have a constitutional right to own guns. We take that right very seriously.

Now let me clear something up...

the guy could easily get a military grade assault rifle or fully automatic pistols

Automatic weapons are heavily regulated here. None made after 1986 are even legal for civilians to own and ones made before 1986 require special licensing and a hefty fee. Plus they're *really* expensive to buy. I did get to shoot one once, though (a fully automatic MAC 10). That was cool.

The "military grade assault rifle" doesn't mean anything either. Civilian AR-15s are just rifles that look militaristic. There are hunting rifles that are more powerful.

[intrepid01]

I agree that comparing Australia and America is apples and oranges and there would be no way what worked here would work there but I’m more trying to say it’s still the same basic principle at work, you have too many guns especially types that should never be in the hands of civilians because they are not meant for anything but killing people and “just” people, and personally I would find the prospect of people openly carrying horrifying, I would be a nervous wreck!

“Yes, the American attitude about guns is very different because we have a constitutional right to own guns. We take that right very seriously.”

While we never had it in our constitution to bear arms it was still a “right” for Australians to have guns, I wonder though about that often pointed out amendment wasn’t just a requirement of a young country making sure that it had a citizen army at the ready in case of need and your founding fathers never imagined that new country would be a nuclear armed super power with a large well equipped military or that the then muskets would evolve to be guns of such firepower.
And owning a gun should never be a “right,” It should be considered a “responsibility,” by just saying it’s your right diminishes the seriousness of what it is you own by considering it just another piece of property when in reality it puts a degree of state sanctioned power in your hands.

But anyway like I said I’m a realist, I’m not anti-gun I just wish for better controls on them for you to be in a world where school shooting were not so commonplace, but I also realise that it’s not going to happen, no matter how many times it happens the gun lobby will make sure the system never changes so why bother worrying about it, we’ll just have see what comes of this latest incident but I predict nothing much will change.

[roxybisquaint]

"I wonder though about that often pointed out amendment wasn’t just a requirement of a young country making sure that it had a citizen army at the ready in case of need and your founding fathers never imagined that new country would be a nuclear armed super power with a large well equipped military or that the then muskets would evolve to be guns of such firepower."

No, i don't think our founding fathers could imagine the kinds of weapons we have today, but that doesn't change the nature of our Constitutional right to bear arms. They knew swords were no match for muskets just as we know muskets are no match for a semi-automatic rifle. If weapons advance and citizens can't have them, the right itself becomes useless.

Most Americans agree on reasonable gun controls (even a gun enthusiast like myself). But when some nut job shoots up a school and the first thing politicians want to do is pass feel-good gun laws that wouldn't even have prevented such a crime, I can't support that. I mean really, would we all pat ourselves on the back if he'd used two hand guns with 10-round magazines (and didn't take a second to reload) and only killed 20 people instead of 26? Woohoo! Legislative success! Only 20 killed!!!

Guns are a factor, but they are not the problem. The problem is the person. I think the bigger issues are mental sickness, the breakdown of family, the loss of community, and a culture of violence. I have no idea how we begin to solve all that, but we seriously need to.