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School shooting: but don't mention guns!

oh geez. He killed his mom in her classroom. Her kindergarten classroom. That implies most of the kids that got killed were kindergarteners.
 
I just don't know the answer to this type of tragedy. Do you ban guns completely, and punish the 50 million or so responsible gun owners out there because of the horrific actions of a few people? Do you make guns much harder to obtain because .01% of the gun population does the wrong thing? I don't think any of those things is the right answer, but I am not sure what is.

Same here.
 
I just don't know the answer to this type of tragedy. Do you ban guns completely, and punish the 50 million or so responsible gun owners out there because of the horrific actions of a few people? Do you make guns much harder to obtain because .01% of the gun population does the wrong thing? I don't think any of those things is the right answer, but I am not sure what is.

You start by having an actual honest discussion about what it means to live a an armed society. Talk about the realities and responsibilities that the 2nd amendment creates.
 
I just don't know the answer to this type of tragedy. Do you ban guns completely, and punish the 50 million or so responsible gun owners out there because of the horrific actions of a few people? Do you make guns much harder to obtain because .01% of the gun population does the wrong thing? I don't think any of those things is the right answer, but I am not sure what is.

I don't think anyone believes we should ban all guns. As for banning some types of guns or making guns significantly harder to get because .01% of the gun population (how is the "gun population" defined, and where did you come up with that statistic?) does the wrong thing, I think yes, we do.

It's the same reason we ban individual ownership of other very dangerous arms (chemical, biological and nuclear weapons): because public safety interests outweigh the individual right.

I think equating the gun debate with incidents like this is wrong though. If you're saying we shouldn't pass laws only with an eye to making incidents like this one impossible, I agree. That would be like making driving laws and enforcement such that no fatal motor vehicle accidents happen.

Actually it would be worse than that because it would ignore that the single biggest category of gun deaths are suicides. (Annually, just over 50% of gun-deaths in the U.S. are suicides. A fairly small percentage of them are accidents, and the remaining 40-something percent are homicides--or rather non-suicide homicides.)

Incidents like this are pretty far outside the norm of the high gun-death problem our country faces.
 
Holy :rule10. Too bad the bastard is unavailable for the good old "hanged, drawn, and quartered" routine.

Why?

This kind of violence isn't likely to decrease due to deterrence. And I think there's credible evidence that the more state-sanctioned violence there is, the more violent crime you get.

Lust for revenge will have to go unrequited, as it should.
 
Well that was actually what I was hoping to ironically highlight at the time. Now I think that is overshadowed by events. See below.



When I started this thread they were reporting that only the shooter was dead, likely at the hands of police. My biggest indignation at the time was really the statement that elementary schools don't have bullying.

I go, rake leaves out of the gutter then come back to watch what is up and see maybe twenty kids are dead. And this is a K-4 school.

Now I'm ashamed at starting this all off the way I did.

Granted we will have to deal with the social situation questions one day. We need to be able to have an adult sit down and talk about where we really want our society to lead. Do we really want to keep tolerating these tragedies in order to protect what might be an outmoded concept of individual rights? Can we consider massacres like this a tragedy of the commons only properly addressed by giving up some of those rights?

One day we will have to really and earnestly tackle those questions. We can't avoid them forever. For the moment we have innocent lives to mourn and children to bury.


Your first post wasn't good. This post was VERY good.
 
We can't talk here? What other purpose are guns designed for?


Really? You'd ask that and claim to be a gun owner? Pardon me while I compose myself...
:dl:

Now how about you take it to a gun control thread.
 
Unfathomable. Are people born with that kind of evil, or is it something they learned through their upbringing? I have an elementary school aged child, and I can't even imagine...

No one is born with that. A person must undergo a process to become a violent criminal, and each individual who does so has chosen to be a violent criminal. Lonnie Athens is a good resource on this topic.
 
oh geez. He killed his mom in her classroom. Her kindergarten classroom. That implies most of the kids that got killed were kindergarteners.

I thought the mom was found dead at home?

No, the father was found dead at the home.

That was his dad.

OK, I think I'm starting to figure this thing out. The mom killed the dad, then the son went to seek revenge?
 
It puzzles me why anyone would read story after story on this or watch continuous updates on the news. A bunch of kids were slaughtered. Some deranged ******* did it. Why invite that kind of darkness into your heart?

The Central Scrutinizer
I guess it's too late to send a friend request.

:) More posts like this.
 

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