Sandy Hook Elementary School

[.Rai]

[quote name='AixDivadis' timestamp='1356401906' post='6101440']
I don't live in America, so I'm not clear on issues here, but: Why exactly do you need the guns?
[/quote]

Neither do I, but I assume it's severe protection of the 2nd Amendment. With America being 'land of the free' and all, people believe they have the right to bear arms for protection. Obviously, plenty of other countries in the world don't feel the same way.

It's a big debate, and, really, it won't see much change without a President willing for change.

[b]Edit:[/b] Also, I'm not sure if everyone heard, but Piers Morgan has been headlining a lot recently. After calling out for stricter gun laws in America, people have started a petition to essentially deport him to another country. They've already reached 50k signatures. The thing is that the petition, with sufficient signatures, can be taken to the White House for the President to decide.

And, yes, I mean the same President that called out for change, cried after the school shooting, and, indeed, the same President who had Piers Morgan over for Christmas at the White House.

[b]Edit 2:[/b] Interesting statistic I found. You are twice as likely to be injured by knife crime in the UK than in the USA. You are fifty times as likely to be injured by gun crime in the USA than the UK.

[Lunar Origins]

There is no real way to regulate depression and/or insanity, which is likely the cause of this. Arguing for guns is aside from the point; even if there were stricter gun regulations, acquiring a gun isn't that hard. I could get one right now. Someone in that state of mind would be incredibly hard to stop if they wanted one.

[Legend Zero]

[quote name='☆~Rin-chan~☆' timestamp='1356407228' post='6101476']
There is no real way to regulate depression and/or insanity, which is likely the cause of this. Arguing for guns is aside from the point; even if there were stricter gun regulations, acquiring a gun isn't that hard. I could get one right now. Someone in that state of mind would be incredibly hard to stop if they wanted one.
[/quote]
People know this. The reason for stricter gun regulations (for me at least) is not to make it impossible, but to make it difficult enough that it stops most of these heat of the moment shootings. It also makes it extremely difficult on anti-social individuals.

[Bahamut - Envoy of the End]

About making guns harder to get, I know it varies from state to state, but screening has to be better. The statistic on Sky News was something ridiculous less than 1% of Americans who apply for a gun license get refused.

Also, the main argument for guns is this 'oh you can't change the second amendment' thing.

So the word of some guys (alright pretty major guys put still) three hundred years ago can never be changed? Really?

My colleague here summed it up pretty well the other day when he pointed out that 300 years ago, guns were very, very different. ie you had to be at dead close range for them to be fatal, and rapid-fire did not exist. Times change, the world changes, so must people.

[FTW (For The Wynn)]

[quote name='BehindTheMask' timestamp='1356213756' post='6099403']
I'm just gonna point out the fact that drone strikes in the middle east kill an equal amount of children a year(without including adult casualties, all civilians) and no one makes a fuss over it.

I could argue about this, but we dont need an umpteeth debate.
[/quote]
As bad as this is to say, if you watch The Dark Knight scene where Joker is in the hospital with Harvey Dent explaining his lack of a plan, that kind of explains it. That doesn't make it right, but that explains it.

As for gun control, I'm all for it to an extent. I live in an area where there are guns in every house (mostly for hunting purposes), but there are plenty of people who have high caliber guns that serve no use other than for incidents like Sandy Hook. There need to be limits now for sure, but that doesn't really change the problem. To me, this problem is not going to be solved by political pundits and bureaucrats, because this is not a problem primarily caused by them. These are people who feel depressed and angry because of personal issues (such as I would guess that the Sandy Hook shooting was caused by a rift between mother and son).

See, to me, we are focusing on the tool of the trade and not the actual problem. If guns are outlawed, it will be bombs. If bombs are outlawed, it will be knives. Yes, we can argue over how much more deadly a shooting tends to be as compared to other types of murder, but I feel that we are just too focused on the wrong thing. So, for a partial solution, start bringing back and funding the boys and girls clubs, start getting the more socially awkward people more involved in school activities, and start just trying to be nicer to our fellow man.

As for taking all guns away, that's a horrible idea. I don't think the government should ever be allowed the ability to take away any free rights. Perhaps I am a little paranoid there, but people have little faith in the US government to begin with lately. Taking away free rights just seems like a bad idea to me. You may disagree, and I might even be wrong, but these are my opinions on the issues.

[Tentacruel]

[quote name='Legend Zero' timestamp='1356444336' post='6101625']
People know this. The reason for stricter gun regulations (for me at least) is not to make it impossible, but to make it difficult enough that it stops most of these heat of the moment shootings. It also makes it extremely difficult on anti-social individuals.
[/quote]

If laws could be enforced that would effectively do that, then they should be created, but the gun used in this incident was the shooter's mothers', which could have been obtained legally.