Gun Control

[notorious]

We have all heard about what happened in Aurora, Co, and I think that Gun Control is going to be a huge topic in the following months.


What measures need to be taken? Do you have any ideas that will help prevent this kind of thing from happening again as it pertains to guns?

[Messier]

Originally Posted by frazod

Epidemic? I wonder what percentage of American kindergarten students made it home alive yesterday.

I think mass shootings are an epidemic. There have been 9 in the US, I think since 2007, 4 this year. The next highest number for another country is 2 in fifty years. When these things start happening with such frequency, I think some action needs to happen. I don't know what, but I don't think the answer is to do nothing.

[JonesCrusher]

1% voter fraud = nonexistent
1% gun violence = epidemic

[Messier]

Originally Posted by frazod

Most nations have a unified culture - they aren't dumping grounds for divergent groups of people who have no interest in adapting or blending with other cultures.

I don't think many of these murders are due to cultural differences. Most are in the south, where there is less cultural diversity.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by Messier

I think mass shootings are an epidemic. There have been 9 in the US, I think since 2007, 4 this year. The next highest number for another country is 2 in fifty years. When these things start happening with such frequency, I think some action needs to happen. I don't know what, but I don't think the answer is to do nothing.

I think mental illness and improper treatment is the epidemic.

[crazycoffey]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

I'm assuming we have a morbidly high rate of gun attacks in this country?

no, per capita where higher than average but only about twice as much as canada and Serbia but about 1/5th the numbers of El Salvador and Jamaica. However the US and Switzerland are topping the list of suicides by firearms. Homicides alone we're still too high, but only about three times higher than Canada and there are still a dozen countries much higher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ted_death_rate

Personally, I think the suicide by firearms is a more alarming number, it points toward mental illnesses even more.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by Messier

I don't think many of these murders are due to cultural differences. Most are in the south, where there is less cultural diversity.

Not true:

Aurora Colorado
Newton Connecticut
Blacksburg Virginia
Columbine Colorado
San Ysidro California

[Messier]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

I think mental illness and improper treatment is the epidemic.

I think you're right.

[Messier]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

Not true:

Aurora Colorado
Newton Connecticut
Blacksburg Virginia
Columbine Colorado
San Ysidro California

I'm not talking about the mass shootings, I'm talking gun murders in general.

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by Messier

I'm not talking about the mass shootings, I'm talking gun murders in general.

I bet per capita more people injured and murdered by guns are in urban areas than anywhere else in the US, regardless of the region.

[frazod]

Mass shootings in the U.S. in 2012 - a couple of these I hadn't heard of. I guess the body count wasn't high enough to give our beloved media shitbags a great big bloody woody. But here they are, taken from this site: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...ine/?mobile=nc

December 11, 2012. On Tuesday, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. His motive is unknown.

September 27, 2012. Five were shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others were wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself.

August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself.

July 20, 2012. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater.

May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt.

April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died.

April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

Okay, that's 42. Add to this the 27 from yesterday, and you get 69. Eight incidents.

Total U.S. population - 313,000,000+

Yeah, that's an epidemic. OH SHIT THERE'S A MASKED GUNMAN HIDING AROUND EVERY CORNER----TURN IN UR GUNZ 2 OBAMA SO U WILL BEE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by Messier

I'm not talking about the mass shootings, I'm talking gun murders in general.

A quick wiki look (I know it isn't a fantastic source, but it is a decent working model) shows only 3 states of the top ten to be in the South:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_vio...tates_by_state

[crazycoffey]

Originally Posted by Messier

I don't think many of these murders are due to cultural differences. Most are in the south, where there is less cultural diversity.

You need a geography lesson?

[Messier]

Originally Posted by frazod

Mass shootings in the U.S. in 2012 - a couple of these I hadn't heard of. I guess the body count wasn't high enough to give our beloved media shitbags a great big bloody woody. But here they are, taken from this site: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...ine/?mobile=nc

December 11, 2012. On Tuesday, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. His motive is unknown.

September 27, 2012. Five were shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others were wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself.

August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself.

July 20, 2012. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater.

May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt.

April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died.

April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

Okay, that's 42. Add to this the 27 from yesterday, and you get 69. Eight incidents.

Total U.S. population - 313,000,000+

Yeah, that's an epidemic. OH SHIT THERE'S A MASKED GUNMAN HIDING AROUND EVERY CORNER----TURN IN UR GUNZ 2 OBAMA SO U WILL BEE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have different ideas of what is qualifying as an epidemic. You thinking along the lines of, if half the population as getting murdered, then we'd have an epidemic.

I'm thinking along the lines of, the number of these things happening as gone up an incredible amount in the last few years. It's gone up enough to make me ask why? And what can we do?

[KCWolfman]

Originally Posted by frazod

Yeah, that's an epidemic. OH SHIT THERE'S A MASKED GUNMAN HIDING AROUND EVERY CORNER----TURN IN UR GUNZ 2 OBAMA SO U WILL BEE SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The same style of fearmongering was used when I was a kid about child abduction. Adam's law made every parent fearful of their kid playing outside because every ice cream truck was truly a windowless van with unnamed puppies waiting inside.

The fact turned out that the vast majority of children abducted, more than 97%, were displaced relatives - not leather wearing monsters in dungeons selling children on the black market.

What direckshun is doing here is no different.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

We aren't staring at a bombing epidemic in this country. We're staring at an epidemic of people using an underregulated weapon to murder people.

I think my Obama loving liberal credentials are well known on this board. I've never owned a gun and never will. But, we are on opposite sides of this issue. Surely you realize the constitution is clear. As the base of how we chose to govern ourselfs as a society is the constitution. It doesn't say anything about regulations of guns.

I'd be okay with banning gun ownership for those certified as mentally ill, have threatened or committed violence against others. Banning personal ownership of automatic weapons, bullets that penetrate bullet proof vests. Do a background check to verify that those reasons listed above are not applicable to the gun applicant.

Thats as far as I'm willing to go to support regulating guns. If someone wants to buy 100's guns, 1000's of rounds of ammo that's their business and the constitution says that right shall not be infringed upon. I will stand with them in support of their rights at the ballot box.