OUR OPINION: America should answer this key question: Why?
December 15, 2012 at 11:38 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Mass shootings always bring about national anguish, and Friday’s horror of a shooter murdering 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Connecticut surely will generate more calls for action than most. Continue Reading
Author of COLUMBINE, Dave Cullen, spent 10 yrs. studying Columbine and has concluded everything he we think we know about the Columbine tragedy isn’t true.The 2 shooters weren’t bullied but were in fact the bulliers. He shows how one of the killers, Eric, was a born psychopath & wasn’t able to have empathy for anyone. Cullen shows that Eric’s life was one of constant manipulation of everyone in his life. Dylan Kliebold,the other killer, was psychologically dependent on Eric so when they joined forces it became a deadly combination. Cullen says we need to provide therapy for depressed young men which will neutralize the born psychopaths that are among us. It is next to impossible to ID them other than their depressiveness so by focusing on all depressives we will be able to neutralize the few true psychopaths. Cullen has been one of the main experts on this issue in MSNBC the past 48 hrs.
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The reason is simple, but unpalatable: some people are simply evil & others are crazy. Kleibold & Harris were sociopaths. They were born without the ability to form meaningful relationships or feel empathy. If they wanted something they took it. They were smart and devoid of any redeeming value. Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahlmer are other examples. Kleibold & Harris took their lives all at once; Bundy & Dahlmer one at a time. In the end it did not matter to the victims.
These people were born this way. They were not made. Poor parenting or years of physical & sexual abuse did not make them; they came into this world locked & loaded. The only thing to be determined was how they would express themselves.
There are many like them living among us. Most will end up in the court system & be failures at life, but will not kill. I have no clue what sends them over the edge. All I know is they do not respond to any form of treatment we have to offer at this time.
The other group are severely mentally ill. The man who shot Congresswoman Giffords & President Reagan fall into this category. The saving grace about these folks is they are often too disorganized to plan & carry out their attacks.
They too are usually already in the system.
I worry about evil much more than crazy. Evil knows what they think/feel is wrong. They know they have to hide it. They are not insane or mentally ill. They will never be able to play well in society’s sandbox.
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I don’t think author Cullen says Kliebold was aborn psychopath but that Eric Harris was.
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You are correct. I tend to disagree. Think of the DC sniper case. The young killer blaming the old. Is he sincere or simply a good manipulator?
Ted Bundy never had to force a woman into his car …
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What separates sociopaths from the insane is a sociopath knows what he/she is doing is wrong.
Harris may have been the leader, but Kleibold knew what they were doing was wrong & cooperated. He was able to dehumanized his victims just like Harris.
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I’m not too sure you’re right about that. A sociopath basically has no ability to feel imotion towards his or her victims so I’m not too sure that he or she really does realize the act is wrong. Recently I read about a serial killer they caught in Alaska that has bodies all over the US. When asked why he killed his answer came across suggesting that it was just a pleasure, and in his mind he couldn’t understand why everyone doesn’t want to kill.
I guess the one problem I still have is how some people can sort of turn on or off sociopathic behavior when it’s part of their orders like those who ran death camps and those who torture for information. I’ve read were most of those in both situations really weren’t sociopaths, but were trained to do their jobs for their country and/or cause. That just seems unrealistic that people can somehow figure duty rises above humanity. I mean killing on the battle field is one thing, but death camps and torture is such an extreme that I just can’t understand how anyone not a sociopath can do it
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The answer to how they can turn it on and off is found in how they view their victims: or don’t. How could one man own another, sexually use and abuse a woman against her will, and think it was proper? They were property, not people.
To these killers, their victims are not people. They are not like the killer. They are objects for the killers enjoyment. They are not autonomous beings. That is why the guy in Alaska wondered why everyone else didn’t do it.
As for right and wrong, very few of these people are found insane. Remember insane is a legal and not a medical term. You can be flagrantly psychotic but not be insane.
Insane refers to not knowing right or wrong. We know the majority of these people know right from wrong because they hide their deeds. They may not view what they do as wrong, but they definitely know that society views it as wrong.
Did you ever hear of a Southern slave owner who hid whipping his slaves or tried to hide the fact that he routinely raped the slave women? Their diaries are full of their deeds. They kept track. It was normal.
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Good points, but as for slaves…Not long ago I was watching something about some places in New Orleans. There was a story about some woman who the eventually discovered had tortured and killed many slaves, and left town before they could do anything about it. That prior to finding that she had chased a 12 year old slave who pulled a knot in her hair when brushing it throught the house and on to the balcony where she fell off and died. The woman actually had to go to court for that. They only fined her for her offense. What surprised me was that it was even considered an offense. I had never heard of any white person ever having to account for anything they did to a slave. I didn’t know there were any laws protecting them to any degree…
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LA was different because we picked it up from the French. It also had a fair amount of free blacks. One of the few places in the south that did. Because of the Creole and free blacks their laws were more slave friendly than say MS.
That said, the north wasn’t all it was cracked up to be either. Dred Scott comes to mind. Also, there was a great study a while back by a historian who looked at criminal charges when a white man killed a black man (like you said, misdemeanors if charge at all) versus when a black man killed a white man (death penalty). This was in New York.
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“Most will end up in the court system & be failures at life”
- and the courts will slap their hands and send them back to society until they snap and kill people.
27 DWI’s and the guy is back in society and caught drinking again, do we HAVE to wait until he kills someone innocent? Lindsey Lohan, etc….
We need to find these sociopaths that cant meet the simple laws set forth for a civil society and permanently remove them.
We give them too many opportunities then act surprised when they kill someone.
That may not apply to the kid in this recent case but it fits the model you are describing as to the ones that just cant wxist in normal society.
Justice system is waaaaay to lenient and waaaaay to lawyer friendly.
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The judge is simply enforcing the law as written. There is nothing unconstitutional about a three strikes your out law for DWI. I would support it.
Unfortunately many people in ND support DUI & chronic alcoholism. It is a way of life here. Until that changes the law will never pass.
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We have discussed before how in ND DUI is viewed in the same light as spitting on a sidewalk. Judges habitually let perpetrators off with time served, and they head right to the liquor store and their car.
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Is not the law i have a problem with, its the lawyers ability to get the judge to minimize the sentencing down to the point its a waste of time to even prosecute them in the first place.
I meant to add that but i must have hit the enter key while typing and it was sent before it was finished.
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I am just the opposite. The lawyer is simply doing his job. He/she gets paid to get you the best deal. That is why you hire them.
I have a huge problem with a law that lets someone habitually take my life in his hands, which is what drunk driving is. Since this joker’s license has been permanently revoked, seeing him behind the wheel should be a felony with automatic jail time.
Like I said above, I have no moral qualms with a 3 strikes your out for drunk driving. If you look at the numbers (forget the moral implications for a minute and just look at the numbers), this low life is more likely to kill someone than your average drug dealer.
He is a clear and present danger. He needs removed. Yet, being ND where alcohol is a sport, that is not going to happen. Hits too close to home for too many people.
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hard to argue with that.
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I dont think we will ever find a true clear answer because no one wants to label anyone in fear of the repercussions from those across the USA that would then be suspect.
I look at how our culture of the past 20 years has turned from one where hyperactive students were just sent to the pricipals office if they got too far out of hand and they were either forced to sit there or the parents were called and in some case they were spanked. We learned that there were consequences if we acted out or didnt control our emotions and you sure cant spank a child in todays society.
Today our society will just throw drugs at the kids to calm them down and turn them into zombies.
These drugs were released with ZERO information as to long term affects, i did the research when i was told my son would benefit from these drugs.
I decided that the school would just have to do their job and accept the simple fact that some kids have trouble blurting out answers without raising their hand, (that was my childs druggable offense) its called growing up and maturing and is not something you toss brain altering drugs at.
Does this mean every child on ritalin is a ticking time bomb? Nope. but it could be a big contributing factor in my opinion.
How does a child learn to control their emotions if their emotions are dulled during their maturing years?
Thats just one of my thoughts on the topic, i may not be right but at least im not one of the people who for whatever reason seem to believe its the guns fault.
I could discuss the concept that once god was removed from our society by non-believers that couldnt just live and let live we created a whole generation of kids that now believe life is just meant to be lived as they see fit good or bad without and repercussions. but thats for another time….
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Your point is valid Captain except we are talking about two different groups of people. ADHD and even oppositional defiant kids are not sociopaths.
The former can live in society. They will always have a harder time but they can & will lead “normal” lives.
Sociopaths & their ilk will not. They can’t; they were born without the necessary parts.
Asking a sociopath to live in society is like asking a person born without arms & legs to compete against Michael Phelps in swimming.
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But i’m questioning whether or not the child is truly born a sociopath or are we turning them into unfeeling zombies by medicating them when they are young just so they will sit still and be quiet.
I understand that some are born with the inability to care about another but what abouit the ones that could feel? what about the ones that do have emotions and then we drug the emotion out of them.
I’m just grasping at possibilities since this has become an alarming trend.
I could be wrong, maybe none of these kids were ever on the medication, but if they were….
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Ultimately I think the answer will be both. They are born with a trait that society either activates or exascerbates. I am not sure what the right answer is.
Controlling guns does not solve the problem.
Yet we have no way to identify these people. Until we do all we can do is keep our eyes open.
I wish it were different, but I can’t think of another answer.
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Capt. you bring up some really valid points. When I was in my nursing clinicals on my psych rotation there was a guy diagnosed as a borderline psychopath in the ward. That person scared me beyond words even on the medication.
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I agree. I have only met 3-4 true sociopaths in my life and each time the hair on the back of my neck stood up and my bowels turned to liquid. I always thought “so this is what it is like to look in Charles Manson’s eyes.”
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The funny part Mav is where you met him/her. In a psych ward. He/she is not crazy. There are a number of studies that show these people do better in the criminal justice system. Medicine has nothing to offer.
It is the hubris of our profession to think we can fix everything. Clearly not the case.
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He wasn’t there for that diagnosis.. But it was one on his chart.
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The Connecticut shooting was done by a man with diagnosed Autism-spectrum disorder. Maybe we need to rethink ARC/VanSickle, and NOT “mainstream” kids with “special needs”. “Special” students should be in a “Special” setting, not thrown in with the student body at large.
Kids that are drugged into submission never have to learn to control their impulses. Sooner or later, they’re taken off the drugs; and behave as though emotion is all-new to them.
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God have mercy on my soul but Schurkey and I are in agreement.
My brother was Down’s. Growing up the state did not pay for his education. His school met in a donated space in the basement of a church. EVERYTHING was put together by people who simply loved the kids and wanted the best for them. EVERYTHING was begged, bought (donated), or stolen.
I can say I am one of the few kids that was pulled out of school every year to picket the state capitol. We did this for years. It was my parents generation that forced the state to pay for my brother’s education.
We did not want him thrown into a normal high school setting, we simply wanted the money to pay the teachers and buy supplies so we did not have to keep “acquiring”everything.
A hybrid where special needs kids are in their own environment but have access to resources is best.
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We have one of those schools in grafton
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That is exactly what i was trying to say.
“Kids that are drugged into submission never have to learn to control their impulses. Sooner or later, they’re taken off the drugs; and behave as though emotion is all-new to them”
Very well stated.
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I don’t know if there is an answer to this question. But when they use examples like Japan vs US and the number of Gun deaths, that really is fail logic. Simply because of their (as they put it) draconian gun control you have to look at death statistics in total. By population numbers are their really fewer murders in other countries. Just because we have taken away a means to murder doesn’t mean they still don’t happen by knives or other weapons.
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Agreed. It is so disappointing when what I’d expect are intelligent leaders use such flawed logic. Japan had only 11 GUN related murders so limiting gun access reduces murder.
All you have shown is that it has reduced murders where guns were used.
BTW: I don’t own and have never fired a gun. I’d welcome an actual discussion on gun control but I’d expect some honest analysis of the benefit of any proposal.
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People are spinning the statistics in order to garner support. It is simple manipulation of the masses.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.. We’ve been living ‘The Running Man’ since before the movie was in the theaters. It has however become more prevalent in the last 20 years.
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In Switzerland there is 1 gun 50% gun ownership, thats every other person owns a gun.
They have the one of the lowest gun related death rates in the world even though they rank 4th in the world in terms of private citizens with guns.
The difference is they dont have the thugs and the gangs running the gun related deaths through the roof.
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On Friday, a 36 year old man in China stabbed 22 children as they were arriving for school, no fatalities. Back in 2010, also in China, another man with a knife killed 20 students and injured over 50. The same year another man stabbed and murdered 8 children in China.
As you pointed out Maverick we need complete statistics. Not just the ones involving firearms.
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When push comes to shove, I’ll stick my neck out and say that we probably do have a higher death rate.. That is simply due to these tragic incidents where multiple people are shot. But as you so aptly pointed out, you can still seriously injure multiple people with only a knife.
When I was stationed in Germany there was a murder committed by an American. It was the first murder in the community in over 20 years. But when I was stationed there, the police carried Uzi’s and well the German public weren’t allowed to own weapons (or weren’t) as part of the Treaty of Versailles.
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When i was over there a guy cut off a guys head with a sword while he was in a phone booth talking to the guys wife who had the sword.
She was in the hospital and the guy was arrested at the hospital with her husbands head in a sack.
Lot of sick people in the world and this isnt really anything new, its just more widely broadcast due to 24 hour news coverage.
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Of course I always carry a good knife, but regardless I could find a way to disarm someone with a knife without pulling my own. Compare that to someone armed to the teeth including automatic weapons. Much like those who died being human shields for the kids…. There’s little you can do. I guess since we can’t even discuss some controls (Most jumping behind the 2nd don’t even understand the law in the first place) Then it’s time to throw away civilization and just let everyone old west it with big iron on our hips. Because either we get some logic in the damn discussion or just thow in and go totally armed. That’s what the NRA wants and their minions anyway. So do we try for civilization or take a big step back?
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tundra, I’m totally with you on your comment. I own guns. I keep them locked up. I do not own, nor have a desire to own, an AR15 or similar rifle. What is the purpose of owning a semi-automatic that has a 30-round magazine? (One can buy a coupler to join the two magazines and make it a 60-round magazine. Could a third be joined?) Deer and duck/goose hunters are limited as to the number of rounds they can legally have in their guns. The AR15 is for killing people. It should be used by the military and police only.
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The semiauto AR-15 is not a military weapon and the military does not want it and does not own any.
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Thanks for the correction, Glen. Sometimes in dashing off a comment one does not state things as correctly as one should. The AR15 is a military-type weapon. Yes, the military wants something even more effective for killing people during battle than the AR15.
A more accurate statement would have been to say that the AR15 is designed solely for killing large numbers of school children, theater attenders, shoppers, etc. It is also highly prized by men (and apparently was also prized by at least one woman) who like to pretend they are citizen soldiers who can fight off the marauders in a doomsday scenario.
Thank you, Glen, for making it easier for people to distinguish between Glen and Glenn.
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Our country has embraced the culture of death for many years now.
Abortion and Euthanasia are committed in this country. The slippery slope began years ago and unless we re-embrace the Sancity of Life, people will consider lives to be expendable.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Well now … some anti-abortionists are capable of murder as well. I only have to mention Eric Rudolph to make my point.
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When you do that Rob……You’ve already lost the argument because you’ve lost any credibility you might have had….Nice move…..
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As i sat here watching the football game tonight i noticed that the programming on every channel was interupted so the President could give a speech regarding the tragedy.
It made me reflect on one other reason why we see this so much today as opposed to the past.
Now days when a teenager decides to commit suicide they realize that they can get national attention if they make it as huge as possible.
News networks (all of them) have been airing this 24 hours a day since it happened, the President and the Govenor have dropped everything to address it and now one individual that no one knew is now a household name.
Maybe these tragedies are nothing more than an individual deciding that their life was worthless so they will ensure their death is newsworthy.
I wish we would get an intial report that it happened and that would be it, no names released etc.
Let the President go visit the families personally and without news crews in tow.
The only way a person could not know every detail about this would be to unplug completely from society maybe its time for news to be reported responsibly and not give these murderers the front page headline they so desire.
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I agree, but it will never happen because it’s just too big of a story and the blow back for not informing the public would be unbearable for all the media outlets. Perhaps the closest we could get would be for the media to consistantly paint the shooter as a coward, punk, low life and other tearms thatmake him seem anything but a strong figure. I don’t know if it would stop anyone from doing the same in the future, but it would give pause if they heard these shooters depicted in a manner that probably is reflective of how they feel about themselves. Maybe instead of thinking that people will look at them as having the courage to do something outragous they’ll think that the media will paint them exactly as they see themselves, and they really don’t want that. Anything that might have a sliver of a chance to make these anal secretions give pause is worth a try in my book…
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A positive part of all this publicity, though, is that parents who might have kids fitting the profile of Adam Lanza might take a second look at their denial about the nature of their kids’ condition. They might be motivated to take them for medical care and intervention before they grab the family shotgun and do something similar.
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How about if we look @ the kind of culture we have created that is so hyper-individualistic that many people can’t function in that environment. We have had 1 million deaths by gun since King & RFK were murdered in 68. That’s about 25,000/yr. for the last 44 yrs. or 10,000 by murder & 15,000 by suicide but obviously many of those latter from hunting accidents. The pressure put on individuals to succeed by this country’s economic system likely adds to the depression people experience when they fail which too many times leads to suicide by gun. The bottom line though is we have created a dysfunctional society with guns being a solution for many people to deal with the dysfunctional hyper-individualism demanded for success.
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A part of what you are describing Spearman is the change in demographics. In the past we were largely a rural country. Uncle Jim Bob might be crazy as a loon but Mama could control him and living 20 miles from your closest neighbor had certain isolative advantages.
Also the family structure is different. In the past you lived in extended families. Then you lived in nuclear family. Now you live in a single parent family where the rest of the family is 3 states over.
All of these things allow people to fall through the cracks.
Add alcohol and drugs into the mix and there is little wonder it does not happen more often
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Spearman, from my perspective it is the society of entitlement and instant gratification that is to blame and, in my opinion, there is not enough push to be successful and too much emphasis on “what can the government provide for me.” A growing segment of our society demands the benefits of success without the responsibility of achieving that success. It is a society that allows people to believe that personal success is not a pre-requisite to having the benefits of that success which leads to the depression you think is so prevalent. The depression you described is not from an individual being pushed to be successful, it is from the realization that the repeated promises being made by the government that everyone will be provided with more and more entitlements isn’t sustainable.
As we have discussed before, my version of great nation is modeled around a tempered version of capitalism that provides support for those who need a hand-up or are incapable of self-sufficiency. Yes, that means some people will be driving a Porsche while others are driving family sedans. In my opinion your version of utopia will simply insure that everyone is equally poor.
However, you and I may agree that the current situation is not sustainable and many individuals are being exploited by a variety of forces. In particular we seem to have a system that provides just enough entitlements to keep “the masses” satisfied so they can continue to be exploited. Where we likely differ is that I think the solution is to break the cycle of dependence and give every individual the opportunity for self-determination.
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Yes and no. I too agree that giving something for nothing is wrong. Welfare without a work or school requirement and ribbons for participation that are every bit as big and pretty as the blue ribbon, etc.
Where you are misguided is our economy. As we become less manual labor and more knowledge based workers, many will fail to achieve.
Contrary to what they tried to teach you in school, we are not all created equal. Some really are smarter than others (I am a knuckle dragger, so I know what I am talking about).
As income becomes more dependent on intellect, if you are closer to the bottom of the class than the top you are going to be relegated to McD and other service sector jobs. You will be a wage slave.
50 years ago you could take your HS diploma to the factory, earn a decent living, and be successful. That is getting harder and harder with each passing day.
Rough necks in the oil fields earn $80 K a year, but they are the exception, not the rule.
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Well, for once there seems to be some agreement on a topic!
That is most are aware that there are some people who are severely mentally disturbed, or psychopathic, or foaming with resentment (real or imagined) or all of those!
If they get their hands on a club or a knife they can do quite a bit of damage.
If they get their hands on on a hunting gun, they can do a lot more.
If they get their hands on an assault rifle and multiple 30-round clips they can cause havoc.
I don’t have an easy answer — but I am wondering why there’s a three shell limit on duck guns?
Do we value ducks more than people?
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Mike, I believe gun control is an issue that needs to be adressed. The rifle he used was high powered semi automatic that had a clip capacity of 30 rounds. A rifle like this has no buisness on the street. Anyone who believes they need to own a weapon like that is crazy. We citizens are gaurunteed a right to bear arms in our constitution, but we also need to be responsible. We need to educate our children on proper and safe gun ownership. I own 1 shotgun that I use for hunting. I never ever store the ammo in my house. It is locked up in a seperate location during the season or either used or given away at the end of the season. My children never see the gun except when it is used for it’s intended purpose. I will teach them when they are MATURE enough how to properly use AND store this weapon.
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Actually each state has the right to a militia and the citizens have a right to bear arms as a part of a militia, but that doesn’t give cart blanche to anything goes or we’d all be able to have grenade launchers, bazookas, drones with missle launching abilities, and basically anything else we feel we need to “Protect” ourselves (Actually I often think how handy a huge snow blade on the front of my truck would be tp push off the road those who insist on going 10 mph under the limit on a 2 lane road…)
As to hunting there’s hunters and there’s players who call themselves hunters. Hunters learn to actually hunt and don’t need mega clips. One of the reasons I never hunted too often was because I just didn’t care for it enough to learn what I needed to learn to be a real hunter and not just some fool who lucks upon some game and blasts the hell out of it with an automatic weapon. Seperating sport needs from those that have nearly no practical application other than a battlefield situations is the kind of gun control situations we need serious conversations and hopefully actions on.
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Well said. Who needs military-style semi-automatic rifles with large clips? The military. Do we? No. I have no problem with guns. My husband gave our two handguns (used for target practice only) to our kids; he had already given our hunting rifle to our son. My son, who has children, keeps his firearms in a locked gun safe, and the key to that is kept in another lock box. My son has started to teach the grandkids to target shoot and that’s OK with me because I know, as a paramedic, he’s given ambulance rides to a few idiots who weren’t so careful. But military-style weapons?
Making the rounds on Facebook is a graphic which says that after one failed shoe bomber, anyone boarding an airplane has to take off shoes which is a bit silly as I’ve even been told to remove sandals, but after all the recent mass murders we aren’t supposed to talk about some reasonable gun control.
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So because the government had an idiotic overreaction to one incident, we should repeat that stupidity with this incident? That doesn’t make any sense. Even the progs spouting this nonsense should understand that.
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Tell us more about “idiotic overreactions” HPD.
BTW, I’ve seen a few already, and they include:
- Arm the teachers
- Get God back in the schools
- Stop teaching about evolution
Are they the examples of “stupidity” you are talking about?
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Maybe the janitor should be an ex-black op like Rambo.
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I dunno JS…. God was in the schools when I went and we didn’t have people going postal back then.. Maybe we should get rid of all postal workers that way nobody can go postal anymore.
(I’ll let you decide what part is sarcasm)
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all modern center fire rifles are high power. The shape of the gun is irrelavant, and that is why a assault weapon is called an assault weapon. It is based only on one thing the way the gun looks.
Certainly a discussion of magazine capacity needs to be addressed. But if we are going to ban these magazines the government must purchase them from those who own them. You just can not take stuff from people without compensation. Much more must be done to get states to comply with reporting those people who should not own a gun because of medical/mental health issues. Very few states report this to the FBI as they are supposed to do.
A big part of this is movies with graphic violence and video games of the same nature. People say we can not ban this stuff…. If we can ban kiddie porn we can ban this stuff on the same grounds. It victimizes children and harms them. Our society is a society of violence unlike any other in the industrial world. We are a country born by blood and we live by it also. That is a much bigger issue than the gun issue. Other countries have many guns in private hands.. They do not go around blowing each other away we do because they do not have the culture of violence we do. It is not the “gun culture” as some want to blame, it is the violence culture.
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The discussions I’ve heard has to do with both stop the selling of those items and to make sure that in all instances such as gun shows or flea markets that all weapons need to be accounted for to at least the same consideration we have for buying and selling mortor vehicles….Not necessarily recalling what’s out there now, but attempting to be able to track what’s out there. Hopefully they can help keep weapons out of the hands of some who shouldn’t have them. Granted this wont be an over night sucess or even one for several years, but eventually it should work to lesson the easy access to weapons by just anyone regardless if they have a criminal background or psychological problems. Small steps, but at least it’s finally doing something…
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Gun control is the easy topic to discuss after these situations. I believe mental health is the issue that needs to be discussed. Unfairly classifying a kid who wears black and acts “depressed” is the easy way out also. The kids with actual disorders that are asking for help need our help! This can be a clean cut popular kid also.
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Agree, but it is the knee jerk reaction that will happen and it won’t fix anything. While I don’t necessarily agree with the large clips and ammo drums, I am not for gun control. Sorry.
I believe in responsible gun ownership, and sorry if it is to soon, but this guys mother wasn’t a responsible owner. She obviously had the availability to however they were or were not secured as household knowledge.
I have been doing some reading on this guy, and his classmates and other people in the community have stated that ‘They weren’t surprised it was him’, and ‘That he has been strange from an early age’. While emotional and subjective, they lead me to believe she should have been more careful with fire arms around this guy..
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OK Maverick I’ll bite — exactly what is “responsible gun ownership?”
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Locked in a gun cabinet with trigger locks on the weapons themselves. Those keys locked in a separate lock box to which that key is kept on your person at all times. The ammunition is not stored with the weapons and should be locked up. (My ammo is locked up at the safe in the office). That is my definition and it is how my weapons are secured.
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I agree, and I applaud you for writing that. However, this view has always struck me as being ludicrously at odds with those who advocate for firearm ownership for home defense. Imagine the scenario where a thug is smashing down your locked door with a large ax.
“Honey — where’s the key to the gun safe?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s in one of the desk drawers somewhere.”
“OK, where’s the ammo?
“You keep it at the office remember.”
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I can.. But I have a truckers tire bat for that
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There’s a difference between gun control and gun banishment. What you’re referring to sounds great and is what responsible people should do, but unfortunately we have a lot of very irresponsible people who could give a crap less about being responsible. They would sell weapons to anyone even if they knew that person was unstable (Like in a flea market or just between neighbors). Something that having to account for all weapons out there will help to curb. We control who can drive, and look how many irresponsible people there still are driving. The least we can do is try to have some amount of control over how guns and what kinds are sold in this country. We can’t continue to just sit back and let anyone and everyone sell and buy as they please.
Even those who actually do understand the wording of the second amendment know that still doesn’t stop the government from controlling the commerce of weapons. Regardless if you have the right interpretation or just think the amendment states that you have the right to own a weapon…..It doesn’t have any mention about the right to sell weapons…That is something government can control so it’s already a moot point
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Let’s get something straight about this so called “Knee Jerk Reaction” gunners love to throw up every time some tragedy happens…In you own knee jerk response to these. You lost the ability to make that claim many many mass shootings ago. In the early days before this became such a familiar event you could claim that people who wanted gun control was doing it in somewhat of a knee jerk reaction. After two or three incidents a year along with story after story of both kids and adults getting shot by mistaken identity, or kids getting hold of weapons in the house hold there’s no longer any “Knee Jerk” what so ever. It’s a “Fed Up” reaction. We don’t want your hunting guns or even reasonable weapons for protection. We just want these damn weapons of mass destruction (Remember all the people sent to war to get rid of such thing over there so weapons of mass destruction wouldn’t hit us over here? Well they’re here and doing an ever increasing amount of destruction)…..To be brought under control. The days of this knee jerk reaction were over more than a decade ago
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When I joined the military I swore to protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic. Which one are you?
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Do you consider logic to be an enemy of state now too? You’re smarter than that. If you take of the blinders you know damn well that this isn’t about the right to own arms, but about the right to regulate so there’s not civilians with near military force weapons. If people want to play with auto weapons with huge clips, then confine them exclusively on site at ranges. There’s no logical need for those in public use other than total destruction of human lives. I swear…You’re being as sensless as those who blow smoke in your face while talking about their right to smoke.
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The second amendment wasn’t put in place to allow me rights to hunting. The second amendment was put in place to protect me from a tyrannical government.
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As part of a state run militia. A militia that can also possess other munitions such as explosives in many forms. If the second amendment gave the average citizen the right to all weapons then why do we allow restrictions to explosives without bringing up the 2nd time and again? Besides…being former military do you for one fraction of one second actually believe your civilian munitions would stand up to military grade munitions?
We don’t allow civilians easy (Or any in some cases) access to explosives in their many forms because we understand the damage that can do….This is the same as assault weapons with mega clips in public hands. They’re just a possible slaughter machine that’s not good for anything else.
Look…I used to collect knives and other blade weapons so I can understand how some are responsible collectors who are just impressed with having and shooting off such weapons once in a while. The thing is though….Sometimes we have to rise above our desires or pleasures if it might mean that it will be for the safety and general well being of society as a whole. Most of us aren’t talking about taking anyone’s weapons from them….just regulating weapons and discontinue making such deadly assault rifles available from now on. A fair compromise if it might help save live in any manner
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The fact is….bad things happen to good people.
Another fact…Conn. has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, if not the world….and the shooter was in violation of all of them.
Another fact…the adults that heroically confronted the shooter were unarmed,
The shooting took place until armed police arrived…ten minutes…when the police arrived the coward killed himself.
Another fact….the police are a “reactionary” force….to rely on the police to protect you is foolish…..when they are on scene…the outcome is usually far different.
Compare the shooting at tha movie theatre in Aurora, CO. to the recent one in Texas…..
That is the difference between victors….and victims.
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I never, EVER thought I would agree with you.. but I do.
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I agree with over 50% of what he says and that is a world record for me too. First Schurkey and now AC. Is the moon blood red? Are the stars falling from the sky?
I am getting really nervous
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As always Always….I totally disagree with your approach to not do anything because it just wont change anything…..If your answer to solving problems is to just admit defeat because the situation seems a helpless one unless some hard decisions that you don’t agree with might be the real solutions….Then you’re wrong as always…
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After taking out a the window of a San Antonio patrol car, Garcia shot the restaurant employee in the back as the two reached the movie theater lobby. An off-duty police officer working security at the Mayan Palace eventually cornered Garcia in a restroom, shooting him several times until she could take his gun.
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An off-duty police officer working security is not the same as a theatre full of armed patrons.
I used to live in AZ where you could carry concealed without a permit or training (stupid to say the least). We had just as many murders as anywhere else.
Additionally, most establishments have a “do not carry” sign on the door, so unless you are a cop (who can legally ignore the sign) you are breaking the law by taking your gun out of the car (mine is in the glove box).
If the solution to all of our problems were as simple as arm everyone, we would have done it years ago. Everyone in Israel is armed to the teeth, are they any safer than we are?
The majority of the murders in PHX and Southern AZ are gang and drug related. Very Very Few are random. The two sides are already armed.
I wish it was as simple as everyone carries. Unfortunately it is not.
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I don’t think the answer is for everyone to carry cocealed weapons. I do think that it is a great idea to have a group well trained in the proper legal use of concealed weapons interspersed in the population.
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Remember a few years ago when a crazy guy, a military crazy Muslim guy, went onto a military base and killed nine people and injured many more? This was on a military base where, one would think, the other folks there knew how to handle and were possibly carrying firearms. Still, the shooter did way too much damage……..
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that was an account from the net about the shooting in San Antonio.
Notice the article says “she” shot and disarmed the shooter. (not the size of the dog in the fight—-it’s the size of the fight in the dog)
I suppose it comes down to this question:
Given the choice between two equally qualified applicants for the principals job at your kids’ school….
Do you hire the one who has been trained to shoot and kill…or the one who has not been so trained?
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Lots of talk about “investing” more taxpayer money in mental health care.
Certainly ….this should be discussed. However, it is not relevant to the incident in Conn.
By all accounts the coward was from a well-to-do family with every advantage and every opportunity for health care….money for health care was not an issue.
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So what do you want then almost correct? Should we all wear big iron on our hip? Lets get back to the good old days where we can settle things in the middle of the street with a quick draw right? Hell…Law enforcement can just stand by to make sure we do it in a legal duel. Because if you gunners really want guns out here with everybody armed to the teeth, then stop pretending it’s about anything less then your own fears. But the world would suddenly become very small for you chest thumping gunners if suddenly everyone wore guns on the outside like in the wild west……Then what would you do? Move to Japan? Once it was an even playing field most of you who insist on conceld weapons would be terrified and run…
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More awareness on the part of parents, schoolteachers, etc. of those kids who are within the profile of those who have committed these acts. And a profile is starting to emerge so that in the future, it will be easier to spot kids who may turn to violence of this type. How exactly to do this? I don’t know, but if we can start to identify the warning signs that’s something.
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Excellent realist. This is the direction we need to go in.
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You are correct realist. They know the profile. The question is what do you do with it? Remember the old, racist, “lock all the black male babies up at birth because they are going to end up there anyway?” There was a kernal of truth in that. Look at prison populations. More blacks than whites by a factor of 5-10.
Did that make that sick joke any more palitable? Of course not.
This is the same. What do we do once we recognize a kid in danger? Most of these kids have already been recognized it is just we have nothing to offer them.
Our present technology and medical knowledge prevents us from intervening in any meaningful way.
We cannot take away their constitutional rights simply because they might become dangerous in the future.
This kid was already in the system. Nothing he was diagnosed with (that we know about) would lead anyone to believe he was capable of this.
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Spotting kids that are capable of random murders is one thing. Knowing what to do about it is another. I have taught for almost 40 years in schools with very few prone-to-violence students, and yet there were some…
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…. and getting through to their parents can be difficult. I’m embarrassed to say my sister once told me when her kid was at school he was the school’s problem. I couldn’t believe it.
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Our elected officials need to make a choice. Who is more important to them. The NRA who is a powerful lobby that contributes huge amounts of money to political campaigns or our children and other inocent victims who are dead or permanantly injured by guns. I think that officials owe it to protect the citizens of our nation rather than the gun lobby and gun manufacturers.
Assualt weapons, semi-automatic weapons and large capacity clips are only used for one thing. They’re used by criminals, terrorists and twisted souls who have serious metal issues. They are used to kill people. They aren’t used to hunt or to protect your home. They are weapons of death designed to kill the most people in the shortest time.
The right to bear arms was writen when you needed powder, wads and a ram to load a slug for a single shot. It would take minutes to relod and fire another shot. They did not envision the killing weapons of today. These weapons have no use but to kill and they have been used to kill many children and inocent adults.
Mental disease goes unrecognized and untreated in ours, the greatest nation in the world. The Health sytem does not have he capacity to deal with the mentally ill. They fall throught the cracks. Afterwards the families say – “We knew he had problems and that he was getting more distant and hard to control”. Even so, these people rarely get medical help. Mix them and these high powered weapons and you get the kind of dispicable shootings that happen more frequently in this country.
It’s time for the politicians to decide who they are going to protect. Are they going to protect our children and inocent co-workers or are they going to protect the gun lobby that provides them with large amonts of campaign money. It’s time to choose ladies and gentlemen. Its time for you to stand up and let the public know your preferance so we know before the next election in 2014. These events are happening on a more accelerated pace. How many more need to die before you cure your dependance on gun lobby money?
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Why do we allow the manufacturing of cigarettes in this country? A staggering 440,000 people die each year of cigarette related diseases yet we still make them and sell them. They die a little slower but the outcome is the same. 4 x as many people as guns….yet we still make them. If you take away my guns you better take away my neighbor’s smokes. It’s only fair.
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They’d better take away Rosie O’donnel’s spoons too.
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and please take the microphone away from the Beebs!
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DC – I’m a smoker, but I get your point.. There are a lot of things manufactured in this country that kill people.. Not just cigarettes.. McDonald’s is a leading contributor to heart disease and obesity but we let them stay in business… But I agree, I won’t go down without a fight, and have already wrote my Senators informing them of my opinion.
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Well… let me put it a diffrent way.
All of the gun laws in the world would not have stopped this coward from killing.
He was known to be mentally ill….short of chaining him to a bed in the State Hospital… there was no way of stopping his rampage.
It’s a dangerous world…all you can do is protect you and yours….I would like to have a weapon to do just that.
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two posts in one day always that I agree with you.. You’re on a roll. I won’t give up my rights to own my guns.
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Compassion for the victims isn’t to disarm people to leave them more vulnerable to the thugs. I’m slightly amazed at how quickly the democrats have politicized this terrible tragedy. I suppose they don’t want to waste a tragedy as an opportunity to disarm law abiding citizens.
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So smartimus you think we should continue to allow the sale & possession of assault weapons?
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I don’t subscribe to leftist incrementalism. The ultimate goal of the left is to ban and confiscate guns. They would do it today if law abiding people were to lay down and let them.
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Just what is gun control? Like rodent control, zero tolerance? Are we talking confiscation here? How far does the camel’s nose get into the tent? Drugs are outlawed and that’s really working.
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The Mexican cartel will have another branch. Seriously let’s give them some more to do. Let’s take gun ownership underground where we won’t be able to track who owns the weapon found at a robbery/homicide. And it’s not like the plans to make almost anything explosive isn’t on the internet. Oh yeah … this will work just great. I can see it now …. suicide bombers taking the place of what happened at this school.
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If you gunnies want to talk tough then put up or shut up….Either big iron on the hip for everyone or start getting logical about finding solutions. If we’re going to allow so many hidden guns then the hell with it, put them out where we can all see who’s armed, and I’ll be armed too. If we want to old west it then lets have at it…Or stop being foolish and let logic in the conversation…
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The weapons are already out there. Just like drugs if you ban them someone else will supply them. And … you don’t need to be rude to me. A major problem in this country is so many people are quick to anger. Let’s deal with that issue.
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I’ve had truck drivers try run over me too but I just slow down and wave.
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Well I see you brought pot to the issue….I mean if you get a lot of pot to the public….It tends to mellow people out……Or were you thinking valuim in the water supply? I mean it’s nice to think of measures to get people to CALM THE HELL DOWN…..But I think you’d have better luck trying to turn a tornado than calm down the masses…
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Listen … I heard on CNN today that the weapon this man used is the favorite among the Mexican Cartels. They have plenty to spare for anyone willing to pay.
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The Mexican cartels that were supplied some of their weapons by the Obama administration in the Fast and Furious debacle. I wonder how many thirty round clips Obama supplied with those weapons?
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I heard that driving to Bismarck yesterday.. That another of the ‘fast and furious’ weapons was used in some killing in Mexico..
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What exactly is gun control? That is an excellent question. To some on the paranoid right it means that Obama will personally come to all gun owners homes and take away all handguns and rifles. Wasn’t that supposed to happen the first time he was elected? Did it happen? Despite all the hype by the NRA (who make their money promoting hype) it didn’t. To some of those folks, gun registration should be done away with, though I remember registering my car and, when they were born, my children.
To some it means that a person buying a gun be subjected to a background check.
To others it means that anyone purchasing a weapon should first take a safety class.
There is no one statement which defines “gun control.”
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Example….
From Full Metal Jacket:
“HARTMAN: Anybody know who Lee Harvey Oswald was? Private Snowball?
SNOWBALL: Sir, he shot Kennedy, sir!
HARTMAN: That’s right, and do you know how far away he was?
SNOWBALL: Sir, it was pretty far! From that book suppository building, sir!
HARTMAN: All right, knock it off! Two hundred and fifty feet! He was two hundred and fifty feet away and shooting at a moving target. Oswald got off three rounds with an old Italian bolt action rifle in only six seconds and scored two hits, including a head shot! Do any of you people know where these individuals learned to shoot? Private Joker?
JOKER: Sir, in the Marines, sir!
HARTMAN: In the Marines! Outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated marine and his rifle can do! And before you ladies leave my island, you will be able to do the same thing! ”
“old Italian bolt action rifle”
Maybe the genius Feinstein should study history, she was in the Senate when the genocide in Rwanda happened, why not outlaw machetes?
from “The History Place”:
“Beginning on April 6, 1994, and for the next hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes, with as many as 10,000 killed each day.”
Get the point?
The weapons are not the problem.
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Why do you have so much hatred in you–or are you just immature?
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Just can’t stand to see the truth?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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That’s not it–I just can’t stand thinking of parents who should be shoppimg for Christmas presents and instead are shopping for coffins…. of children who were shot, some up to 10 times dying on the school floor-a place they should have been safe. And your response instead of horror is to bang out some incomplete googled crap on the genocide in Rwanda.
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Well said…written, Sandy.
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This is how ignorant Feinstein is:
Under current California law, 84 weapons are banned outright. More are banned by their specific attributes or configuaration, magazine size, grips, attachments, etc.
Do you know what weapon is not banned?
The M1 Garand……which (ironically) was described by none other than General George Patton as…
“The greatest battle implement ever devised.”
Over five million German combatants and over two million Japanese combatants were killed during WWII, a significant number of these deaths, it is safe to say, were caused by the M1 Garand.
But, according to Senator Feinstein…it is not an “assault” weapon.
Yes…see the genius.
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And of course, there is the matter of the shotgun, no problem for Feinstein, she doesn’t want to ban shotguns.
However, during WWI the Germans felt differently:
“During WWI Germany tried to have shotguns banned from the battlefield, but that did not happen. The gun that prompted this was the American Winchester pump shotgun, model of 1895.” The Germans opposed the use of the weapon as being “inhumane” and “terrifying.”
I guess this makes Feinstein more war-like than the Germans of WWI?
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So are you actually doing a Cobert like spoof of a right winger who’s totally clueless and is always wrong? Which makes the handle Always Correct that much funnier……..Sorry..I didn’t realize your stuff was just a bit and not to be taken seriously….Pretty funny stuff……
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Your right an all out ban on weapons will not stop these horrific events. But a liscensure of all weapons and people using these weapons would make our society safer. You cannot drive a car in this country without a liscense and that privilage can be taken away if you a medically unfit, or a violent offender (dwi/reckless). Every car on the road is suppose to be liscensed if it isn’t it is taken away. Why couldn’t we inact a similar set of laws for firearms?
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That’s the primary solution most are calling for, and stop having easy access to weapons that can be turned into automatic weapons with mega fire power. Yet that’s considered too much for some….Big deal…So is massive killings….The later trumps since there’s been so damn many even before this last horrible one…
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Because there’s this pesky little thing called the ‘Second Amendment.’
Your “right” to own and/or drive a car is not in the Constitution.
You’re welcome.
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Any strict constitutionalist should realize that the founding fathers were talking about muzzle loaders, not M60s.
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Please point out that passage where they specifically refer to muzzleloaders, I couldn’t find it?
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I doubt they had any idea of just how automated guns would become.
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The Second Amendment was drafted in part so people could defend themselves from government tyranny if necessary.
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I’m sure they didn’t envision the airplane either, but pilots still get behind the cockpit drunk out of their minds.. A drunk pilot could do as much if not more damage than one weapon. I am sure I don’t have to link proof to that.
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Grandma, it is right next to the provision that allows congress to force people to buy health insurance or pay a tax.
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Read it before you attempt to claim you understand it
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Thankfully, the government does regulate arms already.
Did you try to by an M60 or a RPG lately?
Some of us would like to see the regulations get just a bit stricter.
…or do we all need an M60 or RPG?
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tundrabeast:
The one to not be taken seriously is your hero Feinstein.
Let me break it down a little so you can understand. Just imagine that you walk outside to your vehicle one morning, and the engine will not start. How do you solve this problem?
Well, if you are a genius like Feinstein, you would rotate the tires.
John Wooden said it best:
“Never mistake activity for accomplishment.”
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High plains, just a little scenario for you. A young man gets off work and goes and loads his weapon. Hours later near jamestown 4 lifes are lost the young man a husband and wife and their infant daughter. Are you furious? What if I told you this young man drank alcohal and got behind the wheel? Explain to me why we have restrictions on driving but very little on guns.
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A liscensure on weapons and gun owners would not infringe on your second admendment rights. You still would have the right to own a weapon but you lose that right if you area violent offender or deemed medically unfit. A convicted felon currently cannot own a firearm. How would this infringe upon your rights? What are you hiding? It would only make our society safer.
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Yes, there are laws that restrict certain people from driving vehicles.
When these people violate the law that prohibits them from driving, is the solution to put more restrictions on vehicles or ban all vehicles?
Maybe vehicles should only be allowed to travel at 15 mph?..that would reduce fatalities
Maybe everyone should be checked out by a police officer immedeately before they are allowed to drive? ….no more drunk drivers.
Hey, I know….let’s rotate the tires.
That is the solution if you follow the logic of Feinstein.
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The law that restricts a felon from owning firearms hasn’t kept firearms out of the hands of felons. They buy, sell, or trade them with out leaving any records.
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I know of people who manufacturer their own weapons and sell them..
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Fine…Then if the attitude is that nothing can ever be done about the epidemic then lets take it to the next stupid conclusion and make it a law that everyone over the age of 16 is required to own and carry a firearm in public at all times. If the logic is that a well armed public is the solution (Which you gunners say time and and again after each massacre) the the only way we can be truely safe is for everyone to be required to carry weapons….Everyone. About 30 years ago or so good old Archie Bunker had exactly that very solution to stopping hijacks on plans…”As people board they’re each handed a loaded pistol. That way nobody would dare hijack a plane” We laughed long and hard because it was so damn foolish. Yet that’s not far from what keeps being said after each slaughter.
So the hell with it. Arm everyone so nobody has a total advantage. Just think…There soon wont be high unemployment as more and more angry situations get settled in the street…….Sounds like a great right plan….
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Can you tell me how a license would have stopped the Newtown massacre? Can you tell me how an assault weapons ban would have stopped the massacre? The only way to have prevented it would have been to institutionalize that specific individual the day before it happened. With the internet there is all kinds of information out there available to anyone who is ‘off his rocker’ to do pretty much whatever they want. Timothy McVey anyone? Someone with the wrong frame of mind can cause just as much destruction with other tools.
I am for stopping these types of tragedies, but banning weapons isn’t the answer. You want to add more time to the process, fine. You want to limit high capacity clips, fine. You want to put security in schools, fine.
But understand, that nothing you do will hinder someone who really wants to ‘get their name into history’.
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As I heard a politicain say yesterday on CNN … the individual will wait until they have an opportunity to harm others. They will come up with something else. Quite a few of these mass killers are intelligent.
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Can you tell me how throwing your hands in the air and saying there’s nothing to be done will stop anything? At least your coming around to the clips…As for more school security…Good idea, but where’s the funding? Schools are operating on such extreme budgets as is that they virtually have to cut education to pay for anything else…Unless the public will raise taxes for it……Ya right…
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I’m not coming around.. I’ve never had an issue with them removing the availability to high capacity magazines and drums.
Also I’m not throwing up my hands in the air.. I’ve expressed my views on what should be done in other comments. My primary concern has been that in all of these cases the person was/is mentally unstable and that this system is failing those individuals in a tragic fashion. That is where I feel the concentration of efforts should be..
This guy from Newtown, that whole community failed him. Every report I have read that has someone talking about him, they new he was unstable since at least the age of 5. Why then wasn’t something done? Nobody in the community, no law enforcement, no teacher, no parent, brother, father, mother did anything. While people suffering from Aspergers aren’t normally the ones to ‘snap’.. This guy had something more than just Aspergers going on..
While what happened in that town was BEYOND tragic, I REFUSE to give up my rights because other communities fail.
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btw as I wrote that.. One of my relatives, all of her children were locked down in their school because of a threat that was made. I don’t want to loose family members that are the same age as those children.. But it still doesn’t change my opinion on gun control.
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Regardless how you view “Your rights” to own guns…That’s stil not the issue…Never has been. The isssue which has nothing to do with the second amendment is the governments already given power to regulate the sale of weapons. In this case as always it’s about what kind of weapons need stronger regulation…That’s it…Nothing more regarding your rights to own weapons as part of your militia what so ever….You have them you keep them…Nobody is going to demand them. Just in the future you might not be able to purchase them legally. As for doing so otherwise, or owning non registerd guns…That’s your choice if you want to take a chance to do the crime…Just like holding explosives or any illegal drugs…You’d have to decide if it’s that important to you to have a machine gun type weapon….
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I would think by now you would realize Maverick and I aren’t a couple of thugs. We are responsible gun owners who follow the law.
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ron:
“Your right an all out ban on weapons will not stop these horrific events. But a liscensure of all weapons and people using these weapons would make our society safer.”
I think you, like Feinstein, miss the point.
The recent shooting was done by an individual who did not have a license, the weapons were stolen, so it matters not if they were licensed or not licensed.
The same as if an unlicensed driver steals a car and kills someone in a vehicle accident.
Gun laws are incredibly onerous already. Let’s say you want to move to a different State in the US. Do you realize the process that needs to be completed to send the weapon to your new address?
You have to take the weapon to a local firearms dealer,and if he is even willing to do it for you, pay him to send the weapon to a firearms dealer (that you have probably never met) near your new address. Then, you have to pick up the weapons from this gun dealer, and take the weapons to the local police dept. for registration.
But you know who is exempt from this activity?
The criminal, or the crazy person who is going to use the weapon in a manner that is illegal.
So it follows, that the law abiding citizen is just gonna leave his weapon behind, and the criminal and the crazy will have theirs….Now.
How does that solve the problem of criminals and crazies having weapons?
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There is no law requiring a gun owner to have a liscense or proper training on the safe handling of firearms. Safe handling also includes proper and safe storage of a weapon.
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In Minnesota, anyone born after 1979 is required to have a FAS certificate to hunt with a firearm, except youth age 12 may hunt small game/11 or younger for turkeys, without a FAS certificate, but only if a parent is with them.
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Ron I couldn’t agree more with you. people on TV and politics keep blaming the gun. When the real blame for what happened in CT should be the person who committed the crime and in this case the person who didn’t properly secure her weapons.
So what happens when you take away guns like the AR15? The people who do this kind of stuff will just find another way to inflict the most possible damage. So what next are you going to outlaw diesel fuel and bleach. (Both products can be used in part to make explosives) heck outlaw YouTube while your at it because you can find videos on there about how to make such weapons.
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you might as well add airplanes to that list
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Current law only requires registration of handguns and certain assault rifles. I do not need to register my semi automatic shotgun or semiautomatic hunting rifle that has a ten round clip. Most people would not have a proplem registering their weapons.
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