Would increased gun regulation have prevented Connecticut?

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The teachers could have stopped him if that was all he was carrying.

They probably wouldn't be able in this case. I'm not arguing a gun is significantly more dealy than a knife and if he didn't have a gun in this situation the body count would be alot lower. But knives are pretty deadly weapons on their own right especially considering the targets in this case (all women/children).
 
The difference is negligible when you are in a close quarters situation and your targets are primarily children. Do you know what kind of knives I'm talking about here?

We can assume the murderer is at least a little insane, because you would have to be in order to shoot up a school, but we can also assume that perhaps he isn't "knife insane". Shooting a gun is a very point, click, walk away thing. In 10 seconds you can theortically kill 10 people from distance, and just by looking away or turning your head you can completely ingnore it (for a bit, until your brain catches up). I imagine with a knife or any close quarters weapon you can't ignore the act of killing another human being as easy. I always imagine that scene from Saving Private Ryan (I know, I know, movies LOL) where one soldier is in a knife fight with another, and the blade is slowy being driven down into him as he loses the physical battle. That's fucking terrifying, and I imagine it takes a whole new level of psycho to start cutting up little kids with a knife.
 
I was wrong, so edited:

This actually happened in Belgium in 2008. Guy with a knife killed 3 and wounded 12 in a kindergarten, 2 kids and 1 adult died.
 
How come? Genuine question.

We as a civilization are just way too far past the point where we can just "ban guns" and it would be a safe and smart call. I wish more than anything that guns didn't exist, that weapons didn't exist, that the concept of murder didn't ever occur to a single human being before, but there are just too many weapons out there, and too many evil or mentally unsound people with them.

There's something we can do here but outright banning guns entirely is not the answer. I hate guns so much but the right answer will take some time and a lot of discussions to get to, discussions that we apparently can't have right now for some reason.
 
of course it would.


why are you guys arguing about knives vs guns? who the fuck cares. guns are harder to deal with in situations like this, of course you can kill people with knives, no shit, but in that case less lives are likely to be taken. so stupid how you guys are arguing about that shit like it matters.
 
We as a civilization are just way too far past the point where we can just "ban guns" and it would be a safe and smart call. I wish more than anything that guns didn't exist, that weapons didn't exist, that the concept of murder didn't ever occur to a single human being before, but there are just too many weapons out there, and too many evil or mentally unsound people with them.

There's something we can do here but outright banning guns entirely is not the answer. I hate guns so much but the right answer will take some time and a lot of discussions to get to, discussions that we apparently can't have right now for some reason.

Doubt it'll ever be banned, but make it incredibly difficult to buy and possess, simple and doable.
 
Do teachers have bats? And if you are a teacher, do you really think a bat is going to deter a man with a 15" knife that obviously doesn't care about his own life and just wants to kill?

Can you address the real life issue that there was a knife attack in China today where 22 people were injured, while there was also a gun attack that we are discussing where nearly 30 people were killed. Or is your argument going to be, "You call that a knife? This is a knife."
 
What do you do with the 200 million plus guns that are already out there? How do you get them out of the hands of the people that own them? How do you prevent them from being sold on the black market?

BTW I agree with a no gun society but it seems impossible.

Just because it's hard doesn't mean you need to give up even trying.
 
Whats your point again?

Every time a shooting happens people argue about how other deadly weapons such as knives can be used by deranged people. It always comes up and in my opinion not really applicable to the gun control debate.

I like looking at gun control as a health issue, not a criminal one.
 
People can die with one stab. Are you serious? Do YOU think this is God of War that requires 15 slashes to kill somebody. Knives create larger wounds than billets. A single hit with a Bowie knife is far more damaging than most gunshots. Why do people think knives are semi-lethal tools?

All these hunters and military organizations around the world sure are wasting their money on expensive firearms when a knife is just as deadly.

You have to be parody trolling.
 
Teachers should be armed and trained in fire arms. They should have concealed weapons. No laws in gun restrictions will keep it out of bad peoples hands. The good people need to be armed to protect themselves and others. That's what I believe.
 
As someone just pointed out in the other thread.


Michigan's lameduck legislature just passed this rewrite of Michigan's gun laws.

mlive said:
NO LONGER ‘NO CARRY’

Concealed handguns can now be carried in these places, though exclusions are still possible in privately-owned facilities and public colleges and universities.
• Schools and school property
• Child-care centers
• Bars
• Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, or other places of worship
• Entertainment facilities that seat 2,500 people or more
• Hospitals
• Dormitories and classrooms of a community college, college, or university
 
Quite the opposite, if more people were carrying a gun it would mean more people capable of killing the shooter before this could take place.

What, and have more poeple die? Stupid idea.

How so? And what is the ideal solution, then? 1 bodyguard for each citizen?
10 teenagers were killed at once here in Rio this year, a city where there isn't a single gun store and citizens aren't allowed to carry a gun.
Gun control is not the way.

Simple: less guns means less need for self-defense against guns. I'll be willing to bet good money that the guns from your Rio example came from the United States. If you think gun control is bad, then you're objectively wrong.


Note the death toll in this case.
 
Why do people bring up other weapons? Can you spray knifes and kill several people at a distance? For fucks sake, it's not an argument.
 
Every time something like this happens, I just think of all the hurdles the Japanese have to jump through to get guns.



I mean, hell. My girlfried was able to get a gun legally in 8 minutes visiting her hometown in rural Georgia. I'm not saying make the things illegal, just make them take longer to buy than a Steak.

This sounds like the system I've always envisioned. It's not going to prevent every massacre like this, but if it prevents a few it'll be totally worth it. I'd be willing to undergo a rigorous licensing period if it meant keeping guns out of the hands of a few nutjobs caught in the screening process.
 
Do either of those places lock the schools up? I can't see a guy with a knife getting that far with how they set up schools now.

It was a daycare, but as far as I know schools here are pretty easy to enter for the most part.
 
Why are people making this all or nothing? As if reducing the amount of murders and shootings isn't enough YOU HAVE TO END THEM ALL OR IT DOESN'T MATTER.
 
Sadly nothing is ever going to change anything, ever.

The human race has been killing each other since we have been on this earth, nothing will ever change that. no amount of gun control, drug control, or anything else is ever going to change that reality. The reality is some fucked person snapped and took out a bunch of innocent lives with him. It was going to happen no matter what.

So what are we going to do, take everyone's guns away and melt them down? How are we going to take all the guns away? By using guns on people to take their guns away? And what happens when all the guns are gone and only certain people have guns? Who takes their guns way? Sorry but this is a problem with an impossible solution.

To sadly quote a movie, "It's in our nature to destroy ourselves". We have been doing it to each other since the beginning of time. It's sad and pathetic but the honest truth.
 
The whole if we stop legal sales of guns, then only criminals will have guns is becoming a tiresome argument. 2012 is closing out with a lot of fucking gun violence. The recent shootings in Oregon and Connecticut were probably done by people who obtained those guns legally.

I have had gun advocates show up on my Facebook feed saying, well the main problem is mental heath, not gun control. Are people so fucking unwilling to acknowledge that people change over time?
 
This reminds me of a Facebook Post I saw where people were upset over Buffalo Wild Wings (a sports bar) banning guns. You know, because beer and sports are two peaceful activities.
 
Guns don't kill people. People who are in possession of guns kill people.

As a european, and a swede at that I've been grown up in a gun-fearing society. I don't personally believe that police should be allowed to have guns. I don't think we should promote a society that thinks of weapons as something that a person has a right to bear.

But, I don't think that gun laws has anything with this event to do. It's an easy scape goat. Unless we can convince people to shun weapons like this laws won't make a difference.
 
Impossible to say if it would've prevented but it would make something like this happening a lot less common

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at gun crime figures of the United States vs countries with strict gun control.
 
Copied from other thread.

What other country where guns are illegal has a mass shooting every couple months from a mentally disturbed individual?

Oh right...

But hey, since there's about a 1 in a million chance that you might get to use your gun to defend yourself from a criminal also with a gun in a hollywood style shootout, let's say fuck gun control. What a great tradeoff that makes complete sense! Let's forget that the likelihood that the criminal has a gun is upped many thousandfold percentage by your fucking idiotic need to have a gun-- a gun that almost assuredly isn't going to be used for good. Fuck that! Fuck logic! Fuck reason! Fuck statistics from countries that have outlawed guns!

Fuck this bullshit, and fuck every single gun nut who continually allows this stuff to happen.
 
People can die with one stab. Are you serious? Do YOU think this is God of War that requires 15 slashes to kill somebody. Knives create larger wounds than billets. A single hit with a Bowie knife is far more damaging than most gunshots. Why do people think knives are semi-lethal tools?

Your argument really holds no water considering the two events over the last 24 hours

Of course knives are deadly, so are many things but few things can compare to a gun when you talk about potential to cause fatalities rapidly and easily
 
Can you address the real life issue that there was a knife attack in China today where 22 people were injured, while there was also a gun attack that we are discussing where nearly 30 people were killed. Or is your argument going to be, "You call that a knife? This is a knife."
So the fact that there have been failed knife attacks make them not seriously lethal?

I'm not saying a knife of any kind would certainly still lead to the same amount of death. I'm saying the killer could easily create the same kind of tragedy with a large knife. Is a gun more lethal and tactically efficient than a knife? Yes. But A LOT of people are responding with "A knife? Really? You think a knife can really cause something like this?" and it's absurd. I really think a lot of people here don't understand how lethal a large knife can be. And there are even some advantages with a knife. I tend to carry a pocket knife with me for both utility and protection. It's rather unnerving to think how easy it would be for me to silently shank people in a bustling mall without anybody knowing for some time. Knives are dangerous. Don't talk about them like they are some tool that will at worst put you in the hospital.
 
this. making things illegal doesn't stop them from being used. See illicit drugs.

You don't have to outright ban guns, it's not black and white.

How about requiring training in firearm safety before owning a gun?
How about registering a gun with the local police force and making it a major crime for it to go missing?
How about making a psych-evaluation before purchasing a gun?
How about limiting the caliber of ammunition able to be purchased?

None of those things require banning of guns. None of those things make it impossible to own a gun. None of them infringe on anyone's right to own a gun. All of those things make it inconvenient to get a gun.

A gun should be a serious purchase made with a lot of thought and discussion. It's a dangerous tool whose only purpose is to kill. You shouldn't be able to hop into Walmart with a drivers license and purchase a gun and enough ammunition to rival a police squad. That shouldn't happen.

It doesn't matter if you can buy guns on the black market. The vast majority of people will never even consider this. The vast majority of criminals will not even consider this. Anything, anything at all that makes a psycho re-think their actions should be taken. You don't think someone might not snap as easy if they can't just hop into Walmart and pick up a gun?
 
Given the # of guns in the US its hard to imagine what real gun control would look like. But banning the sale of all new firearms, components to firearms, and ammunition would eventually have an effect.

Anyone making arguments about guns in hands of criminals blah blah should look at crime stats for pretty much any other country with gun control. Things are insanely bad here.

We also need to put serious money into mental health and rehab. Seems like a good time to look at drugs as a public health issue so we can pool funds for proper hospitals and social services.
 
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