Elementary school shooting

[maestro0428]

First of all its nice to see people in other countries concerned. Second I am an elementary school teacher in the US. I also own several guns. That said, we do need more gun control. No citizen needs assault rifles. They are designed for killing people and nothing else. Would banning them stop mass murders? Probably not. People who are mentally broken will still kill with whatever means they can. I believe a solution could be gun control but not without a boost in mental health care.

I can't leave this without saying one more thing. Humans can create the most wonderful, beautiful, amazing things, but they also do the most horrible, unthinkable evils every day.

[Scirocco]

Well said, maestro0428!

[Er-El]

Now I wonder what it would take for the press to take heed of this bit of simple advice.

[lm_wfc]

Originally Posted by Er-El

Now I wonder what it would take for the press to take heed of this bit of simple advice.

THat's similar to the speech that went round from "Morgan Freeman"

[Cthippo]

There was a front page article in todays paper about how this month has seen the highest number of background checks for gun purchases ever. The last highest month was November 2008, when Obama was elected.

Every time there is talk of restricting firearms purchases the result is a massive jump in those purchases.

[supermonkey]

The same thing happens any time there is the threat of a shortage of any given product. When the news first hit that Twinkies might go out of business, stores in our area started posting signs that they would not be receiving any further orders. The result was entirely predictable: the stores sold out instantly, and soon unopened boxes of Twinkies could be found on e-Bay for massively inflated prices.

At least in Houston, there was some pressure for the city to crack down on certain furniture stores who had been "going out of business" for a long time. There were constantly people standing on the street corners, holding signs warning that this was absolutely the last weekend that you could find a deal at the store. Everything must go! The odd thing was that they had been warning that for what seems like years.

The only thing that sells better than sex is the threat of scarcity.

[Nexxo]

Often sex and scarcity are closely related.

[Cthippo]

Originally Posted by Nexxo

Often sex and scarcity are closely related.

Sex is like air, it's only a big deal when you're not getting any.

[eddie_dane]

Originally Posted by Cthippo

Sex is like air, it's only a big deal when you're not getting any.

+1 and also added to my list of posible tattoos

[lm_wfc]

http://home.nra.org/pdf/Transcript_PDF.pdf

NRA statement - Was it written by a child as well?

[patrickk84]

300 Million people in the US. 4 Millions members of the NRA. Don't take what they say as representing the gun owners of the United States please. They in no way shape or form represent the majority of gun owners in the US. Of all the people I know who own guns, not a single one of them is an NRA member.

Every school in America needs to immediately identify, dedicate and
deploy the resources necessary to put these security forces in place
right now. And the National Rifle Association, as America's preeminent
trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past 50
years, is ready, willing and uniquely qualified to help.

This quote kills any sort of credibility in my eyes. It reads as if the NRA is setting themselves up to profit off of the very lucrative business of "School Protection".

Even though I don't own a gun, I respect the right(as a United States citizen) to responsibly own a firearm. I feel like many in this thread who oppose the gun laws of America have the wrong idea about the typical gun owner here. I feel safe in saying that the majority do not meet the "stereotype" a lot of you seem to have in your head.

I also find the tags for this thread unfortunate and narrow minded.

[eddie_dane]

I don't see how the NRA would "profit" from securing schools, that's not what they do. I had a year membership with the NRA that was included in a training program they sponsored. I didn't extend it but, based on my experience with them, a lot of what is said about them is blown way out of proportion. Certainly blaming them for what a mad man did is beyond the pale.

[Scirocco]

Any more, the NRA looks to be a lobby organization to protect the gun manufacturers more so than the owners.

[patrickk84]

Agreed that it's blown out of proportion. However, I interpret that line as the NRA saying "we will offer our services". Maybe they will offer their services for free? If that's the case then good on them. But, rarely do we see anyone offering something for free.

[mucgoo]

Originally Posted by MessiaH

Even though I don't own a gun, I respect the right(as a United States citizen) to responsibly own a firearm. I feel like many in this thread who oppose the gun laws of America have the wrong idea about the typical gun owner here. I feel safe in saying that the majority do not meet the "stereotype" a lot of you seem to have in your head.

I'm sure the majority are very sensible so they shouldn't have any objections to having to pass through a more stringent licensing system and no longer being allowed guns which are completely inappropriate for anything but military use.

[patrickk84]

Originally Posted by mucgoo

I'm sure the majority are very sensible so they shouldn't have any objections to having to pass through a more stringent licensing system and no longer being allowed guns which are completely inappropriate for anything but military use.

I am not opposed to strict gun laws and screening. Hell, make them more expensive too, so there are not the "cheap accessible" guns laying around all over the place for people to trip over.

However, I have a problem with what you say is "completely inappropriate for anything but military use". A part of me believes that if I want to roll around my property re-enacting The Expendables and blast off 30+ rounds before reloading. I should be able to. If I want to buy enough rounds to clear cut some of my woods using an assault rifle. I should be able to. So long as I legally obtain and control/protect them within the limits of the law.

I say apart of me, because the other part of me doesn't want these weapons to end up in the wrong hands hurting innocent people. This is where I am torn. And I have certainly been questioning my beliefs on the matter after reading all of the statistics being touted in this thread.

[walle]

Originally Posted by MessiaH

I also find the tags for this thread unfortunate and narrow minded.

Tags were made by English trolls, they've been out in force as of late.

[DXR_13KE]

Originally Posted by walle

Tags were made by English trolls, they've been out in force as of late.

[supermonkey]

Originally Posted by Scirocco

Any more, the NRA looks to be a lobby organization to protect the gun manufacturers more so than the owners.

This, pretty much. It's been this way for years. Furthermore, eddie_dane pointed out earlier that none of the now-proposed bans would have prevented the Newtown shooting - either because the guns were all obtained legally, or they were of different type/caliber than what is proposed, or for other reasons. To add to the list of things that may not have helped, we can add the NRA's proposal to post armed guards in schools. It didn't help when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people at their high school in 1999. Columbine High School had an armed guard - a 15-year veteran of the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office. His presence did not act as a deterrent, and although he managed to fire a few shots he was unsuccessful in 'taking down the bad guy.'

Further adding to the danger of arming a bunch of people is the chaotic nature of such an event. From the link above:

As the first deputies arrived on campus, they were met by chaos and hysteria. Terrified students and teachers were fleeing in all directions from the high school in the suburban neighborhood. Others were still inside.

The deputies could hear explosions coming from inside the school. The students were telling them about bombs, guns and hand-grenades, and about gunmen with assault rifles and semi-automatics.

There were other reports of possible terrorists, four shooters, six shooters, 17 hostages. There was a man wearing a trench coat; there were two guys in trench coats. There was a guy in a white T-shirt, with hats, not with hats. The gunmen had changed clothes to blend in with the other students. There was a shooter on the roof. The gunmen were in the auditorium. No, they were in the cafeteria.

The deputies had no concrete information about what was actually happening inside the building. They were facing live fire and had potentially 2,000 victims and hostages.

Faced with frightened people telling them that there were a bunch of shooters who had changed clothes to blend in with everyone else, trained police officers recognized how confused the situation had become.

[Big_malc]

any one read book called "The Trigger"