Gun control! Gun control! Ok, fine, let’s increase the gun laws. We can at least make operating a firearm as regulated as driving a car. We could implement a licensing system and track sales and purchases. I actually believe there is a number of ways we can control the use and sale of firearms without actually limiting the civil liberties of Americans or being unconstitutional. But you cannot tell me that today’s tragedy was purely a result of loose gun laws. A contributing factor? Yes. But the number one cause? I’m not convinced.
Where is the call for mental health reform? Where is the demand for budget increases for health-care professionals working with at-risk individuals and families or education for the public on finding help for those in need? What about studying the effects of violence in media or the breakdown in families? You want to create some real change in society, try looking there.
And foreigners, stop pretending like you know what it’s like in the US and stop demanding everyone be like you (which the world was so quick to condemn the US for doing). You talk of gun control like its a magic bullet. Maybe 50 years ago it might have been, but we are living in today. Try coming up with a plan that is aligned with the constitution and makes me believe my family will be safe from criminals. You bandy about terms like assault weapons and gun control, but do you actually know what it means or are we just throwing around emotions? (Assault weapons, by the way, are in fact banned by federal law, but this shooting didn’t involve assault weapons, so it’s beside the point anyway). So write me a law that makes my family safer tomorrow and you’ll have my full support, but remember that we are living in the real world. There are literally millions of guns scattered throughout America. Creating a law that tightens the control of firearms will only affect firearms that are sold tomorrow. It will have no affect on the weapons already proliferated throughout the country, nor those who intend to use them for evil. You write me a law that convinces me that my family will be safe at home or at school and that there is nothing a criminal can bring against my family that I cannot protect them against and I will shout it from the rooftops. But don’t think it is that easy!
Don’t talk of gun control as though it’s some kind of utopian society where guns don’t exist. Don’t compare America today to Australia where the government clamped down on guns nearly 20 years ago and say it should do the same. It is simply not the same. The numbers don’t add up. We can all say what should have happened 20, 50 or 100 years ago but that time has come and gone. To state what should happen tomorrow is a completely different story.
When I was in school, we practiced fire drills. That was the extent of the expected emergencies. Yesterday (I kid you not. The day before this tragedy) my 7 year old daughter practiced a drill with her class mates. Not a fire drill, like in my day, but a “Lock-down Drill” or “what to do if a bad man with a weapon” (I quote my daughter) entered her school. I’m sure my well-meaning foreign friends think they know what’s best when they scatter their advice, but unless you have kids who LITERALLY practice what to do if what happened in Connecticut were to happen in their school, or LITERALLY live in an area where dozens of people were gunned down while watching movie, you will not understand why the future of gun control will involve the ownership and stewardship of firearms. Besides, this is not a case of gun control alone. Stop fooling yourself.
Brad Crabtree 
December 15th, 2012 at 8:46 pm
This is an interesting topic. I’m actually quite keen for a practical, mature minded convo on this one.
I’m pretty torn along several lines on this one.
Being a member of the conservative right wing of the Young Libs when they implemented the legislation, and seeing a lot of the debates at the time, I thought it was the right idea.
I think barring this issue, I think if I was over there in the US I’d still be a conservative Christian Republican, still desiring to go hunting etc, and still be an avid Fox News (Bill OReilly!!) watcher more than i am now.
But many friends I know are reluctant to move to a country like USA due to this issue, and unfortunately a careful analysis of the issues doesn’t stack up.
Though the quantity of deaths is statistically lower, the acuteness and severity of impact of impact is sharper due to the higher quality and availability of handguns, so the statistical issues aren’t very indicative in that sense.
Additionally, the issues related to mental health are important, but it’s important to see this issue as mutually inclusive, in the sense that it is important to deal with and increase funding on these issues, as well as address the issues of the need for gun control discussion – which is often mired in the difficulties and apparent “infallibilities” relating to the US Constitution.
December 16th, 2012 at 3:37 am
Thanks for the comment, Dom. Hmm…mature minded conversations? I’ve heard of those. Unfortunately, they are hard to find on this subject.
There is so much under the surface of these issues but something I think everyone can agree on is that *something* should be done. As to what that is…?
A lot of people are suggesting that tighter gun control would have prevented this tragedy. But that statement is not necessarily true. If tighter gun laws were created years and years ago, then yes, this tragedy *may* have been averted. People use Australia as an example but the stats aren’t there. Since ’96 when the ban was introduced, homicide rate in total did not drop at the same rate as gun-related deaths. In fact, the average rate of homicides increased until ’99, showing that gun control was not THE contributing factor.
I believe gun control is part of the solution, but it’s not the magic bullet, so to speak.
December 17th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
For anyone to think this shooting (or any shooting) is mainly to do with gun laws is absurd. Other countries have guns, lots of them, but not the massacres. (At least not as frequent)
People that are commit these crazy acts are unstable and unhealthy in the head. They would still manage to get their hands on weapons even if they were completley illegal. There is a strange “entitlement” mentality here where people seem to think its their right to do whatever they want, they are number 1 and nobody is going to say otherwise.
Not sure why people take their aggression a out by murdering lots of people but at some point we need to start making the “safeness” of this country a priority for our children’s children and figure out what would drive someone to such an act.