(04-16-2021, 06:09 PM)mal234 Wrote:

(04-16-2021, 09:50 AM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: Gun laws will do nothing. Criminals always manage to get a hold of weapons. If it's not a gun, they will just get on the internet and learn how to build a bomb. We need to address the real issue behind all of this, the mental health crisis in this country. We have too many mentally ill people walking our streets that don't have the money/insurance to get help for their issues and when they snap, bad things like this are bound to happen. Until we address this root issue, things will never change.

Unfortunately a lot of people don't know some of these killers suffer from mental illness until it's way too late. Especially since many of the people they kill don't know them at all. It would be different if most of these shootings involved families/friends of the shooters. But often strangers are the victims and there is no way they know what's going on with some of these killers. I say some, because I believe that some of these killings are people that are just pure evil or some combination of killing and mental illness. If their families suspect/know they have issues they should definitely alert people. Which it looks like the mom did in this latest case, but even that isn't enough. I think that the most effective thing would be as much prevention as possible through better gun legislation. 

(04-16-2021, 05:51 PM)mikesez Wrote: I try to tune things out that are just there to provoke.
The motive of this guy isn't interesting. He's a terrorist.  We don't care what terrorists want, especially dead ones. Doesn't matter if he was racist or Presbyterian or both.
Instead, let's figure out where he got the gun. Are there "red flag" laws in Indiana?  If not, would they have helped? If yes, why didn't they work?

I'm with you. This happens so much, and the motives aren't going to really change anything. Especially since there is no consistent motive in a lot of these shootings, it's often different people for different reasons. Dylan Roof was racist,, the man that killed the ladies at the spa, said he was tempted by them, some people are trying to blame the Phillip Adam's shooting on CTE (though we don't know if that is the true), other people who have killed have been labeled insane, evil, suffering from PTSD, out to get revenge, etc.... There is no rhyme or reason for a lot of this stuff.  It's not like a lot of murder mysteries where there can often be more concrete and similar motives for stuff. These mass shootings are happening everywhere and the motives for them are all over the place.

I'm fine with universal background checks and not allowing people convicted of violent crimes to own any type of weapons. It gets into a "grey area" with mental health though. If you say people with mental issues can't have guns, what are the specific mental issues? It seems like half this country is on some kind of depression or anxiety medication and they seem to be doing just fine. Would they be allowed to own guns? Not all mental issues should be looked at the same way. 99.5% of people who suffer from depression and anxiety are not a danger to anyone else. I think that's why this issue has been put off so long. Who qualifies and who doesn't? It's a slippery slope. 

Where I really disagree with the left is banning certain types of weapons. 99.9999% of people who own semi-automatic rifles (not assault weapons) are completely responsible, law abiding  gun owners and the government has no right to tell them what kind of weapons they can and cannot own. Besides, they are already out there. There is an estimated 17 million of these types of weapons already out on the street. That "cat is out of the bag" and he isn't going back in. You can't force people to give up property that they bought legally, because that would equate to martial law and we cannot tolerate that. It would lead to a complete breakdown and civil war would erupt. That's why Beto O'Rourke was basically laughed out of the last primary. Even the furthest leaning leftist knew that you can't go door to door confiscating people's guns. That definitely would not end well.

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