Quote:So why screw over (potential) law abiding gun owners buy passing such laws? I want the ability to be able to defend myself if someone threatens me. My husband may be able to overcome someone by force, but I cannot. Also, I am alone overnight when my husband is on night shift, which is every other month. Should I not have the ability to defend myself when he's not here?

 

There is no easy answer to the question of how to fix this problem this country has, but taking guns from people is not the answer. Most of us are law abiding citizens.

 

This guy didn't even buy the gun. His father did, hopefully not knowing what his son's intentions were. And there was at least one person who knew of his plans for this church and a college but said nothing to no one. IMO he's just as culpable as the shooter. 

 

I'm not advocating a ban on guns.  And gun advocates seem to be very sensitive to this.  I completely understand that getting the government involved makes people nervous.  Once you give rights away, you normally don't get them back.  And again, I'm providing stats on the bigger problem we face here in the US and not just on this one incident.  Stricter gun laws still may not have prevented this, but they would probably, over the course of time, prevent more gun deaths.  The proof is in the numbers.  Other countries have shown that.  

 

What I am saying is we should be open to a discussion, without taking sides, and confront the issue here in the US.  I'm not trying to win an argument here.  I'm simply stating that gun related deaths in the US are really high compared to other civilized countries and it is probably a reasonable approach to see what other countries are doing.  Look at their laws and possibly compare them to other countries with similar laws.  Maybe there is a common theme that is working law wise in several countries.  

 

I also would like to say that I'm not a believer that saving one life is worth changing a law.  I think this is a terrible argument.  If we approached everything like that than the US economy would not function.  While there are a lot of gun deaths, guns also provide for families financially.  They create jobs.  They give enjoyment to many.  There will be a positive and negative impact with every law.  It just seems we are head and shoulders above every civilized nation in gun related deaths and it is a problem from the top (our own government, police, distrust, etc...) to the bottom (gangs, poor neighborhoods, drug trade, mass shootings).  There is no law that will solve all of these problems and I'm not naive enough to think there is.  But should something as powerful as a gun (and I respect the power as I've gone to a gun range a few times) be so easy to get?  I mean we have to at least go through a test and class to get our driver's license.  While driving cars is dangerous, the intent is to get from point A to point B.  The purpose of a gun is to kill whether in self defense, hunting or other.  Here are two articles that stuck out.  We aren't doing enough and we can do better.

 

http://www.secondcalldefense.org/self-de...-first-gun - But Americans are also more in love with the hardware than in training, laws, or safety. Too many people buying a gun for self defense, make the purchase, take the gun home, put it in a drawer, and never touch it again until their life is on the line.

<p style="font-size:1.5em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not only is this a bad idea from a self defense point of view, it also increases the odds that in a moment of high stress, you'll make a mistake and put yourself in legal peril (main talking point I took away from this article).

<p style="font-size:1.5em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.today.com/id/46316454/ns/toda...YYb2_lVikp - In fact, 34 people are murdered every day in gun violence, with many of the weapons traced back to private sales. Jitka Vesel, for example, was killed by a stalker – a Canadian man who crossed into the U.S., bought a gun online in Seattle, then shot her 11 times as she got in her car. No legitimate gun store would have sold this man a gun, because he’s not a U.S. citizen. He wouldn't have passed a background check, yet he was easily able to buy a gun online.

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<p style="font-size:1.5em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gun Advocates, are we really doing enough to protect our citizens?  We have a culture and gun problem within our own police force.  Culturally (and I say this knowing most cops and citizens are responsible and care about human life) we, not as a whole, but as a higher percentage minority than other countries, don't value life enough.  When you kill someone, you don't just take that persons life, but you effect everyone around them for their entire lives and some never recover becoming a shell of their former self.  I believe in gun rights, but I also believe we can do better.  We should always be striving as a society to be better than those who came before us.  To learn from mistakes of our own doing and to learn from mistakes of the generation before us.  Otherwise, what is the point?  Giving up and saying there is nothing we can do basically means we have stopped progressing.  Progress in my opinion is our destiny as a civilization.  Otherwise we will be no more.  

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