Posted by Rexx

All the countries with ban on guns have significantly lower violent crime rates than the U.S.
James Holmes, the Aurora Colorado shooter, bought his guns legally including an AR-15 assualt rifle. Adam Lanza who shot up Sandy Hook simply took his mother's guns that she had bought and owned legally.

Saying that a ban on guns wouldn't do anything is complete ignorance.

Banning guns still won't stop these types of incidences. The insane/mentally unstable will simply acquire other weapons, or get them illegally. Banning guns is one of those solutions that will keep the majority of everyone happy, but won't have a long lasting impact.

The best solution in my opinion, is to invest money into mental health awareness and free counselling/treatment.  

Posted by Rezon

Banning guns still won't stop these types of incidences. The insane/mentally unstable will simply acquire other weapons, or get them illegally. Banning guns is one of those solutions that will keep the majority of everyone happy, but won't have a long lasting impact.

The best solution in my opinion, is to invest money into mental health awareness and free counselling/treatment.

Stopping a mentally unstable individual in possession of a hammer/knife is considerably easier than one with an automatic assault rifle.  

I agree that we should invest in mental health awareness and free treatment; although a ban on gun may seem attractive at first, I don't think 2013 or anytime in the near future is a good time to do it. There's too many people that already have guns, and having a gun ban, even without dealing with plausible riots and the black market, might be more expensive than we can handle. After all, how are we going to ensure that nobody has a gun after the ban is implemented? If it's knocking at their front door, I don't think it's going to work out very well.  

I'm a taxpayer and I don't want my money being wasted on funding some lunatic's shrink sessions.

Posted by Rezon

The best solution in my opinion, is to invest money into mental health awareness and free counselling/treatment.

Easy for you to say since you're Canadian and your country is accustom to paying high taxes.  

Posted by NCJohn

I wasn't specifically talking about that shooting. I was speaking in a more general sense of self defense. Either way banning guns entirely isn't the solution. Stricter gun regulations, improved mental health care, and a crack down on the illegal sales of guns is what will will make a difference.

Amen to that, and I don't live in the USA. (in Australia, you have to have a 'Good Reason' to own a firearm)  

Posted by Rexx

I'm a taxpayer and I don't want my money being wasted on funding some lunatic's shrink sessions.


Easy for you to say since you're Canadian and your country is accustom to paying high taxes.

Even if it means the possible prevention of these mass shootings? Also you do realize a ban on firearms would cost just as much in taxes as mental healthcare reform. It costs money to go around and obtain people's personal firearms.  

Good quote for you to ponder on Rexx:

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. So keep dangerous people away from guns.  

Hand guns should stay legal but, theirs no need for people to use and buy an assault rifle...  

Guns aren't the problem, people will use whatever they want to carry out a terrorist attack. People have used cyanide pills, planes and box cutters, fertilizer, car exhaust, and gas showers. All banning guns will do is take weapons from innocent people.

Guns should be more difficult for someone to get a hold of but not removed from society.  

I like the way it is in New Zealand. You need a license. It doesn't stop stuff completely, but it still makes it less common. It means you have to be a certain type of person to have a gun. It's also illegal to use one within 20 meters of a town or house or infrastructure or whatever it is.

I'm not entirely sure. I can't say I've followed gun laws closely. But I do think they should be controlled, and the people that use them, and I do think that using your guns to murder people is a bad idea. They should be used for defense in a zombie apocalypse, for recreational hunting (in legal areas, obviously), and if you're in a shooting club or something, maybe that, in my opinion  

Rexx, as much as I like and respect your opinions, I almost completely disagree. Banning guns would maybe stop the extremely stupid criminals from getting them. Criminals do not follow laws. It's illegal to steal, yet criminals still steal. It's illegal to kill, yet criminals still kill. A law banning guns would be no different, because criminals do not follow laws. I DO think it would be a good idea to make people do better background checks before they sell guns, and if you want to sell online, you have to have someone do a background check on both the seller and the buyer. But then again, criminals may completely disobey those laws.  

Posted by Rexx

Until all guns are banned indefinitely, yes I would feel safer if I owned a gun.

People who want guns are always going to get guns, just like people who want drugs are always going to get guns, and just like people who wanted alcohol during prohibition got exactly that. Banning guns altogether will not keep guns out of the hands of wrongdoers. The illegal gun market would grow quickly to adhere to the needs of those who are set to murder and can't be dissuaded by a law that they cannot have a gun.

We'd end up having a country where only the criminals had guns. Recently there was a shooting in San Antonio where a man attempted to start a massacre. He was unsuccessful because, after he shot one person, another man who was secretly (and legally) armed shot him before he could kill any other people. Of course, this kind of information isn't reported by the media, so it probably happens more than you think. I only know this because I'm somewhat close to San Antonio and seek out this type of information. Most people around me don't have a clue about it either. This kind of thing happens more than any of us know. Attempting to remove guns from the hands of American people isn't the answer.

Posted by Rexx

Easy for you to say since you're Canadian and your country is accustom to paying high taxes.

If you're insinuating that we should raise taxes, I'm going to continue to disagree with you. Right now the issue in our nation is that we're overspending money. It's not always necessarily on useless programs, but more often than not it's just a misuse of money. The education and military systems need to face reform. At the rate America is going, just raising taxes without reform is just going to cause the nation to overspend that money and plunge us further into debt.

To prove my point, the average spending per student, nationwide, in public schools is about $12,744
. The average spending per student, nationwide, in private schools is about $8,549. It's public knowledge that private schools produce students with much higher SAT/ACT scores who go on to a much greater future. This clearly shows that money spent in systems does not directly correlate with the quality of that system. Instead of simply pumping more money into systems such as the education system, the systems should face reform and have their money reallocated. (Here's my source for the statistics: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.co...-on-education/)  

If they did what they did in Australia (buy the guns back off people) it would basically be like taking them of the honest people and letting the bad people keep them, it will be incredibly hard to do it with Americas population, hell, it was hard with Australia's, so GL.  

Guns should be available for everyone and all so long as it is restricted only to your house, shooting ranges and unrestricted hunting areas. If it is in public (say you just bought it and are taking it home) it must be disasssembled or unloaded. Otherwise you can be charged with a felony for having a loaded weapon. If you plan on taking a gun to another person's house you must have their consent otherwise you can be arrested. Those who have committed a number misdemeanors or any felony they will not be allowed to own any guns whatsoever. Don't get rid of guns completely, because listen: Someone breaks into your house at night with a knife and threatens to kill your family. You could call the police, but who knows if they'll be here in time? If you had a gun you'd be able to defend yourself and your family. Again, as it was said before. Guns don't kill people. But people do. So what we need to do is increase education about guns and how dangerous they could be and how serious charges could be if you misuse them. Let's say tomorrow someone shoots the President and takes over the country and threatens to take away your rights. As the people, it would be our responsibility to restore democracy but we couldn't do that because we can't start a revolution without weapons.  

Posted by Rezon

Good quote for you to ponder on Rexx:

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. So keep dangerous people away from guns.

I get the point of the quote, but the physics say the bullet kills, not the gun or the person.