[mscocco]

Sadly these types of incidents have been on the rise and I fear it will only continue to get worse. I see two key reasons that back up my statement. First off, these sick individuals are attracted to the possibility and power of inflicting mass casualties. Doing so gives them a very powerful feeling, gets more media coverage, makes a bigger impact, and drives their own infamy. Secondly, our lax gun laws essentially make it very easy for them to purchase the very tools needed - semi-automatic, fast firing weapons with high capacity magazines. Firing 45 rounds a minute has the potential to inflict much more damage than 6 or 8 rounds a minutes or a small clip that requires reloading after a few shots.

I question the real need in a public realm for semi-automatics (rifle OR handgun) and don't consider sensible limitations any infringement on 2nd amendment rights. It just seems that if you take away the ease with which someone can carry out a mass shooting then it's reasonable to think the number of these will go down. Could an alternate arise, such a s homemade bombs? Sure but I think this is harder to carry out and also the damage potential is likely more limited and may even be more likely they'd be caught before carrying it out.

We must put politics aside and in some case make compromises for consideration of safety in this crazy world. There are many, many responsible gun owners out there but availability and accessibility to these mass casualty weapons, to me, are a simple place we can start in trying to reduce the number of children and innocent people that are getting slaughtered. How those guns are restricted or limited is open for discussion but more guns doe not equal a safer world. It just doesn't work that way and countries all around the world have already proven that.