Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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This sounds eminently logical to me. But the NRA will tell you that more guns in more hands will make us all safer. You can't predict when somebody who is OK today may go off the deep end in the future. That's why you have to be reasonable in what tools are available to the citizens to do harm.
The poster that shows how weapons have evolved over 200 years makes a good point. Add to that there are many more citizens now and we've become an urban society, and the situation is totally different than when the bill of rights was written. But I suppose we'll just continue to send our thoughts and prayers because that's easier than having a mature, logical analysis and perhaps making some changes.