[Trayderjoe]

Originally Posted by Jazuela

No, it's not the gun. It is the ease of acquiring one by simply driving over the state line, buying one legally there, and bringing it back home.

It is actually ILLEGAL to sell a firearm to a resident of another state without going through a dealer, and sellers cannot ship directly to (non-FFL) buyers in another state.

ANYONE with a fake ID can get a gun at a gun show. No background check required, no proof that you know how to use it, no license necessary.

This is an incorrect statement as written. A background check IS required at gun shows when a dealer sells a gun to an individual.

Firearms are too easy for ANYONE to get. The government needs to provide more accountability to both the buyer and the seller.

Regarding killing people with a car or a truck filled with fertilizer and fuel (to whoever posted that) none of those three things are made exclusively for the purpose of killing anyone (or anything). Fertilizer's function is to help things GROW. Deisel is a fuel that is designed to - fuel things. Cars are designed to get people from point A to point B. Guns are designed to shoot things and people. Semi-automatic rifles are designed to shoot -and- kill lots of people in a short period of time.

A semi-automatic rifle shoots one round of ammunition for each trigger pull- exactly the same rate as a semi-automatic handgun or a revolver. And to head off the "modified gun argument", if a gun was modified to be automatic, that act would be illegal and now we are no longer talking about responsible, legal owners of guns.

The corollary? Taking fertilizer, using it to make a bomb, and taking a car to make it the delivery vehicle for the bomb. You start with something legal, and in this case, there are NO background checks to purchase fertilizer or a car, unlike the background checks required to legally purchase a gun from a dealer.

That is the reason why guns exist in the first place.

A license to drive a car is what you get after proving you know how to drive the car. A license to own a firearm is what you get after proving you - want to own a firearm.

Acquiring a license to concealed carry a firearm requires certification after passing a handgun safety course, fingerprinting, and a background check. If for example, you are a felon or have been adjudicated to have a mental illness, you can't get a license.

There needs to be more control, more accountability, more checks and balances. Right now it's just too easy for any crackpot to walk into a gun show, buy a gun, leave, and shoot up a store.

Others have touched on the "violence problem" and mental illness. Actually this is where we need to be looking. Why is the suicide rate rising? Why do people not value life and choose violence as the answer? I remember a teenager being killed over a quarter when I was in junior high school. A quarter! Instead of fixating on the method, we need to understand the why.

Oh and by the way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that almost 30 people PER DAY are killed as a result of drunk driving crashes (link). Cars may not have been designed primarily to kill, but they are certainly effective at doing it WHEN USED ILLEGALLY.