First off, in the last two shootings which have taken place this week, both were carried out by people who could NOT get a gun of their own so they stole them from friends and family. All the gun laws, short of complete confiscation of all of them, would not have stopped this tragedy. Lanza was denied buying a rifle earlier this week in CT which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, which of course, did nothing to stop this crack pot from carrying out his evil plan.
Let's look at the above chart. A majority of this country favor background checks on all individuals which I also think is a good idea. No guns for violent felons or the mentally ill is also a no brainer. Gun registration runs into the NRA policy that if the government knows who has guns they will be easier to grab. While that is somewhat true (more on that later) we have to trust the government to some extent and let them know if they come for our guns we will give them our weapons, barrel first.
Banning any kind of weapon is not the answer, as the recent spate of knife attacks on Chinese school children shows. On the same day as the Sandy Hook School Massacre, 22 kids and an elderly woman were stabbed outside a school. And while no one died, that's not the issue. In 2010, nine kids were stabbed to death in a similar incident in China, so this time it was chance that no one died in China and almost everyone did in Newtown, when the reverse could have been just as easily true. Over the past two years alone, 15 kids have died and 80 injured in Chinese knife/machete attacks. Guess what both had in common? The attackers were almost always mentally ill. Ban guns and the crazies will find another way to kill.
Let's look at what is known about the shooter in this case. He was young, mentally disturbed by all who knew him and may have had a domineering mother. Rumors have surfaced that Lanza's mom and dad split over the way she was treating their son and that his mental state was never in question. This raises the question of why a woman would have an arsenal of weapons that were not secured in any way with a son facing severe mental difficulties. The fact that she was killed with her own weapon is terribly ironic.
It also turns out that she worked for the school some ago but appears to have no connection to it now. Supposedly, an altercation took place a few days before with Lanza and the office staff but no further info has come forward and with our idiot media spreading false rumors like a twelve year old girl, facts are hard to come by. By the way, this should be a clear sign to every Republican douchebag screaming about Benghazi still that when tragedy strikes, facts are the hardest thing to verify. War and death clouds everything and the final truth may never be fully realized.
Both Lanza and the recent mall shooter both seem to be suffering from early stages of schizophrenia and/or borderline personality disorder and word is Lanza was taking SSRI's , a powerful anti-depressant and linked to many cases of hostile actions by users.
Here is a list of every mass shooting that has taken place in the US since Columbine. It's a long list.
December 11, 2012. On Tuesday, 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts killed 2 people and himself with a stolen rifle in Clackamas Town Center, Oregon. His motive is unknown.
September 27, 2012. Five were shot to death by 36-year-old Andrew Engeldinger at Accent Signage Systems in Minneapolis, MN. Three others were wounded. Engeldinger went on a rampage after losing his job, ultimately killing himself.
August 5, 2012. Six Sikh temple members were killed when 40-year-old US Army veteran Wade Michael Page opened fire in a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Four others were injured, and Page killed himself.
July 20, 2012. During the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, 24-year-old James Holmes killed 12 people and wounded 58. Holmes was arrested outside the theater.
May 29, 2012. Ian Stawicki opened fire on Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle, WA, killing 5 and himself after a citywide manhunt.
April 6, 2012. Jake England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, shot 5 black men in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in racially motivated shooting spree. Three died.
April 2, 2012. A former student, 43-year-old One L. Goh killed 7 people at Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, CA. The shooting was the sixth-deadliest school massacre in the US and the deadliest attack on a school since the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
October 14, 2011. Eight people died in a shooting at Salon Meritage hair salon in Seal Beach, CA. The gunman, 41-year-old Scott Evans Dekraai, killed six women and two men dead, while just one woman survived. It was Orange County’s deadliest mass killing.
September 6, 2011. Eduardo Sencion, 32, entered an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, NV and shot 12 people. Five died, including three National Guard members.
January 8, 2011. Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was shot in the head when 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on an event she was holding at a Safeway market in Tucson, AZ. Six people died, including Arizona District Court Chief Judge John Roll, one of Giffords’ staffers, and a 9-year-old girl. 19 total were shot. Loughner has been sentenced to seven life terms plus 140 years, without parole.
August 3, 2010. Omar S. Thornton, 34, gunned down Hartford Beer Distributor in Manchester, CT after getting caught stealing beer. Nine were killed, including Thornton, and two were injured.
November 5, 2009. Forty-three people were shot by Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan at the Fort Hood army base in Texas. Hasan reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, killing 13 and wounding 29 others.
April 3, 2009. Jiverly Wong, 41, opened fire at an immigration center in Binghamton, New York before committing suicide. He killed 13 people and wounded 4.
March 29, 2009. Eight people died in a shooting at the Pinelake Health and Rehab nursing home in Carthage, NC. The gunman, 45-year-old Robert Stewart, was targeting his estranged wife who worked at the home and survived. Stewart was sentenced to life in prison.
February 14, 2008. Steven Kazmierczak, 27, opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing 6 and wounding 21. The gunman shot and killed himself before police arrived. It was the fifth-deadliest university shooting in US history.
February 7, 2008. Six people died and two were injured in a shooting spree at the City Hall in Kirkwood, Missouri. The gunman, Charles Lee Thornton, opened fire during a public meeting after being denied construction contracts he believed he deserved. Thornton was killed by police.
December 5, 2007. A 19-year-old boy, Robert Hawkins, shot up a department store in the Westroads Mall in Omaha, NE. Hawkins killed 9 people and wounded 4 before killing himself. The semi-automatic rifle he used was stolen from his stepfather’s house.
April 16, 2007. Virginia Tech became the site of the deadliest school shooting in US history when a student, Seung-Hui Choi, gunned down 56 people. Thirty-two people died in the massacre.
February 12, 2007. In Salt Lake City’s Trolley Square Mall, 5 people were shot to death and 4 others were wounded by 18-year-old gunman Sulejman Talović. One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy.
October 2, 2006. An Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, PA was gunned down by 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts, Roberts separated the boys from the girls, binding and shooting the girls. 5 young girls died, while 6 were injured. Roberts committed suicide afterward.
March 25, 2006. Seven died and 2 were injured by 28-year-old Kyle Aaron Huff in a shooting spree through Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA. The massacre was the worst killing in Seattle since 1983.
March 21, 2005. Teenager Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend before opening fire on Red Lake Senior High School, killing 9 people on campus and injuring 5. Weise killed himself.
March 12, 2005. A Living Church of God meeting was gunned down by 44-year-old church member Terry Michael Ratzmann at a Sheraton hotel in Brookfield, WI. Ratzmann was thought to have had religious motivations, and killed himself after executing the pastor, the pastor’s 16-year-old son, and 7 others. Four were wounded.
July 8, 2003. Doug Williams, a Lockheed Martin employee, shot up his plant in Meridian, MI in a racially-motivated rampage. He shot 14 people, most of them African American, and killed 7.
September 15, 1999. Larry Gene Ashbrook opened fire on a Christian rock concert and teen prayer rally at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX. He killed 7 people and wounded 7 others, almost all teenagers. Ashbrook committed suicide.
July 29, 1999. Mark Orrin Barton, 44, murdered his wife and two children with a hammer before shooting up two Atlanta day trading firms. Barton, a day trader, was believed to be motivated by huge monetary losses. He killed 12 including his family and injured 13 before killing himself.
April 20, 1999. In the deadliest high school shooting in US history, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Kiebold shot up Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. They killed 13 people and wounded 21 others. They killed themselves after the massacre.
Some of the above were racially motivated, over anger from getting fired or some other explainable, albeit not condonable, action. But a huge majority were committed by people who should have been committed. We have no mental health rules in this country and that is killing more people than guns. I propose that any person diagnosed with a serious mental illness be monitored closely. They should have to see a therapist once a week and be drug tested regularly to make sure they are taking their medications. Failure to do so will result in a mandatory minimum 72 hour stay at a nice mental institution until the are deemed fit to reenter society. The reason China is seeing so many attacks is very similar here where we deny that mental issues are a problem and instead blame guns, video games and TV. But if that was the case, violence would be exploding across the planet, which it clearly isn't. And anyone with a serious mental issue cannot be allowed to get guns, period.
We have decimated and ridiculed psychiatry in this country with disastrous results. When idiots like Tom Cruise say it's all a fraud, he's doing serious damage to people who really need that kind of help. It also telling that since the ACLU shut down a huge number of state hospitals that worked with the insane, these incidents have increased. They are currently pissed that many inmates are insane and not getting the treatment they need in prison when they themselves are responsible for that in the first place. Way to go dude. We need to bring back insane asylums, get the lunatics off the street, including the homeless who have violent tendencies and start bringing some sanity back to our nation.
As to all those who ask why not ban all guns, here's why:
In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. By 1987 that figure had risen to 61,911,000.
China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952 10,076,000 political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated in Kuomintang China, and by 1987 another 35,236,000 exterminations were carried out under the Communists.
Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, without the means to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979 under General Idi Amin Dada, 300,000 Christians and political rivals of Amin, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
Cambodia established gun control in 1956. Between 1975 and 1979, 2,035,000 "educated" people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
We have guns so the government can't bend us to their will. Add up all the people who died in the above column and compare that to all gun deaths since the founding of the nation (excluding wars) and the numbers don't even come close. Hundreds of millions died because they lacked the ability to tell their leaders no. In every case where gun control has been enacted, more people die due to gun violence. EVERY CASE. How is that an argument for gun control? Can you honestly tell me you trust our government to do the right thing all the time? If you do, I want some of what you are smoking because that has got to be some good shit.
We need to have some safe guards to protect ourselves from these nutbags. Gun background checks are a good start, as long as the feds pay for it and not demand the little guy foot the bill. Getting the nutters off the street is another. Unless we start having a real conversation about the two, these tragedies will happen again and with more frequency.
One also has to wonder whether the fictitious end of the world next Friday might have something to do with this as well. When these scenarios have played out in the past, the less stable of us commit huge atrocities. If that is the case, further copy cats may emerge over the next seven days. Let us hope that is not the case and pray for all those who have lost loved ones this week in senseless violence. There can be no worse Christmas than some parent who has to go home and look at the toys they bought that will never be opened. The only good news out of this is that for those that survived, be prepared for the best Christmas ever as every one of those kids from the school are going to get some awesome presents. They deserve it for the hell they were put through.
the school shooter appears to of been known to be a monster even before he proved it to the world. i just read where the prime enabler, the mother, gets almost $300,000 a year for sitting on her butt but can't have gotten this kid into a mental hospital. probably would have claimed she counldn't afford the care. instead she has a small arsenal at home with a crazy person having access to them. yet she was so "golden hearted". if i made even close to that kind of money, for doing nothing, i could hang out at bars giving money away too.
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