Isla Vista killing....the NRA's fault?

Sure, very few people have a legitimate reason to buy thousands of guns a month and they should tighten up on that. But, gun running is not really an American problem. Its a Mexican problem. Juarez, Mexico is one of the most dangerous places in the world, while just a few miles away El Paso, Texas is a relatively safe place compared to other American cities of its size.

I see no need for national gun registration. Whenever you buy a firearm legally from a store or licensed dealer there is a record of that purchase, so your name is already in some database along with the seemingly endless databases that know everything there is to know about everybody.
Some of the weapons I own I bought at a store or from a person with a FFL. Others I have bought from friends so I'm pretty sure they weren't stolen. If I purchase a firearm from a source other than a licensed dealer I draw up a bill of sale and make the seller sign it. I do that only for my own records and to protect myself in case the gun is stolen from me and then does turn out to have been hot when I bought it. Not that I think I actually have hot guns, just making sure. The point is there is no reason for the government to know about every single thing I do. They probably already know what time a day you take a shit and what your favorite brand of toilet paper is. And if they don't they can google it.

If a person is reported by a spouse or neighbors or even casual passersby acting irrationally and brandishing a gun and threatening anybody the cops should take his gun. Cops usually have pretty good street instinct about things like that and even if there was a national registry there are still going to be lots of people who don't register them.

Fortunately mass shooters going on a rampage are very few in a nation of 313 million people. The 5 or 6 times a year it happens it gets big headlines and makes a splash in the media but I don't believe things like that are a real threat to the safety and security of the overwhelming majority of us. Unfortunately for the victims of such incidents, no database is going to stop a wacko with no criminal record and who has drawn no previous flags about irrational behavior from getting a gun and doing what he wants to do.

Maybe people with a permit to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to carry them on college campuses and other schools. If there had been somebody with a concealed weapon in the classroom where the Virginia Tech shooter opened fire the nut would have still killed some people but maybe if an armed person was able to shoot him lives would have been saved

 

Then prove how those measures you listed would work. The only viable solutions are mental/background screenings.

 

The excuse, as you term it, is not paranoia. It's common sense.

So we have had an average of two mass killings a year? No laws that could ever be enacted is going to stop a lone nutjob from doing his grisly deeds. Its not like Charles Joseph Whitman started a trendy fad.

 

Trying to restrict the argument to one about disturbed people and mass shootings is ignoring the greatest portion of the problem. As tragic as they are they are less than 1% of gun deaths every year. Most killings with guns is the casual kind we read about in every city. It is what happens in the New Orleans neighborhoods and in Baton Rouge's streets. It is the gang bangers' drive bys the people who shoot someone because they were scared of how someone looked or thought it was a deer or so many other reasons. Many make heavy argument that so many are killed in Chicago, LA New York and other places that guns are heavily restricted ignore the fact that many are brought in by gun runners from the places where they are easy to buy. They also ignore the killings happen in city and country places where guns are easy to purchase too.

Both sides also ignore that as much or more than access to guns, the state of the society that incubates the violence is the real source of the problem. Guns are but a tool though an efficient one for killing. One of the real issues is that too often the source of the problem is that "those people" either are either animals or uncaring. It is everyone's problem people and if it isn't addressed we will all choke on it. Education and the ability to profit from it..understanding the benefits of having one; aiding those in need by helping them learn and succeed. A rising tide does lift all boats. The miracle of the US is that it isn't a zero sum game.
It is imperative that we find a way to stop the reasons for the 90% of the iceberg (gun violence) that is below the water. It isn't nearly so much gun control as providing a society where the vast majority doesn't see using them as necessary. A society where everyone values life theirs as much as others.

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/chicago-plagued-least-29-shootings-over-weekend-n125701 http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/08/2-police-officers-shot-in-las-vegas/

These headlines tell the tale or watch the New Orleans news cast.

 

And? You said they would make us more safe. How? If you don't have to backup anything, why should I. Further, laws are meant for people who follow them. Criminals obviously do not give a shit about laws.


All these proposals are just "feel good" measures. Why would a safety course prevent mass shootings? How does a 3 day wait prevent murders?