Thought I'd share an small portion of a converstation I had on Facebook with a liberal friend's buddy... A bunch of the old "the Founding Fathers never thought there would be firearms like there are today", and the old "We need more gun laws", etc etc prior to me making some comments. Only one pro-gun guy getting attacked before I got there. This is all in reference to today's school shooting tragedy.
(Conservative Guy) WOW!!!! so y'all saying that if I wasn't prior service that I cant defend my life or anyone elses or have the right to bare arms? Just very highly trained people? Lee Harvey Oswald ring a bell anyone? Mass murders will not stop cause of the fact the gun regulations. The NRA is present to keep the average American's right to keep and bare arms. I am sorry y'all are blaming the guns. The guns were just the means of the murders. Just like car is the means of a drunk driver killing people. no one is saying take cars away from everyone because of few drunk drivers on the road now are they. It was just the means. its like the spoon made Rosy O'donnell fat. Its the person not the means.
Anti-Gun Guy no one is saying regular people can't have a gun as long as you're a responsible adult who can control both emotions and is in compos mentis. Assault weapons should be banned for civilians. Period.
(Conservative Guy) no they shouldn't they already have regulations on that. In order to have a fully auto weapon you have to pay a fee and a background check. Everyone is calling for tighter regulation period. even frank said m,ilitary should only own guns.
Me To articulate "Conservative Guy's" point; average yearly deaths associated with vehicles 250,000. Average yearly deaths associated with firearms (to include suicides and law enforcement defensive use) 50,000. Average estimated times a firearm is used to defend/deter a violent act against your average citizen 800,000-2.5 million. Just saying...
Me Political views aside, this is a horrible tragedy, and my prayers are with each and every affected family. Words seem so insufficient in the face of their tragic loss...
Anti-Gun Guy @Me, tell that statistic to the victims' families. Assault weapons in the general public should be outlawed. These crazy people are able to get them because they are easy to get. We need to make them more difficult to acquire.
Me First, the flip side of the arguement is to tell the woman who is stalked, beaten and raped that "we" didn't trust her with a firearm to protect herself. I agree the statistics mean nothing to the families who were affected today, but there are people who have used firearms to protect themselves each day. Second, "assault rifles" are firearms with the ability to shoot in "burst" or fully automatic modes. Per the National Firarms Act of 1934, fully automatic firearms/short barreled rifles and shotguns/destructive devices were made illegal (and continue today, unless your state allows the ownership along with Federal background checks and approval). "Assault Style Rifles" as banned in 1994, are simply rifles that bear visual similarity to assault rifles. Meaning they "look bad" but share the same mechanical operations than other more commonly seen firearms (IE: ranch rifles).
Me All firearm purchases require a NICS check. The NICS check is used to detect mental health as well as criminal background checks. Now heres the problem, if people with mental problems are not reported, they will never be flagged for removal. This may or may not be the case in today's shooting. There have yet to be any reports on how the firearms were acquired (stolen/owned).
Anti-Gun Guy So what is the solution to all of this gun violence? What rationale can we look to? Look at all the shootings just this year alone... Look at how easy these people can access these weapons. There have to be laws to keep them in the proper hands. Look at the movie theater killer. He bought much of his cache on the Internet!
Anti-Gun Guy You can't tell me people like that can buy that much ordinance and not be noticed by anyone...
Me I don't know if I have the solution, but my opinion on how to reduce these instances would be to first improve the mental health reporting system. Ensure that if someone is showing aberant behavior, they are reported, and help is given to these individuals (each mass murder recently has shown some sort of sign that they were not mentally stable). Second, I would removed "gun free zones", these always fail to work, as the crazy guy who is intent on murdering people isn't going to stop because you put a sign up telling him not to bring a gun on the grounds. The only people who won't be armed is Jon Doe who actually followed the law.
Me Oh and my personal fantasy land would be to issue each woman in the US a pistol and train her accordingly how to use it. Now she wouldn't be required to carry it if she didn't feel comfortable, but by arming 50% of the population, people intent on doing bad things would never know which woman would be armed and able to stop them. This is my way out there opinion, but I think it'd stop a whole bunch of rapes and murders...
Considering the anti-gun guy was posting every second after I posted, after my last comment he hasn't said a word since...