The American gun Laws.....can it remain as it is?

Greetings to all knights members and guests.

Well again we have a situation in America where some disturbed despot has gone 'Wibble-Fish' and claimed the lives of many innocent people at a school. Without dwelling on the events of yesterday in detail, we all know enough to surely realise that the relaxed gun-laws in the States have got to change!!

It is one thing to have the constitutional right to defend oneself and property but when that type of freedom is blatantly abused and turned upon it's own, then there is clearly a distinct lack of safeguards in those freedoms that exist.

Having access and the right to buy certain weapons to hunt and defend property is one thing but having 'carte blanche' for anyone, of any demeanour, to go out and buy a high velocity automatic weapon is quite another and should be stopped.

Having great experience with the law and firearms it is my opinion that the mainstream availability of military weapons in many, if not all states in America is fast becoming the disaster that was always waiting to happen. How many more people have to die before this ridiculous, draconian and frankly irresponsible attitude is reversed.

Clearly it will always be difficult to remove all the risk of the unpredictable element of society, but if there is even the possibility of elements of society being that unstable due to there mental health, historic or otherwise, then their current freedom to arm themselves with lethal weaponry is nothing short of ludicrous, despite what your Rifle Society' believe.

Defence against the evil in this world is clearly the right path but if whilst doing so we're creating evil then things must change.

*MOVED THREAD*

This topic comes up here every time one of these mass shootings happens in America.

I think even that previous sentence in itself is telling.

In order for me to know that, it must mean that multiple mass shootings have happened in the time I've been here (just under a year).

Until gun-law is changed, it seems that everyone is sitting around saying "gosh, that's so sad...now let's sit around and wait for it to happen again. And again. And again."

It would be nonsensical for American to outlaw guns. Tell me of a practical way to remove all several hundred million firearms from America and then maybe you can justify it

However... what I think would make sense is having tougher restrictions on who can own a gun. I would think that having a firearm safety training course as a prerequisite to having a gun would make perfect sense

You should realise however that the only reason America wasn't invaded by the Japanese and could never be invaded by an outside military force is purely because of their gun laws

No army in the world can fight off 300,000,000 armed militia. America has never been invaded because of its gun laws not in spite of them

What do you think the chances would be for any of the past shooters to not get their hands on firearms illegally for the sake of carrying out a task as big as a mass shooting, if gun laws were restricted or become completely illegal?

Do you think it would be as effective (*cough*non-effective*cough*), in preventing these events, as... say, the war on drugs is right now?

I don't think the gun laws will go anywhere as they basically violate the constitution. Additionally, laws would do nothing to address the root-cause of the problem. What caused this person to do this? police don't know... same thing in the Batman movie shootings...

OK so why don't the police, or anyone, know anything about the motive? Was this person isolated? He didn't have any friends?

They violate an amendment to the constitution. It can be re-amended. See 18th and 21st. And Article V.

Anyway. The only way the US could outlaw guns would be to go completely anal about it. Honest citizens have no other choice but pack firepower to defend themselves. You'd have to outlaw gun in such a way that: owning, holding, or being near one is a life sentence with no option for appeal/parole.

Interesting responses so far and my personal arguement was by no means exhaustive, however I would doubt that the reason America has never been invaded is because of it's gun laws and constitution. The simple fact is that, particularly in recent history, no country could realistically withstand such a vast military campaign strategically or ecenomically.

There is a moral issue with regard to the freedom of weapons and their use and it is this that overides the point you were trying to make regarding getting hold of illegal or black market weapons, if such people wanted them. The important thing is not make it easy for these lunatics to get their hands on hich velocity weapons so easily.

In terms of getting rid of the vast amounts of current weaponage throughout America, then I have to agree that it would be an almost impossible task to Police and enforce.

If we are talking about the 'root' of the problem then it would be accurate to say that the current gun laws are only part of the issue. After all 'Guns don't kill people, People kill people'!! So on that note something needs introducing that will identify possible future offenders. The question is what??

increased funding for mental health care and assessment. find those most likely to snap and get them help, and treat them.

too bad mental health funding has been cut severely over the past decade or so. its sad that things like this have to happen before it is brought back into the scope of legislative debate.

Guns are power. And power corrupts the purest minds. Also, it's not a mental disease to "snap", it is human nature.

Guns don't kill people? Guns are tools created by people for the purpose of becoming more efficient at killing. I wonder if that crazy dude would have managed to kill all those kids if he'd gone about it with his hands. Not only would it have been more difficult, physically, but psychologically as well. pulling a trigger is incredibly easy. strangling someone to death is revulsive. So I'd say that, by giving people a new (psychological and physical) ability to kill, guns do kill.

(to put things into perspective, there's another thread "about" HIV... HIV kills not directly, but by enabling other life forms and viruses that would otherwise be too weak, to kill. I'd say HIV kills in the same way guns do)