General Political Thread 2013

I've been having these discussions with people since yesterdays incident.
What do you (the collective you) have in mind that could have honestly realistically prevented what happened the other day?
What kind of gun control?
And I keep hearing about mental health reform, but no one will explain what exactly that would entail. What kind of mental health reform could have prevented this incident?

I'm not big on guns. I support the right to bear arms pretty much only because it IS the second amendment in our bill of rights, and I really don't think our bill of rights should be something fallible that can be struck down. They're our guaranteed rights given since the founding of this country.
So we can talk gun control, and I'll support any kind of reasonable regulations that are thrown out there. Sure let's ban assault rifles. you can try and ban semi-autos too, and ill be behind it. But that would be a hell of a battle to pass that in this country, and you know what? It's hardly worth the effort
The fact of the matter is there are presently HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of guns in this country. There is approximately one gun for every person living here.
we can ban certain types, and yeah, it will make it harder to get. But there's already a f#ck-ton out there, and if anyone is really determined to get their hands on something, they will. If we out-lawed handguns tomorrow, I bet I could pick one up within a few days at least as easy as it would be for me to buy a gram of coke.
And even if there were no assault rifles available it would have been hand guns. And if not hand guns he could have bought a goddang shot gun at wal mart. And even if we ban all guns, psycho mother f#ckers will go build explosives.

I hate to say it, but theres nothing realistically that could have been done to stop this. We can blame gun control and the government and the media, but the only real blame lies on the sick f#ck who lies dead today in CT

I laugh whenever I see someone mention the constitution. Yeah, because while the founding fathers waited around for hours while it was written they had the foresight to see a point in their new country's future where any random schmuck with an ID and a clean record can get a weapon so advanced that one man with a good vantage point could wipe out hundreds of their soldiers.

That amendment was written in a time when there was a very real possibility that a pissed off neighbor, a foreign military force, the Brits or your own gov't could try to bust down the door and take your hours. And you had a musket that took 20 seconds to load. Making sure that every American has the right to assemble their own arsenal probably wasn't what they had in mind.

Eh, do you really think you'd get people who literally just finished fighting a war in their back yard to give up their guns?

Also, if we suddenly out lawed guns, do you really imagine people would just give them up? Have you ever heard a gun nut talk about his guns?
I think we'd be more liable for a violent rebellion then a peaceful cash exchange.

We can be idealists and wish the guns away, but the reality is they're not going anywhere

SPECIFICALLY on what happened Friday... I don't think there's anything you can do to stop that. The guy TRIED to buy guns and got denied (for what reason, I'm not sure has been released or will be known). Clearly he got the guns elsewhere (reports say they were his mother's). Furthermore, he forced his way into the school.

Raise the "security" at schools you say? In a time of budget-cutting this is realllly unlikely to occur for the long-term. It may occur in the short-term as an over-reaction, but it won't stick, nor is it really sensible for elementary schools. Let's face it, if crazy people want to go crazy, they will find a way, a school, a mall, theater, they have plenty of targets. I simply don't think this sort of thing can be prevented. We just want to have a sense of control after such a senseless act. Control, though, is the least of things we have in this world.

Imho, public shootings have hit a near meme-like effect. People, when they decide to go postal, just figure they might as well imitate what others have done and take out as many other people as possible, while gaining post-mortem "fame". Is there any way to diminish this effect? I doubt it. We could ignore all these mass shootings, but that is extremely unlikely to ever happen.

Other countries offer a road map. In Australia in 1996, a mass killing of 35 people galvanized the nation’s conservative prime minister to ban certain rapid-fire long guns. The “national firearms agreement,” as it was known, led to the buyback of 650,000 guns and to tighter rules for licensing and safe storage of those remaining in public hands.

The law did not end gun ownership in Australia. It reduced the number of firearms in private hands by one-fifth, and they were the kinds most likely to be used in mass shootings.
In the 18 years before the law, Australia suffered 13 mass shootings — but not one in the 14 years after the law took full effect. The murder rate with firearms has dropped by more than 40 percent, according to data compiled by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, and the suicide rate with firearms has dropped by more than half.

-NY Times

thebluereview.org/i-am-adam-lanzas-mother/

Its true that less guns equates to less gun related deaths, but that's like saying less cars on the road will result in fewer automobile deaths. Yeah obviously, but gun restrictions will not prevent people intending to do harm to others in a horrific way like this. These tragic events have more to do with our violent culture and mental health than accessible fire arms.