It looks like the guy knew how to shoot pretty well. Some of the kids who shot up their classes were pretty familiar with guns also. The NRA might be able to prevent accidental shootings, but not this type. The reason they take a beating is that no matter if people with psychiatric records buy guns legally and kill people, they are opposed to effective checks.
I’m not for banning guns. But what do you think the highway accident rate would be if the AAA was deadset against licensing cars and drivers?
Oh the irony, Bill Maher gives some loony rant about prescription drugs, and now we have (another) guy off his meds who flips out- wonder if he’ll address this on his next show…
I know it hasn’t been revealed what type of medication this guy was taking, but it should be noted that “rebound psychosis” is a common side effect associated with sudden discontinuation of certain antipsychotic meds, especially Clozaril.
Only I didn’t make it up. Some years ago some federal agents told me that
Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s some fringe group (white supremists? ) were believed to have gotten ahold of some tooling from one of the now defunct “ring of fire” gun factories. The fear was they were going underground to produce thousands of those cheap little pistols. Very inexpensive to make. Made clandestine there would be no serial numbers, untracable.
This is an extremely edited version of the conversation I had, but you get the point.
Not saying it would be a good idea. But the thing is, that having guns available doesnt in of itself cause violience, just like owning a car and a 12 pack of beer doesnt cause drunk driving.
But, there are no solutions. Not really, sorry to say.
Whatcha gonna do?
Ban “assualt weapons” ? Nutcases will use ordinary hunting rifles.
Ban ALL semi-autos (like Obama said he wants to do)?
Psychos will use revolvers. A guy could kill a lot of people using and reloading a 5 shot revolver.
Ban all guns that hold more than 1 round? I inherited an old single shot .22 rifle from my Dad. He used it to hunt during the depression. Bolt action it holds only 1 round. No external magazine, no tube magazine. 1 round. A guy could easily have killed those students and reloaded with this rifle before anyone stopped him.
Ban all guns? Back to the story I posted earlier.
Over the last 45 years the left has pushed all sorts of gun control laws. Bans, registration, licensing, background checks, waiting periods, one-gun-per month laws, “gun free zones” and now microstamping. Every one was touted as being the magic bullet (no pun intended) that was going to break the back of violent crime as we all joined hands and sang Kumbia.
Not one of them had any real significant effect. If anything it only helped make potential victims more easily targeted.
According to Bible mythology the third person on the planet murdered the fourth person with a rock.
I have to admit that, though it’s a logical argument that nutjobs will find other ways to kill people, I think it’s appealing to try to get between nutjobs and the most efficient ways to kill people. If we end up decreasing the right of certain odd, but un-dangerous people to get a hold of guns, well then I’m sorry but find a new hobby, weirdo.
I like to shoot guns. I think sane people have the right to shoot guns. But something is going on here. And for whatever reason, these people are not creating rube goldberg contraptions to kill people, they are arming themselves with guns and methodically picking people off. If we can determine ahead of time that someone is for whatever reason a threat for this kind of thing, then erase their gun rights. I am willing to disgunfranchise a surprisingly large number of people to accomplish this.
Lots of people with no right to own a gun (i.e. felons, minors, residents of Illinois) find a way to get a gun. Theft, the black market, etc… Losing the right to own a gun is a rule written on paper that has no more force than a restraining order, also written on paper.
And if they can’t get ahold of a high powered “assault weapon” because you banned them and melted every one of them down, they’ll use the 6 shot, single action 1879 revolver they found in Grandpops attic. After they kill 12 children with that (shoot 6, reload and shoot 6 more) someone will slap their head :smack: and say “we have to ban antique guns too.” But that ban won’t do anything either.
no guns…they can go to pipe bombs, molotove cocktails, fertilizer bombs…watever
More funding for psych care would go a long way. when I worked in psych hospitals I saw genuinely dangerous people turned out because of lack of insurance coverage. I once talked a lady down on the suicide hotline who was going to kill herself and all her kids because of your drug addiction…we sent an interventionist out to talk to her, and he and the police gave her the number for Narcotics anonymous…no insurance.
How many of these nutjobs had tried to get help or had someone try to get them help?
I wonder why so many that will have the smallest chance of danger from concealed carry are so terrified and those who should be most in fear, ( police officers in the street ) are not.
We all know the Police Chiefs who’s jobs are political go with the party line but that is not the opinion of every single one of the officers I have personally asked and I ask every one I can. ( hundreds so far ) They think it is fine or actually want to see more of it.
25+ years on the job. I retired from my department last summer, but like a lot of cops do I then took a part-time gig with another agency just to stay in the game. Between that, my pension, and my consulting work I make more money retired than I did working full time.
My estimate is that about 80-85% of officers believe people should be able to carry. This is an important issue here as CCW is illegal except for peace officers or on your own property or business (the later isn’t a written law, it’s from a 2003 state Supreme Court decision).
OPEN CARRY is legal, but a lot of people wig-out over it around here. Most businesses & stores will ask you to leave if you walk in OCing.
That’s too bad.
You’re talking sense, of course. I get rowdy about nutcases with guns sometimes. It’s something that I feel like we ought to be able to control. But in my sensible times I think that there is a cause of these that goes beyond the right to own guns- as gun nut Michael Moore points out, these things don’t happen in Canada.
It’s a mind-twister all right. If there had been a person or two with a handgun at NIU or VTech would things have been worse or better? Will there be more of these incidents based in passion or fewer because of some deterrent effect? I honestly struggle with the question of gun control.
If there had been an armed police officer things would have been better. If there had been one or two armed students, with firing-range experience in marksmanship but no experience or training in handling live-fire situations, things probably would have been worse. Firefights can get out of hand real easily (as if they’re in hand to begin with) and friendly-fire deaths are always a possibility.
No surprise here. Those who have training in the proper and responsible use of firearms tend to be the most supportive of the second amendment. Those who have no experience and no training with firearms tend to be the most afraid of it and the most opposed to it.
Having armed students or teachers shoot back isn’t a dream situation. Nothing is.
Having these nuballs trying to gun everyone down is a nightmare situation. But like I’ve said, nothing really is going to prevent it. Shooting back is about the only thing
that works.
This is a sad reality created by these psychos. But we can’t let their sick actions dictate the rights of 99.9% of the rest of us.
Some are hostile to open carry because it can lead to “man with a gun” type calls that turn out to be nothing more than a citizens exercising his rights.
But CCW? Most approve. A majority, anyway. Both times they tried to pass it here (it actually passed but the Governor vetoed it.) it was endorsed by the Troopers Association, Deputy Sheriffs League, etc… It drove the antis nuts that all these cops were for it. Everytime they try to pass an anti-gun bill they always trot out the “we have to protect our police officers blah, blah, blah”.
Hey, don’t do me any freaking favors! Especially at the expense of other peoples rights! :mad:
Big man, that Governor of ours. He vetos concealed carry while he is bodyguarded 24/7 by armed Capitol Police officers. He told people to open carry. But like I said, that can prove to be problematic, especially in Milwaukee. Plus you can’t OC in your vehicle.
That’s bullshit. Maybe he was suffering from something, but he chose to take those five lives and tried to take a lot more with him. Foisting the responsibility off on someone else happens entirely too often. In this case, it’s outright dumb.
) were believed to have gotten ahold of some tooling from one of the now defunct “ring of fire” gun factories. The fear was they were going underground to produce thousands of those cheap little pistols. Very inexpensive to make. Made clandestine there would be no serial numbers, untracable.