Elementary School Shooting

Discussion in 'Everything Else' started by supersonic, Dec 14, 2012.

  1. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-school-shooting/index.html
     
  2. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/14/shooting-reported-at-connecticut-elementary-school/?hpt=hp_t1
     
  3. For a couple of days there will be some big debate about gun control and mental illness, but in two weeks no one will even remember this.
     
  4. Another one? Still preaching about guns now? Maybe stricter rules on having one would solve these nut jobs getting one.
     
  5. True, but I think this kind of thing has more to do with the massive social problems in the US and lack of access to mental healthcare. Canada has equally lax gun laws but you never hear about this kind of thing happening there. I guarantee you this kid was a ticking time bomb who was acting like a creepy psycho, and no one did anything about it. Massive socioeconomic problems, no universal healthcare, a stigma against mental illness, and easy access to guns are a deadly combination.
     
  6. Regardless of the mental health care issue, which is certainly important, you'd have to think this kid isn't going to be able to kill close to 30 people and fire off 100+ rounds with your typical Saturday Night Special. They really need to wise up and place big-time restrictions on access to high lethality guns and clips, regardless of your mental health. Lower lethality = fewer victims.

    I sure as hell don't read many stories about someone killing 30 people in defense of their home or business.
     
  7. They should just ban young white males from the country since these guys all tend to be young white males.
     
  8. They always go on about mental health instead of the real problem, the guns. Sure serial criminals would still be able to get hold of guns if they were banned but how many serial criminals have carried out these shootings? It's always just joe bloggs off the street. Guns are illegal here and how many mass murders with guns have there been? America has had at least 2 this year, and nothing seems to get done about it. Americans want guns to defend themselves but I didn't hear about much defending going on here, fat lot of good easy to purchase firearms did for these people.
     
  9. Both issues are important. Tighten up gun restrictions and ownership laws so when something like this does happen, fewer people die AND work on the real issue - mental health.

    Mental health is the biggest issue in the first world today, removing the negative social stigma around it and placing the importance of treating it on equal ground with physical health issues are vital. We have great free healthcare access available here, but mental health is more in a similar league to dental. That is changing here, slowly, and needs to do the same in all developed nations. It's not about more drugs and counselling, there needs to be a push to make people look out for each other and not see someone who might have issues as weaker than them - even often trying to brush it under the rug or laugh it off if someone comes to them with their issues.
     

  10. Knives guns and crazies.


    http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/world/asia/china-knife-attack/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
     
  11. It will be 98% pro versus anti gun and 2% mental illness. Of the 2% about mental illness, roughly 0.003% of that will be dedicated to discussing the fact that funding to community mental health services, housing for the disabled and the mentally ill, and general access to mental health care has been repeatedly slashed. Over 1000 Medicaid waivers have been cut in my state by our governor, and he's being replaced by an even crazier Teabagger. Funding for group homes was slashed by nearly 50%, resulting in mass closings of group homes. The focus of DCS/ CPS has shifted to reunification in almost every circumstance to avoid providing care/ housing/ protection for kids. It makes me sick that these issues are almost completely ignored. Politicians would rather handle mental illness via sending them to homeless shelters until they eventually get sent to prison rather than actually doing anything to help them or society in general.
     
  12. Arma, I'm not sure if you're saying that because you don't understand, or because you don't wish to. None the less the issue is not with gun laws, anyone, even the Joe Bloggs you speak of could procure a gun even if the restrictions were tighter.
    People don't go off on killing sprees because they're well adjusted members of society, it's generally because they have some underlying mental illness that's been left ignored or untreated. To repeat an old saying, "Guns do not kill people, people kill people.", which is very true, a gun is incapable of operating itself. If the intention is there a method will eventually be found. That is why we should treat the cause of the issue, not try and side step that and live in ignorance.
     
  13. Yet the type of weapon that is used often has a direct connection to how many people die. It isn't really just the person that determines the outcome.
     
  14. And if we didn't have easy access to guns, they could easily go down some other, possibly more devastating route. I'm not sure what your point is here, if you treat the disorders none of this would occur, that's what I'm trying to point out.
     
  15. Aren't they blaming Mass Effect 3 for this? To be fair, if I'd paid money and gotten those endings I'd have probably done something similar.
     
  16. I've been wondering if they'll track the gun purchases to paypal transactions in colorado.
     
  17. I almost flew into a murderous rage when I saw how bad the endings were after being strung along for years. I can only imagine how a mentally ill person would react. The Mass Effect series was some of the most epic trolling I've ever seen.
     
  18. Eh? Sure, treating mental illness is part of this but the factor guns play is huge. You've only got to look at the incident in china - about the same number of victims but mainly injured instead of killed. Guns amplify the ability to kill, it's simple.

    And what's this more devastating route you're on about? Why wouldn't they use that anyway?
     
  19. Well home made explosives for example, they can cause significantly more damage. They do get used as well, and if guns were not an option I'm sure they'd be far more common.
     
  20. Interestingly enough Colorado set a one day record for background checks the day after the shooting. A whopping 4200 gun sales in a single day.