Gun Control

So, there's been another shooting. And this time, if I understand right, it was older people who were targeted? 

What should be done? Should anything be done? 

If I am understanding this article correctly, in Switzerland everyone carries a gun and thus the violence is reduced considerably.  http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/the-swiss-difference-a-gun-culture-that-works/ (I thought it was interesting that the article mentioned Catholics and Protestants  )

Switzerland, while they do have a lower gun violence rate than America they do have the highest in Europe. So I'm not sure I'd say it's working. Whereas Australia has the lowest rate with a complete gun ban. Source: Gun Violence

Wellllll. All I know is anyone who advocates for gun control/ban is a little touched in the mental department. "Bad guys have guns. Bad guys shoot people with guns. Guns must be bad. Let's take away bad guns so bad guys can't use bad guns to kill people. Because we all know bad guys follow laws, and bad guns shoot people on their own. And no one can use knives or drugs or toaster ovens to kill people, so we shouldn't ban those."

Lolwat. Bad guys follow laws and so we won't have to worry about them going to black markets or anything to get bad guns, while good guys can't get guns from their local, legal shops because bad guys might come get bad guns to shoot people. Yep. That's totally legit in the logic department. #SpockSign 

If you excuse me, I'ma go start my own country. This land is too intelligent for my tolerance.

I don't think I'm touched in the mental department. We pass laws even though we know bad guys will break them because then those bad guys can be punished. Your logic if taken to it's conclusion would be an argument against any laws, if all men were angels we wouldn't need laws but we aren't so we need laws. 

That fact is this, countries with more gun control than us have fewer shootings. Also we already have gun and weapon control, you can't buy a machine gun or a tank or missiles. The debate is not over gun control but the amount. 

And you make the argument that good guys can't get guns, I always ask this and I've never gotten a reply. Give me an example of a "good" guy stopping a shooting with a gun, I've read plenty of example of "good" guys accidentally shooting the victims of crimes. But after each mass shooting pro-gun people always get on Facebook and other media and say this could have been prevented if only someone else had a gun, prove it. 

As for your drugs and toaster ovens argument, guns are specifically designed to kill people efficiently and easily as possible; unlike drugs or toaster ovens they have no other purpose. Also if we reached the number of knife deaths equal to gun deaths then we'd need to consider weapon control but we haven't so that point is moot.

War Doctor wrote:That fact is this, countries with more gun control than us have fewer shootings. Also we already have gun and weapon control, you can't buy a machine gun or a tank or missiles. The debate is not over gun control but the amount.

So this is just something I heard from a friend... Who is Texan. So yeah, if this is wrong, I won't faint. But I was told that since Britain made guns entirely illegal, violence, not gun violence but murder and armed assault in general, has gone dramatically up. Is that correct? In which case, while Britain no doubt still has less gun violence than Sweden, does it have more violence overall?

Also, what's your thought on the whole argument that criminals already get guns more or less exclusively by illegal means (stealing, black-market) and making guns illegal would have no affect on that? I know that's worn to death but as of yet I'm not sure how to answer it.

That's a good question, you've made a claim; since 1996, when the UK banned handguns, overall violence has gone up. This claim is not true according to this study. If you can cite another study we can examine your claim further. 

Sure, making guns illegal would have no effect on guns already gotten illegally. But many recent shootings, such as San Bernardino, were bought legally.

I'm hoping all these shootings are changing peoples mind on this topic. I mean, why in the world should it be legal for a random person to buy (basically) a machine gun? It makes no sense.