No law will ever discourage someone who is determined enough. They will always find a way to get what they want, whether it's drugs or guns or whatever. But when you have a society where guns are so easily accessible, they become much more a part of daily life, and that undoubtedly makes it easier for "ordinary" people to resort to guns to settle their grievances, whether it's with society, or a bully at school or something else. Whereas in countries where guns are much more difficult to acquire and they're not a part of society in the same way that is less likely to happen.

Louie Gohmert has made himself part of the problem by suggesting that walking around with guns is the soluction. The gunman wore bullet resistant gear so unless he's suggesting that gun toting moviegoers could have known to shoot him in the head, then his simplistic view of this is pointless. It concerns me when I hear someone (especially someone in an influential position) suggest that more guns will help.

Australia's gun laws were tightened after the Port Arthur massacre.

But as someone said even with the tightest gun laws some idiot can still get hold of a gun if they wanted to.

http://graphics.latimes.com/towergraphic-aurora-dark-knight-victims/

So incredibly sad.

Edited July 21, 201213 yr by London

Australia's gun laws were tightened after the Port Arthur massacre.

But as someone said even with the tightest gun laws some idiot can still get hold of a gun if they wanted to.

I was going to say that the last time I remember something like this happening in Australia was Port Arthur.

That of course still doesn't stop people from getting guns and using them; if someone wants a gun bad enough, they'll get one. Even with waiting periods and strict gun laws, we still have gun crimes- just yesterday, a woman here in Sydney got shot at her home and every few weeks there are stories about shootings.

His guns were legally bought. Had this psycho killed people via tainted aspirin or poisoned food, there would immediately be measures introduced into law to make sure such a thing didn't happen again so easily. Only because it is guns is it suddenly not an issue. You have a 22 rifle that shoots 6 rounds. I honestly can't think of one thing you can do with a gun except shoot it, and since I can think of no good that can come from people shooting guns but a great potential for bad, I can't think of a single reason why you are allowed to own one. Nobody needs more than a 22 rifle I agree. Nobody needs a 22 rifle either. I feel bad for the community and the individuals. Society though is another story. After the Giffords incident not a single gun control law was passed. When society greets this incident with equal indifference and a tolerance for murderers buying guns in aisle 4 of their local convenience store or wherever one buys these things, society will only have itself to blame when it happens again.

I need my 22 to kill the squirrels that are chewing the window frames and door casings off my house. Many people need them to feed themselves. Where I come from, a gun is a tool, the equivalent of a fishing pole. And we shoudln't be punished because a bunch of city slickers misuse it. It reminds me of grade school when a couple kids act up and the teacher makes the whole class stay in from recess. Drunk driving is a huge problem, but I don't see anyone calling for prohobition.. although liquor never passes my lips, and prohobition would suit me fine. And as opposed to guns, which people use to gather food, alcohol has zero nutritional value. It's only used to lower your inhibitions because people don't have the GUTS to be who they really are without chemical assistance. The only way I see to lower gun violence is to make it so if you commit a CRIME using a gun, even if it's a 17 year old kid sticking up a 7-11... you do it ONCE, and you go to jail forever, and you never come back. period.

Edited July 22, 201213 yr by alphanguy74

I don't know where you live, but it seems amazing that the internet came to your part of the country but the grocery never did. And if you look at these high profile incidents, it is never city slickers. It always happens in some small town somewhere like Aurora. And a life sentence for sticking up a 7-11 is just ridiculously draconian. It's positively "Le Miserables"

I don't know where you live, but it seems amazing that the internet came to your part of the country but the grocery never did. And if you look at these high profile incidents, it is never city slickers. It always happens in some small town somewhere like Aurora. And a life sentence for sticking up a 7-11 is just ridiculously draconian. It's positively "Le Miserables"

Yes, it is draconian, but it would stop it. Aurora Colorado is not a small town, it has 1/3 of a million people. And of course, we have grocery stores.. where I live you drive 10 miles to get to one, and the gas station... but some people don't hunt because they don't have access to the grocery store, they do it because they are too poor to always buy meat at the grocery store. Personally, I do it because I like fried squirrel and rabbit, and you can't buy that in the grocery store. You can get rabbit at the store in France, but not here. When I speak of people who need to use guns, I speak of farmers. People use them to kill the turkey that they have raised so they can pluck it and cook it.. And for a frame of reference... when I talk of small town, I mean towns of less than 5,000 people. I'd have been hard pressed without my rifle last fall, I sure wasn't gonna stand by and watch those damn squirrels chew all of the trim off of my house. The town nearest me has a population of 3,000 people... and 5 murders in 150 years. And the percentage of gun owners is FAR higher than in cities. Once again, farmers and country people like myself should not be punished because nutjobs and inner city residents can't manage to handle their anger with a knuckle sandwich instead of a gun. I think the larger problem when it comes to massacres is the lack of being able to recognize people with psychotic tendencies, or the lack of resources to deal with them. Thom Bierdz said his mother took his brother to 40 doctors, and she tried and tried to get help, and get him committed to an institution, but they kept dumping him back in her lap, and ultimately, he killed her. There are two separate issues, the culture of violence that permeates the inner cities and the mentally ill that does stuff like this shooting. I suppose you could only allow people who own 10 or more acres of land to own a gun... how about that one? If it's illegal to discharge a gun within the city limits of most cities.. then let the city dwellers not be allowed to have them. Theyr'e not allowed to have livestock, so treat guns the same way, and just see if it reduces the gun violence. I bet it don't.. but your'e welcome to try.

Edited July 22, 201213 yr by alphanguy74

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-colorado-shooting-victims-20120722,0,118429.story?page=2

Wow this is absolutely awful. Sometimes I'm ashamed to live in this world. My condolences to EVERYONE involved.

Blame the victims. We're going to hear this a lot.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/russell-pearce-blames-shooting-victims-facebook.php?ref=fpblg

Maybe the plan is to have citizens walking around in protective gear.

I would love to hear a group of elected officials engage in one open discussion about guns in our society. Once they're done, they can admit that they fear the NRA and have no intention of doing anything.

I don't know where I stand on the issue right now but hearing something other than "guns don't kill people, people do" might be refreshing.

Christian Bale visited the injured in the hospital and the memorial to those who died in Aurora, Colorado. Such a nice gesture.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/christian-bale-visits-colorado-shooting-victims-220129641.html

Christian Bale visited the injured in the hospital and the memorial to those who died in Aurora, Colorado. Such a nice gesture.

http://movies.yahoo....-220129641.html

He may be crazy and he may have anger issues, but he turned out to be a class act here. He didn't have to do that and was in no way responsible and only connected to the incident in the most tangential way possible.

Nasty stuff.

http://observer.com/2012/07/wsj-columnist-asks-if-women-saved-by-boyfriends-in-aurora-theater-shooting-were-worth-it/