I think we should all be pleased we’re talking about gun control (mostly large scale banning of guns) exclusively, while some are)admitting it’s almost certainly not going to happen in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile we ignore the enormous numerous failings that could have been avoided to prevent the deaths here and at other schools. Round of applause!
Okay, why don’t you start? What sort of failings?
They’ve been in the news and I’ve mentioned them previously in the thread. But there were the calls to the FBI, including a post by Cruz that he wanted to be a “professional school shooter.” He was expelled from school because he had bullets in his backpack. The family he lived with knew he was deeply troubled, knew he had guns (but apparently not how many and where). Kids at school were afraid of him. People knew he tortured and killed animals. Numerous police and social service visits to the house with no actions taken. The deputy working at the school that day stayed outside when the shooting was going on.
But if he hadn’t had a gun, we wouldn’t be talking about this right now. We would be talking about Trump’s claim that he is, in fact, one-fourth Chinese.
Setting aside the practicality of gun bans, if he didn’t have a rifle, I don’t see why he wouldn’t use a handgun, and if not a handgun, a knife or an explosive device. And then maybe we could talk about how we could stop him from killing whatever number of people he killed. Would it be only 5 dead children? Maybe. We can only guess. There’s a sleight of hand going on here and it’s not by me. If you think this kid only killed people because he had a gun you’re ignoring all those facts, strangely because they’re not controversial.
Of course he had the desire to kill because of all these factors — where did I ever doubt that? Making the process more efficient at catching those at risk is part of the guns debate.
Didn’t mean to respond to your post.
But restricting access to guns makes sense.
The total gun ban idea is unrealistic and wrongheaded.
And for the millionth time, a total gun ban is not the objective. Go back and look at the Australian law posted a couple pages back - that’s the ideal objective we should be working toward IMO.
Depends who you talk to in this thread. Some say ban semiautomatic rifles, some say handguns too. Some say it’s never going to happen but we totally got to do it.
As I’ve expressed in previous pages, some kind of additional gun regulations can be a good idea. I don’t think the Australia law is permitted here under our Constitution, even beyond the 2nd Amendment, but would have to study that further. I think the obsession with banning guns is distracting from taking other concrete steps to end mass shootings at schools.
And I think reasonable gun control is the most concrete step that can be taken to end mass shootings at schools.
Are there others? Sure.
For example, our media actually has a pretty sensible attitude toward reporting suicide, because data has shown that when suicides are reported in the news, suicide rates increase. I believe that when mass shootings are reported in the news - especially when we talk so much about the shooter - the rates of mass shootings similarly increase. We need to carefully examine how we report these massacres and the amount of attention we give to the individuals that perpetrate these crimes, and adjust the way these things are reported accordingly.
That would help.
As another example, the treatment of mental health in this country is still heavily stigmatized to the point where most people are either unwilling to seek treatment for fear of being ostracized, or unable to seek treatment because resources are unavailable to them, or both.
Further, when others report on people who show signs of violent behavior, we need to start taking the reports seriously and put procedures in place (or start following existing procedures) to help these individuals or reduce the risk they pose to others, rather than treating the reports as a waste of time and resources, as we seem to have done with Cruz.
Those things would help, too.
You know what would help way, way more than either of those things?
Controlling who can purchase firearms and what type of firearms, accessories, and ammunition are available to the general public.