1ºJim Redus 1. While I agree we need to be far tougher on crininals (I'm likely more extreme about that than you are), keep in mind that many of the school shooters were 1st time offenders. Also, you can't look at school shooters the same way you look at most other criminals. Many school shooters didn't intend to walk out alive anyway. That's why the armed guards approach isn't sufficient in and of itself.
2. If it's just a people problem, why doesn't the Right want to adequately address our mental health crisis? Why wouldn't they want to limit who has access to guns? The fact that they fight for convicted domestic abuse perps to have guns while knowing that the majority of mass shootings are domestic related is counterintuitive to your claim. If you know someone is dangerous already, why let them have guns? If you're going to argue that they have rights to guns even knowing the individuals are dangerous then you're saying that their right to a gun is more important than other people's right to life. This brings us back to my original point about our Constitution. "The kids who died in school shootings do not have freedom. Nineteen fourth graders being massacred in their classrooms is not an example of how we establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty."
2ºJim Redus All aspects I listed have been part of the multi-faceted plan for a long, long time. I've spent a serious amount of time researching all of these things. I was a Republican for 18 years until I figured out that leaders on the Right don't care much about preventing school shootings or even helping to pass legislation to help save lives that isn't related to gun ownership.
It's typical for your kind to not respond to my question about contacting representatives. I participate in about 100 of these little debates a month and the overwhelming majority of Republican style debaters never agree to contact representatives to support life saving initiatives. You're not even willing to support ideas we share?
3ºIn the UK we have had issues with knife crime. Thing is the government reacts when there is an escalation. Ownership, stop and search and punishments get reviewed and more often than not get increased. In the UK we have some of the tightest gun controls. Thus why we have low gun deaths.. The Police have a part in the licensing and monitoring of legal gun owners. If there was a a rise in domestic gun violence my vote would go to the party that intended to enhance supervision or bans. I am for personal responsibility and being responsible as a person. But i do not feel i have a right to carry a weapon in society that could end another's life. Politicians in the USA refusing to act at all to restrict the ownership of weapons of war is reckless and is a literal definition of insanity. More guns in the hands of people has led to increased gun violence. I am genuinely heartbroken that a right to kill is held in higher esteem than a right to life. Well unless you are unborn.
4ºTravis Christopher Instead of taking guns from law abiding, we need to get tougher on criminals. When the idea that there's little to no consequences for those who break the law, you successfully encourage criminal activity, and further instill in those with mental and emotional issues to act on their thoughts of striking out at others. There is no such thing as gun control.
There is only centralizing gun ownership into the hands of a small, political elite and their minions.
Evil doesn’t exist within a gun It exists in the minds and hearts of those who pull the trigger for evil purposes.
5ºMy family has had Two AR-15 rifles, one AR-25 pistol, Two 9 mm semiautomatic hand guns, one 45 Cal. Semiautomatic hand gun and one 14 round pump 12 gauge shotgun and none of us have ever shot anyone even though we were under a great amount of stress for various reasons over the last four years. However, none of us have shot anyone. Mental health issues is only half of the story. It is a lack of moral value for human life. A person can pass all the background checks you want and "snap" tomorrow with no warning at all. You cannot protect against that with a law. With over 400 Million firearms in America, any new law doesn't remove them from our hands.
As it relates to laws preventing death, strict gun laws can reduce overall deaths, but the shooting in California proved laws don't prevent mass shootings.
6ºGlenn Dowdy Mike Wilson Yea, you did your homework. All good. Let’s talk about this data.
Are you telling me that half of Illinois guns crime guns are because “legal” Illinois guys who bought them weren’t actually legal?
Hmmmmm
Or maybe those Illinois guns originated from someone who didn’t secure them and left them out to defend against crime, but they were stolen instead?
I’m still not really sure how you think that shows a solid system.
It’s almost like I wanted you to pull that data so that we could talk about it or something, because it certainly doesn’t help your case.
Perhaps you would care to offer a defense of the system in which criminals have no issues getting them?
Do you prefer criminals have them?
You can’t just say “criminals will get them anyway” when you’re telling me right now how criminals get them.
7ºTravis Christopher You are wrong about that republicans.They often mention that we should look into mental health issues.We have red flag laws and they failed to stop some of the shootings.Why do you want infringe on the rights of law abiding citizens to have weapons? Lets get back to the Constitution Second Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. Only the presence of guns in the hands of those who would do evil cause crime. For those of us who have no such evil intent in our hearts, the presence of a gun in our possession is a safeguard.
8ºThomas Priddy Only about 3% of guns in the hands of criminals come from household burglary, but I agree, it's not a subject to freely discuss on social media.
This BJS study shows us where criminals get their guns. About 23% come from families and straw purchases. 43% come from the black market, defined as Illegal sources of firearms that include markets for stolen goods, middlemen for stolen goods, criminals or criminal enterprises, or individuals or groups involved in sales of illegal drugs.6.4% come from theft. 11.5% were found at the scene of a crime or brought to the crime by another criminal.
0.8% came from gun shows. There's no percentage shown for sales from good guys to bad guys.
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/suficspi16.pdf
9ºRick Shellhammer
This BJS study shows us where criminals get their guns. About 23% come from families and straw purchases. 43% come from the black market, defined as Illegal sources of firearms that include markets for stolen goods, middlemen for stolen goods, criminals or criminal enterprises, or individuals or groups involved in sales of illegal drugs.6.4% come from theft. 11.5% were found at the scene of a crime or brought to the crime by another criminal.
0.8% came from gun shows. There's no percentage shown for sales from good guys to bad guys.
https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/suficspi16.pdf
The difficult part is making it harder for criminals to get guns without infringing on the rights of the law abiding.
10ºTravis Christopher Amending the Second Amendment is a liberal dream that will never come to fruition.So just get over that notion.As for the schools
Identify students at risk to themselves or others by establishing resources, such as anonymous tip lines or social media monitoring, to identify potential threats. Invest in school-based mental health services by hiring a sufficient number of psychologists, social workers, nurses, and counselors to work in schools. Access control: Measures like single-access points, fencing, or external door locks that prevent unauthorized access to schools. Interior door locks: Interior door locks enable educators to lock out shooters and seal classrooms without exposing themselves to danger by stepping into hallways and the line of fire. Recommend that school districts have an emergency plan in place in the unlikely event a tragedy does occur.These plans should help facilitate communication between school employees, law enforcement, and other first responders. These plans should also provide clear guidance and trauma-informed training on what staff should do in case of an emergency.How is that for a start?Now what are yours?