7 Dead, 3 Wounded In Shooting At Oakland School.

[Pum]

Just saw this on Sky News.

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS) — Seven people were killed and three others wounded in a shooting rampage Monday at an Asian religious vocational school in east Oakland; police later detained the suspected gunman.

Authorities received a 911 call around 10:30 a.m. reporting the multiple shootings at the Oikos University building at 7850 Edgewater Drive, which is located in a large industrial park near the Oakland Coliseum and Oakland International Airport.

“As it stands now, we are confirming that a total of 10 people were injured during this morning’s shooting, 7 of which are fatalities. One person has been taken into custody in connection with this shooting,” Oakland police spokeswoman Cynthia Perkins wrote in a mid-afternoon email to CBS San Francisco.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...istian-school/

Now I don't live in America, so I'm ignorant as to how prominent guns are in every day life in American society, but all I can think of is why the hell are guns still legal? All these shootings have become way too common and it's absolutely ridiculous. I'm aware that the ability of having a fire-arm is part of the Constitution, but nothing in the Constitution is strictly permanent; laws can be changed if necessary, and all of these deaths beg the question as to why aren't they being changed?

I'm not saying that the American people are more likely to go into a school and start poppin' some caps in peoples asses, or anywhere really, but it's ludacris how easy it is for someone to do it if they wanted to.

Thoughts?

P.S. Please keep it clean, and don't bring religion into it.

[eriseis]

I'm aware that the ability of having a fire-arm is part of the Constitution, but nothing in the Constitution is strictly permanent;

No, no, no, no. The Constitution is inflexible and it's almost impossible to change it. While other countries, like Mexico, have constitutions with hundreds of articles, the American constitution is closer to tenets of what the law should follow than a prescriptive document of what the laws are.

[Xyonai]

Reading the article, seeing as it was an Asian religious school and the gunman was identified as Korean, It's looking less like an anti-religious statement and more like one of the (ex)members got really pissed off over something and decided to shoot up the place.

[Remilia]

Might also want to remove religious from the title.

[Kreyzor]

Making guns illegal would do almost nothing in this situation. Someone could easily still acquire an illegal fire arm if they truly wanted one (such as the desperate enough person who did the shooting in this situation). What should be done is greater firearm safety in school areas, not making guns illegal. Also just because countries outside the U.S. hears ONLY when crazy shit like this happens, it does not make it "common". There's what, probably like 30 million kids in school in the U.S. (completely guessed number btw)? I'm actually amazed there's not more shootings.

[Smoov]

All schools should have metal detectors. To help prevent such things.

[Sockmonky]

Making gun illegal would stop things like this, but it would not stop the vast majority of our shootings, which are gang related and done with firearms that are already illegal as well as guns that are illegally purchased. It is a double edged sword, shootings like this no longer happen, kids have a much harder time getting guns, but on the flip side how are people going to protect themselves from these illegal guns? Muggings would become more common as well would theft. But whatever, I am only 15, I don't know how all of this works I guess.

[Razorlor]

This is clearly racially motivated. I know because the news said s....

Oh wait, wrong story.

Yeah, hearing about this stuff over and over gets really discouraging. It will be interesting to find out WHY it happened so this can be prevented in the future.

[archelios]

Oakland is an extremely dangerous area, not all of America is like that.

[Pum]

Making gun illegal would stop things like this, but it would not stop the vast majority of our shootings, which are gang related and done with firearms that are already illegal as well as guns that are illegally purchased. It is a double edged sword, shootings like this no longer happen, kids have a much harder time getting guns, but on the flip side how are people going to protect themselves from these illegal guns? Muggings would become more common as well would theft. But whatever, I am only 15, I don't know how all of this works I guess.

Doesn't matter how many shootings it will stop, if it stops any then that's good enough for me and should be good enough for everyone.

Protection shouldn't be a justification to be able to wield a gun at your own accord I would think. How do you think the rest of the world survives?

[daftone]

Making gun illegal would stop things like this, but it would not stop the vast majority of our shootings, which are gang related and done with firearms that are already illegal as well as guns that are illegally purchased. It is a double edged sword, shootings like this no longer happen, kids have a much harder time getting guns, but on the flip side how are people going to protect themselves from these illegal guns? Muggings would become more common as well would theft. But whatever, I am only 15, I don't know how all of this works I guess.

You are exactly right. Australia made guns illegal and their crime shot up over 800%. All you do by making guns illegal is take them out of the hands of law abiding citizens. The criminals aren't going to follow the laws and give their guns away. They need to make it so everyone who turns 18 is given a registered gun, taught how to use it in a week long firearm class and required to carry it on their person at all times. This would drop crime to almost nothing. Who's going to rob a bank when everyone in line has a gun and knows how to use it? Who's gonna mug an old woman when shes packing? You can bet if everyone had a gun and was trained this guy wouldn't have killed 7 people. After the first one he would have been shot by the nearest citizen.

As to the OP the reason we have the right to bear arms in the constitution is to keep a dictator from taking over. When there are 300 million privately owned guns in the U.S. its hard to take over the country.

[Lightwysh]

Bad people will always get guns. This looks like a disgruntled employee IMO. This is a shame but some people take stuff to serious. Whatever happened to the shit happens attitude? I know if I got fired I wouldn't go and shoot up my job, or school or whatever is going on here.

[Eisaderfrau]

So a gun jumped up off the desk and killed 7 people and wounded 3? Or was there a person who pulled the trigger?

I live in the US. I own more then one gun. A gun is like anything else that can kill people: the overwhelmingly vast majority of people who own them are safe and know what to do with them. Yes, sometimes a nut can abuse a gun. Just like a drunk driver can kill people on the road. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...-with-firearms shows that around 9,000 people die as a result of firearms in the US, while http://dontdiedrunk.org/drunk-drivin...FYURNAodfEVaxw shows that around 33,000 deaths occur due to vehicle accidents.

The years do not correspond on these two... they are a couple years separated, but finding stats for matching years was more time then I could invest right now.

So how many guns are there in the country vs cars? http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/...34893820070828 shows that there are 90 guns per 100 people in the USA. Yes, we like our guns. How about cars? http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tr...motor-vehicles shows that there are around 765 cars per 100 people, (or 76.5 cars per 100 people). Car deaths are over 3x more then gun deaths in the USA, with more firearms per person then cars per person... but we aren't saying we need to outlaw driving.

Perspective is everything. We like guns. We feel that, as a free people, we should be allowed to continue to have them. And we, the people of the US, are willing (as a majority) to accept any added risk.

Also, people love to point to the US for gun crimes. I understand France isn't the UK (where the OP is from) but it didn't take much digging to find this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-Toulouse.html, a shooting in France, part of a recurring shooting by a motercycle gunman, which happened less then 2 weeks ago.

[Wells]

Australia made guns illegal and their crime shot up over 800%.

What? Australia has had static crime levels for decades where they haven't gone down. If anything Australia is a good case for gun control.

[Lemongrab]

Once again firearms aren't to blame, it is proper handling and keeping. As well as restrictions. It doesn't matter if it is legal or not. If someone wanted to use a gun to kill people they would purchase one through legal or illegal means and use it. It is just like cars, used properly they can be a tool to enhance our lives. But on the other hand if people have malicious intent or are not properly trained or care to focus on vigilance while driving there can and will be deaths. I know bad comparison but it's the only thing I could think of on short notice.

Proper detection of peoples malicious intent and preparation for such events is all we can really do. Sadly.

[Svifnymr]

Doesn't matter how many shootings it will stop, if it stops any then that's good enough for me and should be good enough for everyone.

Protection shouldn't be a justification to be able to wield a gun at your own accord I would think. How do you think the rest of the world survives?

As the saying goes, "today, 11million (or whatever number) gun owners didn't hurt anyone". If you don't see it as a fundamental right, so be it, others do. A lot of folks would be saved if the criminal system was changed to make it easier to find someone guilty.

And really, the Constitution has a method for change. It's not immutable. If the People actually wanted the change it'd happen. As it stands, California is a very anti-gun state, heavily regulated (though not as much as say, NY or DC, which are even more restrictive and have more crime...) compared to many other area's with lighter laws.

And yeah, I've heard it all before, criminals in Europe don't have guns, the Russian Mob uses toothpicks as their weapon of choice and the Japanese criminals hand themselves in right after the crime.

[Deleted]

do we really need a thread about gun control on here every week? :\

[Deleted]

No, no, no, no. The Constitution is inflexible and it's almost impossible to change it. While other countries, like Mexico, have constitutions with hundreds of articles, the American constitution is closer to tenets of what the law should follow than a prescriptive document of what the laws are.

This and ...main problem with the constitution is that it was written in 1787 where guns were a commong thing to defend yourself and stuff. So yeah, US are effed in terms of constitution.

[Activi-T]

do we really need a thread about gun control on here every week? :\

It's one of the unwritten rules of OT. And thus the cycle continues.

[Catta]

do we really need a thread about gun control on here every week? :\

Only as long as people go on killing sprees at countries where guns are less restricted