Originally Posted by
Ayonel
W
Uh, you say it's not banning, but severely limiting is the same thing.
It doesn't seem like we have a gun problem, we have a psychopath problem. I believe I mentioned the last time we had one of these threads, way back, uh, oh yes, three days ago, I pointed out, to no fanfare, that Cho, Loughner, and Joker(forget his name ATM) were all seeing psychiatrists, were all on anti-psychotics, and could not legally purchase guns. However, since doctors don't disclose at their patients are violence prone psychopaths who admit to urges to commit mass murders, it comes down to the offender lying on their 4473(the federal form that must be filled out, which screens for this, and is communicated to the Feds with every purchase) and the Feds not knowing the person is prohibited because they have no record.
One important feature that you forgot to point out about all those wonderful countries with no guns, few police, and low crime is that they are also relatively wealthy, demographically homogenous(yes, that means White Northern Europeans) and of similar social mindset. A big part of the issue that is ignored is that the US is very ethnically diverse, and no, this isn't a racist observation, and the statistics show that there is more violence in countries where there are large degrees of socioeconomic and ethnic diversity in close proximity.
If you compare teen pregnancy and abortion in Sweden and the US, and then do a similar comparison with respect to violent crime, you will probably find strong correlations in the disparities between the two countries.
Stepping down from my soap box, this is a horrible tragedy, and i feel terrible for the families who lost their children or loved ones. I hope that we are able to find a way to deal with the large numbers of people who have severe mental illness but whose privacy we value as more important then the lives of the people who live in their communities.