School/Mass shootings what's the answer?

[Lawnboy]

Just curious what the practical answer is to this nonsense. With my own kids in school and knowing that some crazy could mow them down on the playground without even entering a building is scary. I'll be honest I'm to the point now that I'd rather see semi auto weapons. banned/not sold except for law enforcement/military. I realize you'll have a whole pile of them out in the general public to deal with but dangit something has to change. As far as schools go is it such that we need armed people policing the schools? Mandatory bag checks and scanning? I wish we could do some sort of corporal punishment with the offenders (amputate trigger fingers) that sends a message to maybe dissuade others. I don't know what the answer is. Many will shout it's a mental issue and I would tend to agree but the mode of killing is whats creating the great number of casualties. Is it really worth it.? Also I understand the whole "If guns are outlawed then outlaws will have guns" scenario. I'm sure I've offended some gun nuts with the thought of banning some weapons but oh well call me liberal on that issue I guess. Just thought I'd throw it out here to see what others have as far as real practical solutions. Keep the comments classy.

 

[schmalts]

It sure isn't gun control and more gun laws. The root cause is simple, mental health. Add the latest worry about offending somebody and no longer actually being able commit someone to the mix. If anyone thinks gun laws are the answer, well how do you keep them from mowing them down in a car like France and the USA has had happen, or pressure cookers like the Boston A-holes used. But I can tell you what mass shootings and Mass vehicle killings have in common, and that my friend is the problem. Where does this mental health stem from?? genetics are some problem, piss poor parenting add to it as well and the parenting thing morphs into the whole video game, TV and rap music topic. The Slender man girls live 10 miles from me, those girls had some major mental health problems and you can't tell me the parents didn't notice anything was wrong with those girls. I tell you what, if my kid ever came home looking like he was turning into a Goth, it would be dealt with PRONTO, i wouldn't be afraid to offend him..... He came home once with a flat billed Monster baseball hat and that went into the garbage as fast as it came into the house.

 

[LopeHunter]

Schools are a soft target as were most airplanes prior to 2001 in USA. Allow school teachers and staff that have passed a background check, concealed carry training class, and are willing to use their private handgun to carry any day they wish to while on school property. I predict a much more polite, respectful student environment. The school would cover the liability insurance though a Federal insurance pool.

I predict mass school shootings will become very rare once school adopt the armed staff approach. Of course, sick people will then move on to the next soft target but schools will be safer. As for the risk a teacher or staff member misuses a handgun then is comforting to know several other adults are also armed. A firefight is not a good thing but a single, unopposed shooter is worse.

 

[smarandr]

No answers, but an interesting read that I think effectively argues both sides of the gun control debate--or at lest points out the why the same old tired arguments on both sides are poor.

http://blog.dilbert.com/2017/10/06/the-worst-gun-control-arguments/

 

[Gellar]

Im watching the news now. What alarms me the most is that in all of these cases someone or often times multiple people interviewed say they had warned authorities about the shooter but nothing was done about it.

 

[406LIFE]

From the theologian's perspective:

The answer to your question, restated, "what is causing this type of action and how can it be stopped?" is that this is a heart problem. Consider this: take away guns, and people who want to inflict harm will find sticks. Take away sticks, they will find rocks. There will never be an end to that cycle, even if you could effectively remove all the guns (debate that, if you want). To stop those actions before harm is inflicted, you have to go to where the harm originates, which is in the heart. Secular psychology labels it as "mental illness," however that removes culpability and ascribes a discount of sorts to the actions because the persons deficiency (whatever it may be). Yet, if you were to use the Bible's terminology, with its ascribed meaning to vocabulary, you will find that it accurately and pointedly call's it a heart problem. The reason the actions are committed is that the feelings begin int he heart and they are allowed to continue to grow. If you will find any success in curtailing these types of events/behaviors, you have begin in reforming the heart.


The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? ~Jeremiah 17:9

Anger when it is allowed to remain in the heart becomes hate. ~Gary Chapman

 

[Bugle 'Em In]

I think the moral degradation of our society over the last 2-3 decades is the root of the problem. Call me lame, but some of these video games normalizes the act of killing people. Add in a few of the items mentioned in previous posts, plus the negative rhetoric from a lot of the people in the public eye / media and now we see the result. Not many "Leave it to Beaver" shows on the tube any more. People are so sheltered with "safe spaces" and social media armies to help "bully" others with differing views that they aren't learning how to deal w/ real life.

I personally don't think gun bans will solve the problem. We need to get back to having respect for & valuing each other.

 

[onpoint]

I'm in agreement with a lot of what you spoke, Lawnboy. This is bad shit.
406LIFE quoted the bible.
I'll quote (or paraphrase) America's president "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters".
Maybe our country's heart is sick.
I've got two young neice's growing up in today's America. Glad they are in MT. But that doesn't make 'em necessarily safe. Small town Texas church............
When a lot of us were young, we settled things with a black eye or a bloody nose.
Maybe too many humans isn't just an issue affecting hunters.............................

 

[schmalts]

Im watching the news now. What alarms me the most is that in all of these cases someone or often times multiple people interviewed say they had warned authorities about the shooter but nothing was done about it.

Oh, but you might offend someone......

 

[BuzzH]

Nothing can be done but build more caskets.

Its the price we pay to live in a free society.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

There is too much nuance in every shaded corner of the nation to pretend there is a simple solution. There has been some research on the alternative weapon hypothesis that puts it mostly to rest. Many like to imagine that this it is a function of this generation. Guess what the last generation said about problems that arose? A casual knowledge of history (world, American, trade, European, war, or any other kind) informs us that death, destruction, deviance, pain, etc. are the rule, not the exception. With that perspective I would argue that the evils of mass shootings and associated fears are a function of a largely wonderful lifestyle that we've come to expect. That's not a reason to turn a blind eye, but I can tell you if I'd been in a WWI trench or laying in my tent when the great Khan rolled in, the relative risk of a mass shooting in 2018 would look a little different. One man's point of view.

 

[Aussie_hunter_JD]

If you want an outside opinion i think it's a culture problem not a gun problem. You guys just seem to have more people that think it's reasonable to kill someone who's offended or disagreed with you. For example in that crazy mountain thread the farmer who shot his neighbour for trespass, that shit just blows my mind.

They love using australia as an example of gun control but it's a joke. Gun violence was already on the decline when our semi autos were taken. And all you need to do is look at NZ across the ditch who have semi autos and no gun registry yet they've never had a mass shooting.

In Australia 95% gun crime is done with illegal firearms and unlicensed shooters. Taking guns away solves nothing, you need to change the mindset of those people who are willing to do atrocious things.

I support the idea of the second amendment but I also like that in Australia an effing loony or radical religious person simply won't get a gun...legally.

To be very clear, I think most Americans are great people and every one I know personally has been a top person. There's always a few bad eggs in every culture and you guys just seem to have very rotten bad eggs.

 

[MTGomer]

Banning guns on the grounds that they’re too dangerous is a quick road to no guns.
If some piddly ass little .223 is too dangerous, wait until the liberals realize you can kill a cop with a vest on, sitting behind the bullet proof glass of his car from 1000 yards with your hunting rifle. Not a hunting rifle any more. It’s now a specialized military grade sniper rifle.
Guns are dangerous. They are supposed to be.
I don’t know what the solution is but I don’t believe it involves looking to a morally bankrupt government for the answers.
It takes a special kind of evil to kill 15 kids. Guns aren’t the cause of such sickness and You won’t rid the country of it by banning guns with certain mechanical or cosmetic features.

 

[Tradewind]

Stop making them gun free zones. they'll go find a different soft target. But as long as they know they will not encounter any resistance this will keep happening

 

[MTGomer]

If you want an outside opinion i think it's a culture problem

Absolutely. And every American who has ever traveled outside the states with their eyes open knows this.

 

[LopeHunter]

If the shooter had a muzzleloader, the carnage would have been less before authorities arrived. I agree anyone who wants to kill can kill even if no firearm in their hand. I am troubled that the shooter in Vegas had a lot of capacity to fire a lot of rounds rapidly. That rate of fire in civilian hands seems a bridge too far to defend.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

It takes a special kind of evil to kill 15 kids. Guns aren’t the cause of such sickness and You won’t rid the country of it by banning guns with certain mechanical or cosmetic features.

It does take a special kind of evil to do that. Therefore, do we have to make it so incredibly easy for that special kind of evil to get a weapon that can so quickly kill 15 kids? I don't know the answer either. Not sure a ban is the right answer but, man its easy for anyone to get one.

 

[NoWiser]

I haven’t read or watched any coverage of this shooting. I can’t get myself to. I will say that if magazines for semi-autos that hold more than 4 rounds were banned tomorrow, I wouldn’t lose a minute of sleep. These rifles being used are made to kill a lot of people in a very short amount of time, and they are proving to be very effective at it. It may not solve the root cause of the problem, but it sure as hell will save lives in the meantime.

Nothing will be done anytime soon. Anytime a discussion is even brought up, everyone gets all out of sorts. About the best we can do is pray for the victims and hope the next time it’s not at our own child’s school.

 

[Redman]

I agree with 406LIFE. I will also add to that our nation was founded on Christian values. Our founding fathers would be saddened the way our government has all but destroyed those values that they up held. When we were kids we went out to the woods with our rifles and hunted small game and vermin. Kids today set in front of a video game and kill, steal, and rape for fun. These games are very graphic. The shows they watch on TV are horrific, they have instant access to the most disturbing things you could imagine with a simple hand-held device that their parents gave them. They are numb to the evil in this world and guns are to blame?

 

[airlocksniffer]

Thoughts and prayers seem like a popular answer.