geekosystem

Personally, I blame guns.

If that nutcase wasn’t able to get hold of them, then there would have been fewer causalities or even none.

It is not guns. What you are missing is the motivator. Guns are just a means. A murderer could switch to arson, with even more potential for death. Or a homemade bomb. Or other method.

They were his mother’s guns/ What law are you going to pass to stop that?

How is a gun to blame? If no guns then what would stop him from using a bomb a knife or a car? If someone wants to kill someone they will find a way . PEOPLE kill people not guns or any other weapons!

I would rather face an unarmed mentally-ill person intent on causing harm than an armed one. Likewise, the knife-wielder has less dangerous potential than a gun-wielder, etc, etc. Limiting access to guns, especially semi and automatic weapons, will increase your odds in our dangerous society. Prevent any incident/tragedy? No.. but it will lessen the number of injury/deaths. For the NRA and company to oppose sane gun control laws leaves them with blood on their hands. Up to the elbow.

People pull the trigger, guns kill people, the motive to kill does not require a gun, a gun is just the most effective way of realizing the motive, a motive much harder to realize with a knife

They blamed this on Mass Effect? The average forty-something’s knowledge of popular entertainment and culture is as completely ignorant as ever. A game that is basically about killing evil robots cause a school shooting. Makes sense…

I think bob pretty effectively pre-adressed this argument.

So bombs are legal now? Think before you type.

Typical people blaming guns. Next thing you know we’ll lose the freedom our ancestors worked so hard for. Do you really think that even if guns weren’t “easily obtainable” (which their not, since VA Tech gun regulations have been very strict), they can obtain them illegally? #sooblivious.

Guns make it easy for crazy people to do want guns are made for, KILLING!!!!! Blame the corporation who make billions on the fear of people to protect themselves. I am a war vet. I have blood on my hands and killing for America has not made it easy to live with! If you have not used a gun to kill someone ,don’t be so eagar to protect guns! Try living with having taken someone life! Then tell me about Guns!!!!!!

I don’t understand this sacrifice of freedom to save lives, that’s
not the American way. The American way is to die before losing any
freedom, otherwise we have no integrity to keep what is most valuable.
But nobody seems to have any integrity these days, because if an
extremist will blow you up? Censor yourself! People will shoot you? BAN
GUNS!

Now I don’t know about you guys, but the fact that this guy was even able to get into the school in the first place says the problem isn’t guns.

Rarely have truer words been spoken.

Why do people get upset when we want to ban free speech? If you don’t like the gun laws in this country move out, go to the middle east or Europe. Go to Norway.

And we should ban cars. And lets ban cameras because of porn. And lets go ahead and ban free speech.

You fought for America. yet you would take away our freedom? What did you even join the military for then?

you know, everyone’s always like “BAN GUNS!” and “DON”T BAN GUNS” when the real issues are can it been done and what are the effects?

So say gun laws in the US get to the level of Australia or England, the US government funds a buy-back scheme, the whole works. You’re going to end up with some law abiding citizens giving up their guns, others might go all Che Guevara, criminals aren’t going to give up their guns, there’s what 4 states where you don’t even need to have a license for a gun so all of those are untraceable anyways, the gun industry will have to downsize leading to people getting laid off and the US is in enough debt already without funding buy-back schemes, hunting revolutionary wannabes or destroying one of its industries.

All of that is just the initial effect of such a change, look what happened when Australia went strict after the Port Authur incident. Our PM was already anti gun, so when the idiots started hyperventilating and screaming in fear of the slightest noise he went and “revolutionized” our laws. Which are shit. In the rush to get guns away from citizens, the state/federal governments made amazingly stupid decisions. For example pump action shotguns are highly regulated in my state because they’re a weapon of fear. The fact they’re large, cumbersome and have a small capacity meant nothing. Yet i’m legally capable of owning a handgun of the same if not larger capacity, has the same effective range of a shotgun and can be easily concealed/smuggled. In England you can actually own a .50 cal rifle. So what will happen if the US reacts to all this fear and scribbles through the second amendment? More than that, what does the constitution even mean if a bit of hysteria is all it takes to undermine it? What’s up for grabs next?

You might of guessed by now that i’m pro guns, i’m also for the licensing, education and stringent checks of said guns. There’s no doubt that gun laws in the US need to change, but in the end a psycho will always be a psycho and no law will guard against that. You can say 5 people might have died if a knife or explosive was used in lieu of a gun, but what does it really matter? This guy took a bunch of people lives, had he used any other weapon there’s no guarantee that anyone in particular would of not been killed, all of the people had the potential to die in this situation and those that have survived or would of otherwise survived would still have to deal with the terror that one crazy mofo wrought.

5 and a half years in the Army over 2 years in Iraq and I will die to protect my right to own my guns

That is complete fantasy. People are rarely that well trained to react in such a manner. Occasionally, yes, someone with a gun in the right place at the right time maybe can help out, but the average joe is NOT going to handle that well. You may as well be saying “why not arm the kids?” In one way that might even be a better idea to get them to understand and respect the weapon if they grow up with it and realize it isn’t an extension of the penis or personal power. But realize that the only reason they will learn that is when they end up killing someone else in a temper tantrum and regret later that it can’t be undone.

And I don’t know how to make a bomb or where to get one, and lots of people won’t bother to try, and setting a fire takes some work that people might just notice before they accomplish their goal, as fire does need time to burn. I agree that a determined person will find a way to hurt people, but really a lot of people aren’t that determined. They use guns because they CAN. They are there and easily obtained and used by any person without training or knowledge to kill whether in the heat of the moment or in a cold calculated manner. All it takes is a fraction of a second to pull the trigger. Killing by any other means is just more difficult. As it probably should be to prevent more people from getting killed.

Same goes for the concept of criminals being the only ones who will have guns. Not everyone knows other criminals to buy them from, and even if you do get a lead there are criminals who won’t sell to just anyone who asks since if they don’t know you, they could be busted by selling to a stranger. Making it difficult to obtain such deadly weapons, and accountable if you do own one is not unthinkable. No one is saying ban all guns, but maybe it would cut down on the deaths if we weren’t so cavalier in our free-for-all romance with guns in this country. Already it seems that the people who rely on guns for so-called “protection” in the first place tend to be a lot of idiots who think that the only way to win is by having the bigger stick. That is part of the problem – it lies in the fundamental perceptions of the world and how we fit into it.

And as to the defense against our own government, that is also unrealistic at this point. Our government has its citizens outgunned no matter what kind of fucking arsenal you have in your basement. The way to fight the government is with your minds and actions by not allowing them to get that much power over us in the first place. Once they have a military force of army or police that is being employed against its own citizens you aren’t going to make a damn bit of difference with your weapons if they come knocking down your door if you even have a chance to reach for them.

Fighting fire with fire doesn’t work in the long run. It is only effective because it consumes everything until there is nothing left to burn. Change needs to start in the minds before anything will really be effective.

youtube.c(o)m/watch?v=L8WSULwn8e4 I found the killers youtube account.

Criminals will get guns legally or not. So when they come at you with one, what are you going to protect yourself with?

In the nicest possible way, you’re an idiot.

if you ban guns criminals can still find a way to get their hands on guns, and where does that leave the citizens who want to defend themselves

Are you kidding me Steve? Do you know what Prohibition was in the United States? Do you know the modern day drug wars? They ban marijuana and drugs, people who want to use them get them. They ban alcohol, the people who want to drink get them. THE ONLY THING banning guns would do is make it so people who want to use them can get them, and the people who don’t want to use them won’t have them when they need to be protected by the people who DO want to use them.

Still one of the best freaking games on the planet. Liara for heaven’s sake…Liara.

You do know that the world was a completely different place when guns existed people would be killed just to show a message. Guns had nothing to do with that.

maybe if the parents bothered to play the game they would realize that its a game about protecting the innocent not killing them. Parents need to stop finding a scapegoat every time something like this happens. Don’t throw blame around if you don’t know a thing about what you’re blaming it on

I can get hold of any type of drugs easily too, just by asking about in nightclubs ect.

But getting a gun, well the average person has to make contacts with people. You can’t get just get one when the club doorman aren’t looking.

If guns were hard to get hold of, when it would deter a lot of people… especially crimes of passion. By the time someone makes contacts ect, they’d probably have calmed down.

First of all, the Amendment in question is the Second Amendment. And yeah, things would be very different.

An armed populace is one of the checks built into our Constitution. Just like a free press, just like prohibitions on Bills of Attainder and ex post facto laws. It was built into the system by men who knew that power is a threat to Liberty, and set out to build a system capable of taming a continent, but checked enough to protect Liberty from that beast. Remove that check from the system, and all the relative power that we grant to our governments, grows. And commensurately, so do the ambitions of those who wield that power.

A well-armed America is a vital check on men and women to whom we grant the power to issue the world’s reserve currency and wield the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons on the planet.

Do you really want that check removed?

The kid supposedly had aspergers. Having a best friend who works with many children with aspergers, I’d say that those type of people are not gonna go looking around for guns (unless they are kept in their own home).

Sorry bro.

It’s more so a confidence boost than anything else. Plus they’re handy if you want to slice into fruit like a civilized man.

I’m sorry, but I think you miss the point. If guns were outlawed or so heavily restricted that only the most dedicated to legally owning one would go through the effort, then who would the majority of gunowners be? Criminals. A criminal does not respect the law, so if guns were outlawed, as you suggest, then those who have no respect of the laws anyways would still get their hands on guns, while those who DO respect the law would be effectively unarmed against violent criminals.

Let’s look at marijuana. It’s illegal. Do people still smoke it? Yes, in large numbers, despite the fact that it is illegal. Having a law against the use of marijuana has not made marijuana disappear. Nor did the Prohibition of alcohol destroy the market for alcohol. The same goes for guns. Ban them all you want, but those intent on committing a crime will get their hands on them anyways, or else will find some other weapon to use (though if they are intent on such disgusting acts as those in CT, they would likely still find a gun, no matter how illegal).

You can also look at the statistics. Since the Heller and McDonald decisions, violent crime rates in Chicago and DC has DECREASED, even though it is easier to own handguns now. They discourage violent crime, when a prospective criminal has to consider that the person they are targeting may be able to shoot them because they are likely to own a gun.

I carry a 5-inch blade myself. I’m 6’2″, 280 pounds, a weightlifter and a bouncer, but someone pulled a gun on me, none of that is gonna mean shit. You can’t protect yourself from a gun, you MIGHT be able to kill the wielder too, but there is no protection.

American gun owners are panicking – “Please don’t take away our guns” and some of the arguments are laughable. If explosives where as plentiful as assault rifles, then yes there would be many more deaths in the US from loonies with explosives.
Gun crime in the US is out of control, at the very least Automatic Weapons should be kept in a Club Armoury with access on ranges only. You check the gun out, fire it, clean it, hand back – just like being in the forces.

i agree & agree with your discaimer.

No one is talking about banning ALL firearms. The point is to ban assault weapons. There is no reason for civilians to own Firearms of Mass Destruction. You want to use such a weapon? Join the military or become a police officer. Then, at least, you’ll be subjected to some mental health screening!

It depends on the person. Aspergers can take many different forms. And that has nothing to do with what happened.

Yes – that was in 1927. All of the fringe right wing sites are repeating that. It was about 90 years ago & hasn’t happened again bc no one claims the right to own bombs. But guess what? The second deadliest massacre (and those after that) were SHOOTINGS. It makes a lot of sense then to stop the proliferation of assault weapons in this country. We do not have war lords riding around shooting people like in Darfur or Somalia. There is no sane reason for a homeowner to possess such lethal weaponry. NONE!

You make assault weapons unavailable to civilians. Period. Pretty simple.

SANDYHOOK MASSACRE! Banning
certain weapons is not really a complete answer to the problem.
Arming teachers introduces weapons into the classroom, not a good
idea. Banning assault weapons, I can’t see a good use for them
except maybe hog hunting. I do however support the second amendment
and my right to protect myself. With that said; Wackos and criminals
will still find a way to get what they need; firearms, knives,
explosives(fertilizer & diesel) , gasoline, etc. What is
needed are prefab safe rooms for the classrooms. Bullet proof
and once locked only accessible by the police. One per two(2)
class rooms should be enough. Teacher should have a panic
button, something like First Alert, that signals the police
directly. These changes are feasible and cost effective.
Should be Locally, Federally/ or even NRA Supplemented / funded.
For neigh-sayers: What is the cost of the lives our
babies?????????

And if we didn’t have either motor vehicles and booze there wouldn’t be any drunk fatalities on the highways.

laws only work for people that follow them. obviously criminals don’t obey laws so what you have is a bunch of unarmed citizens facing a syndicate of law breaking criminals, that of course will be bringing fully automatic rifles to the play ground. leaving all those docile gun fearing people no hope of escape. if everyone carried a gun it would be a very good deterrent for criminals. because they would know, if “i shoot someone” the odds are “i will be killed very quickly”

No one is trying to take away your right to anything. Having a right to own a gun is NOT the same thing as making sure that the people who want to exercise that right are not a huge danger to the rest of the people around them, who have a right to live. Living gets more complicated if you are in constant danger of getting shot, and the more guns around , the more that danger exists. Any rights that my neighbor has are limited by where they cross the boundaries of MY rights. So we need to find a compromise through some kind of regulation and law (neither of which, btw, equates to a right in and of itself. The reason they exist is to protect the rights that we have decided people should have.)

Protect your guns, but if your guns are more protected than me, we have a problem. The only absolute here is is that No one’s rights are absolute as long as there is more than one person having them.

So please stop confusing the idea of a right to own a weapon with the asininity of any the fact that any plain fool should be able to obtain the means for killing masses in moments without so much as an eyesight test to make sure they don’t constantly shoot people in the face mistaking them for QUAIL. If people cannot see the difference between a reasonable right and the unreasonable refusal to examine reality and the need for some checks and balances, it makes having the conversation impossible, never mind finding the solution.

.

You probably won’t respond to this but less than .2% of all violent crime associated with guns is done by legally obtained assault rifles. 4% of all violent crime associated with guns is done by legally obtained firearms in the first place. This leaves 96% of violent crime assosciated with guns to illegally obtained weapons. “Firearms of Mass Destruction” Okay, this made me laugh. Seriously? You could do just as much if not more damage with 2 hand guns. Much quicker and easier to aim in a rush. You can buy semi-auto hunting rifles. You can buy .50 Caliber sniper rifles. You can buy a fully automatic Glock pistol with some permits (or just buy it from another source illegally remember, 96%) But noooo lets ban a .223 semi-automatic AR because it was used in a shooting.

Could you please explain why your theory does not apply to the country I live in? Guns are banned in all European countries and at the same time, there are few gun related crimes. How do you explain that. I will give you one explanation, which is a theory but still seems pretty likely to me: if it’s easy to own a gun, a desperate person will be much more likely to commit a gun related crime. In our country, owning a gun already makes you a criminal. Criminals can be tracked down only by following the track of their weapons. When a weapon is found on someone or at someone’s house, he’s most likely not up for something good and getting a weapon isn’t easy at all, even for criminals. Also, it’s quite expensive. What remains are the statistics. Take a look at them. By the way: Holland, our neighbours, have a ban on weapons too and their consumption of video games is twice as high compared to the US or most other counties. Also, the have nearly no censorship on those games. Nevertheless, their crime rate is laughable compared to the US. What is your conclusion? I’d really like to know!

I know this an old thread but what ever happened to parents actually doing their jobs as parents I mean a video games fault come on give me a break. Only one explination is needed and it is not video games music violent movies or whatever the hell else you want to blame it on. That explination is the parents fucked up if your kid decides it a good idea to shoot up his school all the while looking for in this case i believe his mom so he could if I am not mistaken pour boxes of bullets into her ass…Guess what you fucked up as a parent sorry no other blame is needed.All of this lets blame the next violent thing to happen on video games is B.S. Take some fucking responsiblity parents and look after your fucking kids you know I don’t know teach em right from wrong, how to respect people, and maybe if you get around to it you might want to mention that grabbing guns and killing a bunch of kids and adults is oh I don’t know WRONG. You want blame someone blame the parents who I guess didn’t have the time or knowledge to teach their kid the normal fundimentals of life that almost every other normal person in the world already knows. Blaming video games PLEASE some of you inbred fucks should have been swallowed at birth oh wait then what would america do for reality entertainment.

fml ……moronic…..ok i grew up reading the bible a lot……theres all kinda killijg in threre……a genocide even!!!and history books in school showed me how many deaths and wars there has been over time over religion………way more than in mass effect…….so im gonna blame the bible…..yup god did it!!!!!!ohhhhhhhh you dont like that???? well it makes just as much sense as blaming the video game industry or movies…….how bout we blame the real culprate……humans have the capasity and love for violence in their hearts…..some of us are just born soooooo wicked…..hardwired…. that you could show em rainbows and vegitales and hugs their whole life and theyd still go off one day and merc a schoolbus full of kids……things happen….its life….im sorry people……wanna fix it ??? more attention to mental health programs……not less guns…….how about you spend more time with your kids be proactive a lot of you really dont know the slightest thing about your kids for real…..remember your childhood??your parent always know the real deal???and those were more sheltered times…….and hey if your kids a ahole….ya know one of those bullies???? cause obviously they exist….poor little girls are out ther killing themselves because of kids like that…..nerdy gujys who dread going to school every day……put that in check….find a way to teach that bully ahole of a kid equality…..kindness and acceptance to kids i guess that they consider strange …or weak…..worth bullying……cause a lot fewer kids are gonna just lie down and take it…….sometimes they fight back …….and its always been the quiet ones you gotta worry about….and trust me….taking guns away isnt gonna do anything…..people have found ways to maim murder and kill before guns were even thought of……its a fact

While it is true that a murderer bent on murdering will use any means available to them, it is worth noting that there are very few alternatives that make it quite so easy and efficient as a gun. That is why people prefer to use them since they don’t need to get up close and personal about the killing. Other methods are not as easy; they take more strength, planning, knowledge, and time to achieve the ultimate goal, which leaves a lot of room for intervention before that goal is reached. Guns make murdering minded folks MORE deadly than anything else.