So making guns unavailable wouldn't solve everything, in every instance.
It's a lot easier to stop one guy with a knife, than a guy with an assault weapon.
Zoe: Yeah? Thought you'd get land crazy that long in port. Wash: Probably, but I've been sane a long while now, and change is good.
'Shindig'
Natter 71: Someone is wrong on the Internet
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
DavidS - Dec 14, 2012 10:14:20 am PST #4503 of 30001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
le nubian - Dec 14, 2012 10:14:29 am PST #4504 of 30001
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
Amy, but what people point out is that no one died in China. So availability of heavy duty killing machines may have made this incident more deadly.
Jessica - Dec 14, 2012 10:17:30 am PST #4505 of 30001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
I think that people believe that it takes someone mentally ill to kill more than two dozen people, most of them little kids. Otherwise, how do you explain how someone could do such a terrible thing?
Believe me, I get this. But propagating the stereotype of the mentally ill as violent criminals who need to be controlled is not the answer, which is all that line of thinking does in the end.
le nubian - Dec 14, 2012 10:17:32 am PST #4506 of 30001
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
BTW, the shooter's brother is being held for questioning and possibility he was a 2nd shooter.
le nubian - Dec 14, 2012 10:18:05 am PST #4507 of 30001
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
Jessica,
I know it. I know it.
Amy - Dec 14, 2012 10:18:29 am PST #4508 of 30001
Because books.
Oh, I know that. And I wish there were more stringent laws about gun purchase and permits to carry and all that. My point was that if someone is going to act out, there are a thousand ways to do it.
Jesse - Dec 14, 2012 10:19:56 am PST #4509 of 30001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Carolyn Hax was having her live chat when the news about the shooting came in, so here's here outline of how to talk to kids:
I was just going to recommend that!
I also think if someone is determined to carry out something like this, no gun laws or mental health checks are going to help much. The number of people who do this sort of thing is still tiny, although it doesn't seem like it when it's all over the news.
It's all the "regular" gun killings that make me against them.
askye - Dec 14, 2012 10:20:36 am PST #4510 of 30001
Thrive to spite them
Just tell him if those 9 year olds had been armed this never would have happened!
He thinks all adults should be armed and that teachers have guns in classrooms is not a bad idea.
le nubian - Dec 14, 2012 10:20:46 am PST #4511 of 30001
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
Obama gave a press conference and was crying.
(whew)
Connie Neil - Dec 14, 2012 10:21:55 am PST #4512 of 30001
brillig
the mentally ill as violent criminals who need to be controlled is not the answer
How about the mentally ill are people who need to be helped? I'm sorry the word control triggered that reaction, but it's about the health, not the person. I control my diabetes (sometimes) but I am not controlled.
No one was talking about controlling people with mental issues. The conversation was about people not getting the help they needed for coping with the world. Not one commenter said anything about "controlling" people with mental issues. No one made that leap.
But someone who decides killing a room full of kindergarteners is a good idea does not have a properly functioning brain.