Discussing The Colorodo Shooting & Gun Laws

[Anna]

Actually... humanity does not quite work that way. Give a person a gun and a knife, then tell them to attack. See how many with the gun easily pull that trigger versus how many with a knife actually engage the target. The majority with a knife will drop it / turn and run with it.

I agree, when you are talking about the majority of "Normal" people, but I was referring in my post to mentally ill people who want to go out and hurt people. Not normal every day people. If they want to hurt someone they will find a way, this is what I meant in my post.

 

[anthony]

I do understand what you meant... but what I'm meaning is not about normal or otherwise, it is about take a criminal holding a gun. That person robs a store because they have a gun and they know it is so easy for them to pull the trigger, thus killing / injuring the other person being robbed and increasing their chance of escape from the scene. That gun makes them a criminal due to ease.

Now take the same person and give them a knife to rob the same store. See if they're just as willing with a knife versus a gun. A knife they would have to use force, skill, luck even, and effort. Also they need to be close to the person which risks them being caught, captured or having the knife used against them. Instead, a majority of would be criminals decide against robbing the store and look for other methods to obtain money, ie. working or other less violent criminal activities.

That is the difference in a majority of would be criminals. A gun can make a person a criminal far easier.

Again, what is normal? A criminal can be as normal by societies view as the next person. A good majority of criminal activity, being the big stuff that far outweighs small criminals, is done through white collar crime.

Isn't there an old saying about the richest people all having some type of past criminal activity in order to obtain said wealth? Yet these people are also viewed as the most successful of normal society.

Guns bread violence due to ease, normalcy has nothing to do with it. The most normal person as deemed by society can have a moment lapse in judgment and commit the most heinous crimes society has seen, and all due to something like a gun being so readily accessible, legally available for no other reasons than "just because."

 

[BloomInWinter]

If people could just use something else for mass murder, why don't they? Because guns are far easier.

When was the last time there was a drive-by stabbing in the US?

This is a public health issue and needs to be addressed as such.

'That's just one aspect of a public health approach. Other elements:

_"Host" factors: What makes someone more likely to shoot, or someone more likely to be a victim. One recent study found firearm owners were more likely than those with no firearms at home to binge drink or to drink and drive, and other research has tied alcohol and gun violence. That suggests that people with driving under the influence convictions should be barred from buying a gun, Wintemute said.

_Product features: Which firearms are most dangerous and why. Manufacturers could be pressured to fix design defects that let guns go off accidentally, and to add technology that allows only the owner of the gun to fire it (many police officers and others are shot with their own weapons). Bans on assault weapons and multiple magazines that allow rapid and repeat firing are other possible steps.

_"Environmental" risk factors: What conditions allow or contribute to shootings. Gun shops must do background checks and refuse to sell firearms to people convicted of felonies or domestic violence misdemeanors, but those convicted of other violent misdemeanors can buy whatever they want. The rules also don't apply to private sales, which one study estimates as 40 percent of the market.

_Disease patterns, observing how a problem spreads. Gun ownership – a precursor to gun violence – can spread "much like an infectious disease circulates," said Daniel Webster, a health policy expert and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.

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