UO Thursday 12/3

AdorkablePixie

missnc77 said:

@ncm0328 According to the news this morning, the couple in California bought their guns legally. 

I grew up around guns and got my first gun at 16. I still have it. But as I get older and more crap like this happens, the more willing I am to just say you know what, take it. If no guns means another Sandy Hook or other mass shooting will not happen, then you can have it. I would rather mass shootings go the way of the dinosaur far more than my desire to defend my right to own a gun. One thing though - I think when I lot of people hear "gun control" or hear democrats speak out against the NRA, they think they want to ban guns outright. This is not true. Gun control is wanting tighter laws and better background checks, even ultra liberal Bernie Sanders isn't calling to outright ban guns. I don't know why people have such a problem with that. If you have a criminal history or a history of mental illness, tough shit. You don't get to own a gun. 

Taking guns away from people who own them legally isn't going to solve any problems. The people who go out and randomly shoot people and kill them for no reason are going to do it whether they can get a gun legally or illegally. People should be able to have and carry guns that way they can protect themselves, and others, from the crazies who pull guns and go nuts. There definitely need to be stricter laws when buying a gun legally. For example, I feel that a psychological evaluation should be completed on the individual to make sure they are of sound mind. No matter what happens with gun control, unfortunately things like this are not going to change. They just aren't. It's getting worse and worse. This year there was been 355 mass shootings already, that's more shootings than days we've had this year. It's scary and disgusting. This world is going to hell in a handbasket and I am terrified to raise my child in it.

laurenmdrn16

I agree with @adorkablepixie that people who want to hurt others will do so whether they can legally obtain a gun or not. I do think that people should be required to undergo a psychological eval before getting a gun/permit, but also understand that there will always be a black market and people who will sell and trade firearms illegally no matter what. My issue in my country specifically (talking the good ol' US of A) is that there are so many barriers to access mental health services. Some of these people (and notice I say *some* not all) could have been screaming out for help for years without any ability to access support and services that could've prevented them from acting on homicidal tendencies. As a result, they find no other option than to act on these psychotic, depressive, mentally disturbed urges and thoughts. Also, and this is definitely a UO, I think people who are found to be dangerous to society or have a strong potential to commit acts such as mass shootings should be removed from the general public. That obviously gets really sticky, but I am not proposing locking up people who write an email with the word "bomb" in it or putting all people afflicted with mental illness in padded cells. I mean having a graduated mental health facility system where people with sociopathic or psychopathic diagnoses could have help and be rehabbed to procedural step-down units that gradually reintroduce safe individuals into society. I believe we are too hands-off when it comes to individuals who are identified and diagnosed as sociopathic or psychopathic and think you just throw some pills at them, have them check in once in a while, and everything will be fine. 

Obviously, some of these perpetrators are not recognized as mentally ill so this won't solve the problem 100%. There will always be a certain piece of the population that for one reason or another decides to cause terror and destruction. Is mental illness always at the root? Maybe, maybe not. But by saying "Well, not everyone who decides to shoot up a school is mentally ill so let's not look at reforming our mental health system" we would completely ignore the percentage of people who would benefit and could possibly prevent even some of these shootings. Some is better than none and right now, all this hemming and hawing that politicians are doing is really helping no one. Let's get some action going and DO something instead of just hoping it will go away.