Poll: Is there a solution to mass shootings?

[MrHide-Patten]

Convincing crazy gun nuts to put that gun in their mouth first, before testing it out on others. The only way of truly stopping mass shootings is to invent a time machine and kill the guy who invented the gun... then go ahead a little more, get abortions the A-Okay, and convince Mrs. Bieber that the kid will grow up retarded and to raise a kid with such a significant handicap is a form of cruel and unusual punishment... but yeah, guns, tonnes of uses in every day life.

 

[Hoplon]

Until we understand why people do this we won't ever be able to do anything effective. Even then I doubt there is much of anything people can do.

For instance Switzerland has more automatic weapons than it had people and those weapons are in peoples homes yet doesn't seem to have this happen. The UK where at the time you couldn't get much more than a double barrel shot gun or a target pistol some one walking in to a primary school and shoots a lot of kids.

It's not about availability of guns. It never has been.

 

[nexus]

Honestly I'm pretty disgusted by people who jump on gun control any chance they get. People who politicize everything are the scum of the Earth. You're worse than advertisers and marketers.

Gun control will not stop these high-profile 'massacre' incidents. All these cases involve the extreme intent to kill as many people as possible, and they always involve explosives as a secondary measure. These people, if they couldn't get legal access to firearms, would just get them anyway or decide to go the "bigger bomb" route.

Their goal isn't to "kill as many people with guns", their goal is to just kill people period. Anders Breivik's most dangerous weapon was misdirection, not a gun. Apparently he was a real magician because he's seemed to have misdirected everyone to completely forget about the incident. Where is all the hurr duur nonsense on limiting firearms in Norway, where 69 people were killed by one individual? Oh that's right, it's not about that, it's only about Amurika hurr duurr.

Whenever this comes up, it's usually not even about the "massacre" or the people killed, because as soon as these people are challenged they'll start reverting to "other gun statistics", which means their sole intention is to exploit tragedy for political and ideological purposes. Scum of the Earth.

 

[nexus]

The meat and potatoes of the matter is that countries with strict gun control don't have an issue with shootings. Mass or otherwise.

What's that about cognitive bias?

 

[Thaluikhain]

yes being a military designed weapon specifically made to kill humans does make it inherently more dangerous. its got a large capacity clip thats very fast to change, the 5.56mm round is a military round thats designed to tumble and break up causing as much damage as possible to human targets. its not a hunting weapon and there is no reason for a civilian outside of a museum to own a military weapon.

seriously if you think you actually need an assault rifle for home defense then you have more to worry about than the odd burglar

No, that's more or less entirely wrong.

Again, the AR-15 is not an assault rifle. It is not in military use either.

It is fed from a detachable magazine, not a clip.

It uses the 5.56mm round, yes, which, BTW, is almost identical to the .223 Remington it was derived from, which was designed for hunting. You can fire .223 from an AR-15 if you want.

The 5.56mm round was not especially designed to tumble, it does this because all bullets do, due to their shape.

No 5.56mm rounds used by military forces are designed to fragment, as this was expressly forbidden under the Hague convention several decades before the 5.56mm round was developed.

EDIT: Expanding or fragmenting bullets are legal in most parts of the US. This is a totally seperate issue to what weapon they are fired from, however.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Nope, there's nothing to prevent such things from happening.

 

[Luna]

Its just a negative aspect of living in a (relatively) free society. But I don't understand why Americans should have the freedom to buy automatic weapons, that seems unnecessary to me and less people would have potentially been killed if there was legislation against this.

 

[Galletea]

There is no way of preventing such things. Gun control is a nice idea, but there are about 312 million people in the states. If you get 90% of the population to give up their guns, you still have shit load of weaponry about. If someone wants the weapons to kill a load of people, they will get hold of them. Doesn't matter how tough you are in the rules, it will happen.
If some people had been armed in a dark cinema full of terrified people? They probably wouldn't have been able to pull the gun out, let alone shoot. If they had they'd just hurt more people.
A handgun is incredibly difficult to aim after a range of a couple of meters, and that's without taking things like ricochet into effect.
Just because they have guns doesn't mean they are any good with them.

 

[HardkorSB]

With the colorado shooting, everyone is at it again with the blame game. The parents of the killer, video games, violent movies, guns, mental illness, and many other things are on the blame list. People target these things and then propose solutions. For example, stricter gun laws, more focuse on mental illness, or less violence in media.

But I want to see the opinion of the escapists. Is there a solution to mass shootings or is it something that will always happen?

People don't just go shoot people up like that. It's something that builds up inside them for a while. I'm pretty sure that there were signs of the guy "losing it" long before he went to that cinema but his friends and relatives just brushed it off and went on with their lives or didn't even noticed because they didn't have any connection with him.
He probably didn't have anyone he felt he could trust enough tell about his problems.

I don't think you can stop these things everywhere but you can prevent it from happening among the people you know if you really care about them and can have an intimate conversation with them without being judgmental and without looking down on them.

A few politicians changing a few sentences in the legal codex won't solve shit.

 

[OniaPL]

- Make life less shitty so people won't go batshit crazy

- Build a colosseum and arrange gladiator fights so people get their daily dose of violence

- Make it legal to punch assholes

 

[nexus]

People don't just go shoot people up like that. It's something that builds up inside them for a while. I'm pretty sure that there were signs of the guy "losing it" long before he went to that cinema but his friends and relatives just brushed it off and went on with their lives or didn't even noticed because they didn't have any connection with him.
He probably didn't have anyone he felt he could trust enough tell about his problems.

I don't think you can stop these things everywhere but you can prevent it from happening among the people you know if you really care about them and can have an intimate conversation with them without being judgmental and without looking down on them.

A few politicians changing a few sentences in the legal codex won't solve shit.

I don't really agree with this at all.

There is nothing you could glean out of someone short of "I'm going to kill people" that will suggest they are going to kill people. People make a lot of assumptions about how "crazy" people are whenever someone commits an act like this. It's really easy to say, "He was a lunatic, why didn't anyone stop him?" Well, probably because he was decidedly normal and no one suspected anything.

It's either that, or the environment that we all live in is so sick that we can no longer detect the nuance of lunacy. Or there is something in the water, as they say...

(To add
I just read the morning newspaper, where it was clearly stated he was seeing a campus therapist anyway, who specializes in schizophrenia. They let on that there was nothing particularly abnormal about him, and I don't believe they even diagnosed him with anything. In other words, he was not deemed a threat to himself or others at the time of his therapy.

 

[JanatUrlich]

Maybe if we stop focusing so much on the killer. To be famous is exactly what these bastards want.

Also, take guns away from the Americans. You don't need a fucking gun, shut up.

 

[AnarchistFish]

There is always the chance it will happen but gun control, more laws and tighter security will make it less likely.

But none of that can really happen in the USA from what I gather (I'm British) as each suggestion is shouted down by cries of freedom and the constitution. So I think it's a horrible price you have to pay in order to live by those freedoms you choose, I wonder what the hypothetical limit is in which Americans would overwhelmingly support banning guns.

yeah, this^^

Thank fuck they're banned here, is all I can say.

 

[nexus]

People who disagree with you are the scum of the earth. Good to know

No, I clearly stated that it was people who politicize or exploit tragedy that are scum of the Earth. In the immediate aftermath US media outlets and their pundits were claiming he was a "Tea Party Member", that he was "Into violent video games", and then swiftly moved on to gun control. Disinformation, exploitation, kind of like what you did just now.

You just sound like any other person who's set in their ways and views any kind of debate on a subject that they're set on as some sort of personal affront.

Yea, have fun with that one, your subconscious may be letting something go here.

 

[Garrett]

Mass shoot everyone. No people, no mass shootings. Aside from that, no, I don't think you can do anything about that.

 

[HardkorSB]

There is nothing you could glean out of someone short of "I'm going to kill people" that will suggest they are going to kill people. People make a lot of assumptions about how "crazy" people are whenever someone commits an act like this. It's really easy to say, "He was a lunatic, why didn't anyone stop him?" Well, probably because he was decidedly normal and no one suspected anything.

It's either that, or the environment that we all live in is so sick that we can no longer detect the nuance of lunacy. Or there is something in the water, as they say...

You can always see the signs if you pay attention but most people don't pay attention.
If you know a person, you can tell when they're depressed or angry, even when they try to cover it up (just by noticing that they are trying to cover something up).
Maybe it's just me but I can notice these things (part of it probably has to do with the fact that I often try to cover things up as well).
I've been the designated psychotherapist for a lot of people during my life. Most of the time, people have to reach a point in which there isn't anyone they can trust and be honest with before they'll start to act "crazy", even if they're clearly predisposed to do so. If you have someone to share your problems with, it's easier to go through life, even if it's not great to begin with.
The problem is, a lot of people do feel "alone in a crowd" and, if they've been ignored and/or pushed down enough times, they will eventually explode.