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Is It Time For the US To Change Its Gun Laws?

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David In Indy:
CNN is now reporting 5 dead and 17 injured in today's shooting at a DeKalb, Illinois university when a gunman entered a lecture hall and began spraying the students with bullets.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html

Within the past 30 days, here in the US 3 were left dead at a technical college in Baton Rouge, Louisiana... 1 is critically injured during a school shooting in Memphis, Tennessee..... a 15 year old was shot at a California middle school.... 5 dead and 2 injured when a gunman enters a City Council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri.... 5 women are shot and killed after a gunman open fires inside a women's clothing store in Tinley Park (Chicago) Illinois.

Just two months earlier, on December 5, 2007, a teen gunman walks into a Omaha, Nebraska mall and open fires, killing nine people before turning the gun on himself...... On December 9, 2007 a gunman shoots and kills 2 people at a Christian youth center in Arvada, Colorado before escaping and driving more than 50 miles to a church in Colorado Springs, Colorado where he killed an additional 2 people on the church parking lot. A church security guard killed the gunman with a shot to his head.

And who could forget last year's Virginia Tech shooting which left 33 dead and 29 injured..... or who could forget the Amish School house shooting when a gunman burst into a one room school shooting and killing 5 young girls?

I just finished reading an article over at BBC where a British reader left a comment asking "How many more Americans are going to die before America does something about guns?"

Good question.


 

David In Indy:
Oh, I forgot to mention I voted "Yes".

injest:
yep

brokeplex:
This is a difficult time when so many have been killed by someone unknown, crazy or not, we just don't know all of the details as of now.

But, in a similar incident last year at a school in WV, several students went out to their trucks and grabbed their guns, turned them on the perp, and held him until the police FINALLY arrived. This saved many lives, because the students themselves could protect themselves.

When we create gun free zones in schools, we let the perp know in advance that he will find no guns there to stop him. If someone pulls a gun on you and wants you dead, and you have no gun, then you are dead. Under the same scenario, if you have a gun, then maybe you are not dead.

This week a paralyzed lady was trapped in her house, the house caught on fire, she called 9/11, she was put on hold over and over again, she died in the blaze. I have listened to the 911 tapes played on the radio, it is very sad.

When seconds count, the police are minutes away, and sometimes they just put you on hold.

DL is teaching me how to handle a gun, for the first time in my life I want to learn how to use one.

delalluvia:
Unfortunately, the U.S. is not like European countries.  Our borders are fluid,we have vast areas of open country. 

I'm not sure what the government could do even if it wanted to do something.

Yes, they can outlaw the sale of handguns.

That would do nothing for the millions of handguns already in circulation and owned by 10s of thousands if not millions of people.

The authorities could ask Americans to give their guns up to local authorities, but that's pretty much it.  Those who do not want to surrender their weapons can't be made to.

What are they going to do?  A house to house search?  The government neither has the time, personnel nor the budget to do something like that. 

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