The Right To Bear Arms

[howeird]

Too many people here and on FB are whining about how yesterday's tragic shooting would have been averted with gun control.

No.

When the full info is released, it will probably show the gun was stolen or black market. In all the history of the world, attempts by governments to confiscate all privately-held weapons have failed. I give you the American Revolution, the Warsaw Rebellion, Israel's war of independence,  and the current unpleasantness in Afghanistan. Not to mention the high shooting homicide rate in Oakland, CA.

And if he had not been able to find a gun, he would probably have built a bomb.

While I see Palin's target map as immature and just what I would expect from someone who hunts wildlife from a helicopter, I really doubt that the shooter knew about it.

I am heartbroken about the victims caught in the middle, especially the grade school girl who seemed destined to be Someone Special. The shooter probably changed history for the worse when he killed her.

Comments

[vasilatos]

No to get into an argument with you, he bought the gun legally at a gun store. Arizona has amazingly lax gun laws.

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

And it appears that he would have qualified to purchase the handgun even here in California. The extended clips he used would have been illegal in CA though.

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

All of that said, I agree with Howeird that gun control laws wouldn't have done anything. See, there's this problem with people that are willing to break the law... strangely, the law often doesn't do much to keep them from doing so. He'd have just gotten his guns somewhere else.

[howeird]

I doubt it - I went through the handgun qualification test, it requires taking a class, and then taking a (very easy if you paid attention) test. His history suggests he would not have had the patience for that.

And yeah, I have a card from state of CA saying I can buy a gun. Scared yet?
:-)

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

What I was trying to get at was that there appear to have been no *legal* reasons to not sell him a hand gun. You my be correct in regards to his patience. That's hard to say.

[vasilatos]

noted. 30-round clips! wow.

[howeird]

Well, I guess I lost that bet.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

I read in one of many news stories that the shooter purchased the 9mm legally. Yes, sometimes news stories print unverified information, but then, bloggers do that way more than news stories. My personal opinion: the root cause of our current climate of violence and insanity is lack of adequate medical care for individuals with mental illness, and I trace the origin of that, our current homelessness problem, and many of our economic problems to Ronald Reagan's mainstreaming policy, which shut down numerous mental treatment facilities. My first suggestion of how to solve that would be to require mental health exams for those who run our government, most of whom I think would profit from long-term commitment.

[howeird]

Looks like I was wrong about how he got the gun.

I agree about the homeless-Reagan connection in part. Where I live, there are massive free programs all winter to house and feed the homeless, which makes it a magnet for the more intelligent homeless people who are on the streets thanks to the horrible economy, and not because there is anything wrong with them. There are also a fair number of people who are homeless, but hold down good jobs - when rent is $1600 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment, may as well live in free housing.

And yes, we should support the mentally ill, but let's get them out of Congress first.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Ho ho very satirical. :)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

A personal observation, based on my years working to help economically disadvantaged folks apply for public health benefits: when the bad economy hit, the groups hardest hit by unemployment tended to be one of three, or some combination: unskilled laborers, immigrants (both legal and illegal), and disabled workers. With our current insurance scheme, the disabled folks got a double-whammy of losing both income and health benefits. Colorado, where I live, is number 50 of the 50 states for mental health funding, and our previous liberal governor made huge cuts on top of that. So, we have a LOT of homeless mentally disabled people who are not getting their meds. I'm both surprised and relieved that what happened in Tucson didn't happen in Denver. Although the area is famous for its crazy shooters. Hinckley. Columbine.