How many more children need to die before the USA can have gun control?

Faye

Faye

^_^
Retired Staff
MBTI
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
I'm sure everyone has heard about the most recent mass shootings in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX. This keeps happening, but the government seems incapable of passing legislation that would put in place gun control measures that pretty much all other countries have. So what is it going to take to actually do something about this? Why are so many people in this country against any sort of gun control whatsoever?

I've lost hope that things will ever change. These shootings are absolutely horrible, and it is depressing to see that nothing is being done to prevent them from happening.

This is what this country has become:

0wbghi4izq191.png
 
As I understand it, your country cannot restrict firearms the way other countries can. When something is constitutional, it's part of the very fabric or identity of the country in question.

Solutions have to be from a different approach. Decades ago school shootings weren't really a thing. Perhaps recovering abandoned ways of raising children, and instilling values is the only option.

If finding alternative means to solve youth delinquency is not on the table, then I'd question how seriously people actually want to prevent school shootings.
 
It seems weird to me that mentally unstable people can buy serious firearms almost casually, without significant control. The trouble is that all the publicity they get encourages others as well, so it escalates. If something isn't done to control things better, you'll get to the point where teachers will have to start carrying firearms in the classroom, or something just as horrific.

Surely the right to own firearms, if it doesn't change, shouldn't mean any lunatic with a desire for suicide by carnage has that right? It sounds like there needs to be a much more exacting licensing system if firearms aren't actually banned from private ownership.
 
Utah has never had a school shooting and we have some of the loosest gun laws in the country.

Threats here of violence are taken VERY seriously. There have been incidents of students being arrested and formally charged for making jokes about shooting up schools.

At most schools we have metal detectors at the entrances and security guards who patrol ensuring weapons are not brought onto the school grounds.

Gun control (or lack thereof) is not the leading force behind school shootings as my state is evidence for.

Here is the model that my state Utah uses to handle and assess threats:cstag-tree.png
 
More information about how the state of Utah responds differently to school shootings and their use of strict preventative measures may in part completely circumvent planned attempts:

Schools across the country are taking heightened precautions after a TikTok school threat emerged suggesting numerous school shootings will take place on Dec. 17. There is no evidence the threat is credible.

However, a Matheson Junior High School student was taken into custody Thursday and taken to Salt Lake Valley Detention Center after leveling a “very specific threat” on social media against students and staff at the Magna school, said Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley.

The language used by the student appears to be lifted from similar social media posts circulating around the country in advance of Dec. 17, but the local threat does not appear credible, a letter to parents by Matheson Junior High Principal Megan Madsen states.

“In addition to criminal charges including a felony charge of making a terroristic threat, the suspect will also face school and district level discipline,” the letter states.

It continued, “While we are grateful for this outcome, we are still very concerned with the overarching social media use among our students. While there is no research that supports any advantages for the use of social media for our children, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that it can cause grave harm and emotional danger. We respectfully request that you seriously consider removing access to social media from your child. Please also remind your child that making any sort of threat is a crime and will be aggressively prosecuted.”
Click to expand...

In no way is it the access to guns that is the problem. That's silly. There was at least 1 gun in every house I lived in as a teen and I knew the general location of them. Why didn't I use a gun to perform a school shooting? Because I had no *reason* or motivation to perform a school shooting. Y'all act like guns whisper into kids ears and tempt them to commit mass murder. In reality we have children that are unsupervised, possibly in neglectful and abusive homes, struggling with possible mental disorders, and we're surprised when they act out?? Really? The issue here is with the people that WANT to use guns to kill people! Why do our kids want to kill other kids?? It seems like focusing on the gun aspect is really beside the point. The bigger issue is that we have teenagers purposefully killing mass numbers of people and is becoming more and more common. The gun thing is the side problem not the motivation behind why kids want to murder.
 
To be honest someone or some group is benefiting from these mass shootings be it to disarm the population so what the Chinese people have been going through can be implemented here in the states. So basically stripping the population the right to defend themselves against authoritarian and totalitarian government other things such as freedom of speech as well religion etc end up on the chopping block as history has proven time and time again. As for the mass shootings the elephant in the room is that for the most part these are not just random acts of terrorism as this has been going on since the 80s where it was post offices for example then the schools since the late 90s and probably will move on to sporting events etc until the population agrees to give up their rights hence there is an agenda behind all this.

As a matter of fact that the shooters before hand were already known to authorities often with criminal records yet nothing at all was done.
Probable cause for warrants including arrest yet nothing was done.
Sometimes noticed either by peers or family and reported yet nothing was done.
Sometimes suspicious access to funds and ease of obtaining weapons when for the average person such isn't the norm.

Those who support taking away rights are clueless or simply just don't care that criminals will always look to find ways of obtaining weapons just as they do drugs if even they have to resort to 3D printing the guns and reloading their own ammo.
 
John K said:
It seems weird to me that mentally unstable people can buy serious firearms almost casually, without significant control. The trouble is that all the publicity they get encourages others as well, so it escalates. If something isn't done to control things better, you'll get to the point where teachers will have to start carrying firearms in the classroom, or something just as horrific.

Surely the right to own firearms, if it doesn't change, shouldn't mean any lunatic with a desire for suicide by carnage has that right? It sounds like there needs to be a much more exacting licensing system if firearms aren't actually banned from private ownership.
Click to expand...

Take a long look as access to weapons like this isn't always that easy unless from the black market and there is back ground checks that make legal purchases a bit tedious for which people are sometimes denied depending on the state so unlike the authoritarians who think they are given out like candy or drugs people are not just given guns. As for the shootings there is a clear agenda at stripping the population of this right that was intended of all things to restrict government from pushing policies that normally warrant civil war or revolution as a proportional response.
 
slant said:
Utah has never had a school shooting and we have some of the loosest gun laws in the country.
Click to expand...

A casual web search reveals this as untrue. 1993, Ogden, Utah, Weber State University.

Cheers,
Ian
 
aeon said:
A casual web search reveals this as untrue. 1993, Ogden, Utah, Weber State University.

Cheers,
Ian
Click to expand...
That's not included under the official definition of shootings because a mass shooting required 4 people to have been shot and in this case 3 were. So I'm not wrong! Technicalities are great aren't they. And even then the fact that we aren't having any shootings that classify as mass shootings is exactly my point. Why does my state have a complete lack of history of students mass shooting each other?
 

Utah taking preventative measures, discussing school shootings and actively education and deterring people without a shooting even having taken place to prompt these actions.

Could preventative measures and education be key to preventing mass school shootings in a state with 46% of the entire population owning a gun? This is larger gun ownership than Texas which has 45% and yet the mass shootings are magically not present. Could guns not be the only factor? Could culture and how children are raised as well as a vigilant police force that regularly charges teenages with acts of terrororism for making school shooting threats on social media contribute greatly to less school gun violence in this state?


We have had close calls, vigilant students and parents paying attention to the mood and social media of other children, shutting down schools immediately when a threat is detected and not sending children to school if a threat is reported, detaining students involved in threats or atypical behavior and pressing charges against them. Preventative measures.
 
Last edited:
This point has been brought up online more than a few times that allowing instructors to legally carry would at the very least help and some colleges have at some point or another have considered the same for students as such would put a quick end to a shooter instead of allowing horrible events like this to happen in the first place. As for the shooters cops should do their jobs when there is something clearly on the radar.
 
This actually just happened last week, somebody arrested for making a bomb threat towards our elementary school.

This just 5 months ago a student caught with a gun at school and criminally prosecuted for it.

It's not to say that we do not experience threats or even the presence of guns in our state but we are extremely vigilant about it and not lenient in any way when people make threats or display disturbing behavior. We have anonymous tip lines where hundreds of tips are processed and investigated every day and often lead to preemptively arresting people who WERE planning on committing violence.

It is not the presence of guns that causing these shootings. Working with the FBI (many fbi recruits end up coming from Utah) it has been determined that social media is playing a huge role as well as inattentive parents who are allowing their children access to guns by not securing them properly and allowing their children to effectively run wild on social media with no monitoring. Out here, tv and computer use is regularly limited by parents, outdoor activities are encouraged, people are a member of the community.

A LOT of gun violence and violence towards strangers in general is psychologically motivated by a sense of loneliness and isolation from your community. Utah has a very strong sense of community this is why we are able to put in hundreds a tip per day about potential threats because neighbors pay attention to what their neighbors do and children will bring it to an adults attention when a child is posting threats online. This allows police to investigate quickly and effectively.

These things are way more tied to culture than guns, but people want there to be an easy fix.
 
Roses In The Vineyard said:
This point has been brought up online more than a few times that allowing instructors to legally carry would at the very least help and some colleges have at some point or another have considered the same for students as such would put a quick end to a shooter instead of allowing horrible events like this to happen in the first place. As for the shooters cops should do their jobs when there is something clearly on the radar.
Click to expand...
What about just having school security, basically police officers, have guns? That's what Utah does.
 
slant said:
This actually just happened last week, somebody arrested for making a bomb threat towards our elementary school.
Click to expand...

Colorado was an early adopter of more regulations in schools to keep them safe.
Since then we have had no mass shootings in schools, but we have had a mass shooting in a movie theater, church, downtown area streets, a home, and a grocery store.

So you can congratulate your state for getting their shit together early at schools, but it's only a matter of time before it occurs elsewhere.
Unless your idea is to make Utah a utopian prison, where everywhere you go has full body scans and swat teams.

Culture does shape a lot of things and figuring out the source of problems within is the most critical aspect of course.
But when you can casually go to a nearby store, pick up a gun with a huge magazine and a surplus of ammo on a whim, it's just going to make this kind of thing easier and happen more.
There will always be unstable humans.
 
Texas is known for its gun ownership, people are much more mindful and practiced with guns.
It's actually a thing in Texas where you are more hesitant to use a gun because 9 times out of 10 the guy next to you will have one to shoot back at you.
This recent clown had police on his tail and still did what he did.
 
How many more? Lots.
The NRA has all the money, power and influence.
Nothing will change until that institution loses power.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top