This morning I am watching the coverage of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut where 20 children and six adults were killed by 20 year old Adam Lanza. This leaves me wondering why we still have such lax gun laws? Especially after all the shootings we’ve had in 2012. It really makes us not want to send our son to school, makes us not want to go to the movie theater or mall. Personally I believe that it’s time to ban general ownership of firearms in the US.
Frankly the right to bare arms is an outdated concept; when that ‘right’ was written into law; it was a very different time. I firmly believe that in today’s age, that ‘right’ needs to be revoked, even more so in the light of the major shooting events in 2012. Will a ban solve all gun crime; no, but making guns much harder to get hold of will make a major impact and many of the people killed by guns in 2012 may still have been alive. But I expect nothing to change in respect to gun law!
I’m learning today that the United States government failed to renew a ban on assault weapons; which could have limited the loss of life in this case; and also that it’s possible to buy weapons at gun shows without any background checks whatsoever. I come from a country where guns are banned, so it’s unthinkable that someone can get hold of guns so readily without real checks.
If a ban doesn’t come, much tighter controls need to come into force at a federal level; including psychological evaluations, selling a gun to someone who is mentally unstable is asking to trouble. Also inspections of people’s homes where they intend to keep the guns should take place; making sure the firearm is secure; not being easily available to people like Adam Lanza; all the firearms used were legally owned by Lanza’s mother, but clearly not stored securely, IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE!
I’ll end this post by sending my condolences to the family and friends of the victims of this shooting!
What a different world many Americans live in.
My heart goes out to the families of all victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
The shooting at Sandy Hook is simply unthinkable in the UK, never in my 27 years to date heard of such an atrocity. For me this is as bad as the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 20 young children all shot dead, it makes me sick just typing it.
I would love to see a ban on all firearms but the American gun wielding culture is so entrenched I think it may be impossible. In addition, to take all firearms away from law abiding citizens leaving only the criminals with firearms can’t be good initially, but it may be a step worth taking for the long run.
I hope the debate doesn’t swagger from a change of law in regards to gun ownership to blaming violence in films and games which I have seen before. I have my whole teenage and adult life enjoyed violent action / horror films , games and music and have never once wanted to kill anyone. My actions like many millions of other people have never been remotely influenced by these forms of media. And even if I were influenced by violent films and games it would be extremely difficult for me or anyone in a country when guns are banned to commit such an offense.