When will they ever learn?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....-premiere-Denver.html

Is it now the time for America to tighten up on their gun laws?

[factor-fiction]

Sandyroe has raised this on here already
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1153705.html

[Baldric]

http://www.theanswerb.../Question1153705.html

[Gromit]

Can't see anything changing. The Gun lobby is too powerful. The right to bear arms and kill each other has been part of the constitution for centuries.

There have been many massacres and there will be many more. Hope this isn't an ex-military attacker. I saw a suggestion that it could be.

[Bazile]

Unfortunately most americans beleive it's a god given right for them to possess a firearm .

The following is the position of the NRA .

//These politicians need to remember that these rights aren’t given to us by them. They come from God. They are God-given rights. They can’t be infringed or limited in any way. What are they going to do: limit it two or three rounds. Having lots of ammunition is critical, especially if the police are not around and you need to be able to defend yourself against mobs.”" //

Untill and unless you can change that sort of mentality , then it is very difficult to stop any Tom Dick or Harry obtaining and walking around with this type of weapon

[vulcan]

seeing as how the eleventh commandment is "thou shall not be found out" I assume "thou shall carry guns and kill one another" is the twelfth.

[anotheoldgit]

factor30

/// Sandyroe has raised this on here already ///

Oh sorry how would I know he had entered it on ChatterBank?

Incidentally no one has contributed so far.

[youngmafbog]

Why, it does not stop it.

We had draconian gun laws as a knee jerk reaction forced on us by His Toniness. Did it stop it, did it heck

The US would be evern worse. On a border with Mexico and a huge country that would be impossible to police. Parts of America still need guns to defend them selves, not from other humans but predators. There would be an outcry if a Govenment banned firearms and then someone was mauled by a grizzly or similar.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// Hope this isn't an ex-military attacker. I saw a suggestion that it could be. ///

And why should that make any difference, unless of course one had a hidden agenda.

[Gromit]

// We had draconian gun laws as a knee jerk reaction forced on us by His Toniness. //

As usual youngmafbog has defective momory. Britain's Gun Laws were changed as a result of the Hungerford Masscre in 1987 by... Margaret Thatcher.

There are calls for the draconian gun laws in this country to be tightened further after last years Cumbria Killings.

[Gromit]

I hope it is not a miliary attacker. I hope it is not a terrorist act. I hope it is not racially motivated. I hope it is just a madman.

[EcclesCake]

I would be interested to know if the frequency of these events is really any different to Europe if measured by head of population.

I suspect there would be little difference.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// I hope it is not a miliary attacker. I hope it is not a terrorist act. I hope it is not racially motivated. I hope it is just a madman. ///

And I repeat why should it matter? 14 people are dead.

And you can be sure that regardless if it is a military attacker, a terrorist act or racially motivated, one can be sure he definitely is a 'MADMAN'.

[Gromit]

So if it turned out the killer was a muslim fanatic it would not matter?

If it turned out the killer had returned to no job from serving in Iraq it would not matter?

If it turned out to be a white supremacist targeting hespanics it would not matter?

Of course the reasons and motives of mass killers mateer.

[jake-the-peg]

Well EcclesCake if you're just talking about firearms deaths the US is way above the rest of Europe

4.14 per 100,000
10 times France
nearly 60 times England and Wales

If you mean Gun nut attacks (rampage killers ) there's data here
http://en.wikipedia.o...st_of_rampage_killers

Not quite as clear

[EcclesCake]

Thanks for that Jake.

It was the rampage type of attack I was wondering about and although not entirely clear it doesn't look as if America is significantly worse than Europe.

Given that the individual European countries have widely differing gun laws and rampages occur in the countries with both tight and more relaxed gun laws I don't see that much would change by the US tightening up.

[jake-the-peg]

Yeah - I wouldn't rely too much on that data an gun controls vary across Europe.

But Gun controls aren't good at stopping this sort of attack nor in stopping criminal gun crime

They're good at stopping impulse murders - man comes home finds unfaithful wife shoots people

[EcclesCake]

Exactly my thinking Jake.

[andy-hughes]

"Is it now the time for America to tighten up on their gun laws?" -

The Constitution gives everyone the right to bear arms - I think that's about as tight as they want the law to be, so what's to change?

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

Still doesn't matter nothing will bring those 14 poor unfortunates back to life.

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

And did you know that in Chester, a person is permitted to shoot a Welshman with a bow and arrow, as long as he is inside the city walls after midnight?

Or that all English males over the age of 14 are required by law to have two hours of longbow practice each week?

Have you had your bow out recently Andy?