Firearms don't cause problems. Firearms only make it easier for the already fucked up people to solve their "problems". Britain hasn't got leagalised weapons and they have lots of murders and such with knives..
The firearms aren't the problem, the problem comes down to who gives guns to people that are suspected of being unfit to carry one.
As for knives, yes, people can be killed with knives, BUT:
1. It's harder for someone to kill someone else with a knife. Sure, they can kills them, but they'd either have to stab them repeatedly and hit some vital points very quickly, and it's harder to do that if the victim tries to defend himself/herself. And to hurt someone with a knife you actually have to get close to them. If you see someone coming at you with a knife, do you stand still or do you run? And even if you attacker comes at you from behind and you don't see them pulling out a knife, someone else sees it and screams. And if he pulls the knife in the last minute and stabs you ince, guess what? Chances are you're just hurt and can probably defend yourself, even if not to your best abilities. And the best thing about a knife, you can only hurt one person at a time, so you can't do this sort of massacre with a knife. Someone would get seriously hurt/die, but everyone else would escape. And also, it's quite easier to get away from an attacker with a knife rather than from an attacker with a gun.
Imagine you slept with a woman who later turns out to be the girlfriend of some thug. You'd:
- Look a little off
- Want a gun
This happens more often than school shootings. I don't think you can blame the cops just because they gave a gun to someone who looked like he might have been a bit off.
I'd want a gun anyway and I might get a license in the near future. I'd only use it for hunting and target practice, though. Maybe even 2 .. one shotgun, one hunting rifle with a scope (one for hunting from a distance, one for close encounters). Thinking of picking up archery too.
But seriously, yes, I can blame the cops for giving a gun to someone who looks a bit off. In this case, the guy was pushing the limit and I doubt he could present evidence that he was more in danger than he placed people in front of him. You see, I want to own guns too and I'd shoot deer and rabits and bears with them ... but I wouldn't brag much and I certainly won't post videos on the internet with my guns. I wouldn't even post pictures. In fact, I'd try my best not to tell anyone if I had guns, even with a license, I'd tell them if they ask me, but if they want to assume I don't have guns it's for the best. Plus, if someone tries to rob you, would you want them to know that you have firearms in your house?
banning guns alltogether doesn't work, although in this case he would not have been able to kill so many people if he only had a knife or something.
My thoughts exactly ... you stab a guy, everyone else runs away. One person dies instead of countless many. And guess what? Then the attacker can't turn the knife on himself and kill himself ... and the police can capture him more easily, so anyone that does kill receives the law's punishment.
I really really can't understand what kind of bird gets stuck in the brains of a school shooter and compells them to do such stupidities. It's major proof that our world is getting more and more f***ed up with every generation.
I'm in the 12th grade now, and I tend to see more and more 4th-5th graders who swear at each other as if they're at the market or in a low-life bar. And our teachers are constantly saying what nuisances those kids are. And I think it's something to do with early contact with teh Interwebz and all its dark secrets, which can twist an unprepared mind.
Honestly, when and if I have a kid, I'll try to keep him away from stuff like that as long as possible: no fancy telephones, only one PC in the house and with very restricted access to it (or I'll break out my ancient Pentium 1 computer) and encouraging him/her to read from an early age and focus on his/her education as much as possible. And a lot of air time a.k.a. outside the house.
No. The only way for someone to raise a kid well these days is to be involved in their lives as much as possible. If there is a time when kids spend less and less time with their parents, it's now. Lots of parents these days spend almost all the day at work, working hard to raise a family and most of the time, when they come home, they're too tired and they watch TV rather than spend time with their kids ... so when exactly do they get to actually talk to their kids anymore? On the weekends? That's not how you raise a kid.
Unfortunately for me that was true most of the time with my parents, but fortunately for me I was raised as a small child by my grandparents who instilled very good values in me and my parents were with me enough of the times to keep me out of trouble.
So you want to know how to instill good values from yourself onto your kids? Easy: spend as much time with them as possible, and especially don't be afraid to have fun with your kids .. spending time with them only to do homework won't help ... find a few things all the family likes to do together and do those as much as you can. But most importantly, make it a rule to sit at the table, at least at dinner time with your kids ... a good excuse to talk to them for an extended period of time each day and share with each other what everyone did that day.
