Guns were a big part of his plan -- his plan involved killing people with knives, hammer, SUV, and guns but his primary method was going to be gun. I doubt he would have proceeded without guns -- his only alternatives would have been explosives or poison and neither even occurred to him.

To make this about guns would be focusing on one item to the exclusion of the more significant causes but to say gun control had nothing to do with it is also completely wrong. He bought his guns legally and he had a history of mental issues. He is 20-21 and buying two guns months apart. The police were called and seven officers responded over the original videos all of which happened after the gun purchases. I'm pro-gun ownership but the system should be set up so that it at least detects something like this and triggers some kind of red flag.

How hard is it to actually buy a gun in America? Do they have any limitations in place?

In some states you can walk into a gun show and purchase a gun without showing any form of id.

Pay cash, walk out with a gun.

In some states, getting a fishing license, drivers license etc is 10x tougher. FREEDOM.

In Colorado, the dealers have the same requirements at gun shows that they would at a store. There are also many private sellers at those same shows who are allowed to sell their legally owned guns (registered or not) to any adult. (There are no checks required, although proof of age might be required now.)

This would be the same as buying a gun from someone out of the newspaper or at their home, etc. and this is where it gets complicated. Requiring private parties to do background checks opens up a whole different can of worms.

if "not having psychopaths own a weapon that can waste 15 people in as many seconds" is a can of worms, then yea, it's opening a whole **** ton of worms.

So how do you detect these "psychopaths?" Should anybody that has ever gone to a psychologist be prohibited from owning a gun? Should anybody that has posted a weird YouTube video also be prohibited? You people keep posting that we should keep guns away from psychopaths as if we are in possession of some crystal ball technology that lets us detect the future, but we just refuse to use it to prevent massacres.

brunette tho

It would be difficult to implement a perfect system that prevents every crazy from owning firearms, therefore, guns.

This seems like a good start

I agree with the sentiment, of course, but do you want every person in the US to have instant access to your private mental health records? I'm not sure how you could introduce a system for private sale checking without creating serious breeches of privacy. Plus, the vast majority of private sale guns involve non registered weapons. And what about wills? Should those require a background check before the transfer?

Interesting fact - approx 30% of my guns haven't been fired in 100 years. Another 50% haven't been fired in 50 years. Only one has been fired in the last ten years. It's this huge store of "hidden" guns that make the problem difficult to solve in the US.

I'm thinking of having most mine rendered unable to fire and turned into historical pieces, but people freak out when I tell them that. I will probably just continue to ignore them until the are passed on to others when I die. (Just like they were to me.)

here's what america should do if they were smart. they should take a city like chicago and put a ban on guns, demanding collection of all guns (besides those owned by cops and business owners) whether registered or not, while imposing serious sounding punishments and fines that barely end up being collected. after a few months compare the murder and crime rate to before. maybe bring in a math guy to determine the altered likelihood of a rampage happening. if they found a decrease they could continue the experiment and i believe they would because while a ton of people wouldn't turn in their guns, no one would have increased info as to who is armed or not and there would be no incentive to commit more crimes. then some day guns are banned everywhere.

Well I say you are mentally ill and therefore you should give up all your guns before you go on a killing spree. Case closed!

-Random guy on the Internet

They basically did that in NY, and shocker, violent crime is way down.

Most cities that have put in gun bans have seen murder rates go up.

http://crimepreventionresearchcenter...fter-gun-bans/

http://theacru.org/acru/harvard_stud...terproductive/

Jfc, let us discuss an event rather than an entire political war. I feel that gun control is an obv important topic but to muddle specific event threads with wide-sweeping political and philosophical debate is frustrating as a forum user. There are other places on 2p2 dedicated to discussing these issues exclusively.

You can even use this event specifically in these discussions if you weren't aware.

ok, why don't you get this thread back on track by bringing up something about this event that has not already been covered here?

If you read that first link, it's hilariously badly sourced, unbalanced and basically just a lot of lies.

I'll assume the second is as well.

edit: Oh, it's basically the same people. If you can't pick the giant, giant holes in their "Study" in five seconds, you have poor critical thinking skills.

I have found this thread interesting because of the wide range of issues. The youtube videos, the manifesto, the killer's other forum postings, the gun control debate and, yes, even the arm chair musings on mental health. I suppose that every topic in OOT could be addressed somewhere else, but why don't you allow us to have this one?

I agree the that the original topic is interesting, just not the posts and discussion based solely on much discussed and heated political topic, with no direct tie-in to the actual op.

I should hope the great tylertwo can see the difference.

Is the original video that OP mentioned still up?

sent from a piece of wheat bread

Thats because city-wide bans are worthless. Those experiences say nothing about the effectiveness of national laws.

Nation wide wouldn't work either liberatard

sent from a piece of wheat bread

We don't have second amendment rights though. That's what has made Australia the dystopian wasteland it is today.