The sad thing about his press conference is how out of touch it felt. 

The NRA dug in when it should have been offering to talk.  It didn't need to offer specifics.  It didn't need to offer solutions.  It just needed to offer to come to the table and join in the conversation.

Instead, by digging in, they created an US vs. THEM mentality, and I think after the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, the THEM group is a lot bigger than the US group.  I do think every attempt should be made to ensure that any measures deal with the causes of this issue, rather than disproportionate to the problem.  But something definitely has to be done to prevent something like this from happening...again.

Indeed. Gun control does not and should never mean banning guns. Such a thing is idealistic fantasy and unconstitutional. There is nothing wrong with a pistol with a ten bullet clip for self defense. There is nothing wrong with hunting with a rifle. No matter what we do, acts of violence will still occur. We just need to look into ways to REDUCE the violence. Forcing someone to reload every ten bullets instead of every 30 would be a nice start, and would have actually saved lives at Tuscon where the gunman was taken down while he was reloading. No gun control is fool proof, every law will have its holes and flaws. But one need only look at a country like Australia to see that it can have real, long term benefits.

According to an article I posted, Australia's fire arm homicide rate hit .1 % in 2009, 33 times lower then America's.

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20121221/SHE06/312210143/Editorial-Australian-gun-control-holds-lessons-U-S-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

As for countries like Israel and Finland, there is one critical difference between us and them: every military age male is conscripted into the military  in these countries. With that comes a psych evaluation and lots of fire arm training and everything else that comes with military service. Its essentially gun control in its own right, just a different kind. If you want to use those countries as an example, fine. I just hope you also support universal conscription ;). Lord knows it would probably help us get into fewer wars. These countries also more socialist and leftist then the United States with things like government funded universal healthcare, which I'm sure helps with their standard of living and thus reduces violent crimes. So by all means, lets be more like Israel and Finland ;).

Freedom is not a good thing in and of itself. Certain freedoms have proven highly beneficial for society, but freedom is not a categorical good.

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a law preventing him from getting a gun in the first place.

Make guns illegal!

Wouldn't be surprised if it happened in a "gun-free zone" using an illegally obtained gun...because you and I both know criminals don't follow the law.

Oh and that line about "the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" is pure genius.

Aielyn said: The prime minister at the time, who was a right-wing conservative leader, established a gun buyback scheme and laws to control gun violence. Since then, our gun violence has dropped dramatically, making us a country that sees far less gun crime than America. Here's a graph showing the change in firearm homicide rates (and non-firearm homicide rates, to show that that rate didn't increase to compensate):

Yet Australia has more of other crimes than the U.S. 

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Australia/United-States/Crime

Assault victims 2.4%  Australia vs. 1.2% United States of America

Perception of safety Walking in the Dark Australia 64% vs. United States of America 82% 

Rape victims 1% Australia vs. .4% United States

Total Crime victims  30.1% (Ranked # 1) vs. 21.1%

The guns used in the Sandy Hooks massacre were the property of Adam Lantz' mother, with whom he lived with.  They were all legally purchased.  Both she and Adam were also avid shooters. 

Freedom can be a good thing if you follow 2 rules. Don't hurt anyone and don't put other people at risk unless they agree to it. Freedom is neutral it can be used for good and bad things. Its the societys/peoples shortcomings which can turn it into a problem.

First of all, shouldn't that prove that gun control works? Gun control cut gun crime dramatically, but clearly Australia isn't just naturally less violent.

Second, you cherry-picked your numbers.

Third, you used "perception of safety walking in the dark"... which is about perception, not actual safety. Americans are remarkably blind to problems in their country. It's also from 2000 - look at what happens in the chart I posted in 2002.

Fourth, if you look at the description for Rape Victims, it says "Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence." - it mentions this in the Rape Victims section because rape reporting is a major issue, and it's worse in America than in Australia. Note that it also says this for Assault Victims and Total Crime Victims.

Finally, I don't know what you're actually trying to say.