While NRA Was on TV Talking About Need for More Guns, Another Mass Shooting was Occurring in Pennsylvania

[mrstickball]

kain_kusanagi said:

sc94597 said:
I don't understand how a background check would've prevented Mrs. Lanza from obtaining her weapons. She was a law-abiding citizen with no mental health problems herself. She was well-educated on gun use and regularly practiced.

Yeah. If you think about it, her guns were stolen. It was her son, but he still stole them. He illegally obtained those guns and no law can stop someone from breaking the law.

That is the crux of the issue.

Even if the Democrats have their way and ban hi-cap mags, assault rifles, and create more stringent background checks, it would not have stopped Mr. Lanza from killing his mom, taking her guns, and killing the kids at school.

Why? Because it is literally impossible to do a retroactive ban without lots of people dying. Law enforcement has even said this - that they can't take away anyones' assault rifle. It'd be similar to the 1994 AWB, and we still had mass murders during the ban.

The entire gun debate is tangental to the real debate that has to go on - what causes a man like Mr. Lanza to kill 20 kids, and how do we address it. 14,000 people are murdered every year. Is that because gun ownership exists in the US? Unlikely, because a large portion of those murders take place in cities with total bans on firearms. There is a deeper issue in America as to what causes murder and crime.

If you look at all the data that is out there, you'll find a few things:

1. Murder rates drop by 50% among whites and 80-90% among blacks if they graduate high school and complete at least 1 year of college or technical school.
2. Murder rates began rising when America had 3.0 live births per woman, and began dropping when it hit 2.3
3. Worldwide, murder correlates heavily with education and economic inequality
4. Despite concealed carry permits being allowed in many states, there has been no uptick in crime
5. Murder rates are at a 40 year low per capita in the US, despite gun ownership staying steady at 40% of the US population

Those facts deal with murder. The reality is that the gun debate deals not with murder or what causes it, but guns. Deal with murder and what causes a man to kill children, or another human being. Deal with it, and gun ownership ceases to be relevant.