On guns, Reid isn't so bad...

Gun control is just a fake bandage that politicians take up to make it appear they are handling the problem. The problem isn't gun availability but society as a whole. What happen to these people is something tragic happens to them, even if it is in their minds, they figure the only way out is to kill themselves but they want to be remembered so they go to a mall, done twice last year at least, go to a place of worship, done at least once, or a school and decide to take out as many people as they can. (This is just the USA) More often than not the place choosen is connected to the people they percieved done them wrong. (Which shows how little has changed since the 90's school shootings.)

Stopping them from getting guns will not stop the problem they will use other easily available forms of killing, bombs are easy to make and not only kill but maim also, plus this has been used in the middle east for a long time. This dates back to the early 20th century but there is an incident in Michigan where a guy went from school to school using bombs to do as much collateral and human damage as possible. Plus gun control laws will not stop a criminal from getting guns there were plenty of studies done in the 90's that showed how useless gun control is. There are also bows, knives, clubs, swords, poisions and various forms are arson (oh that was used in conjection with guns just recently.)

This is nothing but scoring political points. The only thing that will turn this around is if people started to treat other people, even if they don't like them, with respect and dignity and no government on this Earth as any chance of doing that.

He's actually pretty buddy-buddy with the NRA. He regularly throws pork their way, and they've generally endorsed him... though not in 2010 when they declined to endorse anyone in that race. (They clearly wanted to endorse him again, but got too much backlash when they floated the idea.)

The NRA has been pretty careful to make friends in both parties instead of becoming just another part of the Republican coalition and having a much diminished influence for it.

That's the whole problem with your argument.  There's nothing you can do to stop crazy acts.  By definition, irrational acts cannot be thwarted by rational means.  There will always be terrible, crazy people that want to see the world burn and children killed.  There are people out there who are like that.  Your proposal of "we have to do something, look at this violence!" by passing meaningless legislation only serves to disarm law-abiding citizens as well as make these events probably even more likely to continue happening.

Just because something bad happens involving a gun doesn't automatically translate to: more legislation being required.  Sometimes there's not anything you can do.  Yes, the massacre was terrible.  Yes, we all wish it had never happened and we want to strangle the bastard who shot those kids ourselves.  You know what, though?  Sometimes terrible, awful things happen for no good reason, and there isn't any predicting it or preventing it.  All we can do is pick ourselves up, offer comfort to one another, and maybe tragedies like this will knock some sense into lackluster/ negligent parents who let their kids do whatever they want and ignore warning signs.

I only need to cite Washington DC's and Baltimore's sky high murder rates to prove to you gun control does little to solve the problem. MD makes it extremely difficult to get a hand-carry permit and the culture is such. Personal experience, you can have police called on you just simply for walking from your trunk across the lawn into your own house... just because they're 'scary'.

I grew up in Texas until I was 19, but I lived in MD for almost 8 years. I've seen the difference. People don't walk onto your property just for fun here. In MD, you can get charged with a crime for shooting someone in your own home unless you 'prove intent'. Essentially, you have to ask and continue talking to them until they leave, run into the bedroom and hide if you're in danger and hope they don't kill you before then. Only then can you protect yourself with some faith, but even then the stigma is on the gun owner who will be questioned.

DC had a gun ban up until the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional and it didn't do anything to improve murder rates. People who want to commit crimes will find a way to get them. Even if you don't have guns, there will always be some other weapon that will be created to cause violence...

MD is heavily democratic and both it and DC are already being made more and more like police states with a screwed up system and corrupt officials that keep the political ignorant, which is why we left... I would rather run the minimal risk that I will lose my life in a gun crime than to continue giving up more and more of my rights under the false guise the government will 'protect me'. Not everyone is going to be responsible and you can't stop all crimes, so acting like we must ban everything under the sun to create a false sense of security IMO is not smart...

Free compulsory mental health screenings and medication for all citizens. The gun didn't pick itself up and fly into a school.

Another idea: teachers trained in emergeny response (though not armed, that can just go far too badly).

Essentially, your measures reduce the number of children killed, but you know what's better than that? No children killed. Murder can happen without a gun, but not without a murderer.

I want to like the NRA, except for the whole "violent video games cause shootings" nonsense they spouted recently.

Mentally unstable individuals cause shootings. Not guns. Not games. Not comics. Not action movies. Not rap music or rock music or jazz music or anything else.

Yeah. Like any other single-issue group, they just go for the "hey, look over there!" technique of trying to deflect attention from their pet issue. The NRA is kind of shit even on guns, really. They've compromised on a lot of issues in order to maintain the level of influence they have, which is politically astute but it has resulted in them waffling on things like gun-free zones. GOA is far preferable to the NRA, but unfortunately they're a totally second-rate outfit with no real money and even less influence.