I'm not suggesting everyone who wants to own guns is nuts. I can understand someone wanting a handgun for home defence, or a rifle for hunting. But it shouldn't be as easy as it is to buy them.

Irrelevant in this particular case. I meant Lanza wasn't a known criminal. People said he was "strange", he possibly had Asperger's Syndrome. But he had no record of violence.

I have no lame utopian dreams, those are for the young and naive. Like I've said, I don't believe everyone should give up every gun they've got. Just reasonable checks on who gets what kind of firearm.

An opinion from the inside:

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and...219-2bml3.html

"While every other liberal democracy in the world understands that liberty doesn’t depend on easy access to an assault rifle, the American myth (for those who buy into it) makes that weapon into liberty’s only certain guarantor."

"For all our expressions of grief in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings, Americans – particularly white men – remain stubbornly enchanted by the freedoms that they imagine the gun represents. Too many of us still want our Man Card, and, in a way unique to our country, we will sacrifice our own children to get it."

Based on that thinking, as the US government has nukes, shouldn't every US citizen own their own nuke just to make sure?

Another interesting point; in the Aurora shooting, there were several theaters within almost equal distance from the killers house, the theater he decided to hit was the only one with a sign that told those with concealed carry permits to not carry their guns in the theater. The killer went to the place were he knew he would be more likely to not run into resistance.

Or it was a pure coincidence.

There is normally a patter in these shootings. It would seem that these killers are perfectly sane. They carefully plan out their bloody work, the weapons that the Aurora shooter was carrying could put down quite a bit of firepower. He had his house fortified and booby trapped. Thus, it would seem that this isn't coincidence.

"It would seem" is no substitute for evidence. Speculations bring you nowhere, facts do.

Well, this is the experts speculating.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/speculate
The definition of "to speculate" does not change with the person taking that action.

Still don't know why no one wants to look at root causes. Guns cause crime like matches cause arson. There is no difference in how one uses a tool. I can easily murder people many ways. The internet shows me easily how one can do such a thing. I don't need a firearm to murder children. The kid was fascinated by the press coverage. He wanted to be the worst. His senses have been dulled by violent movies, tv, music and more importantly video games. How can we expect children to behave if all they know is how to blast someone day after day. Stop Hollywood, Disney and all those that create such violent movies. Stop letting children watch this stuff. Stop the game makers from making blood and murder training games.

Would you like to share your sources (scientific studies, ...) for these statements?

That young man who killed the kids and adults was because he was sick in the head. The violence in media had nothing to do with it.

Tobi, you are never going to convince these people. There are a lot of people in the US who just see things differently to the rest of the world. Their ancestors had failed in or been thrown out of Europe. Their country was created by armed insurrection. They spent centuries trying to commit genocide on the indigenous inhabitants. They've invaded both their neighbours and anyone else they could reach. Their government practices kidnapping and torture. We're never going to change them: just be glad there's a ocean between us.

I would tend to agree, there is a cultural difference here. Population densities, history, ethnic background, and familiarity with guns all play into the opinions for guns. I prefer to think my ancestors left an oppressive situation in Europe and found new opportunities. They weren't royalty and quite frankly moved to be better off. There is a lack of trust in government and a degree of self-reliance involved in our opinions.

True.

My vote is to ban cop-killer bullets, large capacity magazines, and to require a slow cyclical- rate-of-fire process so that even if the gun is semi-automatic, it would be slow firing. If you did have to squeeze off two rounds quickly, which can happen in hunting, then a stop and cam system would prevent you from firing again until a few seconds had passed.