I vote we outlaw all firearms. That would stop the killing.

Because outlawing drugs worked so well on stopping people using them.

In many ways the gun laws we should have had.

It's not (all) guns we should be outlawing, just restricting use and ownership - there are enough examples of people who simply cannot be trusted with them (GUNS, not "weapons" or "arms" - the latter two are strictly the business of the military).

Disclaimer - I am a gun owner.

We got room on the Tex/Mex border for folks that don't understand things.

School shootings only become a National/state issue when white folks get clocked.

Oh yeah. Guns and ammunition are illegal to own in Mexico. And most Latino countries.

Where soldiers and police are graft ridden and armed.

more proof kids (and people) are going crazy....
http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/201...r-over-texting

recent university study:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...hootings-says/

http://news.northeastern.edu/2018/02...searcher-says/

I once picked a crow out of pine tree at 150 yards with my Mossberg bolt-action .22. I mention this only to indicate that I know something about firearms.

I see no reason for private citizens to own what are for all practical purposes machine guns. They certainly are not useful for hunting, and, for protection, a shotgun is easily the best weapon, because, with a shotgun, you don't miss.

If you want to understand the fascination of some of my fellow citizens with weaponry, I suggest you start with the writings of Sigmund Freud. (It pains me to watch my country go nuts, but going nuts it most surely is.)

As an afterthought, I submit this: One of my pet peeves is news reports that refer to "accidental" shootings.

There is no such thing as an "accidental" shooting. A shooting may be "intentional" or it may be "negligent"; "accidental" is not an option.

In the UK, it is legal to own certain kinds of firearms but you get thoroughly checked by the police before they will grant you a license. It is not legal to own machine guns or devices that turn a gun into a machine gun.

We have had only one mass shooting in our history, at Dunblane, many years ago now. We do have an ongoing problem with illegal guns owned by urban gangsters (mostly black) who use them to murder other young people (again mostly black) on the street. That's tragic but it is quite different from mass shootings, which are never the work of known criminals but of aggrieved pupils or (ex-)employees with easy access to automatic weapons. The case quoted by Rokytnj was also gang-related so not strictly relevant. I don't recall a mass shooting that was ignored because the victims weren't white.

What I would like is for some American to explain to me why we in the UK do not need good men with guns in our classrooms to protect our children from bad men with guns. Because apparently in the US, this is considered necessary.

" Because apparently in the US, this is considered necessary."

Not by everyone hazel. Including teachers. But info is biased leaked depending on the chicken little doing it.
My quote was just to show no matter what laws and vigilantes do.
They won't stop nothing.


Mexico is stricter than England. Nuff said.

Edit: No. I guess not. I am surprised some folks still in this day and age eat up sensationalism like it was gospel.

Hazel, you cannot accurately compare crime in UK to crime in USA, of course we have more our population is multiples larger then the UK, we have individual states with more people then the UK. Try comparing it to all of Europe, China, India etc... for more accurate population based stats.

Assault weapons and fully automatic weapons are illegal in the US and have been since the 1930's and then again in the 1980's. The news is spreading FUD when they say such and such used an assault weapon. That's a lie. Even the AR-15 is semi auto, not fully automatic.

Fact remains, in countries (and cities) where guns are banned or highly restricted the crime rates soar. Criminals do not give a damn about laws and they will get guns by any means they can. Gun laws only restrict lawful gun ownership. Do you really think thugs, gangsters, etc... are going into a gun shop and buying a gun?

Also, in the USA the right to bear arms (guns) was firstly applied to self protection from the threat of a tyrannical government (a natural check on abuse), then it was for hunting, crime prevention etc.... This was clearly stated by the earliest founding fathers/politicians. USA is a unique country in this manner, if you do not have the right to defend and protect your life and property then there is no first amendment right to free speech. Notice how many countries regulate your ability to question the government.

Look up this common law:
Harassment, alarm or distress is a statutory offence in England and Wales.
The offence is created by section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986:

That law makes it illegal to "insult the British Royal Family".

Remember in the USA our country was created by looking at the European countries and saying...Let's do it differently, because we want freedom.

I consider the idea of arming teachers to be absolutely absurd. Most are not trained gun handlers/owners and it would be yet another source opportunity for misuse and theft just to mention a few of the many "wrinkles". Perhaps more importantly teachers "didn't sign up" to be ersatz cops held responsible for violent defense. They signed up to teach.

It is my opinion that the root cause is social and only made worse (sometimes deadly) by the availability of guns and other weapons. It may be worthy of note that since Columbine I don't know of another instance where explosives were also involved. This may be because explosives are more easily tracked. Perhaps this can be applied to gun registration to help minimize availability to teenagers. It could be complemented by requiring some manner of testing for safe gun handling knowledge as a part of registration. Simple trigger locks for guns owned by parents would easily thwart many school shootings. Fingerprint locks may make that easier in the future.

Back to social it disturbs me that many if not all school shootings in the US are perpetrated by alienated kids who have often been bullied and often by athletes, the so-called "jocks" who tend to be aggressive BMOCs who commonly receive special treatment even by School Administration. Bullying is often all but igored in these situations only adding to the natural tendency to not even bother to report such incidents for fear of being identified as "weak" or "victim". Back a rat into a corner and.....

If guns were banned in every country, it would NOT stop nor slow down killings. We have what you call the BLACK MARKET.

I guess nobody remembers homemade zip guns made from a car antenna that shot a .22 shell.

If criminals cared about the law they wouldn't be criminals in the first place.

Tri...those are still made in prisons...

If the teachers were armed it would have a tremendous chilling effect on any knothead wanting to go into a school with guns .

The 2nd amendment is not about hunting.

It is about bearing arms to protect oneself against people, particularly those people
who may be in the government.

Therefore it is reasonable that the arms be effective deterrents to human beings, including assault rifles.

If they are coming with assault rifles, you defend with assault rifles.