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Things2do wrote:Am I understanding this right? It's already illegal for most of these people to have a gun, and they probably bought said gun on a street corner. So, laws that made it harder to legally buy a gun are going to stop the buying and selling of illegal guns, right?

Well I mean these people probably aren't the ones committing mass shootings anyways; they may kill a couple people here and there, and occasionally this type of thing might happen, but in general they're not trying to pull anything like Columbine off - they're not insane/irrational to that point.

It is a shame that these people have these and are committing crimes with them, and it can be recognized that gun laws won't stop these illegal arms from being distributed as such.

However, the access of the general population to guns so freely, especially the semi automatic/automatic type, allows those who are mentally ill and willing to commit atrocities like Sandy Hook means that anyone can kill a roomful of people in seconds - these are the concerns.

Furthermore, stricter gun laws could help lower the suicide rate - a large majority of gun deaths are due to suicides, and namely how easy it is to do so. Other methods such as cutting and poison only have 5% success rates while firearms have 96% success rates, and stricter gun laws have corresponded to a lower in suicide rates.

The US public is aware of the threat - if you've watched the news lately there have been many paranoia fueled stampedes to get out of areas where false alarms, such as motorbike engines or firecrackers, have sparked fear of the next El Paso Walmart.

Now we just have to do something.

For more statistics on US gun ownership from a politically neutral source, check here: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... aps-charts

JoeyC wrote:politically neutral source

JoeyC wrote:Vox

Fine then, not CNN/Fox source.

JoeyC wrote:Fine then, not CNN/Fox source.

There's a wide variety of "media bias" charts out there. Vox generally skews left at around the same level as CNN, although CNN sometimes is further left than Vox. Both tend to skew left to a lesser degree than Fox News skews right.

However, despite Vox's generally left leanings, that article in particular is fairly well-supported by numbers from external sources, so I think generally the contents of the article can be accepted (while also taking a possible bias in tone into account).

JoeyC wrote: However, the access of the general population to guns so freely, especially the semi automatic/automatic type, allows those who are mentally ill and willing to commit atrocities like Sandy Hook means that anyone can kill a roomful of people in seconds - these are the concerns.

Most mass shooters do not present as mentally ill. The corollary is also true - most people who are mentally ill are not at risk for becoming mass shooters.

True, not always; however, easy access to guns (comparative to trying to access them through illegal means) definitely has some effect to the number of shootings.

JoeyC wrote:True, not always; however, easy access to guns (comparative to trying to access them through illegal means) definitely has some effect to the number of shootings.

What kind of influence/effect are you talking about? You see, places with strictest gun laws actually have a higher gun death rate. Take Chicago, guns are like, completely outlawed, yet their gun murder rate is extremely high. However, if you look at a place like Texas, where gun laws are extremely lax, shootings happen less often.

(I'm just a freshman, maybe some of my info is incorrect)

First, check out this East-Approved neutral, mainly stat based article
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... aps-charts
And also, Texas has a somewhat different culture than places like Chicago - however, things like the El Paso shooting have still occurred (ironically after one of the residents said that they would stop a shooter with their own guns before the shooter could kill anyway), and my school alone has received 2 shooting threats already, not to mention the others in the area.

JoeyC wrote:First, check out this East-Approved neutral, mainly stat based article
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... aps-charts
And also, Texas has a somewhat different culture than places like Chicago - however, things like the El Paso shooting have still occurred (ironically after one of the residents said that they would stop a shooter with their own guns before the shooter could kill anyway), and my school alone has received 2 shooting threats already, not to mention the others in the area.

You can tell that's slanted just by looking at #5. The reason articles use "gun deaths" instead of "homicides" is because it conveniently includes suicides.

Unome wrote:

JoeyC wrote:First, check out this East-Approved neutral, mainly stat based article
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... aps-charts
And also, Texas has a somewhat different culture than places like Chicago - however, things like the El Paso shooting have still occurred (ironically after one of the residents said that they would stop a shooter with their own guns before the shooter could kill anyway), and my school alone has received 2 shooting threats already, not to mention the others in the area.

You can tell that's slanted just by looking at #5. The reason articles use "gun deaths" instead of "homicides" is because it conveniently includes suicides.

It is worth looking into how guns and suicides are related. Firearms are utilized in less than 10% of all suicide attempts, however firearms account for more than half of all suicide deaths. This is simply because firearms allow for a quick, easy, and highly lethal means of someone carrying out a suicide. However, if guns were restricted then yes, it is likely that someone will still try to commit suicide, as they can substitute for another method but he or she is far more likely to survive an attempt from this different method than from the use of a firearm.

And again with the Chicago statistic, it has been found that less than 40% of the guns there actually originate from inside of Illinois. Chicago is very close to the Indiana border, and this makes sense considering how Indiana has considerably lax gun laws, and Indiana also allows people from neighboring states to purchase guns with a very similar ease.