He purchased the guns legally.

@Anonymous: The point is, criminals will find ways to get guns, legally or illegally. By installing gun laws, you make it more difficult for the average, law-biding citizen to arm & therefore defend themselves against these criminals.

@Anonymous: The point is wrong, because a lot of shootings happen with guns that are legal, but should be restricted, like assault rifles.

So why can't we get a ban on assault rifles?

@Merdle: Last I checked they ARE restricted.. you have to have a permit or something to carry them, don't you? I'm no expert but you can't buy guns at Walmart

@Anonymous: What? Yes you can buy guns at walmart, just not the type we're talking about. You can buy hunting rifles at walmart.

yeah, gun laws would also stop all those black market gu-

oh, wait.

The fewer guns that get sold legally the fewer guns that will make it to the black market. Guns are not like drugs where any dumbass can make them. Taking a gun away from somebody that intends to misuse or preventing them from getting one in the first place it makes it much more likely that they will not acquire a gun.

@Anonymous: i'm a dumbass. i can build an ak.
http://www.ak-47.us/build/Matt_Screw_Build.php

in fact, it's easier than making drugs, because cooking meth makes poisonous fumes.

building an ak is pretty safe (and legal) in comparison.

@Anonymous: Agreed. SWAT teams should generally be disbanded. Less home invasions by the government is a good thing.

For gun laws to work, their goal must be to reduce the overall availability and circulation of guns in society. Yes, properly organized criminals will still find a way to get guns, but it will be much harder for that random kid who wants to make a quick buck robbing a store, or that loonie who just wants to watch the world burnm to get one from the black market.

If your "strict gun laws" allow you to buy a gun easily, but not carry it concealed, then duh, somebody can still just carry it concealed. You see gun crime everyday in the US, but not as often in Western and Northern Europe. I wonder why that is...

@burrowowl: Arresting officers in the case of other offenses where unlawful arms are discovered. And on the side of prevention, we might want to limit the number of rounds that can be acquired at any given time except in certain situations (ranges could sell their own rounds to be used only at the range or something like that). Nobody needs 6000 rounds for hunting or home defense

@Anonymous: Yeah, that's exactly how it happened in Nazi Britain.

"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity. But why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

@flash81: You realize that it's not the guns, it's American way of life that causes people to go on homicidal rampages more often in this country than anywhere else. You can own firearms in most countries, only here in the US do morons think it's a good idea to settle an argument by shooting a bunch of people. Also: I could have worded my opinion a little better, but the same point still stands, taking away the right to own guns or making it excessively hard to own one, is pointless. What we need to do is start changing our way of life, not taking away the tools with which we unleash our hatred for one another in violent outbursts.

There are creators, there are destroyers, and an entire rainbow in between the spaces... it doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter what you do... you can't take the creative out of the creator. But what you can do, is teach a creator how to act like a destroyer. I'm not sure you can teach a destroyer to be creative.

@Anonymous: What's Nazi Britain? Are you saying we can't by guns? There's a gun shop about 10 miles from me... The reason our police don't carry guns is to avoid unwanted deaths.

@Anonymous: Wow. Here I thought I was posting a mildly funny meme to Canv.as for mild amusement and instead started a political debate about guns.

@Anonymous: I don't know. I was adolescent white kid when I was younger and I knew where I could buy guns illegally. Small towns are probably make it easier for that kind of stuff though.

@Anonymous: Agreed I knew arms dealers involved with the cartels in my neighborhood growing up. I've since moved to another state and it didn't take long to figure out which people I could ask around here for such goodies.

If someone wants to commit a crime they are going to do it regardless of the law. I'm surprised the guy didn't just blow the place up it probably would have been more effective and "joker-like" if that's what he was going for. The issue here isn't guns, it's violence attributed to unstable people. You can't ban everything in the world just because someone can make a bomb out of fertilizer or chlorine gas out of bleach and ammonia.

I think everyone is missing the point here, it's a known fact that if guns didn't exist murders wouldn't happen

@Anonymous: But you can make sure that only government approved people have access to those things. That's the plan- slowly control every aspect of society so that it's most efficient for those on top.

@Lamasutra: The discussion already ended! Bahahaha!

@Lamasutra: wow your as good as the government at making bs connections between statistics.

@Anonymous: You are dumb. Or trolling. Whatever.

maybe if there was a bigger focus on promoting physical and mental health and wellness, we would all be happier, and less shooty

@Anonymous: Perhaps wars cause crimes? The USA certainly has kept its toes wet in foreign conflicts during the past 100 years or so.

@Anonymous: France : 0,23 casualties of guns for 100'000 inhabitants (average 0,001 guns per person)
Switzerland : 0,7 casualties of guns for 100'000 inhabitants (1 guns for 2 people)
USA : 3 casualties of guns for 100'000 inhabitants (1 guns for 1 person)

And that's despite Switzerland very peaceful education, their lack of poverty-related criminality and their lack of drug related mafia.
If you want to be even more in the true, you should divide France casualties for the average people by 2 or 3 because at least 50% of the murders by guns in France target drug dealers or Corsicans, not the average Jo.

@Lamasutra: Now compare education levels.