Poll: Is there a solution to mass shootings?

[Luna]

Its just a negative aspect of living in a (relatively) free society. But I don't understand why Americans should have the freedom to buy automatic weapons, that seems unnecessary to me and less people would have potentially been killed if there was legislation against this.

 

[Galletea]

There is no way of preventing such things. Gun control is a nice idea, but there are about 312 million people in the states. If you get 90% of the population to give up their guns, you still have shit load of weaponry about. If someone wants the weapons to kill a load of people, they will get hold of them. Doesn't matter how tough you are in the rules, it will happen.
If some people had been armed in a dark cinema full of terrified people? They probably wouldn't have been able to pull the gun out, let alone shoot. If they had they'd just hurt more people.
A handgun is incredibly difficult to aim after a range of a couple of meters, and that's without taking things like ricochet into effect.
Just because they have guns doesn't mean they are any good with them.

 

[HardkorSB]

With the colorado shooting, everyone is at it again with the blame game. The parents of the killer, video games, violent movies, guns, mental illness, and many other things are on the blame list. People target these things and then propose solutions. For example, stricter gun laws, more focuse on mental illness, or less violence in media.

But I want to see the opinion of the escapists. Is there a solution to mass shootings or is it something that will always happen?

People don't just go shoot people up like that. It's something that builds up inside them for a while. I'm pretty sure that there were signs of the guy "losing it" long before he went to that cinema but his friends and relatives just brushed it off and went on with their lives or didn't even noticed because they didn't have any connection with him.
He probably didn't have anyone he felt he could trust enough tell about his problems.

I don't think you can stop these things everywhere but you can prevent it from happening among the people you know if you really care about them and can have an intimate conversation with them without being judgmental and without looking down on them.

A few politicians changing a few sentences in the legal codex won't solve shit.

 

[OniaPL]

- Make life less shitty so people won't go batshit crazy

- Build a colosseum and arrange gladiator fights so people get their daily dose of violence

- Make it legal to punch assholes

 

[nexus]

People don't just go shoot people up like that. It's something that builds up inside them for a while. I'm pretty sure that there were signs of the guy "losing it" long before he went to that cinema but his friends and relatives just brushed it off and went on with their lives or didn't even noticed because they didn't have any connection with him.
He probably didn't have anyone he felt he could trust enough tell about his problems.

I don't think you can stop these things everywhere but you can prevent it from happening among the people you know if you really care about them and can have an intimate conversation with them without being judgmental and without looking down on them.

A few politicians changing a few sentences in the legal codex won't solve shit.

I don't really agree with this at all.

There is nothing you could glean out of someone short of "I'm going to kill people" that will suggest they are going to kill people. People make a lot of assumptions about how "crazy" people are whenever someone commits an act like this. It's really easy to say, "He was a lunatic, why didn't anyone stop him?" Well, probably because he was decidedly normal and no one suspected anything.

It's either that, or the environment that we all live in is so sick that we can no longer detect the nuance of lunacy. Or there is something in the water, as they say...

(To add
I just read the morning newspaper, where it was clearly stated he was seeing a campus therapist anyway, who specializes in schizophrenia. They let on that there was nothing particularly abnormal about him, and I don't believe they even diagnosed him with anything. In other words, he was not deemed a threat to himself or others at the time of his therapy.

 

[JanatUrlich]

Maybe if we stop focusing so much on the killer. To be famous is exactly what these bastards want.

Also, take guns away from the Americans. You don't need a fucking gun, shut up.

 

[AnarchistFish]

There is always the chance it will happen but gun control, more laws and tighter security will make it less likely.

But none of that can really happen in the USA from what I gather (I'm British) as each suggestion is shouted down by cries of freedom and the constitution. So I think it's a horrible price you have to pay in order to live by those freedoms you choose, I wonder what the hypothetical limit is in which Americans would overwhelmingly support banning guns.

yeah, this^^

Thank fuck they're banned here, is all I can say.

 

[nexus]

People who disagree with you are the scum of the earth. Good to know

No, I clearly stated that it was people who politicize or exploit tragedy that are scum of the Earth. In the immediate aftermath US media outlets and their pundits were claiming he was a "Tea Party Member", that he was "Into violent video games", and then swiftly moved on to gun control. Disinformation, exploitation, kind of like what you did just now.

You just sound like any other person who's set in their ways and views any kind of debate on a subject that they're set on as some sort of personal affront.

Yea, have fun with that one, your subconscious may be letting something go here.

 

[Garrett]

Mass shoot everyone. No people, no mass shootings. Aside from that, no, I don't think you can do anything about that.

 

[HardkorSB]

There is nothing you could glean out of someone short of "I'm going to kill people" that will suggest they are going to kill people. People make a lot of assumptions about how "crazy" people are whenever someone commits an act like this. It's really easy to say, "He was a lunatic, why didn't anyone stop him?" Well, probably because he was decidedly normal and no one suspected anything.

It's either that, or the environment that we all live in is so sick that we can no longer detect the nuance of lunacy. Or there is something in the water, as they say...

You can always see the signs if you pay attention but most people don't pay attention.
If you know a person, you can tell when they're depressed or angry, even when they try to cover it up (just by noticing that they are trying to cover something up).
Maybe it's just me but I can notice these things (part of it probably has to do with the fact that I often try to cover things up as well).
I've been the designated psychotherapist for a lot of people during my life. Most of the time, people have to reach a point in which there isn't anyone they can trust and be honest with before they'll start to act "crazy", even if they're clearly predisposed to do so. If you have someone to share your problems with, it's easier to go through life, even if it's not great to begin with.
The problem is, a lot of people do feel "alone in a crowd" and, if they've been ignored and/or pushed down enough times, they will eventually explode.

 

[jetriot]

Honestly, I would rather live in a place where I can protect myself and my family then a camera on every street, semi police state like England where I have to rely upon an inept government for 100% of my protection. I trust the police, at least where I live. I really do. But after living through Katrina in New Orleans, I know that there is only one person that can protect me and my family in a crisis and that person is not with the government.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Maybe if we stop focusing so much on the killer. To be famous is exactly what these bastards want.

I don't know if it'd do much to stop them, but giving them exactly what they want is a bad idea anyway.

 

[O maestre]

gun control is working fine here in denmark and with the exception of breivik scandinavia has had view instances of mass violence. if someone snaps all of the sudden the only options they have is knives, and somebody with a knife is a lot easier to stop than someone with a gun. notice how i am not talking about criminals, but mentally unstable individuals who almost always are responsible for these mass killings.

if you claim that it has nothing to do with gun control, than the only conclusion must be the there is something fundamentally different with the american culture that make people more inclined to loose their shit and start killing innocents

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Kill 99% of people and restart human life somewhere in a rainforest.
A little drastic but it would solve a lot of problems.

 

[Grant Stackhouse]

Also somewhat ironically, with all the gun control debates, I think that if there had been a few armed people in the theater, the toll might not have been so bad. The anti-gun brigade loves to say "oh, that would have been worse, the armed civilians would have just unloaded into the crowd". Sure, because even in a moment of terror, your first reflex is to fire into a crowd of fleeing teenagers and kids. Imagine lying between seats, you can see the gunman reloading his rifle. If you had a handgun, you could potentially get the courage to peek out and take a shot at him. Without a gun, you're stuck lying there praying to whatever deity you may believe in that you aren't next.

Oh no, I would not go to a theatre where guns were allowed inside. We have enough killings in theatres already from people sneaking guns or other weapons inside. I've seen food and drinks thrown at rude people, and I've also seen a few fistfights break out inside a theatre, because someone would not shut up.

In a high-stress place with a high concentration of stressed-out people, the last thing I would want is for more of those people to be armed, even if it would improve their ability to fight back in the instance of a crazed mass-murderer walking in. Mass-killings would drop, but individual killings would fly through the roof.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Here's some nice Canadian facts about guns.

doesn't take into consideration Population Density...

Higher population density exponentially increases the crime rates in those areas. There is also issues with climate in assosiation with crimes where individuals are less inclined to react with violence in colder temperate zones then they are in warmer temperate zones.

Simply said, you're not gunna freeze your balls off on a 30 minute car ride just to go on a shooting spree, regardless of how mentally ill you are.

 

[Thaedius]

Kill 99% of people and restart human life somewhere in a rainforest.
A little drastic but it would solve a lot of problems.

Rainbow Six style?

I have to agree that better gun control is needed. I'm aware that this will take quite a while for the problems to stop, and politicians are very short sighted, and will not change things over fear of not being reelected, or for being permanently being remembered for all the wrong reasons.

So I guess the USA loves it's freedoms to be shot at by someone else.

Good Job

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

The only things I could think of that could stop mass shootings is either taking every gun and melting them all down or giving everyone a handgun to carry at all times. Neither seem like viable solutions.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Nope you can not be proactive with crazy least you put everyone in jail.

Also cars and legal drugs kill more than guns do at the end of the day if we had a better educational system and a better armed public such things would lessened more than just banning random things to look good.

 

[Voonhartking]

Stop giving people guns. How many times do you hear "would be shooter killed by other shooter, lives are saved"? Never.