Who or what is to blame for the Newtown CT shooting? (page 3)

sooner7nc

That sounds very plausible. I can imagine these people playing 1st person shooters right up to the moment that they start their rampages.

besty

Until it’s solved it’s no wonder so many of the non-violent citizenry feel compelled to arm themselves for personal protection.

@marvin shilmer

The US has 15x per capita gun ownership, yet 74x per capita gun homicide. (compared to the land of the free, aka the United Kingdom)

Exactly when will you figure out that more guns = more death?

HintOfLime

Yeah, the guy was an adult. He could make his own choices, and he clearly made bad choices.

Be it the decision to play violent games, watch violent gory movies, to go out and get rifle training, or to pick up a gun with the intent to kill instead of call 911 for help - the blame should really fall on the shooter.

The human brain is a messy glitchy thing with a lot of evolutionary left-overs and huge potential to go wrong. You just can't regulate people into not to being evil or going crazy. Take away the gun and they'll build bombs, or something else to get that sense of having power.

I think in American society we do look to guns as the 'equalizer'. "God made man, Colt made them equal," etc. So, I think for people who feel powerless, it is a regional association that guns = taking back power. I'm sure there are people studying this sort of stuff. In other cultures, that mental association may be less significant.

- Lime

Anony Mous

Violent video games have no correlation on actual violence. Nor does music or any other form of entertainment. The largest source of entertainment for these shooters is neither video games nor music but books. Most lonely, bullied, geeky individuals (myself included) prefer books.

What's the source of some of these shootings: the media. The media makes the perpetrators look like an anti-hero and for every shooting glorified in the media, there are 2 or 3 more copy cats in a period of a couple of days (for this one too).

What's another source: no health care. These shootings in the US by children correlate highly along the states that do not provide free health care for children. Some parents have attempted to commit their children but the state wouldn't pay for it and the parents couldn't afford it (even with a job with benefits). Mental health care in the US is among the worst in the world, worse than some 3rd world countries even, heck health care in general in the US rates among 3rd world countries with countries like Brazil, Mexico and Cuba (our neighbors) being rated well better than the US.

Yohan

Gun free zones are the problem. All the mass shootings happen in gun free zones. My dozens of guns have never killed anyone nor have my many thousands of cartridges or the tens of thousands of rounds that I've already fired.

perfect1

Its interesting that Adam Lanza could not feel pain.

I wonder how that contributed.

In school, every classroom has an Adam Lanza type.

Makes you wonder.

Theocratic Sedition

lol (cynically) @ the various reasons given on this thread! Some answer as if the reason they list is the sole reason. Others admit their answer is but one of a multitude of factors.

Deputy Dog

As one who has used many different types of weapons and understand how they work, it's really sad to see how confused the media/TV news people butcher the facts about guns and how different guns work. Let alone all the spin put on all the stats. I'm not sure we'll ever learn the lessons needed to curb this type of thing.

One of the problems I see is just as in the old “assault weapon” ban, most of the law makers don’t understand what makes one gun more lethal than another, so they pass dumb laws that address appearance more than function. High capacity mags are not as big of an issue as you may think, the type of action (auto/semi-auto/pump ect.) and type of ammo have much more to do with lethality.

What will happen when someone uses a simple pump action shotgun to kill more people than Adam Lanza? Will lawmakers try to take them away from the hunters as well? Not that hunting has anything to do with the 2 nd amendment.

sammielee24

No EP.

The first action is to stop selling assault weapons, any military style weapon. Stop selling large capacity magazines. That would be a start. Force people to take gun courses and training - if it cost them $200. bucks a pop and two months, that makes people stop and think and prepare. The force insurance on the people. There are a lot of things to at least TRY but it appears a great many don't even want to entertain the thought.

You take guns out of the system that are capable of mowing down a hundred people in ten minutes, then you remove some of that action.

People who go on about America being so violent that they need weapons in their house to protect themselves - those are the people who aren't bothered to address those underlying causes of violence in your society. Not me. If it's so bad you need an assault weapon or five, YOU need to address WHY you feel that way and why YOU are willing to do nothing about the reasons for that violence. sammieswife

Who or what is to blame for the Newtown CT shooting?