[PT145SS]

Originally Posted by Xello

It's unfortunate that we live in a society where people advocate turning our schools into armed fortresses like they do in war zone countries instead of addressing the real issues of gun control and gun owner responsibility and safety. So now we should arm the teachers. And when that doesnt work (because it wont) we will arm the kindergardners. Why do you insist on instilling a sense of fear and false security on our children?

Violent crime and murder have decreased significantly in the past few decades and there is absolutly no correlation between those rates and the number of people walking around with guns. None. If you know of some legitimate studies, please site them, don't just spew BS.

So you can throw out a handful of instances where private citizens thwarted a crime, big deal. Your examples mean nothing. There are so many more instances that can be sited where a legally purchased and owned firearm was used by someone to accidentally or intentionally kill themselves or family members.

Just yesterday a girl shot her sister in the chest because she "didnt know the gun was loaded". All guns are loaded and if a gun owner doesnt treat them as such they should not be allowed to own them and should face jail time if a gun is used improperly. Own them but keep them in the house and off the street. The more guns there are on the street, the more likely we will all die from them, not less.

I do believe in the statement that "guns don't kill people". It should actually be "people with guns kill people". And yeah sure there are other ways to kill. But do all those other ways combined come close to the number of people killed by guns? In what instance does anyone need to own an automatic weapon for protection? A zombie attack? Should we allow everyone to own grenades because only bad people would actually use them.

I don't care if you hate my opinion because you feel it encroaches on your 2nd Amendment rights. However, it's unfortunate that there can't be constructive engagement. It's time that the majority speak loader than the minority and something is done about this issue.

I don’t hate your opinion, I just don’t agree with it. You state that crime has decreased in general over the past few decades but fail to say that the decrease is a result of stricter gun laws. And while I do not think any study can directly correlate gun laws to crime rates I think an inference can be made that over those same few decades, more and more states are allowing conceal carry and at the same time, those places that still have strict gun laws (like Chicago and DC) have some of the highest crimes rates in the country and even in the world. Not conclusive, but something to ponder.

As for arming teachers, we have models for this. In places like Israel, The Philippines, and other places where school shootings were once rampant they have installed training programs and encourage teachers and parents to carry… and in those places, the carnage caused to their children have been greatly reduced.

By no means am I suggesting that eliminating gun free zones solve everything. We still need to reconstruct the family core and fix social economical discrepancies. And by no means am I saying that everyone should be armed and it is tragic that some gun owners are not responsible for the safe keeping of their firearms.