However, anyone with any sense can see that guns are dangerous and shouldn't be handed out like candy.

Perhaps Canada and the UK hand them out like candy, I don't know. In the USA you have to pass a background check.

Which it is assumed his mother did. However once in the house they were obviously able to be removed and used.

If they were much harder to get they would be much harder to steal, not impossible, but much harder.

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Sirius, Thanks for proving that prohibitions don't work. Since we have now dispensed with the nonsense that government can control it ... or put another way, gun control means only criminals have guns.

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However, anyone with any sense can see that guns are dangerous and shouldn't be handed out like candy.

Perhaps Canada and the UK hand them out like candy, I don't know. In the USA you have to pass a background check.

Which it is assumed his mother did. However once in the house they were obviously able to be removed and used.

If they were much harder to get they would be much harder to steal, not impossible, but much harder.

And you know how she had them stored? Gun safe perhaps? Or are you saying 20 year olds should be able to take anything a parent owns any time they want, like money out of the wallet?

As to making stuff harder to get, just how hard is it to get heroin? The harder you make it on paper, the easier it is in real life as the profit motive drives more and more into the business.

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Not I, but Wayne B Wheeler, blame him for prohibition not working.

The infamous fool who turned off the taps!

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There is a 5 day waiting period in my state. I was just at a gun show here today and the same applies.

How about that knife attack in China. Shall they outlaw knives? How about fat people, shall we take away their spoons and ask for a 5 day wait to buy ice cream? Shall we put a warning label on on the side of ice cream; This product will make you fat if you don't practice on self-control? Or shall we just take away the ice cream from fat people?

Where is personal responsibility and self restraint?

When you willingly give up freedom for a little security you in the end get neither for your lack of personal responsibility and self restraint. Enjoy your self imposed slavery to the state.

If "the right to bear arms" is enshrined in the constitution, as it is in the USA, that is their right and we have no place to really complain.

However the USA cannot complain about this sort of massacre if "the right to bear arms" is law. The people of the USA are the ones who have to want to change this.

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Sirius, Thanks for proving that prohibitions don't work. Since we have now dispensed with the nonsense that government can control it ... or put another way, gun control means only criminals have guns.

He didn't prove they didn't work. He just proved they weren't sufficient.

Once a gun is in the community there doesn't seem to be any way to track it and see where it ends up.

That is insane.

Why do people even think they need these things? What possible purpose can justify the thousands of gun deaths in the US?

Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

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Reality Internet Personality

There is a 5 day waiting period in my state. I was just at a gun show here today and the same applies.

How about that knife attack in China.

...

How many people died in that knife attack?

I think the outcome may have been a little different if the perpetrator had access to a gun.

To me as a parent, there is a huge difference between an injured child and a dead one.

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Reality Internet Personality

It seems that you either didn't read the whole report in that link or you chose to ignore it......

"•Handcuffing the ATF: The ATF, the sole government agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws, has operated without a permanent director since the Bush Administration, and operates with just 1,800 agents to monitor approximately 77,000 gun dealers. Given these constraints, it would take ATF 22 years to inspect all federally licensed gun dealers. Even if the ATF had the manpower to inspect most gun dealers, federal law limits the agency to a single unannounced inspection of a dealer in any 12-month period. Congress has made it increasingly difficult for the ATF to revoke licenses of crooked gun dealers.

•An absence of records: It is impossible for law enforcement to know the whereabouts of millions of firearms in circulation today because Federal law explicitly bars the ATF from establishing a database of retail firearms sales, and private gun sellers are not required to keep a paper trail of transactions. Prior to 2001, federal authorities maintained criminal background check records for up to six months. Under President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed this policy and ordered the destruction of all criminal background check records within 24 hours. Even though the General Accounting Office found that destroying these records endangers public safety, the policy remains in effect."

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Once a gun is in the community there doesn't seem to be any way to track it and see where it ends up.

That is insane.

How about substitute an item will give you something to pause about. Radioactive material. Tons of it disappears. Why isn't it tracked. That is insane!

You know the answer to your question.

When you are ready to deal with reality, as it exists, we can have a discussion.

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It would seem to me that the background checks are either useless or not carried out correctly. In defence of this statement I will say;

Gabrielle Giffords
Virginia tech
Seal Beach
Binghamton
Geneva County
Collier Township

All these and others are just in the last three years.

It seems that you either didn't read the whole report in that link or you chose to ignore it......

"•Handcuffing the ATF: The ATF, the sole government agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws, has operated without a permanent director since the Bush Administration, and operates with just 1,800 agents to monitor approximately 77,000 gun dealers. Given these constraints, it would take ATF 22 years to inspect all federally licensed gun dealers. Even if the ATF had the manpower to inspect most gun dealers, federal law limits the agency to a single unannounced inspection of a dealer in any 12-month period. Congress has made it increasingly difficult for the ATF to revoke licenses of crooked gun dealers.

•An absence of records: It is impossible for law enforcement to know the whereabouts of millions of firearms in circulation today because Federal law explicitly bars the ATF from establishing a database of retail firearms sales, and private gun sellers are not required to keep a paper trail of transactions. Prior to 2001, federal authorities maintained criminal background check records for up to six months. Under President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft reversed this policy and ordered the destruction of all criminal background check records within 24 hours. Even though the General Accounting Office found that destroying these records endangers public safety, the policy remains in effect."

I looked it over VERY carefully.

I don't give a dang about it because IT'S ALL UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

ATF should be a convenience store, not a government police force. State agency--(?)well that's up to THAT state.

Now answer mine---how about your spoon?

YOU're welcome Guy.

It would seem to me that the background checks are either useless or not carried out correctly.

That is the case with the entire government of the USA. Arbitrary and capricious.

As to that list, the great majority of them would have passed the present background check. The USA does not violate medical privacy and have a database of crazies and lunatics. That goes to the very core issue here; crazies and lunatics are permitted full rights in the USA. That is what needs to change, not more useless unenforceable prohibitions. To put in more succinctly, if crazies are not wandering the streets then they aren't going to be going into gun shops and needing background checks to prevent them from getting firearms.

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and everyone else in the world is just like me.

hehehe

Jobs Jobs Jobs

It would cost Trillions Of Dollars To Disarm America. Jobs Jobs Jobs.

It will cost Hundreds Of Billions To Maintain a Disarmed America. Jobs Jobs Jobs

Everyone will Have A Job.

Me Likee.

No Need To Discuss YANKEE INGENUITY, when it comes to Keeping Guns On The Sly. Or Building Our Own. Or Using OTHER INGENIUS ways To Kill.

'Cause, Let Me Tell Ya, US Yankees, WE LOVE TO KILL.

We Really Need Another World War.

DEMON...HOT STUFF

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May we All have a METAMORPHOSIS. REASON. GOoD JUDGEMENT and LOVE and ORDER!!!!!

It is rather amazing that Guy and ID are more concerned about gun ownership rights than offering constructive opinions on how to reduce the incidence of these horrific events. ID is concerned about the constitution and Guy mocks the situation. It's your karma, so pathetic.

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It would seem to me that the background checks are either useless or not carried out correctly.

That is the case with the entire government of the USA. Arbitrary and capricious.

As to that list, the great majority of them would have passed the present background check. The USA does not violate medical privacy and have a database of crazies and lunatics. That goes to the very core issue here; crazies and lunatics are permitted full rights in the USA. That is what needs to change, not more useless unenforceable prohibitions. To put in more succinctly, if crazies are not wandering the streets then they aren't going to be going into gun shops and needing background checks to prevent them from getting firearms.

Gary, wasn't it on Reagan's watch that we opened the asylums in order to save money?

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