Write your representatives!

My letter template:

When is the right time Congressman? How many more shootings before someone is willing to take a stand against the NRA? How many more dead children before we talk about trigger locks, strict liability, strict licensing, not to mention making sure mental health care is properly funded?

100 dead children?

200 dead children?

What is the number that gets us to that conversation Congressman? Because I know one thing for sure: it's at least 20.

December 14, 2012: At least 27 dead, approximately 18 of whom were children in a Connecticut elementary school.

December 11, 2012: One injured, two killed at a mall by gunman in Clackamas, OR.

December 8, 2012: Four killed and two injured on the Tule Indian Reservation including the shooter's three children, only one of whom survived the initial attack.

September 28, 2012: Five killed by a recently fired employee in Minneapolis, MN.

August 24, 2012: Two killed, 9 wounded in 'Empire State Building' shooting.

August 5, 2012: Seven killed in Sikh temple shooting in Oak Creek, WI.

July 20, 2012: Twenty killed and 58 wounded in Aurora, CO.

May 30, 2012: Five killed, one wounded in mass shooting at Cafe Racer.

April 3, 2012: Ten shot, seven killed in Oakland's Oikos University.

March 31, 2012: Two killed and 12 injured in a shooting outside Miami funeral home.

March 2, 2012: Fourteen injured in a mass shooting at concert in Tempe, AZ.

February 27, 2012: Five shot, three dead in a Chardon, OH school.

February 21, 2012: Four killed in a Korean Spa shooting in Atlanta, GA.

December 25, 2011: Seven killed in Grapevine, TX on Christmas Day.

December 1, 2011: Four killed in Bay City, TX mass shooting.

No automatic weapons allowed anywhere in the US. No body armor to civilians. Licensing required for firearms ownership including classes and tests to pass, also mental health eval if indicated.
I like the idea of gun owners being able to refuse to sell guns to sketchy people. But they already can, because they have the right to refuse to sell to anyone for any reason. Also, I'd really hate to think the burden of a fine if you sell to a killer is any more of a preventative than, I dunno, having the blood of innocent children on your soul.

Still like Chris Rock's idea of making bullets cost $1000's each. Maybe throw the money from the drug war into control of weapons?

Also, some guy on NPR said we haven't had an increase in the number of mass shootings in decades. It's just the body count, because the guns have gotten "better".

Weed use to be illegal but somehow people were still able to get it.

I have one friend who carries his pistol under his jacket, and I never quite feel comfortable around him. I don't necessarily think he's going to go postal, but some part of my mind is constantly aware he has a deadly weapon beneath his coat. Once, he was getting up from his chair at a cafe and it flashed a little a his shirt rode up. I felt ashamed to be associating with someone so paranoid he feels he needs to 'pack heat'. It was really weird and uncomfortable. I'm almost positive the people behind us saw it. What must have gone through their mind, especially considering this was after the Cafe Racer shooting? People are welcome to argue the plus or minuses of gun control, but I'll never feel comfortable around someone carrying a gun. I realize this may not of a whole lot of relevance, but I felt like sharing at this moment.

While I agree that the level of glorified violence in media cannot be helpful to the collective mental health, Mr Waldron apparently needs a history lesson when he says this kind of thing didn't used to happen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shoo…

Stay away from schools with your gun, Cienna.

Ask Daune Hatch to watch a youtube video from the Brady Campaign that has Colin Goddard made... where he bought guns at Gun Shows with ID, proof of age, address.. paid cash and out the door... YES there are transactions at Gun Shows completely illegal.
Colin was a Virginia Tech Shooting survivor.

I don't believe that having age appropriate restrictions on violence is necessarily the rantings of a 'prong.' I do believe that the level of violence that is represented in video games, movies and mass entertainment can have a desensitizing effect on a disturbed mind. But I do believe that anyone who looks at our murder rate, compared with the rest of the 'civilized' world and says that guns don't kill people is a 'tool.'

Christ. I'll tell you what, all you gun grab supporters....Tell me this...when the deadbeats come and break down your door because they're not satisfied with their government handouts anymore and want what YOU have....including your wife and /or daughter....what the hell are you going to do then? Because they WILL be armed....and you WON'T. Of course, you are perfectly within your right to slobber and blubber for mercy as they shoot you dead....but I prefer to LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD. Maybe the Brady Foundation will provide your family with free counseling after they bury your stupid ass. Or perhaps when the government REALLY steps over the line (lmfao) and god forbid tramples SOME RIGHTS THAT YOU ACTUALLY THINK ARE IMPORTANT TO YOUR FREEDOM (duh......) will you simply bow to the new ussA or will you fight....Oh wait, that's right...You can't...BECAUSE THEY ARE ARMED AND YOU ARE HOLDING A FRICKEN RAKE.

Oh wait....I got that wrong...The Brady CAMPAIGN... because I'm SURE some moron with nothing actually valid to say in response is going to correct me on that one. It's always a soapbox for gun grabbers until it happens to them.....then OH what you wouldn't have given for a gun at that moment....You know, that moment when you are completely helpless to do a damned thing..?

Getting rid of guns won't work i mean look at all the drug users they still get it psychopaths will too all getting rid of guns will do is make people not able to defend themselves against these people

Your Constitution's 2nd Amendment states "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Everyone focuses on the second clause in that sentence: what about the first part? You have a well regulated militia, in fact, you have several dozen of them federally and at the state and local levels: FBI, the US Army, National Guard, Coast Guard, the Reserves, state police, local police...how many "well regulated militias" do you require to feel "safe" and "secure"? No, the problem is from way way back everyone has assumed that this sentence meant "everyone arm themselves" and perhaps prior to their being a "well regulated militia" this was important. Now, of course, the horses have left the barn, there's no going back, rewriting it won't help, you are awash in weaponry. A friend suggested a boycott of stores that sell guns. But it goes beyond stores that sell guns and ammunition. So, boycott any business whose business is violence? Hollywood, the TV networks and cable stations and local news stations who feature car chases and other "breaking news" as if it were important to our lives; video game designers and the builders and distributors of game consoles, toy manufacturers, toy stores, little boys who carry toy guns, sporting goods shops, car manufacturers and dealers,...

The first question asked of these people requires a human response, but they all make a political response. What are your thoughts on the shooting of Children? should be answered with "I'm horrified and sad", not "hey, no need for law change here".

This thread illustrates why I went from rabidly anti-gun under any circumstance (I am a peaceivist) to 'let's be sensible here'. Most of you sound as closed-minded and biased as the folks I occasionally peek in on forums over in Faux News Land and its ilk. First off, as much as you all take seriously your right to free speech as a foundation of being a citizen of this country, many likewise take seriously their Constitutionally-protected right to bear arms to defend themselves. Fact, and a matter of mutual respect. So stop trying to grab their guns like they think you want to do!

Which isn't to say there aren't more than a few nutcases hanging around the NRA. The rest are programmed with canned answers to the very questions asked of them here, and without ideas of their own about stopping mass murder. Mass murder isn't their thing, so they don't give it any more head space than say Lady Gaga's upcoming spectacle, obviously. Other than some damn wacky ideas, most of those guys are good guys, safe firearm owners, and not prone to busting out their inner mass shooters. Are guns to blame for mass killings? Where they're available, more often than not they are the weapon used. But where not available, the psychos use other means, such as the rash of mass murders of schoolchildren in China with knives and hammers. So guns or not, mass murders are happening, and often in clusters. What is a unifying pattern in many cases? LEGALLY PRESCRIBED PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS for one. Death by gun doesn't even come close to the top of the list of total causes of death in America.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, pharmaceuticals kill more than 290 people per day. The psychotropic drugs themselves contain warnings that they may cause suicidal and homicidal behavior. So why the hell is everyone talking about taking anyone's guns away? The vast majority of gun owners are sane and lawful. The 31,000 people killed by guns annually in America is tragic, but pales in comparison to the 106,000 deaths by legal prescription drugs each year. Why does this get glossed over each time we find out these kids are are on Prozac or Paxil or any other FDA approved psychotropic drug?

And for you who think you or anyone's brain is immune to exposure to constant violence whether first hand, shooter games or graphically violent movies, you can't then be aware of ongoing brain science studies which are verifying that these inputs do in fact measurably affect aggressive behavior, especially in young men. If we refuse to take a hard look at how evolving cultural norms are affecting our society, we have our heads in the sand. Multiple factors, including massively available sophisticated weaponry have changed the game. But if we limit ourselves to black and white thinking and believe that mass murder can be legislated away by restricting access to sane, lawful people, we're delusional.

At the same moment our president wipes invisible tears to mourn these tragic deaths, he oversees a massive killing operation that daily kills innocent civilian men, women and children through his drone program, which earns the USA a reputation as planetary bully in many places. Yet we're shocked -SHOCKED-when our kids--or THEIR kids-- use the same sort of violence to vent their rage at the schizoid nature of our society, which touts freedom and democracy on one hand, and delivers endless war and deep class schism on the other.

Ever since humans have had weapons, there has been tragic death and sometimes mass murder. Thanks to instant media and a larger than ever population scale, this fact is constantly in our face as if it's a brand new reality. Of course we desire to prevent what we possibly can. But we must stop blaming the weapons themselves. Let's instead question why these previously mostly mild mannered sane individuals snapped and went mad for blood. Accessibility to a gun does not make one snap and go homicidal.

Beyond all of this, I want to know how this kid got past the school's new security system with the arsenal of weapons reportedly found at the scene. And why initial reports--as with the Aurora shooting--said there were two shooters.

We need to dig deeper folks and stop the knee jerk fear reactions that make us want to suddenly gut a basic tenet of freedom in America. Study history and the inevitable outcome of powerful central governments disarming their citizenry, and don't be naive as to think it couldn't happen here, as more and more of our personal and civil rights are being gutted in the name of 'security'.

Personally, I am a small woman living alone in a rural neighborhood. I still don't like guns one bit and am not armed. Just not my thing. Being physically accosted is a bigger concern to me than getting shot, so I've learned how to deflect and protect myself. But I do appreciate my well-trained and ethical friends who choose to arm themselves and frankly am glad they're around because if there were a nutty situation out in these here parts, the cops wouldn't have enough time to respond.

The questions are complex, and so are the answers. Prohibition is not the answer, you lucky dogs who now get to light up without fear of being caged.

@67 That seems far fetched. It's generally quite difficult to defeat hardened steel locks with soft lead bullets. If it's true, the officials are admitting the school was being "protected" from a man with a gun by a door breached in seconds by a man with a gun. What kind of security is that? And if it took him more than seconds to get in - why didn't someone notice the sound of continuous rifle fire at their front door? Happens all the time? He "shot up the door" quietly? The odds that this will be verified are near zero. The odds that it's anti-gun propaganda are quite high.

@66 Thank you for broaching a serious and sensitive issue. Our society requires much more demonstrated skill to legally drive on a public road than to raise a child. Yet everybody goes nuts if you suggest enforcing minimum competency requirements on parents. We insist on skill-based licensing to drive a car, teach a class, or run a day-care, but we let any two fools make babies and raise them. Go figure.

@65 Thank you for injecting some rationality into what's mostly a mindless rant by the lunatic fringe. And thank you for recognizing the "halo effect", the collateral protection afforded those who do not own guns by those who do. One important benefit of concealed (vs. open) carry is that the bad guys can't know who is armed: it raises their risk of attacking anyone. And it enables defensive gun use by people who would never carry a gun. "Get back, I have a gun!" is surprisingly effective almost anywhere in America. Try this in London, or Tokyo, or Beijing - the criminals will laugh.

The halo effect is only one of many benefits of gun ownership. Gary Kleck's NDGU study indicates 400,000 people every year believe their use of a gun saved a life. Even if 90% of them are wrong, that still means 40,000 innocent lives are SAVED every year by ordinary civilians with guns. That's a lot: substantially more than the 31,000 killed every year. When you include the rapes that don't happen, the burglaries, robberies, and assaults that don't happen because good people had (or said they had) guns, the benefits of widespread personal gun ownership stack up very respectably against the costs.

And, the issues are complex. Any number of systemic poisons from pharmaceuticals, to lead in the gasoline, to plasticizers in the rayon, to hormones in the meat could easily be a major factor. (I forgot. They banned lead in gasoline because it WAS DAMAGING CHILDREN'S MENTAL DEVELOPMENT.)

And to those who think FPS video games are harmless: see Col. Dave Grossman's study of mass shooters. He found that ALL OF THEM (in recent years) spent hours every day - for years - immersed in these "games". Some kids even learned ALL their marksmanship by video simulation, having only handled a real gun once - for a few hours - before blowing away their classmates. These games are so effective at teaching people to kill that the US, Britain, Australia and Canada have for years used them for training their soldiers.

Its the violent culture that surrounds us, not the weapons which save many more lives than they take every day. I know everybody wants a turnkey solution, but its not possible. I am a former law enforcement officer, and trust me people have changed. Violence has become very normal in our society, and needs to change. Gun control just unarms the guys who may actually stop an incident like this. People need to take an interest in thier kids lives, and raise families to be productive, Thats the only real solution.

It's called a "safe". If those who owned firearms used them, many shootings would simply not happen. It is the ulitmate responsibility of the gun owner to secure all weapons. Otherwise, you may not wake up one day as someone may have grabbed your gun and put a round through your face while sleeping.Those that do not secure their firearms should have them confiscated and they should pay a healthy fine, or if the use of one of their weapons is used in a felony crime, they should go to jail as well.