Shocked by the news from Colorado

We can condemn gun ownership in the USA all we want.

What matters is the majority of American citizens' opinion and we are not going to change the pro-gun lobby's opinion by being critical.

Another point is that until and unless the USA deals with the social problems that make so many youngsters from ethnic groups that are not ALL AMERICAN ANGLO-SAXONS feel they have no option but to resort to violence and remembers that their rather noble constitution also states that all men are born equal things are not going to change.

And no, my criticising the citizens of the USA for not reading their constitution well, or at all, is not going to help either! Americans are fully entitled to believe that we should shut up about their problems and solve our own.

We have an ever growing disadvantaged minority too and people resorting to violence in desperation, so shall we start at home?

I read somewhere that more of the younger generation are starting to react adversely to the ownership of guns in the USA. This can only be good. It is their future after all.

A majority of Americans think gun controls should be more strict.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/16/share-of-americans-who-favor-stricter-gun-laws-has-increased-since-2017/

EllanVannin

Complete lack of gun control in the USA. Disgraceful. Isn't it up to the President ?

No it is not up to the president. No matter how hard presidents have tried, they do not work as dictators, and Biden is more inclined to achieve the support of the rest of the government.
Whilst Biden was in government he managed to get a ban on automatic weapons which has lapsed. He is now trying to reaffirm that law now.
But such a gesture will do little to reduce gun violence in a country where the number of fire-arms far outweigh the number of people.

Americans really do have a different mentality when it comes to guns, unfortunately, and this can include people who have emigrated here. A couple of years ago I was on an international music teaching site on Facebook and a lady posted that she had been asked by a seven-year-old pupil if she had a gun!?! No child here would even think of it. If anything, the teacher’s answer was even more disturbing. She did not want to admit that she did not have one. This was not because she disagreed with guns but because all her neighbours had them and she was worried that if she fell out with one of them they might shoot her! Says it all, really.

And what 'extreme situations' do our police have to prepare for with rapid fire guns? I think that in itself is a silly idea.
Would you not want the Police properly armed when dealing with a terrorist situation, especially if there were a few armed terrorists on the rampage randomly killing innocent people?

Oh, got it. You need an armoury of rapid fire weapons to protect livestock
Who said that? Only you. I said people protecting their livestock in rural areas would use a rifle rather than a handgun. You are replying without reading the posts properly! ?

grandtanteJE65

We can condemn gun ownership in the USA all we want.

What matters is the majority of American citizens' opinion and we are not going to change the pro-gun lobby's opinion by being critical.

Another point is that until and unless the USA deals with the social problems that make so many youngsters from ethnic groups that are not ALL AMERICAN ANGLO-SAXONS feel they have no option but to resort to violence and remembers that their rather noble constitution also states that all men are born equal things are not going to change.

And no, my criticising the citizens of the USA for not reading their constitution well, or at all, is not going to help either! Americans are fully entitled to believe that we should shut up about their problems and solve our own.

We have an ever growing disadvantaged minority too and people resorting to violence in desperation, so shall we start at home?

I think we understand all this but we have an absolute right to criticise aspects of US life as we wish - just as they criticise our NHS for example. I don’t understand your point about ethnic groups and violence at least not in the context of mass shootings . We can also criticise any country we want such as Belarus, Iran, China, Russia - I’m not going to shut up and just look inward. I can do both. We are part of the global community and are impacted by it.

It isn't just mass shootings that are the problem with gun ownership. There are the accidentals shootings, the suicide rate rising, the domestic shooting with violent partners, etc. We get a lot of rhetoric about being able to protect oneself but how many rabid gunmen have been shot by the public in mass shootings before the police turn up? The mindset of those that support gun ownership beggars belief and doesn't seem to be likely to change any time soon.

We have relatives nearby and we have visited Table Mesa which is a middle-class, not a crime-ridden area. That somehow makes it starker. Perhaps it shouldn't but it does for me.

The President, no matter how much he would love to, does not have the power to ban guns and destroy the very powerful gun lobby.

He needs Congress' approval which, according to my relative, is very unlikely to happen.

There seems no reason why the beautiful state of Colorado is targeted in so many massacres but it is frightening for its residents.

It is a tiny number of individuals who are preventing even the most miniscule amounts of gun control in the USA.
To understand just who and just how go to
the-rachel-maddow-show.simplecast.com/
This podcast outlines it all. It's horrifying when 90% of their population want this. I always thought they were a democracy!

Every shooting horrifies me, because of the loss of life but also because my eldest DD lives there with her family and I know how random these things are. They have been too close, more than once, to an active shooter. Once when my DGD was in one wing of the shopping mall and the gunman was in the other, and once when my DD had gone to pick up her eldest DS from work but had to leave the area because there had been a shooting and the gunman hadn't been found. She had to hope that her DS's workplace had carried out the procedure of locking down when there was an active shooter nearby, and fortunately it had done so.

There was also someone shot dead in a house opposite one of the children's schools, and a couple shot and killed in the park at the end of their street. During the BLM protests and counter-protests, my DD and SiL used to lie awake listening to gunshots. One of the first things that the kids learned at school, including kindergarten, was what to do if there was a gunman in the building.

And this is in a city considered to be one of the safest cities in the USA.

I don't think that things will ever change. My DD says that it is impossible to have a rational conversation, even with nice people, about their guns.

Even if the Americans banned all gun sales tomorrow I doubt that things would change for a long time. There must be enough weapons in public hands to facilitate any number of minor wars.

icanhandthemback

It isn't just mass shootings that are the problem with gun ownership. There are the accidentals shootings, the suicide rate rising, the domestic shooting with violent partners, etc. We get a lot of rhetoric about being able to protect oneself but how many rabid gunmen have been shot by the public in mass shootings before the police turn up? The mindset of those that support gun ownership beggars belief and doesn't seem to be likely to change any time soon.

This is a gut wrenching read

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives is a 2016 non-fiction book by the British journalist and writer Gary Younge. The book focuses on the stories of 10 American children and teenagers, ranging from the ages of 9 to 19, killed by gun violence within a 24-hour time period on November 23, 2013.The book follows the lives and deaths of Jaiden Dixon,[12] Kenneth Mills-Tucker,[13] Stanley Taylor,[14] Pedro Cortez,[15] Tyler Dunn,[16] Edwin Rajo,[17] Samuel Brightmon,[18] Tyshon Anderson,[19][20] Gary Anderson,[21] and Gustin Hinnant.[22]

Younge explores how the deaths are "normal" by American standards—in that none of the stories made national news—but not "normal" by civilized standards

Gun ownership in the US seems to be because people seem frightened someone might try and shoot them, any other human is a possible killer. Is it a throwback from pioneers of the past when they felt threatened by First Nation people? My good friend lives in California and doesn't have a gun, but her neighbours opposite do and showed me their Magnum very proudly. Apparently the bullet would pass through their front door, through the person standing there, and through my friend's front door.

Ellenvannin..I am think the president of the USA is completely useless
Totally incompetent.

First, I have not read all of the posts yet. But I want to clear up some misinformation.

I live in Colorado. Less than an hour away from Boulder. I have lived in Colorado my entire life. I have watched Columbine and the Aurora theater shooting as they unfolded.

In the US we have a constitutional right to bear arms. My husband is a gun collector and has multiple. He would lay down his life to protect that right. He has in fact served his country in the military to defend all of our rights, including the right to say you dont like guns. I don't expect anyone in other countries to understand and honestly I don't care. His guns have never killed anyone, nor will they. They are kept locked in a safe separate from the ammunition, in the basement which is also locked.

This shooter in Boulder was mentally ill. His family knew he was paranoid and delusional at times. His may have been bullied, but his mental health issue was not the result of bullying.

In the US, it is required that people buying guns complete a background check. It is called the Brady law. There are loopholes however, which Colorado has moved to close.

In Colorado you must complete a background check for all gun purchases.

In Colorado, we have a law against high capacity magazines.

In Colorado we have Red Flag Laws which would take guns away from people who are mentally unstable.

His family saw him "playing" with the gun 2 days before the shooting. They took it away from him and put it in his bedroom.

One phone call from his family would have stopped this and saved 10 lives.

What other laws would you all suggest? Murder is illegal and yet...

We don't have a gun problem in the US. We have a mental health problem. IMO we also have a media problem because they use these types of events for ratings.

Also, our president can not just outlaw guns. He is not an emperor. We have checks and balances. Congress makes the laws.

Before anyone starts putting misinformation out there, please know the facts. If you are unfamiliar with the way the US works, please educate yourself.

freedom a mental health problem not a gun problem? Really - every single gun death in the US is the result of a mental health problem?

And before you posted, it would have been better to read the thread before lecturing us

Here’s a scholarly article written by Americans and published by a reputable body. It’s focus is mass shootings and mental illness but it includes the wider issues of gun deaths. Basically it demolishes the myth of it being all about mental illness.

psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/appi.books.9781615371099

All I can think, freedom, is that the USA is a very, very sick society if it has that level of mental health problems.

316 people shot in the US per day

www.bradyunited.org/key-statistics

As you mentioned the Brady Law I assume its statistics are reliable.

For those who CBA to follow my link I would stress that the figure of 316 is not deaths by shooting. Just shootings.

Even given the subsequent posts, I appreciate that freedom took the time to come on here and put a US point of view. We are not likely to understand it, it's completely alien to the European way of thinking.

Nor can we change the way Americans regard guns. However many are killed.

Blinko

Even given the subsequent posts, I appreciate that freedom took the time to come on here and put a US point of view. We are not likely to understand it, it's completely alien to the European way of thinking.

Nor can we change the way Americans regard guns. However many are killed.

I understand her point of view- it’s a pretty standard one used by the gun lobby. It’s just that it’s simply not evidence based. Of course nothing will change over there - this thread started really about our attitudes to another mass shooting and I can see that I’m not the only one with compassion fatigue. It’s sad but that’s it really isn’t it? I think freedom might have learned something if she’d read the full thread first - it’s hardly a marathon is it?

suziew yes, by 'understand' I guess I meant empathise.

Blinko

suziew yes, by 'understand' I guess I meant empathise.

Ah yes - that makes more sense. Thanks.