Armed with two powerful handguns and a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, Adam Lanza blasted his way through Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Friday.
He killed 20 first-graders and six adults, all women, shooting his victims multiple times, before taking his own life. Among those killed was his mother, a gun enthusiast who had often taken him to a local shooting range.
The massacre – coming on top of several other recent mass shootings in the United States, including the April 2 killing of seven people at Oikos University in Oakland – has reignited the gun control debate.
California Senator Dianne Feinstein on Sunday said she would introduce a bill to renew the national ban on assault weapons that lasted for a decade from 1994-2004 before it expired. Some critics viewed the ban as ineffective.
In a statement Friday, Bay Area U.S. Rep. George Miller, whose district includes parts of the East Bay, said it's time "for serious reflection about how we can reduce the flow of guns into the wrong hands." The nation, he said, must "honestly discuss how to prevent people intent on carrying out these savage attacks from so easily obtaining guns and ammunition."
President Barack Obama, speaking at a memorial service Sunday night in Newtown, pledged to "use whatever power this office holds" to stop such massacres and said there was no “excuse for inaction." The New York Times described the President's remarks as "hinting at a fresh effort to curb the spread of guns."
Should we place tighter restrictions on guns and gun ownership? Should they be banned entirely? Or should we make it easier for more people to arm themselves?
We'd like to know what Patch readers think. Do you think gun control laws should be more strict or less strict? If you support more control, what should it be and how should it be enforced?
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Right now in our public schools (except, of course, at the Sidwell Friends school and every other swanky private school where the privileged rich liberals send their children) everybody is pretty much unarmed against the reality of criminal possibility, right? Pray tell me your solution is not to actually even the odds of a successful response to a shooting with a good person with a gun? You really and seriously are not saying that you believe that continuing to outlaw all guns on or near a school campus, and telling the teachers to just lock their doors, cross their fingers and hope for the best is the best defense against those in our society who desire to evil, no matter what laws against murders are already on the books?
I can play progressive “bad-mitten” with you all the day long, if you desire.
We already agree (I think) that better access to mental healthcare, and more help for the caregivers of said people, would also be a good thing. I'm not sure if you want to keep playing, but I want to talk seriously. You are a gun owner, and are active with the NRA, so I can't imagine a more knowledgeable person to discuss this with, even if we don't agree.
Loopholes- http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/gun-show-loophole/gun-show-loophole-faq
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/19/4497888/proposal-to-close-gun-show-loophole.html
Hundreds of Ohio school workers want to carry guns http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/12/28/armed_teachers.html