And we know the mom forbade the kid from ever using her stuff... how?
Is how he got the arms even relevant?
This. The fact was, these firearms weren't his and I'm pretty damn sure his mother would have approved his use of them. If my daughter takes my car and drives it into a mall killing 5, is that my fault for owning the car or not locking up the keys?
The 2nd amendment to the US is like Northern Ireland to the UK - an otherwise obvious decision that somehow is an unresolvable ball ache because of decisions made by people who knew nothing of the impact their choices would have in the unrecognisable future. I don't envy you over the pond.
Can't keep going on like this though for the sake of a hobby, play some more tennis or something instead.
It's hard to explain but its more than that. We Americans have a culture of violence that many foreigners simply cannot understand. we have massive gang problems, massive problems with domestic violence, massive problems with robberies...these problems have zip to do with firearms.
All you see over there is what the media reports...you rarely hear about a firearm saving someone's life...and yes, it does happen often, our vastly liberal media rarely reports it. Like my father always says, "The media doesn't report about the hundreds of thousands of flights that take off and land each day, they talk about the one that crashed."
According to this site:
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
There are 270 million civilian firearms currently in the US. 270 MILLION. That shooter had 3 on him. 3. The news didn't state "On a side note, 269,999,996 firearms stayed safely locked up and caused no problems what so ever."
Our judicial system follows (or at leas SHOULD follow) the saying of "innocent until proven guilty". It's better to let 100 guilty men walk free than to imprison 1 innocent man.
My firearms have never killed anyone...nor have the VAST majority in this country. Look up the ownership #'s for the US...its staggering. 1 person out of millions goes crazy with a gun and half the planet wants to impose laws on the very people who did not do it. What sense does this make?
There's no real reason to have a gun especially handguns, etc for any other reason other than to possibly harm someone, and with a knife or fork someone CAN subdue the person. Good luck subduing someone with an automatic weapon.
I see this all of the time and it irks me.
No real reason to whom? You? So you can't see a reason to have one therefore...well...they dont serve a purpose plain a clear huh?
Let me tell you what else has no "purpose". Excess money. 2500 calorie meals. 5600 Sq ft houses. Gas guzzling cars. Vacations. Anything more than 2 children.
See where I'm going with this.
I'm not trying to be an ass but this "purpose" argument can be skewed to anyone's personal opinion and to be frank...as much as you dont give a shit about how I feel concerning people hoarding excess millions of $$...I don't care about your views concerning some objects that spend 99% of their life locked up in a safe.