School shootings are extraordinarily rare. Why is fear of them driving policy?

No it really doesn’t. It only does to you because you’re emotional

 

"Nightmare515" just respectfully explained why you can't compare America to Australia or any other country.

Just because you're unaware of more recent attempted school bombings like the one in Utah last week doesn't mean that they don't exist. Bombs are much cheaper, deadlier, easier to conceal & easier to make than you may realize.

There was zero evidence of mass school shootings until they began to occur.

Gun control is a cheap & lazy way to avoid fixing the real problem which is our broken mental health system.

 

You pretty much said it all. And I agree. IMO, the reason "why?", probably varies with the individual. But in general, and not only on the issue of gun control, I'd say that evil just comes natually to them. Their politicians want power and the people want to be told pleasing things. What they are seeking is freedom from conscience and from the consequences of their actions. Ironically, in the course of this freedom quest, they are imprisoning themselves. If it were just them, it wouldn't bother me so much. But they are corrupting and dragging our entire country with them. This is unacceptable.

 

Thanks, I have no illusions as to what the Gun Ban crowd really wants:

"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of privately owned firearms is the goal." - Janet Reno. Good morning America Dec 10, 1993.

If I really thought that additional gun restrictions would help America's homicide rate, I would support them.
In reality, however, attempting to change criminal behavior by banning inanimate objects simple creates a new Black Market as has been the case with Prohibition, our failed "War on Drugs" etc.

In other words, if certain guns are banned, we'll have Gun Wars in addition to Drug Wars & homicides will go up while they are currently at a 51 year low (1).
I think that it is especially noteworthy that homicides plummeted by 49% AFTER the Clinton era Assault Weapons Ban expired in Sept. 2004.

After working 10 years on a large, inner-city Emergency Psychiatric Unit, I see the focus on Gun Bans aka "Gun Control" as a cynical & divisive distraction from spending the money and doing the hard work of intervening & treating the dangerously mentally ill who will continue to find ways to kill regardless of society's bans, rules & laws.



(1) "FBI: US Homicide Rate at 51-Year Low"

https://mises.org/wire/fbi-us-homicide-rate-51-year-low

Public Unaware that Homicide Rates Have Fallen

EXCERPT "As Pew has reported in recent years, in fact, the American public is "unaware" that the homicide rate in the United States has fallen by 49 percent over the past twenty years. And while Pew doesn't report on it, it's also a safe bet that the public is also unaware that homicide rates have collapsed as total gun ownership in the United States has increased significantly."CONTINUED

 

Better enforcement didn't even help this last massacre. Or the one before it. Or the one before that.

 

OK... you oppose better enforcement of the laws... but then say we need news laws.
You see the issue, right?

 

My issue is everyone opposed to the protests says "just enforce the current laws better" is the solution, but history shows over and over the enforcement of laws after every single school shooting or massacre, yet the events still happen. If the laws were being enforced at their full potential then these events wouldn't happen, now would they?

 

You dont know what your talking about.

1.) The restrictive gun laws in Chicago were lifted.
2.) the majority of guns used in crimes in the city came from OUTSIDE of the city.

 

What evidence is there that better enforcement of the laws followed each mass shooting?
For instance, how many more NICS stops have been investigated and prosecuted since Sandyhook than before?
My bet: The % is unchanged.

Ah - you understand my point. Good.

 

Everyone's suggestion is to just enforcing current laws better and they do that, yet the same thing keeps happening.

 

You already said this.
I responded:
What evidence is there that better enforcement of the laws followed each mass shooting?
For instance, how many more NICS stops have been investigated and prosecuted since Sandyhook than before?
My bet: The % is unchanged

 

I don't know about better enforcement but I do know that after Sandy Hook for instance, some states banned assault weapons and limited how many stocks of ammo you can buy. Background checks as a whole have been expanded. Maryland, for example, now requires fingerprinting and proper licensing before buying.

 

BECAUSE KILLING AND TERRORIZING CHILDREN IS WORSE AND MORE OFFENSIVE THAN KILLING YOUR CHEATING LOVER.

OTOH it's clear that you have been terrorized by "communist take-over" conspiracy stories.

 

Thus, your statement...
Everyone's suggestion is to just enforcing current laws better and they do that...
... is questionable, at best.

Which ones? What happened to existing 'assault weapons'?
CT had a ban on 'assault weapons', and yet Sandyhook still happened? Why do you suppose that is?

For some, but not all guns.

 

I didn't say I knew how much better.....

Lanza had no criminal record but access to his mother's weapons and they added new restrictions.

For handguns.

 

Doesn't look like it's improved at all.
There's no sense in adding new laws until the current laws are fully enforced.

Lanza murdered his mother and stole her grandfathered AR. So much for the efficacy of AW bans.
If Lanza had murdered a police officer ans til the AR from is car, would there have been a conversation about 'assault weapons'?

And thus, only a portion of the guns that can be used in a mass/school shooting.

 

Penalties for failure to enforce laws?

I never was an advocate for AW bans, for what it's worth or thought they would work.

In all fairness, it's much easier to hide a handgun on you than a rifle.

 

Who would the state penalize? The state?

So you agree - the current cries for an AWB are reactionary and useless.

Columbine was perpetrated with shotguns.