What stopped this from being a school massacre like Sandy Hook Elementary or the Aurora, Colorado shooting is that the shooter ONLY had a shotgun, not an AR-15 with multiple large capacity magazines. No one died, no one is critically injured. We should be grateful that the shooter was apprehended without anyone else being shot - including the shooter.
But that shotgun either should have been locked up so the student could not get his hands on it, or the gun owner should not have owned it. Odds are this will turn out to be another legally purchased, legally owned, badly secured firearm like so many others that result in injury or death.
Now we can get ready for the many protestations that people are surprised, / not surprised, or that the gun owner was so responsible, yada yada yada.
Here's the thing to keep in mind, while ignoring the same old same old blah blah blah.
In England they stopped school shootings by having more restrictive gun laws and fewer guns. In Australia they stopped school shootings by having more restrictive gun laws and fewer guns. In New Zealand......do you see the pattern here? Fewer guns equals drastic reductions in gun violence. In every state, in every country, the more restrictive the firearms laws, and the fewer guns, the lower the rates of guns used to hurt and kill people. Guns and bullets ARE the problem, because they make it too easy to do stupid, impulsive, injurious and/or lethal damage. Guns and bullets are not the whole problem, but they are a key part, a pivotal and enabling part, that we can and should regulate, because it makes an important difference for the better.
Blame the NRA for inserting legislation provisions that make us less safe, and which make guns more common in the hands of the mentally ill, convicted felons, and drug users, and for a less than fully effective background check system, and for making people more irrationally fearful. Blame the gun nuts and the gun culture of violence for advocating taking violent actions themselves instead of resorting to other solutions. And blame the guns themselves, without which lethal violence would be less efficient and easy. All of the preceding are culpable, all of them are separate but related parts of the problem of gun violence.
But that shotgun either should have been locked up so the student could not get his hands on it, or the gun owner should not have owned it. Odds are this will turn out to be another legally purchased, legally owned, badly secured firearm like so many others that result in injury or death.
Now we can get ready for the many protestations that people are surprised, / not surprised, or that the gun owner was so responsible, yada yada yada.
Here's the thing to keep in mind, while ignoring the same old same old blah blah blah.
In England they stopped school shootings by having more restrictive gun laws and fewer guns. In Australia they stopped school shootings by having more restrictive gun laws and fewer guns. In New Zealand......do you see the pattern here? Fewer guns equals drastic reductions in gun violence. In every state, in every country, the more restrictive the firearms laws, and the fewer guns, the lower the rates of guns used to hurt and kill people. Guns and bullets ARE the problem, because they make it too easy to do stupid, impulsive, injurious and/or lethal damage. Guns and bullets are not the whole problem, but they are a key part, a pivotal and enabling part, that we can and should regulate, because it makes an important difference for the better.
Blame the NRA for inserting legislation provisions that make us less safe, and which make guns more common in the hands of the mentally ill, convicted felons, and drug users, and for a less than fully effective background check system, and for making people more irrationally fearful. Blame the gun nuts and the gun culture of violence for advocating taking violent actions themselves instead of resorting to other solutions. And blame the guns themselves, without which lethal violence would be less efficient and easy. All of the preceding are culpable, all of them are separate but related parts of the problem of gun violence.
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