Another school shooting
 

3 in critical condition after shooting at Marysville Pilchuck

One confirmed death (the shooter), three or four (unclear) in critical condition. :-(

All victims describe as "young"

A second confirmed fatality

It´s good to see that you´re posting again, Paul, but very sad that we are presented with yet another school shooting in the US.
Something else that is worrying is that no-one has responded to your posts yet. Have we reached the point where a school shooting incident leaves us with nothing to say? Have they now become so routine that we barely raise an eyebrow?

I hesitated because I was unsure about how these events are handled here.

These things are so sad on so many levels.

Just noticed this. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. It's been a crappy week for news. :(

I was definitely stumped for a while. I almost cracked a joke about how commonplace these incidence are becoming before realizing it would be tasteless to do so. I don't think it's so much that no one knows what to say as much as they've already said it a bunch of times before. It's pretty remarkable that things like this continue to happen and yet no precautions are being taken to prevent it from happening again. One of the kids said something like she "never thought it would happen at our school." That's crazy to me. Like it's something she expects to happen, just not where she's from.

No kidding, jesus.

No way that quiet, crime-free towns are putting in guards and metal detectors all across America to stop random school shootings. It would be a gross over-reaction and a huge waste of resources. You can't always tell how a kid is feeling inside based on their external responses.

^ Yes, Whatever, that´s what occured to me about five seconds after clicking "Submit Reply" !

In fact it has been said a bunch of times here: http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...-shooting.html

...and here: http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...ng-really.html

...and here: http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...-children.html

... and probably, indirectly, here too:http://www.musicbanter.com/current-e...n-control.html

no, but you could at least consider making guns less available right?

no you cannot.

And it begins...

I don't know if that's directed at me or the US, but if it was up to me guns would be destroyed (world wide). I have no use for them and I wouldn't mind seeing the effects it could have on society. The UK seems to do alright.

I do however appreciate the pro-gun argument and understand that the majority of civilian incidents are from illegally obtained firearms.

there's no point in destroying weapons. you would have to destroy the ability to engineer weapons to make any real difference. but that is contrary to the very nature of our existence.

Yeh, that's a good point. It doesn't make me feel any differently about guns but I realize it's an unrealistic option at this time.

i've said it before but my stance on guns is basically that there should be a national database which is stringently enforced to prevent guns from getting on the black market. it won't stop school shootings and **** like that because those guns are often legal but it could cut down on ordinary gun crime in the same way the UK has.

the only real way around this working that i can see is if this dude is right about the upcoming proliferation of 3D printed guns:



in which case we are basically ****ed when it comes to stopping criminals from getting weapons. an interesting thought related to that is the nsa internet spying and the fact that these 3d files would most likely be transmitted over the web. this could make gun control in the future more about cracking down on file sharing than about restricting weapons owners and manufacturers.

The gun culture is so ingrained in this country that guns will never, ever be made illegal and gun restrictions will never be tightened to the point that anyone will have to resort to 3D printed weapons. Plus, those 3D printers are ridiculously expensive.

I think politicians learned after Newtown just how difficult a road it is to run anti-gun campaigns. If efforts failed to strengthen gun restrictions after 20 first graders were massacred then there's nothing that'll happen to change that tide.

What we need is better mental health screenings, closing gun show loopholes, and making penalties and sentences for gun related offenses ridiculously severe.

Disclosure: I was ridiculously anti-gun up until about 1.5 years ago. I read a few books, looked at the cold hard facts, and decided to purchase a hand gun to add to my disaster preparedness supplies - living in Southern California the threat of a bad earthquake is always right around the corner.

3D printers are ridiculously expensive right now. computers were ridiculously expensive in the 1950's. capitalism has a way of working that **** out. plus they might be expensive but not too expensive for a cartel or gang, which are precisely the people who commit the most gun crimes. i'm not saying it's going to play out that way but it remains a possibility. if no laws are ever enforced to make it really difficult to leak legally manufactured guns onto the black market then i would tend to agree that it probably won't be worth the hassle of messing with 3d printers any time soon.

I don't think that will help. A majority of the problems are from guns people are getting by avoiding the proper steps to be certified to carry.

Idk about these loopholes you speak of. Care to enlighten me?

If you're buying a gun from a store there's a waiting period, but if two people are just having their own personal exchange, then there isn't. And gun shows are basically just a bunch of individuals selling other individuals guns, so there is no waiting period. Don't ask me why this is.

Fixed.

It's ridiculous is what it is. I also don't like that in most states family members can sell guns to one another without any FFL (Federal Firearms License) or checks involved.

You want a gun you should have to pass a background check, go through an FFL in all cases, and have at least a 24 hour waiting period.

Some sort of mental health check would be good too. It seems a lot of times the people who shoot places up end up taking their lives too but I feel like if a team of psychologists/mental health experts collectively did case studies on the ones that don't they'd be able to find some sort of common denominator to work on and spot in potentially newcomer shooters. I'm sure plenty of uber pro-gunners would get all up in arms about it but they can stfu and deal with it. It's not just about them and I think that's a big part of the issue- people who are pro-gun and mentally well enough to not go on shooting sprees don't realize gun laws aren't out take all their precious guns away, they're there to protect people from ****ing psychos.