Shooting at Batman premire – Aurora, Denvor, USA

@sceptical guy wrote:

I would quite like a gun…

Moss Side doesn’t seem to bother anbout what the law says about guns….

the real world is a world of guns…

Protection of life has to come first..and in a world wehre quite a few peeps have guns (legally and not) and are willing to use them…well, telling them it’s illegal isn’t going to do one thing or another

Shouldn’t this be in the generalisations thread?

Shootings in this country – including Moss Side – are still rare compared to high gun crime areas in the US states and our civil disorders don’t compare to Countries like Syria or Egypt.

We would also need a very different kind of policing with huge implications for non gun-related issues. (Just look at how we’ve already been affected by security issues)

If we relaxed our gun laws, then the gun salespeople would be marketing guns into our neighbourhoods and shady political and criminal groups would help in the social destabilisation. Unlike the drugs problems in wealthy areas (you sell stuff to people with money!!) gun problems amongst the wealthy would not remain behind closed doors and rehab would be too late.

Even if you think we’ve got it bad now, this is a genie that doesn’t go back into the bottle, the risks are too great.

This country is too small to pretend that the crime would happen “over there” and “we” would just be able to protect ourselves, or that the person who is conveniently willing to use a gun will be skilful and lucky enough to miss our bol locks for us.

My heart goes out too all the victims , not least the youngest who was 6 years old and who’s mother is still in hospital fighting for her life

Scep, they’ve still have more Dunblane-type incidents in the US than here.

Of course someone shouldn’t be allowed to round up children or adults for slaughter. But could they have been stopped by a gun-toting teacher or caretaker? No, Dunblane was peaceful before the incident and has remained peaceful after, even if teachers owned guns they would probably not have them in the school. Even if they did, they’d have to be able to shoot first and shoot accurately in a room full of children while under critical stress.

Dunblane etc. are still exceptional incidents. I live not far from one of London’s more infamous ‘murder miles’ but shootings are exceptional even there and most of the time it is an everyday shopping street where the only exceptional things about it is that all of the shop units are in use, run by small independent businesses, many until quite late at night.

Exceptional cases need exceptional measures, they should not dictate the everyday. (Hard Cases Make Bad Law – an established legal truism)

Highly trained police officers have hit the wrong target or killed innocent people they by mistake. In the US accidental shootings of gun owners and their family members are tragically high. Let’s remain as we are, with our delicate balance of personal freedom, safety, law and order.