Jeff Bergquist wrote:Heffay wrote:Now, can we get on to discussing effective ways of preventing these illegal guns before someone jumps off a bridge?
There's the problem isn't it? We can either accept that the ability to do bad things is a necessary side effect of the blessings of liberty, or we can decide how much liberty we will surrender in hopes of controlling the culture that is fomenting this mindless violence. I admit that I've thankfully never had a child killed by random gunfire, but I believe the scales should tip to freedom before security. IMO in a free society, the only hope of preventing these occurrences while still maintaining personal liberty is by hoping that education and criminal punishment will eventually make a difference. In the meantime we'll have to take the bad with the good.
I agree with everything you say. Like I said, I'm looking for solutions to the illegal gun problem. We know limiting access to law abiding citizens won't deal with the issue at all, nor will adding limitations based on silly cosmetic reasons. That doesn't mean these issues can't be reduced, but the solutions will revolve around things other than gun control. Education, opportunities, training, etc, are probably FAR more effective at reducing these incidents than banning the weapons.