- That someone determined to commit mass murder will find a way
- that proposals to ban "assault weapons" are ignorant and asinine; that if you did ban "assault weapons" almost as many people could be killed almost as easily with other firearms
- that statistically, in a nation of over 320 million people death by gun is far less common than most other causes of death; and that even for gun deaths,
most are one-on-one shootings with handguns - that self-defense is a right recognized by the Supreme Court, the keeping and bearing of arms is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and legislation to restrict firearms would do in violation of these
- that banning firearms punishes the innocent for the misdeeds of the guilty; and is of limited effectiveness against those prepared to break the law
- that practically speaking actually getting rid of guns in the USA would be effectively impossible
- that mass shootings do occur in other nations
- that media attention has turned committing gun massacres into a fad; not to even mention Hollywood's addiction to violence porn
- that guns prevent countless assaults and robberies through defense and deterrent
- that the decay of personal responsibility and the focus on sociological solutions for everything has been counterproductive
- that greater attention to mental health needs to be addressed
The fact that anyone with no priors can walk into a gun store and buy a semi-automatic rifle with removable magazines means that it's easier to casually commit gun massacres than if it took serious effort and delay to obtain such a weapon. That in nations where you can't buy guns easily these massacres are vanishingly rare. Anti-gunners scream "this **** doesn't happen in civilized nations; you made this possible!". And figuratively speaking I stand there mute, unable to think of any rebuttal that doesn't sound like a pathetic justification.