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With all the public shootings that are going on, gun control has become a huge topic. What is your stance on the topic?


As most of you know, I live in the great state of Texas. We have the most relax gun laws of the whole country. I'm against gun control laws myself due to a lot of reasons. Everyone here has a hunting knife in their pocket, frankly I'd rather have a gun in a knife fight than be unarmed. With the things that have been foretold to come a gun will be much needed to protect one's family. Also the United States won it's independence by have armed civilians, most of our army then consisted of minute men. Thus proving the most important arsenal is an armed population.

I'm really on the fence about this issue. In general, I'm against laws that limit people's freedoms, and if someone wants to own firearms for hunting or sport shooting, or for protection, I don't find anything inherently wrong with that.

But then I look at some statistics regarding gun violence and gun death, and find it hard to ignore the fact that countries with very strict gun control have vastly lower gun-related deaths and injuries.

Over here in Europe, guns are also much less a part of our culture than in the States (or at least that's my impression).

So I'm really not sure. We can all agree that things like school shootings are terrible, but are stricter gun control laws the answer? Maybe. If not that, then what is the answer? I don't know.

People kill to stay in power all the time. Do you think they'll have mercy on children just because they're children? No. You should be offended that people like this exist, not that somebody noticed the possibility of a false flag operation. Or is "black ops" the more accurate term? Either way it is a deceptive lie with real victims. I'm questioning the motive, not whether it had innocent victims.

edit: by "innocent victims" I'm also including the mentally-ill shooter; who knows whether he was manipulated by drugs, or lack thereof, plus mind control in order to shoot people up.

The main problem I see with having more extensive background checks (I don't think it's a bad idea, I just see one obvious hole in that plan) is that it would still be easy enough for a mentally unstable person to get ahold of a gun that belonged to someone else who did legitimately pass a rigorous background check, like a friend or family member.

I guess that's what scares me the most about guns being legal at all: no matter how rigorous and in-depth the requirements to obtain a gun may be, there's very little getting in the way of a person who shouldn't have a gun getting ahold of one from someone who obtained it legally.

Of course, I'd imagine that most responsible gun owners keep their guns under lock and key, but still.

I would certainly want any my children to grow up knowing how serious guns are and that they're not toys, though I can't honestly say I find it terribly important if they grow up knowing how to use one.

Of course, realistically given where I live, no child of mine would be likely to even come across a gun, whether on purpose or on accident, so that's just not a real fear for me.

That sounds like such a bad idea. I thought the goal was to keep guns out of schools, not purposefully bring them in.

I would not feel safe sending my child to a school where anybody is allowed to carry a gun. As a general rule, I think guns should be kept as far away from children, and especially schools, as possible. (With the exception of hunting/sport shooting at an appropriate age with very strict, responsible adult supervision.)

My father collected antique weapons and taught me how to fire a few of his pieces. We just shot at targets. It was fun, but me and my siblings did NOT have access to ANY of his weapons without his supervision, and any firearms were stored unloaded, under lock and key. We were taught that they weren't toys and to never, ever point a loaded gun at a human being.

Come to think of it, I'm not actually sure how legal firing those guns were, as gun control is much stricter in Europe, but whatever. The point is, children should not be anywhere near guns unless they're being supervised by a responsible adult, and I think allowing guns in schools, even in the hands of trained personnel, is a disaster waiting to happen.

"Let's solve the problem of gun violence with more guns!" is, honestly, the kind of thing someone over here would say in jest to poke fun at the stereotypical American attitude towards firearms. The fact that it's not a joke is fairly terrifying to me.

I honestly think gun laws in the US are too lenient. Fortunately, here in Massachusetts. our gun laws are pretty strict, so any old schmuck can't just buy a gun at the store, however, when I've been to Wal-Marts in NH they had a weaponry isle--which seemed like a really foreign thing to me. I could be a terrorist or mentally unstable and in other parts of the country they won't even check for any of that? Ridiculous.Gun laws should be stricter. The shooting could have been prevented if there were more restrictions on guns.