However, if it is gun control in general that is under debate, the scope of this article is too narrow. By focusing on the issue of mentally unstable mass shooters, some larger issues are being ignored.

The statistical breakdowns on gun violence by the FBI make it clear that insane people shooting up public places are a very small component of gun violence in the US. Most of the incidents take place during crimes and arguments; the latter category includes domestic violence — people turning guns on other family members.

Guns can easily be acquired without even minimal background checks and legal controls. Sales at gun shows are notoriously unregulated, and many online gun sales don’t bother with checks. In “sting” operations conducted by the FBI, it was easy to find online sellers who assured the buyer that he could by a gun, even when the buyer admitted he could not pass a background check. Inmates questioned about how they had obtained their firearms stated that most of them had come from unlicensed resellers.

The huge number of guns manufactured in the US is also causing problems in other countries. Inexpensive US-made firearms are now the weapons of choice for criminal gangs in many countries. The level of gun violence in Mexico, El Salvador, and several other Latin American countries approximates that of an active war.

The sober truth is that insane mass shooters are a small part of the larger problem. I believe that responsible gun owners would want guns to be obtained and used responsibly. This is the discussion that should be going on. Comparing guns to knives and improvised bombs is not a productive argument.

Some links for further discussion:

FBI crime statistics

Gun crime statistics by US state

US gun deaths by day, since the Newtown shootings

And this bit about arming the population for protection from a tyrannical government is laughable. Especially when a good chunk of America categorises the current administration as tyrannical. It made some sense 200 years ago perhaps but now? C’mon. Remember that “the government” has access to such things as fighter planes, drones, tanks, Navy SEALS and nuclear weapons. A semi-automatic rifle from Walmart is not going to be too helpful, I’m afraid. LOL. Maybe Walmart should start selling nukes to keep the playing field level. I’d hate to be the one doing clean-up in that aisle though.

I hesitated to get into a whole gun rights debate on this board because I know that it’s such a sensitive issue. It seems to me that Americans’ gun worship is a mental illness in and of itself.

Mental health problems are the main thing to be worried about here. No one in their right mind kills innocent people.

Almost without exception, shooters in mass shootings carry more than a few guns. Assault rifles do have larger round capacity but someone with two revolvers in one deer rifle could kill 21 people.

If laws are passed to prevent owning assault type weapons then it will be the law-abiding people that do not have them. The black market and criminal underground will supply only the people that should have them in the first place. And the mentally ill will always find some way of carrying out whatever their sick mind tells them to do.

The nature behind the Second Amendment was not to give citizens the right to have guns for the fun of it. It’s intent was to give the rights to citizens to protect themselves from their own government.

As far as video games inspiring people with mental health problems to act inappropriately, I have seen no proof of that being the case. There are Violet books, violent movies and even violent music. If you can be manipulated by any of these outside sources, your mental health is what is in question.

Because we often don’t understand what could make a person decide to kill innocent and complete strangers I feel we can to try and rationalize it and in the process we grasp at straws and look for scapegoats.

I’m sorry. I tried but my typing and writing is sometimes atrocious.

Who has more influence, the writers of laws or the writers of songs? I don’t know. It’s too general a question but both do influence and inspire people to do things sometimes.

And if not songs, why not movies, video games, TV shows whether fiction or talk (include radio in the latter)?

Heck, people gotta’ talk about some thing. Sometimes it’s the weather, the family or whatever is on the news.
I remember feeling uncomfortable seeing people carrying weapons in Central Plaza. I got used to it. More recently I had a weird outfit that had a doctors top with stethoscope and a machine gun in his hand. After the recent tragic shootings in real life I removed the machine gun. I didn’t feel comfortable with it.

I’m generally not for outlawing songs, the printed word, video games, movies etc but there should be some rules or guidelines. On SONY’s Home, SONY sets the rules. In society, various forms of government or other groups of people set their own rules whether a state, town, or store. Or in the case of this magazine, the editor(s). Can I swear here? Probably not.
But maybe the songs I mentioned had no influence over anything at all in the whole wide world.

But people gotta’ talk about something and some of the talk is constructive.

I don’t think that dead due from the NRA talks very well and that was his big problem.

Multiple knife attacks in China = 21 dead in 2 years
Single gun attack in USA = 26 dead in 10 minutes

Stats buffs are welcomed to factor in the per capita difference between China and the USA but it’s not really necessary. The basic numbers speak for themselves. There’s a moral behind the saying “Don’t take a knife to a gunfight.” Anyone would rather face a maniac with a switch-blade than an AK-47.

The stats about motor-vehicle accidents don’t mean much either. The word “accidents” rules out the comparison. A large number of gun-related deaths are intentional in relation to what I’d imagine are a miniscule number of intentional car-related deaths. People don’t get into their car with the intention of killing people. (Watching some people behind the wheel may bring that statement into question, I suppose) If so, the kid in Connecticut would have just driven his mum’s car through the wall of the school.

Rationalise with all the statistics that you like. Y’all just have too many guns over there.

The NRA might like to say that mental illness, and not guns, is the root of the problem. Of course, all the gun-lovers in the USA would be strongly in favour of increased government funding to treat the mentally ill. Not.

As for the link between gamers and killers, it seems kind of weak to me. The vast majority of gamers, just like the vast majority of gun-owners, are decent and stable people who wouldn’t hurt anyone. It’s the easy access to a loosely controlled public arsenal that’s the problem.

It’s easy to be an outside source and point fingers at who is really to “blame” for all this. Because that is human nature. We want *something* tangible to blame, something that we can solidly define and say, “there, *that* is your bogeyman, *that* is our enemy.” Heaven forbid that finger should actually fall upon our own quite fallible nature, regardless of national origins. Because that is not a quantifiable, tangible thing. And it is the very source of the problem. The news media’s current state of dubious integrity and obsession with human misery certainly does not help matters, but we certainly don’t do anything that would incentivize them to change their ways, either

Were an alien race come into contact with Earth and intercept the various reports from global news media, they could easily be excused for thinking that the US is like the Kim Kardashian of nations. And I say that having lived and traveled outside of the US myself, and having had the chance to watch the news media of other countries. It’s even more troubling when you think about how downplayed or even forgotten similar atrocities committed in less “famous” countries (Norway) are. I heard very little about the murder that took place in a suburban neighborhood near where I lived in Toronto, where a “quiet, unassuming man” kidnapped a fellow neighbor, raped and butchered her in his basement, then tossed her remains in the nearby Rouge River, but boy, did I know all there was to know about the Bush-Kerry election!

Fingerpointing will not solve anything. Self accountability may not either, but it’s a start.

People look at this and try to understand why we need to play these kind of games and the best we can do is say it’s art, it’s protected by law. We make excuses for these kind of games and as long as we keep doing this we will feel the heat and that’s just the way it is.

If gaming is the issue, then comics are also the exceptional tool towards violence.

Seriously, this is nothing more but fighting for media control. Absurd at best.

Thank you for sharing this.

Games certainly aren’t the problem, if any media can be blamed for an increase in gun crime it’s ironically the “news” itself. I read an interesting thing the other day that showed a spookily close correlation with school shootings/gun crime and media coverage. See, the more the “news” glorifies a killer in its coverage the more of an anti-hero they become and the more attractive they become to other unhinged, desperate, on-edge people; which in turn leads to a repeat of the incident on more unfortunate victims. If our “news” would stop doing things like
A) reporting on the media that “interested” the killer
B) listing the arms they bared for preparation of the crime ( glorifying the weapons)
C) Give reasons and make excuses as to why they might carry out such horrendous actions ( ie, my daddy never hugged me)
D) Repeat over and over scenes from the crime on TV. Particularly of the sheer terror on victims faces.

All of these things only serve to glorify the actions of a sick individual, and spur on other nut-jobs to try the same thing for their own slice of “fame”. So yeah, I’m pointing my finger at YOU news stations! Ye who thrives on the atrocities, misery, pain and suffering of others for “coverage” and ratings and viewers.