"Roycroftmom: Any child can walk into a gun show in Texas and walk out with a semi-automatic weapon. No background check, no minimum age, nothing. It Is actually surprising that schools aren’t shot up every day, but we are moving towards that. "
This is completely false.
So much misinformation on this issue. We ignore the really important stuff like what have we done to the kids today and why, and pay attention to their tools.
"Cardinal Fang: Gun owners should be personally liable if their gun in a gun shooting, unless they have reported it stolen. If a child gets hold of their unsecured gun and shoots another child or themselves, if a potential suicide impulsively takes their gun and shoots himself (or herself, but more typically himself), if a mass shooter uses their guns, they should be personally liable.
Those people who believe that criminals and suicides would just get another gun somewhere else should put their money where their mouth is. "
Very few people leave guns just lying around the house. Almost everyone secures them.
Are you personally responsible if someone steals your car out of your driveway and runs down someone he intends to hurt? Or is the thief responsible for what he did with your property? I’m not seeing any difference.
“We ignore the really important stuff like what have we done to the kids today and why, and pay attention to their tools.”
Can you elaborate on this, @TranquilMind ? Thanks. Also, what can we do about people such as the Las Vegas shooter (not a kid)?
Yes, I could elaborate, and at length. 
However suffice it to say that simply removing a tool from all people simply because a depressed and miserable person might take it upon himself to commit a crime with said tool, should he be able to acquire one, will not remove any intent to harm himself or others. He can always use another tool, like knives, or chemicals, or vehicles, etc.
The INTENT is the problem, not the means to carry out the intent. What is wrong with them? Maybe we are doing it all wrong.
What do you think is the intent in some of these crimes? I think the intent is to kill people and to get attention by doing so. As for motivation, sometimes it’s animosity toward a particular individual or a group of individuals and sometimes it’s race- or religion- or sex-based hatred generally.
People, including kids, had ready access to guns for many years and very few went around shooting up public places. Why have they suddenly begun to do these things? That is the real question that should be addressed. There have always been problems but most people in previous generations didn’t decide to kill a bunch of people because they were upset, they restrained themselves and considered their actions. That seems to be lost on people now.
“Rosered: What do you think is the intent in some of these crimes? I think the intent is to kill people and to get attention by doing so. As for motivation, sometimes it’s animosity toward a particular individual or a group of individuals and sometimes it’s race- or religion- or sex-based hatred generally.”
It can be anything from demonic (and yes, evil exists) to any of those things you listed, and more.
Pride, revenge, or even infamy. They can be whacked out on drugs, legal prescription drugs (many of which have mental side effects) or any other kind.
But what’s wrong with them? Normal people DO NOT hurt anyone, even if they are upset with others or themselves. How did this happen? Why do we have the most disconnected people ever, while being in touch with others 24/7? Something is rotten.
I definitely agree that something is rotten.
"HeartofDixie: People, including kids, had ready access to guns for many years and very few went around shooting up public places. Why have they suddenly begun to do these things? That is the real question that should be addressed. There have always been problems but most people in previous generations didn’t decide to kill a bunch of people because they were upset, they restrained themselves and considered their actions. That seems to be lost on people now. "
Exactly. There have been guns in almost every home since the genesis of this country. All pioneers had them, and on through the years. But suddenly - as in the last 20 years or so - kids started shooting people. What changed?
But suddenly, “it’s the guns”? No, it isn’t.
Maybe it is the massive chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis from every sort of product, that is disproportionately affecting certain people.
The fragile safety nets that were there to support folks (in the old days) has greatly frayed and disappeared for many, many people. When folks feel they have nothing to lose, and no one is there for them or to help them they can act out in terrible ways.
^^But those chemicals exist in other countries too. The largest common variable is availability of guns. Or not.
I will venture that, as has been pointed out so many mass killings are driven by misogyny, maybe one reason there are more now is that the gulf between what some men expect from women, and what more women will no longer put up with, has widened. Which is good in itself. But seems to be a catalyst for many men.
But again, that being the case, having the ready weapon at hand unquestionably fuels the ability to respond to the perceived outrage.
Haven’t we decided it was the President’s fault? Pres. Martin Van Buren? That it was his comment that set people off?
Charles Whitman was someone people in Texas still talked about when I moved out there. The Houston Chronicle and Texas Monthly would either occasionally mention him or revisit the subject in depth.
No, it isn’t the availability of guns - that hasn’t changed. More a moral sickness, one possibly exacerbated by prescribed psychiatric medicines. If not that, a cultural one, one Tipper Gore tried to address way back when.
What’s with the “sic”? Do you not think someone who wants to shoot up a Waffle House has a fell intent?
Well, yeah. In some states and municipalities you are liable if you make it easy to steal your car, and then someone steals it and injures someone else.
Similarly, pool owners are liable in many areas if their pool is unsecured and a child drowns in it.
We have devalued life in our society. And now it’s showing on our streets.
Only in America, yourmomma? Only in America do people have these value deficits and character flaws and mental illnesses that cause these crimes, but not a few miles away, in Canada? Do you really believe that? That Americans are so flawed compared to all other populations in the world that that is what is causing our outrageous gun violence rate? Interesting.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This thread has drfited off-topic. Closing.