Well, they're a lot more peaceful than I would be. If I saw even one of these jerkbags protesting at the funeral I would likely be the one heading to prison. This makes me sick to my stomach, the Westboro Baptist Church is no better than the shooter.
Yeah, but by doing something like that, you would be playing directly into their hands. It's attention that they want, however they can get it, exactly the same as the mass shooters. Denying them that will do far more to discourage both situations than all the hoopla by the news media and insincere rhetoric of the politicians. These people crave headlines. Without that, they will eventually simply go away.
Oh please. It's all propaganda to make them look better. They only care about the headlines by touting 'gun control, gun control' as if it's some magic word that will eliminate gun violence. According to statistics provided by the FBI only 3 percent of gun violence is from legally purchased guns. 3 percent. Gun control wont, and is not a means to control the 97% of gun violence orchestrated by illegally purchased or procured weapons. They just want to attach their names to a hot topic issue and drain headlines off of a tragedy rather than addressing the real concern: why was this allowed to happen, why didn't the checks and balances work and what can we do to prevent it. Just saying gun control wont stop a thing; it certainly would not have prevented this tragedy from happening as they are not talking about 'banning' weapons from jobs that demand the use of them.
Add to that, the crime rate involving firearms in the U S has been steadily declining since the early 90's, and the previous assault weapon "ban" contributed not one thing to the numbers.
Mass shootings have increased, almost certainly because the news media turns every one into a circus, flooding the airways with the very sort of fame and recognition that these people crave. If the news report was reduced to the bare essentials ("X" number of victims died in a mass shooting at "X" location. The perpetrator was killed onsite. Period. Nothing else) it's a pretty good bet that fewer psychos would consider that form of suicide so appealing, and actual terrorist organizations would be denied the recognition that they seek.
Does it really matter what type of gun the killer used? Any repeating rifle, pistol, or shotgun could have accomplished the same thing under the same circumstances. Neither increased magazine capacity nor ease and speed of reloading are all that important a factor when you're the only one in the entire mall, school, church, or airport carrying a gun. Unarmed people, basically in a state of panic, rarely think about setting up an ambush for the person shooting at them, despite what movies, TV, and popular fiction display. Oh, yeah, id might happen, one time in a thousand. or ten thousand.
As for the demonized "assault rifles" so popular with mass murderers, newscasters, and politician, there is absolutely no functional difference between them and a perfectly legal sporting rifle or target pistol. Flash suppressors, shrouded barrels, and folding stocks are cosmetic. They neither add nor detract fro the function of the gun in question. And PLEASE don't even bother with bayonet lugs. Any mass shooters who really feel the need to attach a blade to the end of their rifle can do it quite easily with duct tape.
Is any politician actually stupid enough to commit political suicide by suggesting that the United States adopt a gun control policy even vaguely similar to Australia or Great Britain? We have this thing in the United States called the Bill Of Rights, which takes precedence over any contradicting law, and one of the things that it recognizes is the right of the individual citizen to own firearms. That's "right," not "privilege." the only way to change that is to reinterpret the entire Bill Of Rights or suspend it completely. That just plain ain't gonna happen.
Total cliche that it is, guns don't kill people, other people do. Guns might be the currently favored method of accomplishing the task, but it isn't the ONLY method available. There are alternatives, some far more destructive than an AR15 and a few 30 round magazines. Eliminating the guns won't stop the mass killings.
(And now I'm gonna go stand in a corner and try to get my heart rate back down.)
