Maybe a solution?

[Honda]

When people do what that deranged evil fool did yesterday in Buffalo I'm suggesting that we should immediately pass a federal law that requires an expedited trial and mandatory death penalty. And I am very serious.

[Mike]

Oh, hell yeah! I'm with you. Make that death penalty expedited as well by moving the appeals to the top of the court dockets. And make it mandatory regardless of the mental state of the shooter. That way they won't be getting out once some liberal doctor says they have returned to sanity and are no longer a danger.

[Truckman]

I've been called cruel and inhuman for years suggesting that very solution on this forum......Ben

[Independent Voter]

I've been called cruel and inhuman for years suggesting that very solution on this forum......Ben

Not by me. I totally agree . And as there is no doubt whether or not he did it. Walk him into court , pronounce judgement take him out back and shoot his ass.

[Kevin]

What about the obvious solution - get rid of the easy access to guns in this country? Then we not only don't have to kill anyone, potential victims get to live their lives.

I've come to the conclusion that we in this country have a bloody calculus. We are willing to allow great carnage to ensure our own easy access to firearms. We as gun owners want to maintain our ability to have and enjoy our firearms but other people bear the burden of these choices. It is an immoral point of view, in my opinion. It chooses death for the victims of gun violence in favor of any sort of meaningful restrictions on our freedom to enjoy firearms.

If that is the calculus, then at the very least, we as gun owners should own it.

Ben, if you think you have come in for disapproval, just watch the responses to this post. And the death penalty is inhumane - I'm OK with it for people who kill police officers but not for anyone else since killing a police officer is an attack not only on the individual officer but against order itself.

[Truckman]

Ben, if you think you have come in for disapproval, just watch the responses to this post.

I'll refrain from adding my own reply, Kevin...My position is well known here, and unchanged......Ben

[Mike]

I'm with Ben.

[Independent Voter]

With 330 million guns [ estimated ] in the U.S. , how do you intend to remove them ?. Aprox. 44 million American households have firearms . That number is going up at a rapid pace.

Remove the guns and the criminal faction will just become more emboldened and the non criminals will have no ability to protect themselves .

Average police response time in Shreveport is 15 minutes. I personally do not want to wait that long while some underprivileged religious student on his , or her , way to the seminary rips off what I have worked for .

[Truckman]

What about the obvious solution - get rid of the easy access to guns in this country? Then we not only don't have to kill anyone, potential victims get to live their lives.

With 330 million guns [ estimated ] in the U.S. , how do you intend to remove them ?. Aprox. 44 million American households have firearms .

OK, so I'll predictably respond after all, Kevin...The answer to your question is: we don't...We can't...It's impossible...Even if the US disintegrates and the Constitution is scrapped, the same people (both the honest citizens and the dishonest criminals) still exist with unchanged needs and attitudes...

Dick, I believe that also answers your question......Ben

[Kevin]

The Tops market in Buffalo is 2.2 miles from my daughter's residence. She occasionally shops there. I've stopped in there myself when visiting her to pick up some goodies to bring her. She was at work on Saturday in another area of Buffalo but it was nerve-wracking before we got in touch with her. It brought home to me how virtually no other country lives like this. The freedom that the 2A confers is not worth all this.

So, get rid of the 2A. Stop praying at the altar of principle and look around at how much our principles are costing us. It is not worth it.

Failing that, turn in any semi-automatic. Buy back programs to ease the pain but turn 'em in. There is just too much concentrated firepower in one device and they are being used to kill too many people for my principles.

Make everyone who wants to own more than five gun get an FFL. Then, any transfer at all must go through background checks. Yes, this federalizes the gun issue and high time. Leaving it to individual states is not working.

Register each and every gun in a national database.

Periodic recertification for gun owners.

Repeal the Heller decision. Hey, if the right to abortion can be repealed, so can Heller. Get rid of the personal right to a firearm. That can be done without repealing the 2A, for the squeamish.

No carrying of firearms in public. Concealed, unconcealed, it matters not. Leave it home. Draconian measures for those who violate this. Exceptions only for those with a demonstrated need.

Magazine restrictions - no 100 round mags allowed, no guns able to accept those sorts of magazines.

During COVID, I saw lots of people who took the attitude that our relationship to each other is atomized, that you do you and let me do me. There was no regard for the idea that individual actions had effects on others and if they did, that was someone else's problem, not the individual's. Don't ask me, the thinking went, to modify my own behavior for the benefit of anyone else. This is not a Catholic viewpoint. We are all responsible for each other and if our actions are causing harm to others, we have a duty to try to find a solution. Intransigence on the gun issue, coupled with a maximalist position that asserts complete individual freedom even at the expense of others' lives, is immoral, in my viewpoint. This is not the same as believing a person is immoral, just that they hold an immoral viewpoint. I am making no personal judgments about people, just the opinions they might hold.

The bloody calculus that exempts gun owners from any responsibility for the type of carnage of this weekend, out of a fetishization of the 2A, is wrong.

[Independent Voter]

First off , I know I will be ridiculed for this post BUT .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_...n_U.S._by_year. Should we outlaw private vehicles and ensure there is public transportation for each individual ?. At home pick up and drop off .

If we are talking about deaths from individual actions , then that is a valid point.

I think the main point to be made is. Laws only affect those who follow the law. We have an uncountable number of laws on the books concerning weapons and it seams that none of them hinder the use of them by anyone. Also , if there is no punishment for breaking the law , what deterrent is there except the possibility that a law biding person will step in to prevent the mass execution of the innocent.

[Kevin]

I'd be pleased as punch to treat guns like automobiles:

License gun owners
Periodic renewal of license
Registration of the gun
Must have insurance
Pay taxes for effect on others

Treating guns like automobiles would be a fantastic start to clearing up this mess. Good idea!!

[Kevin]

The idea that laws only affect the law-abiding is a nonstarter. By and large, these laws are about misuse. The problem is possession itself, as well as the extreme lethality of some models. The laws you reference are trying to curb the wrong thing.

[FredK]

As much as I'd like to stay out of this I believe ben said it best....

We can't...It's impossible...Even if the US disintegrates and the Constitution is scrapped, the same people (both the honest citizens and the dishonest criminals) still exist with unchanged needs and attitudes...

[Kevin]

You are speaking about a crime problem in general. I'm speaking about mass shootings in particular.

Moreover, that same reasoning could be used to negate the laws surrounding theft. Or murder. Or fraud. With that thinking, there is no justification for any laws.

Just remember - the rest of the world does not live like this. Neither do we have to.