Common-sense gun control laws? Not for Delaware
During the Aurora massacre, a mentally-unbalanced individual entered a movie theater with a small arsenal of firearms during the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” and proceeded to kill 12 people, and injure 70 more.
Of note about the tragic incident was the fact that James Holmes, the shooter, saw at least three mental health professionals at the University of Colorado before the shooting, and even threatened and intimidated a psychiatrist he had been seeing. But because of loose laws in Colorado (which have since been fixed), he was never put on a list and was able to purchase a small army’s worth of firearms.
Tags: Aurora, Beau Biden, gun control, Jack Markell
Every single Senator who voted no or abstained should be ashamed of themselves.
In addition to the Bloomberg article Rob links to, this is also front-paged at the Huffington Post now, so clearly this is getting some national attention.
Meanwhile, down in Alabama, we’ve got owners of a minor league baseball team who are clearly in need of a mental health checkup:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/06/huntsville_stars_giving_away_g.html
Perhaps all vehicles should be removed from owners for there is a potential for fatalities. After all it is the car not the driver. It is the guns fault not the owner.
No one ever talks about the lives saved as a result of owning a gun only the negatives from those with an agenda to disarm Americans
Doc, the floor is yours.
For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home.
In 2011, nearly 10 times more people were shot and killed in arguments than by civilians trying to stop a crime.
A Philadelphia study found that the odds of an assault victim being shot were 4.5 times greater if he carried a gun. His odds of being killed were 4.2 times greater.
The most commonly cited statistic regarding gun use in self-defense is from a study that notes that merely brandishing the weapon was sufficient in the vast majority of cases (most of which also involve handguns). Thus, banning high capacity magazines and AR-15’s is wholly supported by these numbers.
As for the actual argument at hand regarding people with mental health issues, the suicide/homicide/accident to self-defense ratio goes way, way up. A person with mental health issues is far more likely to kill himself with a gun than to use it in self defense.