The right to bear arms.

[.:iGi:. Eggenberg4Ever]

Hi all,

To begin, I am deeply saddened to see yet another mass murder/suicide being reported in the media. My thoughts and feelings go out to anyone affected by the tragedy in Omaha.

Allow me to state that this is not intended to be a flame post nor is it my intention to offend . If it degenerates into a brawl too early then hopefully that's more a reflection on others than me.

As a Brit it's unknown in our present day state of culture for everyone to carry, or have the right to carry, powerful firearms. Don't get me wrong; I'm not anti-gun, far from it; however, I remember the tragedy that befell a classroom of fifteen 5 & 6 year olds and their teacher when a supposedly regulated gun owner walked into their school one morning, packing for bear.

This led to a complete change in British gun laws. Admittedly, gun crime's still an issue, but it's increasingly less likely for a murder/suicide like this to happen again. I sincerely hope so.

Inevitably, it leads me to wonder, in as close to a single posting answer as possible initially, what your opinion is on the right of unregulated - possibly psychologically unstable - civilians to bear arms?

[gazzthompson]

well we can own shotguns in UK , so thats bearing arms , just not rifles or pistols

[Morgan]

Don't you need a background check or a license or something along those lines?

I doubt if you had psychological problems you'd get your hands on a firearm in the UK. Basically something is going wrong in the US...

[[R-CON]ZZEZ]

I doubt that they let people with psychological problems in the US own guns.

[$kelet0r]

I'll say one thing - there are times when I honestly want very much to inflict great pain and/or worse on other people and I doubt that is unusual
If I lived in a country with general gun ownership ....

[Rambo Hunter]

Originally Posted by .:iGi:. Eggenberg4Ever

Hi all,
I remember the tragedy that befell a classroom of fifteen 5 & 6 year olds and their teacher when a supposedly regulated gun owner walked into their school one morning, packing for bear.

I imagine a totally different outcome if that teacher, or another teacher in the complex was packing a pistol in their desk/on their belts and wasn't afraid to use it .

IIRC there hasn't been a school shooting in Israel since the '70s, because that's around the time that either teachers could, or were forced to carry a weapon with them to schools.

[SethLive!]

the right to bear arms is one of the core ideas the united states was built on. You have to right to defend yourself.

people with serious mental problems, felons, and minors are not allowed to bear arms.

[AOD_Morph]

I think its obvious that this kid got an Ak47 illegally. Since that was the weapon used, we don't just give firearms to every nut case roaming the streets.

[LiquidSnake]

Here in switzerland about every guy who served has his rifle at home with i think 20 bullets (in a closed packet. if u had to serve again they'll check the packet, if it was open one day u will go to jail i think). Here we also have a debate about should the rifle be allowed to be kept at home? (about a week ago some guy shot a 16 year old girl for no reason with the army rifle). Though i think it's a good thing to keep the rifle at home, because u get teh feeling of some kind of security. On the other hand there could always be some idiot who shoots people.

[[R-CON]ZZEZ]

Originally Posted by Rambo Hunter

IIRC there hasn't been a school shooting in Israel since the '70s, because that's around the time that either teachers could, or were forced to carry a weapon with them to schools.

Where I studied our teachers did not carry weapons, in areas that are dangerous and prone to terrorist infiltration[Gaza area and Northen Israel] teachers do carry sidearms.
In every school entrance there is an armed guard.

There wasn't a single school shooting in Israel for a simple fact:the population is small, about 7 million people - even that guns are accessible by virtually anyone there are not enough wackos to do such things.