Originally posted by kevcvs57
Except for the ones who ended up at 'Boot hill'.
An armed society is a paranoid, dysfunctional, nightmare driven society, what happened to the dream?
I don't know. This is obviously a very complex issue. It's not as simple as confiscation (will never happen - in fact, probably the best possible way to start a revolution); banning high-capacity magazines (there are already millions out there, maybe tens of millions); nor is it as simple as "everyone pack heat".
If you ban guns outright, only criminals will have them. I know this sounds self-serving and circular, but the simple fact is that you're not going to be able to get them all. There's just no way.
There must be some way to address the mental health issues. I don't know what those ways are without creating a leviathan state and having every single American even more paranoid than they already are.
I think we're becoming an increasingly isolated society. Isolated from each other, and living on line. Hell, this website is a good example. An awful lot of vitriol gets thrown around on this website. People get dehumanized by the ways we interact with each other. My guess is if you put even the most extreme examples of misanthropes together in the same room, we'd probably all get along for the most part. Out here, you can say anything with no fear of consequence. I think that the vast majority of people can handle it; but there are a few notable examples (the Virginia Tech shooter, this instance) of people who don't interact, never learn to negotiate society or with their peers, never learn how to deal with people. And when the rage is no longer tolerable, it explodes, and people pay with their lives. The most tragic part of this - I have a neice who's ten, and nephews who are seven, three, three, and six months. I'd be heartbroken to lose any of them for any reason, but to violence of any kind - well, God bless and watch over those parents. It's too awful to contemplate.