Amish School Shooting

[lo_res_man]

decent enough to do what? blow up a school? kill students? make a bang?
say your a farmer, or say your a farmer, or are part of a garden club? what then?

[scotch]

"There are knife threats and attacks in schools far more often than guns" Yeah I expect so, that's certainly the case here... I did say large scale knife attacks. If you're a thug that's threatening or attacking one person, or a rapist wandering around at night, then it may as well be a knife. I didn't mean to imply that you don't get violent crimes committed if there are no guns. It's just when it comes to the topic of large scale random psycho incidents such as this school shooting, the availability of better killing tools is the main reason (imo) that they occur more often in America.

As a proportion of total violent crimes these big newsporthy things are pretty insignificant. I didn't mean to suggest anything other than that explanation for the higher rate of these specific types of crime.

Incidentally, 8 times more people are shot to death in america than stabbed to death, a large majority of that being handguns, it's certainly what I'd choose too, if I was violent and had a choice. Just because "people get stabbed here" or "I know how to make a bomb", doesn't mean they appeal to the average nut considering a mass murder+suicide.

[thewalrus]

     I would also think that someone with a knife would be much easier to incompacitate then someone with a gun. A lot of people could rush the guy with the knife and over power him. But then again the 9/11 hijackers only had box cutters......

[Timosity]

Very sad, I  don't think gun laws would have made it any different, it seems to be one of those one off odd killing sprees that only the killer knew what he wanted to do and had probably planned it long ago, and any intelligence could not have known it was going to happen.

Just on gun laws in any country: gun laws can make it harder to get weapons, but if someone really wants a gun they can get one in any country, there is a huge black market out there.

I know one of my friends got a gun just for the sake of it years ago, he's also on medication for bipolar disorder and he wasn't on medication then. It was a bit freaky but he did get rid of it.

Another one of my friends bought a gun illegally, and it was the same gun that the cops carry around here, His house was robbed, and that was one of the items stolen.

Media does have a lot to do with making these things known a lot more these days. There are quite a lot of Drive by shootings in Sydney, Australia these days and a lot of them don't make the news, I don't know if that's to make it seem safer or they are becoming that common that they don't make a story. This is a more recent trend and seems to mimic LA. But stats will show how many more shootings happen in the USA than anywhere else by such a huge margin that it's just obvious that the less guns there are, the less people will resort to using them. Simple as that. (the stats I'm thinking of were in Bowling for Columbine I think, not sure on specific numbers and can't be bothered looking it up)

I've got a friend out here at the moment from LA and some of his stories are quite scary, even stuff about the competitiveness of gangs in other cities to make their city the most violent. It's like a competition, and the media drives it.

One of my mates from here was visiting some friends in Detroit a couple of weeks ago and there were quite a few drive by shootings while he was there, one only 2 doors down from where he was staying. The last time he was in Detroit last year, his mate got stabbed repeatedly in the neck with his own carving chisel in his own hotel room, luckily missed every major artery by millimetres.

They changed the automatic weapon laws here (Australia) about 10 years ago after a guy massacred random people in a famous tourist spot in Tasmania for no reason, including small children. He didn't turn the weapon on himself either, and chose a spot that he could not possibly escape, a piece of land only attached by an Isthmus (thin strip of land surrounded by water connecting 2 larger bits of land)

There was another massacre in a shopping centre in Sydney about 10 or so years ago as well which was another reason they changed the automatic weapon laws.

I don't think there has been any other major shootings like that for quite some time now, just a lot of gang related one off shootings and domestic shootings, but it's a sad world out there and getting worse. I do feel safe walking around the city but sometimes you hear about a shooting that happend outside a place you were the week before, it seems like only a matter of time before you actually see one and hope you are not unlucky enough to be in the way, It would be pretty unlucky though.

[HillBilly]

Just on gun laws in any country: gun laws can make it harder to get weapons, but if someone really wants a gun they can get one in any country, there is a huge black market out there.

If I were myself and wanted to go on a killing spree, I'd have no idea how to get anything more than a hunting rifle, and maybe a pistol. Well, except from going to America, buy some shotguns and stuff there, and head back. I've had friends doing this.

Seriously, I don't see why anything stronger than a handgun is legal. If someone's breaking into your property, you don't need your latest Deth-Bringa 3000 K-57 34.2mm Mini-Gun with automatic condom dispensers. I'm sure a decent .22 is more than enough to atleast cripple the guy.