Posted on 03/22/2005 10:53:46 AM PST by Dan from Michigan
Minnesota School Massacre Latest Example of the Human Toll of America's Love Affair with Guns
Shooter's Willingness to Commit Suicide Demonstrates Futility of Deterrence, Restricting Access to Firearms is the Only Way to Prevent Future Tragedies
Washington, D.C.—Yesterday's mass shooting at a Minnesota high school in which a lone shooter killed nine and wounded more than a dozen before taking his own life was the worst school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two students killed 13 and wounded another 23 before taking their own lives.
In the wake of this most recent shooting, Kristen Rand, legislative director for the Violence Policy Center (VPC) states, "America must face the fact that we have a love affair with guns that exacts a tremendous and unacceptable cost in human lives lost. Mass shootings like that at Red Lake High School are the future for America's children until policymakers decide it's time to enact real gun control. Other countries have found the solution to mass shootings, and it consists of severe restrictions on the availability of specific classes of firearms, such as handguns and assault weapons."
Noting that, as was the case at Columbine, the Minnesota high school shooter was prepared to die in order to perpetrate the shooting, Rand adds, "There is simply no way the criminal justice system or a series of security measures—such as the guard and metal detectors present at Red Lake High School—can prevent a shooter determined to kill and willing to die."
The shooting at Red Lake High School is the latest mass murder-suicide to occur in the United States and follows, by less than two weeks, a murder-suicide at a Wisconsin hotel that resulted in eight dead. These shootings, like the vast majority of such incidents, were perpetrated with a gun. A study conducted by the VPC in 2002 found that guns were used in 95 percent of all murder-suicides and estimated that at least 1,300 lives are lost each year to murder-suicide. (For a copy of the study, American Roulette: The Untold Story of Murder-Suicide in the United States, as well as gun violence information for Minnesota, please see www.vpc.org).
I thought they said that this kid got the guns from his grandfather, who was a cop? Are they proposing that we take the guns away from cops now?
Which is logical enough. However, if laws and security measures failed to prevent guns from being smuggled into a school, how are other laws going to prevent the same shooter from illegally obtaining guns?
For some strange reason, the folks at VPC never get around to answering that logical follow-up question.
It's not that that their worried about. It's America's "love affair" with guns. It's our "gun" mentality that makes us so violent. As opposed to those peaceful utopia's in socialist Europe.
She's right about that. Too bad kids can't carry firearms to school, maybe somebody could've shot back. It could be equally said, too, that ...
"There is simply no way more laws can prevent crimes when people are willing to break the law to commit crimes."
As opposed to what?
Thanks for posting this. I just fired off a little "love letter" to them!
This may sound crazy, but I wonder how many would have died if this kid had walked into this school of 300 kids where all of them were armed.
::These shootings, like the vast majority of such incidents, were perpetrated with a gun.::
Wow. Shootings perpetrated with a gun. Who'd have ever guessed???
Whatever. I'm glad that VPC is willing to blame guns for all our problems, instead of addressing the actual problems. Meaningless rhetoric is always a better solution, or so say these loonies.
As opposed to shootings perpetrated with a gallon container of laundry soap.
"Yesterday's mass shooting at a Minnesota high school in which a lone shooter killed nine and wounded more than a dozen before taking his own life was the worst school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two students killed 13 and wounded another 23 before taking their own lives."MY good G-D!!!!
The vast majority of shootings are perpetrated by guns? What were the other ones perpetrated by?
They probably didn't like that.
I was actually a little shocked last night that this was the 3rd story into the news. When the Columbine shooting occured it was not only the Top Story it was the Only Story.
I expect the anti-gun news will make up loss grown tonight.
And 95% of all heroin addicts drank milk as children.
So?
Alberta Mountie Massacre Latest Example of the Human Toll of Canada's Love Affair with Drugs.
And how many high-schoolers lives are lost in automobile accidents? Maybe we should ban them too.
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