Just want to express my feeling regarding that accident in Virginia...even if its a thousands miles away from you Rich, i want to be comtissant ......thats should never happen if guns were forbiden....32 victims in one day, its a horror!!!

Appalling, truly horrifying.  The families of those affected are certainly in the prayers of my family.

I used to have no stance on gun ownership, but with the recent events of Virginia and the similar incident just down the street from us, I'm now of the opinion that guns have only one purpose: putting holes in living things.  I want them banned.

While I do feel horrible for the families that lost loved ones in the recent events, I have to take the opposite side in the matter. There are too many people (me included) that like things that include hunting, sport shooting, skeet, and just going out to the range with friends. Unfortunately a very few people out of the massive amount of gun owners go off and make national news. We had one that made national news just a town over from me (mrbiotech may remember the Tyler Texas Court House shooting) and it was the act of another man that owned a gun that stopped more people from getting killed. I agree that senseless tragedies happen, but it is not because of guns it is because of human nature. I think that this would have happened if guns were forbidden, it is called cheap homemade explosives and hunting knives. If someone is pushed over the edge, they are over the edge and nothing short of direct intervention can stop them.

I can agree with sports hunting and shooting, but not with humans heads instead of simple things....

Try to imagine whifes who died in this accident ...they leave a familly behind, with probably babys wich will grow ithout a mum!!! i can even understand if this baby will do the same thing 20 years after!!

We need Mickeblue's opinion on this.  If not mistaken, I think guns are outlawed in the UK - with the exception of SWAT and the like.  It's be really interesting to see what their violent crimes statistics are.

Agreed. It would be interesting to hear from  Mickeblue on this.

It's true guns are outlawed here unless one belongs to a licensed shooting club ( where the gun is usually kept at the club under lock & key ), or has a bone fide reason to own a firearm ( like a gamekeeper, or a livestock farmer who needs one for pest control ). Admittedly even under those circumstances things occasionally go off the rails... but very rarely.

Unfortunately, there is now also a problem of illegal guns becoming more commonly used amongst the young gang population and drug dealing elements in some of our cities... a phenomenon that has escalated in the past decade. But that is the criminal side of things and that problem will always exist whatever the laws regarding gun control might be. This has led to calls for our police force to be armed, which fortunately has so far been resisted... I think if we arm the cops here more criminals will also start to carry arms. Suffice to say that most Britons have never held a gun, and those that have did so whilst serving in the armed forces. Myself, I know only one person who owns a gun and he does so because he is a competition marksman.

I can understand haxers point of view regarding owning a gun, considering his interesting in hunting ( though I have to say that I can't understand the desire to go out and kill the creatures of the earth for pleasure or sport... but that's a personal thing ).

However it seems to me that America's obsession with the right to bear arms is just that... obsessional and obsolete.
Your borders aren't under threat, the natives have been pacified, and the English crown isn't going to try to reclaim the colonies, so why make it so easy for everyone to have access to, and be able to acquire firearms? And we aren't just talking little pop guns here are we, but bloody great assault weapons!
It seems to me that as long as the average Joe can stroll into a shop and walk out with a gun there are going to be incidents of this kind... possibly more frequently considering how stressful many people find living in the modern world. It's inevitable that the cork is going to fly off the bottle when such things as alcohol, drugs and mental confusion are added to the equation.

I would have thought a system like ours where gun owners like haxer, who have a genuine reason to own a weapon, keep it at a club or in a controlled lock up until such times as they require it for their sport would go a long way to bringing down the number of shooting related deaths in the US.

This was a very regrettable incident [ though somewhat foreseeable if what I have read is true ]  , but when I read Nerios subject line the first thing that occurred to me was "it was no accident".

Well Micke, it's nearlly what i cant express because of my Bad english....But in another side, peoples that own a gun are usually own it for a good reason, like protect themselves from gangs and thieves, that are more and more equiped with big Assault guns at nowdays!!

So what you would like to do?, desarme these peoples and let them without protection?!!!

True that! I don't hunt personally, just like sport shooting. I have friends that hunt though and all the ones I know eat what they shoot.

Then ask them to invite me!  ...............The rest of you VOTE!

Two wrongs do not a right make Nerio... and the man with the gun usually decides that he is one step away from being better off as a result of the power that piece of metal gives him. From your own point of view I could get into a discussion about the harm done to Africa from colonialism, and mismanagment of the return of government of the African states to their rightful owners... but then look at what greedy African iindividuals have done with the opportunities presented to them!?!  And no amount of rock concerts, or little envelopes with a few dollar bills is ever going to change that situation.

Rich you asked for my opinion on this subject and I'll sum it up as this. Life lives on life, that is the unnatural order of things ( and the reason why I'm an atheist )... humankind however has, for whatever reason, come to the top of the heap, but has arrived at that point with what appears to be a collective memory loss... we seem to choose to ignore every childs tear, every mothers loss, every broken heart that got us to this point. We appear to be like the proverbial lost tribe... doomed to wander in a desert of our own making until we have nothing left to destroy. To my mind there is no answer... only a solution that has been staring us in the face for countless miienia, the which...because it is so obvious... we all prefer to ignore ( on that note I'm off to shoot myself   )

I tried to add a cheerful edit, but it doesn't seem to have registered... I bought two (2) newspapers this morning [ I'm not going to read either of them ], but in an attempt to get people to buy print the UK press falls over itself to add extras... well today for the price of two newspapers ( about $4 ) I got a complete copy of Mike Oldfields' Tubular Bellls, and eight tracks from Simple Minds on cd... now that's my kind of paper!

I've decided that I will listen to these and NOT shoot myself, but it might have been different yesterday.... get my point?

I so wanted to reply that i ended by saying this.....let's get this topic Off 

Mickeblue, again, I find solace in your wisdom.    I'd like to believe that humans have transcended mere animal instinct, but often find disillusionment in this belief.  Humans beget humans and new ways to kill, maim, injure, and pschologically damage other humans, it seems.  My decision is to not use guns, period.  I don't support the availability of these weapons nor do I condone their use.  I don't chastize those who do, however.  I can understand hunting and the like, having grown up in Michigan.  For myself, I prefer meat I can get at the store.

With regards to owning a gun purely for defensive purposes, wasn't that what the nuclear escalation during the cold war was about?  If a country had enough nuclear weapons then it would strongly deter other foreign nations from launching a nuclear strike against them.  Only it back-fired dramatically; did nothing but increase fear in the public and introduced new horrific phrases such as "atomic haulocast", "mutually-assured destruction" and "nuclear winter" into the public vernacular.  By-and-large, I think ownership of weapons for defensive purposes is not a proactive means of avoiding conflict, but an enabling means for violence.