Yet another school shooting

[Something completely different]

The thing is, even though you can go on a murderous rampage with a chain saw or a naginata, guns are a lot more effective.

Some time after Sandy Hook there was an incident where some nutjob went to a crowded public place with a sword and started attacking people. While there were several injuries, there were no fatalities. If they'd had a gun, it probably would have been a different outcome.

The last highschool massacre here was the Winnended school shooting in 2009. The gun he used was his fathers and he stole it for the crime. It does not matter how strickt the regulations are, a person determined to commit a crime will still stay on his course and commit that crime. And it is cynical to focuse ones attention on outstandingly violent crimes that get more media attention. Most homicides are not planned and executed mass murders but crimes resulting out of a situation in which the offender is put under pressure.

- A man who beats someone to death in a barfight.

- The drunken husband who strangles his wife

- The beaten up wife who had enought and stabs her husband.

These account for the biggest amount of occuring homicides. And after that come those which take some planning. Like the husband who murders his wife and dumps the body off a bridge, thinking it will make it look like a suicide. We have discussed this topic in various different threads, and in every single one of those threads I have continously posted the same statistics over and over again. Statistices on homicide for the US on a state basis, a national basis, statistics on European homicides on a national basis and more. And all these statistics bring the same result which seem to be ignored here. Dispite the availability of firearms, the homicide rate in the US is not the highest. Eastern European countries have a higher average homicide rate than the US. And I dont know if remember this correctly but in my memory I found for the last thread that Poland has a higher homicide rate than Texas.

The availabillity of methods to commit a crime is without a doubt an important contributing factor in a regions crime statistic, but it is not the most important one. The statistics I read and posted clearly showed that the biggest contributing factor to a large homicide rate and large crime rate in total is poverty, ethnic conflict, political conflict and proximity to drug routes.

Best example is Italy:



Italy has some of the strictest gun regulations on this planet. But if you read through the statistics concerning Neaples, you could easily believe that city to be somewhat like Falludscha in 2004. Southern Italy is where the main drug smuggling routes for south american cocain and asian heroin go through (proximity to drug routes) and southern Italy is also one of the poorest regions on the European continent.
In conclusion I can only say that it is not the availability of guns which create the high homicide rate. And since I base my arguments on statistics and research on the reality I live in, it would be dishonest of me to argue for better gun control for the purpose of cutting the crime rate.

the only argument I can give against a wide availability of guns.... I`ll make a list:

- Political instability:

I have often seen posters and arguments by american gun nuts in the media in which it is argued that the strict gun regulations of nazi germany brought Hitler to power. That is utter nonsence and a lie which willfully turns historic facts on their head. It is forbidden by German law today to own weapons as a political organisation and one of the reasons for that is that Hitler came to power through armed brownshirts who fought the police and armed communists. Back then almoust every single political party had a heavily armed militia which fought other militias from other parties. This constant social instability was what defeated the publics trust in the political system and helped the Republic to collapse. So when talking gun control, I would insist in forbidding political militias to own any kind of firearm.

- Criminal Investigation

This does not completly ban the sale of arms, but I would insist that firearms should only be sold at licensed arms dealers, that owners are registered and that every gun being sold has to undergo a process of balistic testing so the gun can be identified in a crime case. And also, most important of all: psychological testing.

- Suicide rate

This is where every single country with liberalised gun regulations shows the same statistics. The US, Swizerland, Russia and the Phillipines have the most liberal arms regulations on the planet, in every single country the crime rate is differn. But what all have in common is an extraordenarily high gun used suicide rate. The availability of guns may not increase the crime rate, but it certainly does increase the rate of suicides in which guns are used. And I dont even think that a problem with a high suicide rate can be solved by simply banning the tool used for suicide. So the only thing I can propose here is psycological testing of buyers.