Something has to be done? Why?

well, the reason why DC has a high gun death rate is because laws are lax in other states. Criminals get guns from lax states, and ship them into DC (why would you buy a gun in DC, when you can just drive your car to another state where you can get a gun at the local store?). similarly, lax gun laws in texas are causing gun deaths in the surrounding states. The same thing is true for mexico. Mexico may have tough gun laws. But they have happen to be right next to the US, where the gun laws are lax. So the high gun deaths in Mexico are attributable to the gun lobby in the US.

 

you can dispute it, but you'd be wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

 

Guess you missed the part at the top of the article
'this article's factual accuracy has been disputed'

 

Yeah but those numbers mean nothing. Stop playing games and present facts.

How many legal gun owners go off? No a person that has been deemed mentally ill is not a legal owner if it was before the fact.

 

availability of of legal guns causes availability of illegal guns. they go hand in hand. The gun that killed all those children in Connecticut wasn't legally owned by the shooter. But it was made available by the legal owner. It's not the legality of guns that's the issue. It's the availablility.

 

The weapon was not properly secured and the owner was killed as well.

Again I ask how many?

How many guns are stolen by repeat offenders? How many taken illegally by the mentally ill who should have been treated?

I am saying that this stuff is preventable in more ways than one and a big part is the fault of our government who can send billions for drugs and treatment to Africa but allows the closing of mental health facilities and the underfunding of corrections and education in the US.

 

agree. All of the above. We should fund the treatment of mental disorders. We should also make guns less available.

 

By less available you mean out of the hands of convicted felons, drug dealers and users, the mentally ill and young children I agree. A combination locking gun cabinet for the guns and ammo requirement would be good.

Harsh penalties for stealing guns/selling stolen guns up to and including life (death).

 

we should make guns less available for everybody. less guns = less guns. but we should also mandate locking gun cabinets, gun locks, etc.

but none of these measures are as good as simply making guns harder to get. I would support a national quota on gun production, in addition to mandatory licensing with strict background checks.

 

I do not think increasing the penalties will do anything to dissuade these criminals. None of them thinks they will ever be caught. The only reason to increase the sentences would be to keep them off the streets.

While I do not have a problem locking up those that intentionally sell stolen guns, the concept of increasing penalties is concerning to me. I fear the concept may be extended to otherwise law-abiding people who sell "assault weapons". As long as it is made clear that the increased penalties only apply to those dealing with stolen guns, not prohibited guns.

 

(*)(*)(*)(*)ing kill the scum. Case closed and they will never do it again.

 

I wish I had kept the story,but several years back a police property room found that over 700 weapons were missing....