1)  I'll start with saying that automatic weapons, or anything designed specifically for the military, is simply un-necessary.

2)  However, blaming guns for even a single death is irresponsible, to say the least.  The event in question could just as easily been accomplished with a wide variety of improvised weapons, with a possibly higher casualty rate.  Not to mention the simplicity of making a gun from scrap iron and a few household chemicals.  Or a bomb, or even a knife.  A weapon is a weapon, end of story.  Whether you want to believe it or not, your number one concern is in fact that you don't trust other people. 

3)  The mental health claim is nearly as irresponsible as blaming guns for these deaths.  Yes, quite a few people who have/are liable to commit crimes like these are mentally unstable, but just as many are, for lack of a better word, just evil at heart.  I recognize that some of you may scoff at the word evil, even link it to a state only existing in fantasy, but it is very real.  It seems like the modern world is hell-bent on not blaming people for their actions, instead trying to find any and every other possible excuse for why something like this could possibly happen.

4)  If It's not obvious by this point, I support gun ownership.  And the reason has nothing to do with guns.  This is a bit off track, but I believe there are actually too many laws in this world.  A great many of them are legitimately needed, but there are far more that simply should not have ever existed in the first place, or are out-dated and need to be removed.  I'll stop that statement there since it is unrelated, only posted to clarify my reasoning.

5)  Jafo:  What gives any person the right to "Allow" any other person to do anything in the first place?  This kind of thinking is the basis for some of these murders.  Someone feels he/she is being oppressed and finally snaps and removes their oppressor.  I'm not saying it's right, but it should not come to that in the first place.  (Don't think I worded that right...)

6)  As to Dave's comment, I just read the first 4 pages so far, but based on that, I definitely see the hate.  I get where it is coming from, but it is mis-directed.  I'm all for mental health exams prior to owning a weapon, but that is as far as I am willing to budge as far as gun-ownership goes.

7)  Now that I've cooled down enough to respond to Jafo's original statement, I'll respond to it:  What kind of argument is this supposed to be?

Those determined to commit a crime will do so.  There is no room for discussion here.  To me all this said was "Don't you dare try to be logical about this, guns are bad because people died."  This would stop the kind of incident that we were originally discussing here, but mental health screening, paired with responsibility of the gun's use being placed upon its owner, would do exactly the same thing without endangering a person's right to protect themselves.  The right choice is pretty obvious here.

8) Guns are a tool.  I believe development of that tool has far surpassed logical necessity, but they are still just a tool, an object.  Objects do not commit crimes, people use them to do so.  Banning guns would simply remove one of thousands of such tools from "EASY" access and encourage those who commit these crimes to simply become more creative in the way they choose to kill eachother.

I have more to say, but this will do for now.

-Twi

It is best to give up on this debate. My culture is so diametrically opposed to the gun culture as to render it completely alien.

I had one 'friend' on facebook (no-one you know) go on about guns at every opportunity following this tragedy. He even called someone a 'sanctimonious twit' for unfriending him because of it. Well, I was the very next 'sanctimonious twit' to unfriend this moron.

That's when the cull started. Imagine my utter disbelief when someone posted an advert for a gun shop. Life is too short for me to put up with this kind of disturbing behaviour, so I removed anyone who had mentioned support for gun ownership.

My facebook now is a much warmer and friendlier place and this subject is done for good