Preventing school shootings

[G.Irish]

Ok, so I'm done for now. Please, someone... PLEASE tell me why we need guns in our society. Don't give me a BS answer like, "it's in our constitution" or "we want to hunt". Don't tell me it'd be too hard to clean our country of guns. Don't tell me it's to protect ourselves from our own government or any other conspiracy theory. Seriously, tell me why an industrialized, militarily fortified, first world superpower needs to let civilians have access to guns.

The 2nd Amendment has zero to do with hunting or entertainment and everything to do with having a means of defending yourself against crime and more specifically, tyranny.

Yeah you think that we can trust our government today, but who's to say where we'll be 10, 20, 50, or 100 years down the line. A people that has no means of revolting against an unjust government is effectively enslaved and powerless. I'd like to think we won't ever have another revolution or civil war but no one has the benefit of being able to see the future. Bottom line for me is that I don't universally trust people and I definitely don't trust politicians. Politicians run the government therefore I will never willingly cede that kind of power to them.

Besides, this country was founded on the premise that one should be able to do whatever the hell they want, as long as it doesn't infringe upon the rights of others. Pre-emptively disarming citizens certainly leads down the road to a totalitarian government where citizens are nothing more than helpless children.

The price of being free to do what you want is that others are free to do what they want to you. The price that has already been paid is that 100's of thousands of Americans have given their lives to protect and uphold the Constitution. Its tragic that 30 students died yesterday but that pales in comparison to the blood spilt to protect our freedoms. If me or any of my family is killed in by gun violence I'll surely mourn, but I'll never dare to denegrate the sacrifices of the people who have fought for our freedoms.

Also note that other countries have gun laws that are similar, or even more lax than ours but have much less gun violence. Rather than trying to outlaw guns maybe we should spend more time on the cultural factors that lead to violence in this country. Because even if by some act of lunacy the 2nd Amendment were appealed, there is absolutely no way it could be enforced. That alone would probably touch off widespread civil unrest and violence. Hell, we couldn't even ban alcohol.

At the end of the day no one is at fault but the man who committed the crime.

Truth is that this type of shooting is very difficult to prevent period. The only thing that can stop a lone gunman attempting to murder civilians in a crowded places is other civilians acting on their own to stop him. This could've happened at a shopping mall, concert, football game, nightclub, or anywhere else where there are people gathered. You could ban guns but that would only give lone gunmen more of an advantage in that situation. I mean, we've banned drugs and we all see how effective that has been.