But that's you! I salute you for that but not everyone thinks like you. However I have to question your mentality here. You say; "a dangerous weapon that can kill and should only be used in drastic times."
In Sweden we don't have this mentality. In drastic times we call the police. Sometimes it can be too late, you can be robbed/shot/whatnot but the main point here is that there is a mentality in USA that says it's ok to use guns in drastic times. What happens then is that everyone defines "drastic times" different. This idiot obviously thought a revenge on his ex-girl is a drastic time. So the whole mentality is kinda wrong.
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seeking revenge is not a drastic measure. its revenge. its payback. its a guy wanted ot get even. i look at a drastic measure as something along the lines as when it comes down to my life or theirs. doing what needs to be done to save my own life from someone who wants to kill me. i think its clear that this shooter didnt think it was a desperate or drastic measure he just wanted revenge. the actions of taking his own life shows that he knew if he survived this or was taken down by police he would be in jail for life and to me it seems like he just wanted to take out his anger and aggression on as many people as he could before it all ended.
where i live, i hear all the time about students i go to school with who get robbed. i hear far too often about people breaking into their apartments at gun point, beating them, constraining them, and robbing everything they have. shit there was a murder at a party at my apartments a few weeks ago. what i am getting at is that you can not always rely on the police to help you or to come and save the day. in my opinion it is foolish to rely on the police or government to be there for you in any situation especially to save your life. i'm not going to put my life in the hands of people who are going to respond late to a situation. the incident and reaction to hurricane katrina should have woken a lot of people up to that you can not rely on authorities to be there for you.
i see your point about banning guns might make it harder for people to get their hands on them, but look at history. look at examples like prohibition and illegal drugs. even ak-47's. they still manage to get in to this country. where there is a will there is a way.