Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Very true, its not one single issue that can account for all the mass shootings. The Aurora shooter got very good mental health care from a psychiatrist who was a pioneer on preventing that very thing. A lot of people the world over have mental health issues, and when there is tragedy its often manifested in cultural ways. Its not a simple easy thing to explain away, and we might end up having to make some radical changes.

Updated tactics have saved lives. Police officers have gotten better at responding to these incidents. Officers arrive and engage these shooters as soon as possible.

The problem is, the public does not understand it can play an important role in preventing these shootings. Administrators at businesses, schools, post offices, hospitals think if they post their facility as a “No Gun Zone” they have done their part. Problem solved.

All they have successfully done in the case of the active shooter is to facilitate a higher body count by designating the facility as a soft target.

Instead, citizens need to realize evil always has and always will dwell amongst us. They must understand that before there is a manifestation of evil deeds, shooters will act, talk, write, post, warn, threaten, promise and sometimes even predict in a threatening manner.

These evil people that are the active shooters can be stopped long before someone dies by understanding that most shooters pass through a fantasy stage, planning stage, preparation stage, approach stage and implementation stage. When passing through these phases these shooters say troubling things, exhibit trouble behaviors, while they gather troubling equipment. Someone has always been there to see, but few pay attention and fewer still call the police.

Schools teachers, doctors, lawyers, therapists, judges, shopkeepers, neighbors, and yes, gun dealers need to pay attention. Many of these incidents can be prevented by the simple act of calling the police when something just doesn’t look, sound, or feel right.

Citizens that are paying attention can make the difference with one well timed and well placed phone call to prevent the active shooting incident.

Taking away the guns won’t make people stop hurting each other; it will just make them find a different method.

No one expects violence to just disappear, but, as mentioned earlier, if he'd attacked everybody with a knife the fatality rate would very likely be much lower.

the calls to ban "assault weapons" is always interesting, they aren't even designed to kill, handguns are.

What are assault weapons intended to do if not kill?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_As ... eapons_Ban

Not necessarily, it may have just taken longer...

They are intended to wound, because it was determined it was costlier to wound combatants than to kill them. The type of ammunition is very different.

well, yes and no. Some assault rifles like the m16 etc were designed with a few things in mind, one that american military personnel were on the whole generally good people, and had a lot of trouble getting over that "hump" to being interested in killing people; studies showed that people that had to aim and think about thier shot had a higher likelihood of missing, so the assumption was if fully automatic capacity was given to every soldier there was a higher likelihood that a "spray and pray" (not my phrase) was more effective in large scale combat. Smaller rounds (like the m16) are more likely to tumble and bounce around if they penetrate, causing more damage whereas larger calibers (ak47 and many other weapons made by other countries) result in more wounds that have linear entrance and exit point.

Assault rifles, in my opinion, are popular because there are way too many civilians who think they are some undiscovered special forces talent.

The media is doing such a bad job covering this. They are running around speculating and pushing any "fact" they hear 4th ha d just to fill air time. This seems equally bad on all networks.

I also feel so much for the police. I think we always expect that they just handle these things are are so brave and awesome, but they are just good people who can, and do, break.

My cousin posted a picture and a story of a 1st grade teacher. When she heard the shots, she hid all her kids in the closets of the classroom. The shooter came in, she said the kids were in the gym, he killed her and left the room. I can't even imagine.

My cousin posted a picture and a story of a 1st grade teacher. When she heard the shots, she hid all her kids in the closets of the classroom. The shooter came in, she said the kids were in the gym, he killed her and left the room. I can't even imagine.