>>I agree. Something needs to be done to prevent sick people from shooting other people.
>
>Great. A point of agreement.
>
>>
>>Now lets put that aside and talk reality. Had there been armed citizens at the mall
>>shooting, and had Sean Taylor been armed with a gun, less people would have been killed.
>
>It's hard to say what would have happened at the mall shooting, since civilians with guns might well have killed or injured people other than the gunman.
>
>As for Sean Taylor, one person died in that case. Had Taylor had a gun, seems to me he would have had to kill at least one, maybe all, of the invaders to save his own life. So more people would have died.
>
>Also, fwiw, in the Taylor case, I think it's telling that only the victim holding a weapon was killed. The girlfriend and child weren't injured. Perhaps if Taylor hadn't had the machete, he wouldn't have been shot either, and the invaders would have stoled what they wanted and left. Hard to say.
>
>
>>You can never stop someone from getting a gun if that really want to.
>
>Would you at least agree that we make it far too easy for nutjobs to get guns? Let's leave career criminals out of the discussion for the moment and talk only about the kind of people who go out and shoot up a mall, a church, a school, etc. Would you support laws that make it virtually impossible for these folks to get a gun other than by stealing it?
>
>
>Tamar

I'm not at all opposed to some kind of system where 'sick' people don't get their hands on guns.

But lets bring the career criminal back into the discussion because these are the ones who really
make up the statistics. The mass shootings are horrific and grab the media spotlight. But far more
people die at the hands of the gangbangers and robbers and the like. Just like in the Taylor case.
This wasn't a mass shooting, but an example of a typical home invasion robbery that the general
public needs to defend against.