>>>>>The kids, that just kills me. I am sure that is the general reaction. They hardly had a chance to get started.
>>>>
>>>>It was the gun that made him kill children. Remember - the gun is to blame.
>>>
>>>I wonder if you feel the same irony, if you replace the word gun with drugs...
>>>
>>>But, Bill, in a sense, you're entirely correct. If the gun was not there, it would not have happened. In any way you cut it, if you reduce the accessibility of guns in general, the less of these kind of incidents would happen.
>>>
>>>Personally, it makes my heart puge out to see that people love their guns more than those kids who lost their lives. A real modern society does not need guns, except for military, law enforcement and hunting. There is no reason why (semi) automatic guns should be in use by any other than the military.
>>>
>>>I appreciate that it is part of the American history and culture, but you'll have to face the fact (and not those fabricated by the gun lobby), that you are not creating a safer society with guns. Of all western countries, the US is the most violent country and widely spread availability of guns has everything to do with this.
>>>
>>>Bigger question to the US is: Have those kids died for nothing, or do we forget this until this happens again and again and again ? Personally I'd like to know the opinions of those who were victim of these incident, and whether they have changed their opinion on gun laws after they were confronted with the horror of the widespread availability of guns in general.
>>>
>>>Walter,
>>
>>My view is that this will not change gun law in the USA. Its an endemic problem. The only way to reduce gun ownership will be with the younger generation and education and thats a 20 year game plan. People like Bill are not going to change their views and there's a lot that share them.
>
>I know. Perhaps we as europeans (were most guns were banned because we have experienced the mass destruction of lives over centuries, to which, with all due respect to the war of independence and the civil war, the US has no equivalent by far) have learned the lesson that the widespread availability of guns does not go along with civilization.
>
>I can only hope that next generations in the US will change their minds

But has it really changed? There were mass shooting just last year in Alphen aan den Rijn:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16176658

Tristan van der Vlis, later killed himself. He was a member of a local gun club and legally owned three guns - despite having previously been a resident at a psychiatric institution.

What is most surprising to me (regarding the laws) is how he owned them legally.