>>>>
>>>>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.
>>>
>>>enter people capable of reading and building small bombs.
>>
>>Not entirely the same, you can build small bombs with commonly available chemicals, but this is something you'll have to plan in advance and is not something you'd apply when you step out the bed with a bad mood. A gun is too easy to use to kill lots of people. Add the accidents that happen with those to the mix, there is quite a difference.
>>
>>>>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.
>>>
>>>agreed. But I prefer the swiss way of teaching grown ups to handle and keep safe low grade military weapons.
>>>And not really an unsafe place to live.
>>
>>I'm not entirely up to date with all the ins and outs, but AFAIK the Swiss allow guns for their national defence (militia) and will receive millitairy training how to handle the gun. Automatic weapons are forbidden and there are strict rules in terms of transport and storage.
>>
>SNIP
>
>And then there is Friedrich Leibacher. And still, the Swiss voters rejected proposed tighter controls on gun ownership in 2011.
>
>The ability for some to order from the U.S. and ship overseas needs to be banned. There will still be countries that allow for it and companies around the world (or private individuals) who will sell and ship online. Still, some laws need to be implemented.
>
>I am not for complete gun bans in the U.S. I am for laws restricting the sale, trade, or use of weapons that clearly have no use other than military action. If we truly believe that U.S. citizens need the right to own assault weapons, than require them to be stored and maintained in local arsenals that are heavily monitored and secured. Restrict the use of such weapons to supervised practice in the same location.

(applause)

I mention only in passing that the original intent of the 2nd amendment was for a well regulated militia. Unless the citizen militia had been called out to defend against an invading force the guns were kept in armories. We have had a standing army since 1850, replacing the citizen militia. As I guess you know very well ;-) (Thanks, which is what I say to every soldier).

UPDATE: What I am saying, and you agree, is let's take some reasonable action and ban assault weapons. We are not going to eliminate all guns, agreed again. But we can and should do something.

Yesterday I asked for anyone to defend a reasonable purpose of these weapons. No reply yet.