10 killed in Alabama shooting rampage

Wednesday 11th March, 01:00 PM JST

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TheQuestion at 04:38 AM JST - 12th March

My sympathy to the families of the dead.
YangYong at 04:45 AM JST - 12th March

A man is on the run with handcuffs on his left wrist after he got away from police who
SiouxGirl at 08:38 AM JST - 12th March

Our whole world is going crazy. I firmly believe that if guns were outlawed for the general population in the U.S., we'd just find something else to kill each other with. Children can make bombs out of drano. None of us are truly safe. What can we do about it? In the U.S., this guy in Alabama would've qualified for a gun permit - clean mental health record, no rap sheet at all. What can we do to stop these ppl from going nuts in public/at schools and killing our families?
tkoind2 at 08:39 AM JST - 12th March

The people on this board arguing against gun ownership are showing the greatest sympathy for these murdered individuals possible. Why? Because we want to take measures now to prevent this kind of rampage as much as possible.

We don't need guns in America. We need to rid our streets of them. We need to address the root causes of the most common crimes and take measures to reduce crime. We need to build a relationship of trust between authorities and the public so that they better represent and protect us. And it all begins by recognizing that we can no longer tollerate the kinds of murderous rampages we read far too often about.

To those who love guns in my country I say Grow up and put away your toys, your macho illusions of self protection, your paranoid insecuties and work to improve our country via non-violent means. If you are afraid, do something to address the root cause of that fear. Get involved, volunteer, support political leaders who will make changes to reduce the causes of crime. Exercise common sense and restraint to stay out of conflicts and when in danger be prudent and cautious instead of hoping for movie like heroics.

Guns kill too many of our people every year. Most of it in accidents, suicides and murders within families. So your guns are a threat to you every day that you own one. The external criminal threats are there, but statistically you have more risk from your gun than from any criminal.

Give up guns. Ban them. Make illegal possession a harshly punished crime. Make use of a gun a life sentence offence. And any crime of murder with a gun a life sentence of solitary confinement sentence. Make criminals afraid of their guns. It will take time to clear our nation of guns, but it will work in the end.

You cannot prevent all crimes with weapons for all time. But you can dramatically reduce the number of people killed by guns every year by doing away with them.
likeitis at 08:51 AM JST - 12th March

SiouxGirl: I firmly believe that if guns were outlawed for the general population in the U.S., we'd just find something else to kill each other with.

Fine by me. Killing with a gun is just too easy and convenient. Everything else has some sort drawback that gives a person a better chance to survive. Cars you can hear and see coming. With knives they have to be right up on you and swinging your arm takes more time than pulling a trigger. Bombs out of drano? So long as they are not for sale at Wal-mart, I don't think we would see too many of those.
likeitis at 08:59 AM JST - 12th March

Superlib: When people get shot in the US it turns into a gun control debate and sympathy is usually checked at the door.

Sympathy? All the victims and their families have my sympathy. So what? How much can we talk about that? To what end? Maybe if I jump on a plane and attend some funerals, my sympathy might have some sort of impact.

I think it is quite natural and wise for people to look at this event, which is past, over and done, and reflect on what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. Our hearts bleeding for the victims is not going to do that.

But what makes your post ridiculous is that no one is making any unsympathetic comments, like jokes. That is what it means to check your sympathy at the door.
TheQuestion at 09:58 AM JST - 12th March

With knives they have to be right up on you and swinging your arm takes more time than pulling a trigger.

Nonsense. Hammers can be quite heavy and one could argue that killing with a knife is just as easy as killing with a firearm as well as quieter and it doesn't leave that nasty gunshot residue, in all actuallity I suppose a knife would actually be the smarter choice. It eventually comes down to a question of intent. There are creatures in this world that simply enjoy killing, the tool to that end is irrelevant, in fact the most savage serial killers never so much as picked up a gun.

Historically human interaction involves conflict, and conflict typically leads to violence. Over the course of human history man has remained largely unchanged, only the tools at his disposal have been altered through the ages. That said the average firearm owner typically either keeps it locked in a safe under their bed waiting for 'that day' or uses it for hunting, although I personally prefer my Barnett in that respect, doesn't spook the deer.
USARonin at 10:00 AM JST - 12th March

FrontandCenter, "preposterous"? Not at all.

John Lott's book *More Guns, Less Crime - Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws is as true as it was before and since he penned it.

http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/

Lott started off as gun-grabber but his own research at the University of Chicago - famous for its societal studies - turned him around."
Hotbox08 at 12:54 PM JST - 12th March

Killing with a gun is just too easy and convenient. Everything else has some sort drawback that gives a person a better chance to survive. Cars you can hear and see coming. With knives they have to be right up on you and swinging your arm takes more time than pulling a trigger. Bombs out of drano? So long as they are not for sale at Wal-mart, I don't think we would see too many of those.

Excellent point, likeitis. The gun is way too convenient a weapon for killing someone, and the fact that it is so easily obtainable in a country such as the U.S. makes it even more so the weapon of choice. I remember seeing a video taken in Thailand where a crazy man with a knife held a young girl hostage. As he put his knife up over his head, the young girl's father rushed the man and wrestled the knife out of his hand; thus the girl was saved. Now, let's substitute the knife with a gun and see what the success rate of that happening would be. Dodging a knife vs. dodging a gun .... Hmm ...

how about the school boy last week in (I think) Sapporo who built a bomb to take his entire class? I agree the bomb rather than the gun idea is a bit silly, but not so silly that it can’t sometimes happen.

Good example, grafton, but was the school boy successful in hurting anyone with the bomb? It would be interesting to know the success rate of guns vs. a bomb. You see, with a bomb, you need to do research on how to make a bomb first. In other words, making and using a bomb requires a bit of planning, and there is never a guarantee that it will go off when and where you want it to. With a gun, even a little kid would know how to point and shoot it and you can use it instantly, whenever and wherever you want with such a high success rate; especially when used in a large crowd. People like to compare this shooting rampage with the knife rampage that happened in Akihabara, but I can guarantee that if that person had a gun, there would have been far more deaths. In this Alabama case, these 10 people were killed in several locations. Imagine what would have happened if he went off in a crowded area like New York, or Tokyo?
LFRAgain at 02:07 PM JST - 12th March

the average firearm owner typically either keeps it locked in a safe under their bed waiting for 'that day' or uses it for hunting

That's a bizarre way to distinguish between responsible and irresponsible use of firearms. First, how one stores a weapon and whether that weapon is used for hunting or not are two entirely different criteria that have no business together in your portrayal of "average" usage. How a gun is stored and what it's used for are completely independent factors, despite your attempt to lump the two things together as an overall representation of the safe and benevolent nature of private gun ownership.

As to your statement about average owners keeping their weapon(s) locked up, the research indicates otherwise. According to the National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms conducted by the National Institute of Justice in 1997, only a little more than half of all private gun owners actually locked up their weapons when not in use. Even more disturbing is that of those who don't store their weapons, about half of them had received some sort of formal training on how to safely store their weapons, yet still chose to ignore what they learned. Only those who had received gun safety training from an affiliate of the National Safety Council showed any appreciably better gun safety habits.

For those interested, take a look at this report for a far more accurate picture of gun ownership in America than what is offered by the “ . . . from my cold dead fingers” crowd. Pay particular attention to the findings regarding “defensive gun use” and how improbable its reported frequency actually is. It’s a rather enlightening report, if not outright depressing.

http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/165476.txt
likeitis at 02:46 PM JST - 12th March

The people saying knives are very dangerous are not wrong. They are just a little misguided when they try to claim they are just as bad as guns. They are not examining nearly enough ins and outs in their comparison. In fact, most people on both sides are not. Its not the little points, its the overall comparison. Guns kill more where guns are prevalent, because killing with a gun is so darned quick and easy. Knives are deadly, particularly when in the right hands. Fortunately, those hands are not nearly as common as the fingers of any fool that can pull a trigger, including children.

Moderator: Readers, comparisons to knife rampages are not relevant.
boboh at 03:47 PM JST - 12th March

Another weak little man, who didn`t get enough hugs as a kiddie and had a grudge against everyone. Loser.
TheQuestion at 01:35 AM JST - 13th March

That's a bizarre way to distinguish between responsible and irresponsible use of firearms. First, how one stores a weapon and whether that weapon is used for hunting or not are two entirely different criteria that have no business together in your portrayal of "average" usage. How a gun is stored and what it's used for are completely independent factors, despite your attempt to lump the two things together as an overall representation of the safe and benevolent nature of private gun ownership.

My my, you dissected that statement with a speed and efficiency that boarders on the compulsive, I can respect that. However I have never viewed firearms as anything other than another product and saying that I attempted to portray their ownership as benevolent is simply false. I don't see anything wrong with gun ownership nor do I see anything right about it. In terms of price and usefulness it’s about on par with a band saw; both quite expensive, both useful, and both have a habit of injury or maiming people when used by the incompetent.
OhioDonna at 11:38 PM JST - 13th March

Sad, sad day for both Germany and the United State.
Blue_Tiger at 10:49 PM JST - 16th March

For sports shooting, you can leave the gun safely under lock and key at the shooting range; no need to have the gun at home, no need for a conceal-carry permit. Hunting - no comment, it would be off topic. -Cleo

Hmmmm... So each and every sports person leaves their sporting equipment at the gym, training facility under lock and key? I think not....

Further, cleo, in states and cities where conceal-and-carry laws are ineffect, the crime rates of those states and cities happen to drop dramatically. I wonder why? Care to explain?