Shannon "The Clueless Wonder" Watts

For all their claims of wanting gun sense, they sure are opposed to common sense ideas. I fail to comprehend how teaching kids about gun safety is considered a bad idea.

I would think that, since their attempts to ban guns entirely has failed, they'd accept that teaching people how to properly handle a gun is a good idea. Apparently, it's all or nothing with these folks. They want to completely disarm those that are legal gun owners so we have no way to protect ourselves against those that care nothing about the laws and obtain guns illegally.

It's really scary that these people are allowed to reproduce and raise children. Lord help our future with these people still breathing and exercising their 1st amendment rights.

"Gun Safety" org opposes actual gun safety training. Yeah, #gunsense is just a cult. pic.twitter.com/DrKIEaoIbU

— Bill Baldwin (@WildBillBaldwin) April 15, 2017

4 gun control measures shot down

I'm so sick of hearing about how the NRA is to blame for gun safety measures not getting passed. Republicans proposed 2 bills, 1 that was sponsored by the NRA and they still got shot down.

Democrats proposed laws nearly identical to what is already in place but not being fully enforced...they were shot down.

Republicans proposed allowing police more power to block gun sales and communicate about suspicious purchases....and they were shot down.

Democrats can't think of anything new so they reword the current laws and expect that to make a difference. Republicans offer common sense legislation and get shot down because they aren't being harsh enough.

I doubt the Democrats have any desire to actually solve the gun problem. If they did, they'd stop bringing up the same arguments that have been debunked for years.

Stricter guns laws have done nothing to curb crime in Chicago. In fact, it's gotten worse so let's just stop that argument...it won't work.

They want to ban "assault rifles" but that wouldn't stop a criminal from buying multiple hand guns and doing the same damage.

It's clear that mass shooting don't become mass shootings if there are armed citizens around to stop the attacker early on. It takes too long for Police to respond and it costs lives.

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Whether that be a police officer or an armed citizen.

Arguing gun control

What concerns me about stories like this is that they are almost an argument FOR more tracking and gun control. Think about it. The author repeatedly mentions how the current system doesn't have access to enough information to detect that the applicant is lying. What would be the obvious solution to this problem? More tracking & databases of health/mental issues and gun owners in general.

So, the Louisiana theater shooter lied on his handgun purchase application. Should we be surprised? I can honestly say that it's almost too easy to buy a gun these days (in some states).

I can go into a store and walk out with any gun (that I can afford) within 30 minutes with no hassle or suspicion at all. No waiting period in my home state and a very short form to complete. What if I lie on the form about my history? Would they catch it? How could they detect a lie about mental health when that information is protected as confidential?

While I don't want my personal health history made public, I don't have a problem with a database that includes items like this to check when someone wants to buy a gun.

I know that makes me a traitor to many 2A supporters but I cannot agree with blindly allowing anyone to buy a gun as their "right". Unfortunately, times have changed and we have to adapt to keep ourselves safe...from each other.

You can't regulate stupidity, morality or courtesy (Or, a world full of assholes)

The Political Parent claims "I'M DONE"!!

I never cease to be amazed at these people.

#NotOneMore they yell...yet they cannot provide one ounce of proof that making it harder for honest citizens to get guns will stop the bad guys from getting them. I'd just like one of them to stop their ranting, about how horrible the NRA and gun owners are, and explain to me why they believe that criminals, who don't obey the current laws, are going to become law abiding citizens if we put new laws in place.

Like they are going to say "hey, this is new...maybe we should follow the laws now". No, that's not how it works. That's never how it's worked. And if they'd look at the facts a little more closely they'd see that there are many situations where a good guy with a gun has stopped a bad guy with a gun before more fatalities occurred.

This "74 school shootings" quote that they are all referencing is from a member of the Everytown crowd and they admit that their statistics include assaults, homicides and suicides. I'd wager that they also include instances that happened "near" a school or a school sponsored activity and not actually at the school where the kids were at all.

I believe 1 of them was a teacher that committed suicide, after school hours, in his office. Noone else was around. I hardly think that qualifies as "gun violence".

It amazes me that these people think you can regulate common sense, courtesy, decency, morality! It's not going to happen, people. You have to deal with the real problem, which is the fact that the US has become a country full of entitled assholes that don't feel they have any consequences for their actions and no respect for others.

Until people stop being worthless wastes of space, the problem will remain.

Focus shifts to mental health as opposed to gun control

Congress has decided to focus on mental health issues to curb gun violence instead of gun control because it's not being fought by folks like the NRA.

I'd say that is what they should focus on because that IS the problem. Stop trying to blame your change of focus on the NRA.

Can you honestly tell me that you think any of these folks committing mass murders are in their right mind? Maybe if we were using the resources we have to their fullest the criminals wouldn't be able to get guns through legal channels.

Granted, that won't stop them from getting them illegally if they really want one but it might make it a little more difficult.

NRA to blame for death by vehicles & knives now?

First, let me remind you that the victims of this horrific crime spree were not all killed by gun shots. 3 were stabbed to death, 3 were shot and 13 more were injured in other ways, 4 by being run over by the criminals BMW. That means, 19 people were hurt or killed...only 3 with a firearm, yet the headline of this article says "Calif. student goes on shooting rampage". Even if you only count the fatalities...the percentage of deaths by knife and gun are the same! Why was this turned into an anti-gun rant? Talk about a biased reporter and publication. How is that a fair headline when the majority of the damages were not even carried out with a gun?

Now, on to the story at hand. The father of one of the victims is understandably upset but his misdirected grief & blame are way off base in the article posted by the Washington Post. Not surprisingly, these articles always fail to point out that this happened in California, where stricter gun laws are already in place. We can all see how well those worked.

This father says he doesn't blame the parents of the gunman, or the police, or the mental health system. He blames the NRA and has no qualms saying so. Apparently his experience as a criminal defense attorney has blinded him to the true ways of the criminal mind. On that note, I wonder how many similarly charged criminals he's represented in his career!

'Martinez reserved his anger for the NRA, saying he has no understanding for the group’s position on automatic and semiautomatic weapons after a series of mass murders involving such weapons.

“I’m angry with the leadership of the NRA who always want to characterize this as if it’s a lone madman. That it’s an act of nature we have to tolerate,” he said. “I am angered by how they have worked to normalize this.”'

Nobody accepts these lunatics and their shooting sprees as normal and if they do, they are clearly the folks that we need to start looking more closely at...as they probably shouldn't have access to guns either.

Yes, there are some extreme members of the NRA that feel all gun laws are too harsh but they do not speak for the majority of us. There are equally extreme characters on the anti-gun side as well and I've seen many hateful, almost threatening, posts from many of them. Don't try to act like the NRA members are the bad guys here!

Most NRA members will tell you that we need better methods of keeping guns out of the hands of those that could be dangerous; however, you won't stop criminals from getting guns by also stopping legitimate citizens from buying them! I don't know why this is such a difficult concept to grasp for these extremists on the anti-gun team!

Stop the extremists!

In the debate over gun control there are far too many irrational extremists on both sides. The "gun grabbers" want to block all gun sales and stop people from buying & owning any gun for any reason. The pro-gun folks think you should be able to open carry any firearm, anywhere, any time.

Luckily, the majority of folks involved in this debate are somewhere in the middle...at least I hope that's the case. Unfortunately, those of us with rational arguments regarding the problem of gun violence are frequently pushed aside for the extremists and their psychotic ramblings that offer no solutions and reflect their lack of common sense.

Here are the most important points (at least in my opinion)

1. Tighter gun laws will NOT stop criminals from getting guns. They don't follow the current laws, why would they follow new ones?

2. In the absence of guns, criminals will find other weapons that are equally lethal and legal to obtain

3. If you restrict guns sales to legit owners, then only criminals will have guns and more people will be unable to defend themselves and more will die.

4. Better background checks would be beneficial as long as we can be assured that the government isn't going to try something stupid down the road and want to confiscate guns because they can't control things.

As I've always said... It's not a gun problem. It's a people problem.

We have to deal with the problem of mentally ill people in this country. Far too many people can't get help and those are the folks we should be watching for. They need help and we need better programs to identify these folks and get them the help they need.

Another issue is the sense of entitlement that many of the younger generation have. We've spent so much time telling them that they are all winners that they don't know how to deal with disappointment and failure when they get into the real world.

We have to stop worrying about our kids being upset because they don't win at everything. They need to experience competition, failure & let downs so they are prepared for life.

Life sucks, it's not fair and everyone can't always be the best. That is no reason to go postal and start killing people. You can't always get what you want and you need to learn to respect other people and their things.