[Archived] Tragedy in Denver

[ABBEY]

Wow another madman with a gum. Watching Batman won't be the same now it will be tarred with such sickness.

RIP to the people of Demver.

[thenodrog]

Poor bugger will no doubt have been unwanted as a child, abused regularly by his uncle and upset by the death of some grandparent or other. He's no doubt confused by his sexuality and on top of that he's probably got a touch of dyslexia / autism.

More likely he's just some attention craving sicko who hopefully State law permitting will face the chair before the next Batman movie is made.

[LeChuck]

More likely he's just some attention craving sicko

Every time something like this happens psychologists appear on TV saying the worst thing you can do in this situations is plaster the situation all over the news. As you hinted at there, obviously the mass media hysteria is the appeal to nutjobs doing stuff like this.

And yet...what do the likes of the BBC do? Bloody live text updates plastered all over the main page, updating every 10 minutes.

As a side note; funny how they don't give so much coverage to the numbers of people who are shot in other countries every day. No wonder a lot of people hate America.

[ABBEY]

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[American Rover12]

Sick sad tragedy. These two links sum up my feelings on it though:

The Onion

Salon

[ABBEY]

.

[jim mk2]

.... and still the NRA defends the use and ownership of guns. The US right wing reaps what it sows......

[thenodrog]

.... and still the NRA defends the use and ownership of guns. The US right wing reaps what it sows......

Attempting to score cheap political points into this debate is poor. I'm no defender of guns / hunting etc but you need to take on board that guns don't kill people Jim. It's people who kill people. We have very stringent gun laws but it didn't stop Thomas Hamilton, Michael Ryan, Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird from committing awful atrocities within these shores did it? Hamilton could have carried out his Dunblane massacre with a knife or an axe. Norway too has very strict firearms laws and we all know what happened there don't we?

The facility to procure guns easily might make spontaineous killings easier but with planned acts like the above they really make little difference imo.

[jim mk2]

The US has a history of atrocities and has a high murder rate because guns are easily available and the likes of the NRA see it as a constitutional right to own and use them. Until the US repeals its gun laws atrocities like this will continue to happen.

[SouthAussieRover]

The US has a history of atrocities and has a high murder rate because guns are easily available and the likes of the NRA see it as a constitutional right to own and use them. Until the US repeals its gun laws atrocities like this will continue to happen.

Added to that they occur with such alarming regularity that its easy to forget who committed the previous ones.

[Rovermatt]

Poor bugger will no doubt have been unwanted as a child, abused regularly by his uncle and upset by the death of some grandparent or other. He's no doubt confused by his sexuality and on top of that he's probably got a touch of dyslexia / autism.

More likely he's just some attention craving sicko who hopefully State law permitting will face the chair before the next Batman movie is made.

State law may well execute him for doing something state law makes it unbelievably easy to accomplish.

Attempting to score cheap political points into this debate is poor. I'm no defender of guns / hunting etc but you need to take on board that guns don't kill people Jim. It's people who kill people. We have very stringent gun laws but it didn't stop Thomas Hamilton, Michael Ryan, Raoul Moat and Derrick Bird from committing awful atrocities within these shores did it? Hamilton could have carried out his Dunblane massacre with a knife or an axe. Norway too has very strict firearms laws and we all know what happened there don't we?

The UK (like anywhere else) has loads of sick, disturbed and delusional people. Strict gun laws in any number of civilised countries - including Canada - make this sort of mass slaughter an extraordinary occurrence (still too often of course) rather than something which happens every few years, as it does in the US. It's no coincidence that this madness takes place in a country where a large, politically powerful section of the population is utterly obsessed with guns.

[jim mk2]

Correct but be careful or you will be accused of "scoring cheap political points".

The NRA is are beyond belief. Read this

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/denver-batman-massacre-an-argument-for-more-guns-says-nra-member-16187894.html

[Rovermatt]

Correct but be careful or you will be accused of "scoring cheap political points".

The NRA is are beyond belief. Read this

http://www.belfastte...r-16187894.html

That argument comes up every time. I'm not sure if the NRA is taking the ###### or not but the notion that everybody should have a gun is ridiculous and speaks to a peculiar American preoccupation with heroic actions by individuals, fueled by popular culture. It's nonsense.

[DE.]

The bloke bought his guns off the internet so not sure what restricting United States gun laws would have done to solve this problem.

Narrowing the scope to "blaaaady gun laws" is silly. The problem runs far deeper than that, both in the US and across the globe.

[thenodrog]

The bloke bought his guns off the internet so not sure what restricting United States gun laws would have done to solve this problem.

Narrowing the scope to "blaaaady gun laws" is silly. The problem runs far deeper than that, both in the US and across the globe.

Careful with that common sense logic or you'll incur Jims wrath. It's all down to Margaret Thatcher don't you know.

[jim mk2]

The bloke bought his guns off the internet so not sure what restricting United States gun laws would have done to solve this problem.

Narrowing the scope to "blaaaady gun laws" is silly. The problem runs far deeper than that, both in the US and across the globe.

There is a direct correlation bewteen gun ownership and the number of these atrocities in the US - it's not difficult to understand and draw conclusions from that link. The fact that he was able to buy guns on the internet shows the US is causing these problems for itself.

[SouthAussieRover]

Careful with that common sense logic or you'll incur Jims wrath. It's all down to Margaret Thatcher don't you know.

Don't be silly.

It's that Reagan who's to blame.

[T4E]

As much as I think Jim is a massive bellend, how can anyone argue that lack of gun control in the US is a contributing factor to these issues?

[thenodrog]

Don't be silly.

It's that Reagan who's to blame.

Maybe but remember he took his orders off Margaret.

[Steve Moss]

My sympathies are with the victims and their families.

I hope Colorado executes the shooter while his eyes are pinned open facing a Joker poster.

That said, stripping a free people of their right to bear arms because the occassional maniac commits an atrocity is poor policy.

[jim mk2]

That said, stripping a free people of their right to bear arms because the occassional maniac commits an atrocity is poor policy.

Occasional ? Here's a selection from the past few years.

Blacksburg, Virginia. Virginia Tech shooting. April 2007, 32 dead.

Binghampton, New York. Shooting spree. Aug 2009, 13 dead

Fort Hood, Texas. Army base killings. Nov 2009, 13 dead

Geneva City, Alabama. Shooting spree. Mar 2009, 10 dead.

Wake up matey, your country has a problem.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/20/opinion/donohue-gun-control/index.html

[ABBEY]

This thread wasn't meant to be political more to pay respect to murdered people .I never ask for threads to be locked but if the rights and wrongs of guns lets do it on an appropriate one.

[Rovermatt]

My sympathies are with the victims and their families.

I hope Colorado executes the shooter while his eyes are pinned open facing a Joker poster.

That said, stripping a free people of their right to bear arms because the occassional maniac commits an atrocity is poor policy.

Are people in liberal democracies where gun ownership is tightly controlled less free then?

The American proclivity for tying 'freedom' and 'liberty' to firearms is so unbelievably dated.

[Tom]

This thread wasn't meant to be political more to pay respect to murdered people .I never ask for threads to be locked but if the rights and wrongs of guns lets do it on an appropriate one.

Agreed this isn't a debate on gun law

[jim mk2]

Agreed this isn't a debate on gun law

After the events in Denver the US is having a huge debate at this moment over gun laws so why not here ?