USA = FAIL

Boy shoots self with Uzi submachinegun in fairground game

All I can say is did someone actually think this through?

*sigh*

wow.. that's just... it's beyond insult.. it really is.

Why are any of you surprised. It happened in the USA where those dumb asses still think they deserve the right to bear arms, a right that was needed at the time, but should have been removed 50 years ago.

How many kids need to die in such cases (Colubine etc) before they cop on.... answer, we wont be around to find out.

I had to actually be here to see how easy it really is to get one.

Walmart has a sign "all ammunition sales are final".
I got scared.

There are two trains of thought in America, which also appear to be split along party lines too (political). One thought, which appears to be the democratic view point as well, is that all the people are part of a larger community, and that they need to start taking care of each other... The republicans seem to believe they have the right to everything they can do themselves.

The reality is that the people who want to retain their rights to arms don't want the rules to change in any way shape or form, they consider it their freedom, and don't care that kids do find these guns hidden in safes and still end up shooting themselves with it.

My personal problem is that there is NO gun control. Anybody can litterally buy a gun if not through legal means, then through illegal means with relative ease.

Finally, that's my view, and I say it with nothing but news stories, and general reading as my source of information. There are two sides to the story, sure... but guns are the only celebrated death devices in any way shape or form. Last time I checked, we didn't see Bikini chicks touting around in an explosive laced bikini, or ulternatively, one doting a guilatine, or hang rope.
Don't make any mistake, guns have been designed for one purpose. Killing.

EDIT: I just read someone on another place comment re: guns and their rights... which effectively read.

"screw those who think they have the right to take away my right to protect my family"

To me that clearly shows that the vast majority of those apposing gun control laws have a glass half empty and Pay it back in double approach/perspective... Gun control laws aren't about preventing YOU from protecting yourself (any person with half a brain knows that there are viable alternatives to guns) but preventing THEM from using them against you.

It's only so extreme in the US case, because they're so damn relaxed to begin with.

My thoughts...

A little late, but hey...

What happened here was tragic, no doubt, but the simple fact of the matter is that giving an automatic weapon to someone clearly incapable of handling it is never a good idea.

A gun is a tool. A lump of steel and wood. Anthropomorphizing it, assigning it qualities such as "evil", serves no purpose- it is an inanimate objects and only as "good" or "evil" as the person who carries it.

People kill. People have always killed, for as long as there were people and even before that. Our species killed before it was even truly our species. Before we learned to speak, to hunt, to build tools- we killed. For the foreseeable future, certainly within my lifetime and beyond, people will continue to kill. This doesn't make it right, nor excuse the behaviour of those who kill- but it does explain it.

But I believe in gun control, because not everyone should have unrestricted access to every kind of gun. But for people who:

a) Are law abiding citizens without any convictions for violent crimes.
b) Are adults by the definition of the law (18 in Australia).
c) Undergo assessment regarding proficiency with special notice given to safety when cleaning, loading and firing firearms (unloaded guns are the most dangerous).

... should be able to own and operate, at a registered range or upon private, rural property any kind of non-R/E class weapon they desire. From Wikipedia, R/E class firearms are: machine guns, rocket launchers, assault rifles, flame-throwers, anti-tank guns, Howitzers, artillery, .50-calibre BMG weapons, etc.

Note that, personally, I think you should strike assault rifle out of the above simply because the term is not well defined and most people don't really understand what it means anyway.

Quote from Kagetsu;356212:
T(any person with half a brain knows that there are viable alternatives to guns)

Both in terms of guns for self-defence or guns for hunting, this is false. Alternatives to guns include knives (and other blades), bows and bats (and other blunt weapons). Of these, all require significantly more physical exhertion than for guns, restricting their succesful use to more fit members of society. In terms of self-defence, this is obviously less than ideal and in terms of hunting, only the bow requires you to be less than some modernday spartan.

2 of the 3 alternatives are close ranged weapons, again less suitable than guns for both self defence and hunting and the one ranged weapon does not have a similar stopping power to a gun (in terms of averages, not comparing some bow with a huge draw to a .22)

If you can't pull a bow hunting, you shouldn't be hunting anyway.

Add to that, I'm not saying that guns shouldn't be allowed full stop. I think the system in Australia is pretty good... Give or take a few points of contention.

In terms of self defense, how many people in Australia have been held up or threatened with a gun? And of those times, how many of them were not in close enough confines to have had alternative methods of dealing with the issue through propper self defensive techniques.

Before insisting that Australia is different to the US... I'm going to say, yes it is. Australia has strict gun control laws, and lots of effort is put into keeping guns off the streets. America doesn't. We're looking at two situations where what if's have played out.

What if there were solid gun control laws? - Australia, very few gun accidents, or deaths from gun related attacks (I'm not saying they don't happen, but percentage, it's significantly lower)

What if there weren't solid gun control laws? - US, significantly higher deaths, including accidental deaths due to mishandling weapon, or innappropriate use ie. poor judgement for self defense.