The Atlantic has made the following point:
“How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame….? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?” National Rifle Association president Wayne LaPierre asked in December, following the Newtown shooting, which also would not have been prevented by background checks and adding more people to the mental illness databases. Gunman Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, used his mother’s weapons instead of seeking to purchase new ones himself and there’s no evidence he was ever diagnosed with a mental illness. Asperger’s Syndrome, which Lanza was reportedly diagnosed with, is not a mental illness, and the Sensory Integration Disorder Lanza is also believed to have had is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual because of controversy about whether it is an independent condition or a symptom of autism (which is also not a mental illness).
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/why-mental-health-background-checks-are-not-the-solution-to-gun-violence/279781/
Yet they think a federal database of gun owners would work. I like LaPierre, but the solution is neither demonizing guns or the mentally ill, the solutions is empowering individuals to shoot back when facing an active shooting. More guns = More possibilities of fighting back.
There are lots of laws people violate. Immigration laws, tax laws, environmental laws, there is one book that argues that everyday you violate at least 3 federal laws without even knowing.
If laws kept us safe, then Chicago and DC would be the safest cities in the nation.
Here in Tennessee, “handgun carry permit applications doubled in the first half of this year, growing from 40,503 in the first six months of 2012 to 86,334 handgun permit applications in the same period of 2013.”
Source: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/sep/18/threat-terrorism-small-compared-gun-violence/?opiniontimes
Yet the same liberal editor that tries to suggest murders in Chattanooga are up because of this fails to mention that most of the people murdering people don’t have a license to carry a gun.
Liberals think that if you buy a gun, you intend to use it against someone else. Sure, and if I buy a box of condoms or wear AXE, women are gonna throw themselves at me. Yet the numbers prove otherwise, crime in Tennessee is not up 50% or 25% or 10% or 5%, in fact, crime in most categories is actually down.