As to the gun laws, I think some additional laws are in order but that guns should remain legal.
Laws I would support:
All guns not currently on an owners person or within 10 feet need to be locked up or have trigger locks. This law would make it much more difficult for guns to be usable by kids who take them from their parents. Some would still slip through, but most guns would be secured.
All gun sales must be done through licensed dealers and background checks must be part of the sale of every gun. Close the loopholes where I can buy a gun even if I am not permitted to do so by just buying from another owner. I bought an HK handgun a couple months ago from another owner advertising online. He never even got my name, although I got his. Took 2 minutes.
Make concealed carry licenses more universal state to state but require more detailed training and requirements of ongoing firearm training (perhaps 20 range hours and 8 classroom hours per year). I got my CHL by taking a 2 hour course (no actual range time or proof of shooting accuracy) and $65 bucks. It was too easy.
All ammo should require in person purchase and ID with signature.
I know the other gun owners will go crazy over those proposed laws, but they make sense if we want to promote firearm safety in our society.
It's all window dressing man. You could enact every single one of those laws, and it still wouldn't stop something like what happened today.
All guns not currently on an owners person or within 10 feet need to be locked up or have trigger locks. This law would make it much more difficult for guns to be usable by kids who take them from their parents. Some would still slip through, but most guns would be secured.
You could pass this law, but it would virtually impossible to enforce, and the only time you would see someone punished is after the fact. Kid shoots up school, parent is found guilty of not locking up the gun, parent is convicted. It still doesn't save lives.
All gun sales must be done through licensed dealers and background checks must be part of the sale of every gun. Close the loopholes where I can buy a gun even if I am not permitted to do so by just buying from another owner. I bought an HK handgun a couple months ago from another owner advertising online. He never even got my name, although I got his. Took 2 minutes.
The problem with this is that it still doesn't prevent the shootings. The Clackamas shooting was with a stolen gun. The Newtown shooting was with a stolen gun. The shooting today was by a high school kid, so he couldn't legally buy a gun. Therefor he either stole it from his parents or he purchased it illegally. Either way, it doesn't prevent what happened today.
Make concealed carry licenses more universal state to state but require more detailed training and requirements of ongoing firearm training (perhaps 20 range hours and 8 classroom hours per year). I got my CHL by taking a 2 hour course (no actual range time or proof of shooting accuracy) and $65 bucks. It was too easy.
How many of these shootings involve people with a CHL? The only thing you accomplish by making a CHL more difficult to acquire is less people with a CHL, but I don't think it would actually reduce these kinds of incidents.
All ammo should require in person purchase and ID with signature.
Again, people are just going to steal ammo, or make their own ammo. Either way, I don't think it actually stops people from shooting other people.
My point is that people are going to kill if they want to kill. No amount of gun laws will stop what has been happening. Let's say in a perfect world they take away all guns. That's what some people would like, right? Let's say it's actually possible, and they remove every single gun from America. People will STILL find a way to kill. Whether it's knifes, or pipe bombs, or just good old fashioned beating someone to death with your bare hands. The only thing they might accomplish is slowing down mass shootings, but today wasn't a mass shooting. One student died, and if that's what someone is bent on, they can accomplish it with something as simple as a baseball bat.
