Gun control and school shootings

[Don Corleone]

Really? In the section that I purposely quoted my "buddy" (nice touch that, calling Wayne my buddy in your post, thereby associating me and my views with he and his and making anything else I say seem eeeeeevil, mwahahaha) he specifically said:

"If I had a two-week waiting period for the gun, I wouldn’t have done it."

That was pretty much the focal point for my post and what I had hoped for this discussion.

Sorry you missed it.

My apologies on the 'your buddy' crack. I honestly wasn't trying to demonize you by linking the two of you so much as the way the Irish refer to 'your man' when the individual in question is very likely no such thing. In light of the current conversation, your interpretation is perfectly valid (though wrong) and so I do offer my apoloiges for a smear that was unintended.

As for the waiting period, that wasn't what the thrust of the article was about. Yes, he did qualify one particular statement in that manner. However, neither the article, nor your statements on the matter made it clear you were specifically talking about a 2-week waiting period, only

Why would you take it to mean that? I ask the question honestly. This might be provide a little window into why gun gontrol is such an emotional debate in the U.S.

When I hear the words "gun control," I think licenses, safety courses, waiting periods, and background checks. Seizing all firearms is not gun control, it's gun prohibition.

It may be to you. But surf the website for the Brady Center or any other 'gun control' advocacy group. They'll say very straightforwardly that registration, background checks, waiting period, banning classes of rifles and shotguns... all of these are steps towards their ultimate goal, the end of personal gun ownership. Trust me, it's written into all of their charters. Rember, this is American politics we're talking about here. The middle solution does not exist. Yes, we 'gun-nuts' may seem a touch paranoid and combative, but it's a reactionary position, and a well-founded one at that. Sometimes you become paranoid because they really are out to get you.

We're not asking him how to keep kids in school safe, we're asking him what factors might have prevented him from doing what he did. He specifically said a waiting period would have done so.

But if you still believe that talking with criminals about what they did and why they did it is somehow useless or immoral, may I direct your attention to a bunch of people who work at Quantico who would most likely disagree with you...

Touche'. Personally, the man's judgement as well as his morals are in question in my book. However, if I'm questioning methodology and tactics, he indeed would have something to offer the conversation. However, I disagree with his snowjob that a waiting period would have slowed him down. He ordered his ammunition from a mail order service. He had some forethought going into this, it wasn't a 'I snapped one day'. Dylan Kleebold (sp?) and Eric Harris practiced for weeks before carrying out Columbine. It's a myth that these people drive to the gun shop, then to the scenes of their crimes. Typically, they spend much more time planning it out.