Shard

That would be the ultimate insult. I wonder if as a result of this tragedy , the MAGA hat (as worn by the shooter) will become taboo.

scrubbedexpat099

I think it is reflection of falling sales and the need to keep the income coming in.

kimilseung

Seeing tweets from many (allegedly) in the incident, indicates that his approach may not be well received.

Former Lancastrian

Thought its because the residents of Colorado are high on legal marijuana and are in a happy state and therefore don't need to buy guns How are the sales on Dorrito's or other snack items

scrubbedexpat099

WaPo - ouch

The FBI in January received a tip to a public reporting line that Nikolas Cruz might carry out a school shooting, but failed to pass the information to its Miami field office or investigate any further, authorities said Friday.

The bureau acknowledged the startling lapse in a statement, saying a person close to Cruz had contacted the bureau’s public access tip line on January 5 and “provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.” On Wednesday, Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

BenK91

I think me and my wife are the only under 30's that don't smoke weed here

Can't wait for Trump to tweet out how well received he was and how FL is full of "very fine people".

scrubbedexpat099

There do seem to be a lot of odd people in Florida.

kimilseung

Looking at a Brit expat Facebook page, there was at least one British kid in the Florida incident hiding in a closet. His mum posted that one reason to move was to avoid the British drinking culture. Now he is being hounded by the British press.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-massacre.html

scrubbedexpat099

To Florida?

BenK91

Probably the worst logic ever from that mum. No wonder it's on the Daily Mail.

Move to America where schools get shot, so your son won't have a few cans of Strongbow on a Friday night with his mates. 10/10 logic there.

Octang Frye

Let's empanel a British Expats Commission to Investigate Violence Involving Guns.
Your charter is to explore the issue and produce some recommendations.

What would work in the short term to prevent these incidents?
What would work in the long term in terms of changing the culture. "Brainwashing people", in the words of the former Attorney General Eric Holder.

What carrots/sticks are available? What legislative action would work?
What tools are currently available and might be implemented?

Would buybacks work? What would be fair? How do we get people to comply?
How much would we need to budget - if a semiauto rifle costs between $500-2000.

If we had another semi-auto weapons ban, would there be grandfathering of stuff already out there? Or would it all have to handed in. What's penalty for non-compliance? A misdemeanor or a felony?

Repealing the 2nd should be on the cards, but that would require a constitutional congress with the 2/3 of the States agreeing.

What about exploring the medication issue? 95% of these shooters are on powerful medications.

For me, the most successful thing in the short term would be a voluntary complete media blackout of any shooter. No name. No pictures. Nothing.
Wouldn't require any legislation and could be implemented immediately.
Of course, you'd be asking the media to stop mainlining cocaine. I just think that would be the most useful.

In Colorado, we had some, well, feel good legislation enacted in 2013. Standard capacity magazines are now illegal to purchase here - the limit is an arbitrary 15 rounds. The Sheriffs Association said the law wouldn't do anything and is unenforceable. The number of prosecutions for violating this law: zero.
What's the solution?

Hundreds of thousands of gun owners in New York and Connecticut are ignoring the law to register their firearms. What should happen to these people?

What else could do we do? I don't think going house to house will ever happen, although we do send SWAT teams in and kill people over a silly plant, so who knows?

Registries, other than as a precursor to confiscation, don't really stop anything like this. This guy bought his legally after passing a background check. There already is a de facto registry too. Every time you do a background check when purchasing a firearm, that information is stored but is supposed to be destroyed after 60 or 90 days. It isn't though. The ATF and FBI have access to that info. So there's a tool for you if you want an official registry. Probably 60-70% of what is out there is known by the government.

Anyway, love to hear your thoughts/suggestions/arguments.

NYer

It was considered unconstitutional to deny someone their right to use their 2nd Amendment privilege because they could not manage their finances. If lack of financial savvy were to be declared a mental illness, everyone in Congress would be in the nuthouse. Which might not be a bad thing. But that is what it was about - not arming crazies.

Anian

One political party is blaming this on mental illness. That political party has obstructed and even reduced money to treat mental illness. So they are pointing fingers at themselves again.

NYer

The drinking age in this country has gone up and down over the years. It was lowered to 18 during the Viet Nam War and raised years later due to organizations against drunk driving.

SultanOfSwing

Wasn't exactly very effective though, was it? Despite increasing penalties and higher fines, around my way drunk driving seems nigh on normalized.