Stoneman Douglas Survivor Tweets

Sad all around, my heart truly breaks for everyone who is dealing with the loss of a loved one or has been effected by these types of things. As a mother things like this haunt my dreams.

Yet they are blaming an inanimate object. Gun control is one thing, and I feel this does indeed need to be addressed.  We do need better gun laws, more steps to prevent criminals, or someone with mental issues from being able to just walk in a place and buy a weapon, etc.  BUT the bigger picture is the mental state of a person who does things like this. Trying to ban certain types of guns or just guns in general is a near useless thing. It will not stop mass killings, it will just change the way they are carried out and the choice of weapon. In my opinion readily available guns, or lacking gun control laws is not the main issue here.

This kid was clearly troubled, clearly in need of help. He was somewhat known to the FBI, he was known by his peers as someone who had the capabilities and mind set of possibly being a school shooter. Red flags waving everywhere and he still slipped through. So until we address the issues of why kids are turning into killers then this is going to be repeated over and over again.

Also just to be clear, I am not saying that I have any answers as to why kids are going down these paths. I am at a loss as most of the world is in that regard.

17 classmates? I thought there were some teachers killed too.

How can you say that not having guns wouldn't stop mass killings? People wouldn't get very far without a gun. A knife would maybe kill one or two, but if your goal is to commit suicide it's a lot less appealing and more liable to fail. So a knife attack wouldn't be practical to someone planning a murder-suicide. A bomb is far more complicated to make and you're more likely to get caught making it and bombs fail, so no guarantee of a murder/suicide.

It's funny. Australia had ONE mass killing and afterwards they shut hat shit down immediately with tough gun laws, voluntary buy back programs, and enforced procedures on how to store your guns so accidents didn't happen. And guess what? Australia hasn't had a similar incident since. America could do either same, we just won't because the NRAs pockets are too deep and the politicians are too greedy. And so kids will continue to die. Maybe if a powerful politicians child were murdered by a gun, things would change. But no, they get bodyguards. The rest of us have to cross our fingers and pray our kids aren't next.

Justjenna wrote:

It's funny. Australia had ONE mass killing and afterwards they shut hat shit down immediately with tough gun laws, voluntary buy back programs, and enforced procedures on how to store your guns so accidents didn't happen. And guess what? Australia hasn't had a similar incident since. America could do either same, we just won't because the NRAs pockets are too deep and the politicians are too greedy. And so kids will continue to die. Maybe if a powerful politicians child were murdered by a gun, things would change. But no, they get bodyguards. The rest of us have to cross our fingers and pray our kids aren't next.

I hate it when people bring this up. Comparing Australia and the current situation on the US is like comparing apples to oranges. Australia had a much smaller population and had several million less guns than the states. Australia also had an almost non existent gun culture which allowed the transition of the new laws go through mostly smoothly. With the Australian buy back scheme, tax payers were footing the bill for gun owners to hand in their guns. If the US ever implemented a system like this, considering their population and their amount of guns, it would put an insurmountable strain on an already severely strained US budget. Plus with their culture, Americans would not hand in their guns that easily.