This tragedy has hit us all hard, none more so than the relatives of those innocent children and heroic teachers who gave their lives protecting the students they taught.
My thoughts are with them all at this difficult time and I am disgusted by some of the comments I have seen written on facebook regarding the events, one person even wrote a very nasty reply to someone's post blaming the shooters Autism as the reason for him committing this atrocious crime stating " These monsters need to be locked up.......all of them"
Yes it was a factor that the young man in question was mentally challenged, however I know many people who have been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, yes some of them may be violent or aggressive but so can any "normal" person having a mental illness does not make a person a threat to society and neither does owning a gun.
It is also a factor that the Shooters mother owned weapons, it could be argued that if she hadn't owned the weapons this would never have happened, if gun laws weren't so lapse in the USA this wouldn't have happened, if all guns were destroyed and gun shops closed down this wouldn't have happened.
We can look far and wide and dig deep looking for answers and reasoning but when all is said and done it is the gun owners responsibility to keep their arms in a secure locked rifle cabinet or box and out of access to others in the household, prevention doesn't come from banning firearms, they will always be available on the black market, prevention comes from teaching our children the difference between right and wrong, respect for a firearm and perhaps stricter licensing in the USA.
Now as a Brit I know that any change in gun laws in the USA isn't of a concern to us as gun crime over here is minimal, this isn't because guns are not available, after all if you wanted to buy a firearm without a license it is simply a matter of finding the right people.
There are many LEGAL firearms owners in the UK and I know personally quite a few and have even spent some time at a shooting range with a small group of friends who have section 1 firearms certificates, and I thoroughly enjoyed the days activity shooting a couple of different calibre rifles at targets, my friend even brought along his 13 year old daughter to have a go for the first time and she too enjoyed herself.
I enjoyed it so much that I am even considering getting a license myself and a couple of rifles, one big difference between the UK and the USA is Automatic weapons are not allowed, to those who are not quite sure of the difference an Automatic weapon will shoot constant bursts (basically a machine gun in laymans terms) and hand guns have to be a certain barrel length (24 inches minimum I think is the correct length) so that the handgun can not be concealed.
many of these massacres and shootings that take place in America were done using Automatic weapons or Handguns (there will be exceptions) so perhaps the answer lies in limiting guns, Automatic rifles have no place in protection of the home, they have no place on a range or in hunting they are made for one purpose, Military.
Unfortunately as I mentioned before guns will always be available and the only prevention is knowledge and teaching the correct use of a gun for sport or hunting, if the person applying for a firearm has mental health medical problems obviously putting a gun in their hands would not be a great idea as they don't think like you or me in a logical sense, and as such are not able to understand the consequences of using a weapon, if you have someone with a mental health issue living on your premises, by all means don't keep any guns in the premises, keep them at a gun club or a secure lock up away from vulnerable people.
I am in no way defending the shooter for his actions but to put the blame on a gun or mental health is wrong no one knew this lad would do this, there are as many people murdered using household instruments (hammers, screwdrivers, kitchen knives) throughout the world should we ban and blame these when such a thing happens? tragedies happen there is no one to blame other than the thoughts and actions of one man (boy) no one will ever know his reasoning behind it all we can do is grieve for those who's lives he took and hope people learn from it so it doesn't happen again.
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