A solution.

[HooptieWagon]

In the wake of yesterday's tragedy, naturally people will again be asking how this can be prevented from occurring again.

Of course, both sides are digging in at polar extremes...one side wanting a ban on all guns, the other calling for every man woman and child to be heavily armed 24/7. And of course both sides are impractical, and so entrenched little conversation, and no compromise, is possible.

So some outside the box thinking is required. I suggest that each school in the country be provided with a six-person armed swat team for the kids protection. This would be paid for by an annual gun tax. I think about $1000/year per gun should cover it. Of course, it could be raised if desired to expand the program to playgrounds, libraries, theatres, and the like. And I'd point out the tax is voluntary, since anybody could avoid the tax by turning in their guns.

[Indydem]

1. Derp derp.

AWESOME "COMPROMISE!"

[Squinch]

4. We can't even get funding for pencils. Now we're going to get a SWAT team. What a maroon.

[Indydem]

5. By passing a tax on guns that represents such a burden

That no one will own guns.

Again, it's an idiotic proposal framed as a "compromise" but it's really just a backdoor effort to eliminate firearm ownership.

[HooptieWagon]

6. People without firearms aren't contributing to their proliferation,

nor are they shooting up classrooms and movie theatres. It is unreasonable to require them to pay for increased security beyond a normal police force, for protection from crazy gunmen.
However, since gun owners do contribute to gun proliferation, it is reasonable for them to bear the cost of increased security in a gun-owning society.

[Indydem]

7. 99.9999% of gun owners are not contributing to gun proliferation or gun violence.

The continued mantra that we are is just pure hyperbole, and frankly, disgusting.

[Squinch]

8. The fact that twenty children are dead is more disgusting.

The fact that I, a non gun owner, have been an endangered bystander on two occasions while just going about my day is more disgusting. I'm tired of this nonsense. Your sporting equipment is not allowed to take away my rights to be safe.

Whatever the percentage is, the damage they do is too much for our society to bear. And too much for us to be worrying about your feelings.

[Indydem]

9. Well you are entitled to your fringe opinion.

Even if you are in the vast minority.

Enjoy exploiting the terrible death of children to advance an illogical and hopeless position.

[Squinch]

12. I am not the fringe. The fringe is the gun advocates who insist that we must accept the deaths of

these children, and must not take any strong position on gun control, because gun control would be a disruption to their hobby.

The calls of the sane for gun control to prevent still more of these tragedies is not exploitation. Somewhere in you, you know that.

[Indydem]

13. There is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent these tragedies.

Your belief that you can is a lack of realization of your insignificance.

If people want to kill other people, they will find a way.

Until we outlaw murder, murders will occur... Oh... Right...

[Squinch]

15. Your spin is moronic. We have heard it all ad nauseam. I'll tell you what your next argument is:

spoons don't cause obesity. Followed by: the guy in China blah blah blah. Followed by: it's not the guns, its the mental illness. Followed by: Russia has a lot of gun deaths. You've already tried, "no one else thinks gun control is necessary" and "nothing can be done about this, so we should all give up and acknowledge our insignificance." I'm sure you have others.

Do your arguments allow you to convince yourself? Because, really, all that matters is that you justify your insistence that your hobby is not disrupted, right? Nothing else. Not the lives of children, not common sense, not the rights of anyone else.

And by the way, the gunman's mother was one of those responsible gun owners who wasn't contributing to the violence. Until her guns were used to kill 20 children and 8 adults, including herself.

Enjoy that hobby of yours.

[HooptieWagon]

10. How is a gun owner not contributing to the proliferation?

Every single gun purchased is another gun in circulation. There would be no guns manufactured or sold, if there wasn't people lined up to buy them.
I agree that 99.9% of gun owners are responsible, legal owners. So, what are they doing to prevent the .1% from shooting up kindergarden classes?
100% of non owners are already doing their part.

[Indydem]

14. Proliferation is, by definition, a rapid growth in numbers

The responsible ownership of firearms, no matter how many you own, is not rapidly increasing.

You know what does cause a rapid number of guns to be sold? People's justified beliefs that the party that controls the White House and the senate has, at its base, a group of people who want to outlaw guns.

More gun will be sold this weekend than the previous 10 weekends combined and fear over people like those espousing gun grabs here in the du are to blame.

[HooptieWagon]

16. Well, it appears gun ownership has soared.

When I was a schoolkid, the worst situation teachers might have to deal with was fist-fists among the kids and smoking in the bathroom. A knife being brought to school was so rare it was a BIG deal. Fences and locked gates were unheard of, and there was no consideration that an adult, let alone a student, might bring a gun to school. That has all changed.

So, assuming my perception is correct; what would lead to a large increase in gun ownership?

Fear-based marketing by gun industry..."buy a gun to protect yourself". Which of course is a fallacy...you are more apt to shoot yourself than an intruder, and are more likely to be shot by a family member than a criminal.
An increase in popular culture of guns being "cool". Yes, I know a few people who own guns solely for status.
However, I don't necessarily blame video games. We used to play cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, and assorted mock war games as kids...with toy guns or even just
sticks. What might be considered outdoor version of current indoor video games. Of all my friends, brothers, neighborhood kids, only a couple bought guns as adults. And no-one turned into a mass-murderer.

[DuckBurp]

2. I like your suggestion. It's a good start.

But, many of the shootings occur at shopping malls and at other places. What about those locations?

[SheilaT]

3. So we up the tax

a little and have swat teams there also?

More to the point, think of the employment opportunities.

[pansypoo53219]

11. YEARLY GUN TAX.

i like it.