Noone here has mentioned the roll of firearms in these tragedies.
How many people have to be killed before we realize that these weapons must be carefully permitted to only qualified individuals...
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this.
Why should
million's of law abiding gun owners have their rights diluted even further due to an extremely small percentage of wingnuts and criminals choosing to use a firearm as their weapon of choice?
What about all the deaths, injury, damage and sadness caused by the use of alcohol or by cell phones while driving? Oh yeah, we "need" those...
When someone intentionally kills another person or persons with their car, do you blame the car or do you blame the driver? What if they use a knife? Or a hammer? Or a bat? Or...
...The penalties for misuse must be severe...
I'm going to disagree here as well...
We already have TONS of laws on the books, many with severe penalties, yet some how that still doesn't prevent criminals and wingnuts from using guns in their crimes. Many (most???) criminals using guns end up with reduced charges, get off with minimal penalties or do minimum jail time and come out ready to pick up where they left off.
You live in LA, right? How many news story are there every week about criminals that have long rap sheets that commit even worse crimes (using a gun) than what got them busted last time? Stripping law abiding people of their rights or adding more laws to the books only creates a more lucrative black market for the criminals - and results in additional crime/harm to society. (Look at how well the "The War On Drugs" has worked...)
As to the argument that "we're only trying to make things safer, we're not trying to take away your guns", have you listened to what the current crop of Democrat presidential contenders have to say about gun ownership?
Each time a new gun law passes we're told that it is going to make a difference in gun crimes. But some how it doesn't make quite enough of a difference and we have to pass some more. The term for this is "creep",
creep noun (GROWTH)
the gradual growth or increase of something in a way that was not expected or wanted
creep verb (MOVE CAREFULLY)
to move quietly and carefully, usually in order to avoid being noticed
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/creep
...I really don't subscribe to the negative impact of television and internet media, although I do believe that some desensitization occurs...
Maybe it's just me, and I mean this seriously as I haven't looked at the data, but it seems mass shootings/killings have increased considerably since the advent of the internet, the ready access to 24/7 news, the anonymity that allows people to express their worst side without repercussion, self indulgent social media (maybe it should be labeled "self-aggrandizing media ©") and the focus on celebrities that display no moral compass and promote nothing but excess and the seven deadly sins.
For most of the previous 70-80 years, politicians, athletes, celebrities, etc used to (at least superficially) promote higher standards and social civility. Now it's Me, Me, Me! Take, take, take... People aren't willing to be concerned at all about anyone but themselves - unless it helps their agenda.
It seems coping skills are also now optional. Everyone gets butt hurt about everything in life and needs to find a way to escape from reality, feel superior, find a way take it out on someone else or just plain exact revenge.
Add to this that critical thinking seems to be going (gone???) by the wayside...
You throw all these things together and we now have the perfect storm! [/rant]
There are some mentally ill people out there. Always has been and always will be.
I hope something can be done to prevent these kinds of killing sprees.
I don't blame Epik with trying to be neutral. Let web hosts be web hosts, law enforcement be law enforcement.
We can agree on these!