[Targan]

I understand that with the proper vetting and payment of fairly stiff licence fees that in some US states civilians can own heavy weapons. It's been spoken about on this forum over the years. I also don't have a problem with people have small arms in their homes for defence, provided they are properly trained and licenced. Matter of fact I think my own country has gone waaay too far with its laws. The hoops I would have to jump through to have any kind of firearm in my house make it all but unviable. Having said that, I've strongly considered getting into IPSC shooting and having a .357 wheelgun in the house. It's monstrously expensive here though.

What I've been trying to convey is that gun crimes involving legal weapons (as opposed to gun crime involving illegal weapons which, let's face it, is bloody hard to prevent) basically comes down to availability. It's a simple probabilities equation. The more (even legal) firearms you have in a community, the higher the likelihood is that when people flip out, as they do in every community from time to time, they will have a firearm handy instead of a knife or a heavy blunt object or the makings of a home made bomb in their garden shed.

I hate the double-edged sword in this scenario. Personally I support the right of people to defend themselves in their homes. As far as I'm concerned, if someone is criminally trespassing in someone else's home and the resident shoots them to protect themselves and their loved ones, that's just too bad. Don't enter other peoples' properties uninvited. The problem is, if lots of people have assault rifles and lots of ammo easily available to them, from time to time someone is going to lose their sh*t and shoot a bunch of innocent people.

I don't see any easy answers for the people of America. I just hope the US finds some kind of middle ground that everyone can live with because if I lived in a country that suffered regular massacres involving firearms I'd definitely want something to change. And suggestions such as arming all the teachers with firearms both horrifies me and also seems like a classic case of treating the symptom rather than the disease. Not to mention that expecting teachers to occasionally have to go into close combat shootings situations seems, well, completely insane.