Shots fired at High School in Florida, numerous fatalities.

In fact the amount of guns do correlate with suicide, number of studies have been done on it. US states with highest gun ownership have the highest suicide rates. http://www.bu.edu/sph/2016/05/19/firearm-ownership-closely-tied-to-suicide-rates/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/guns-and-suicide/ Of course it is complicated but you take away one less lethal option. People could make a bomb, but it isn't as easy as you all think. Recently a couple of terrorists blew themselves up while trying to make a bomb. Frequently bomb plots fail. Reason why there are more gun deaths-it's much easier to use. Why do people need weapons like the AR-15 in the first place? In states with higher gun ownership more police officers are killed as well. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3gf_5MR4tE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULysvxSYfoU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3XwizTqDw Why does it matter if it's an AR-15 or not?

Jester - I bring the same general counter point as the other anti-gunner who was posting about - would it be a net positive? Also (strong) correlation does not equal causation in my eyes. Guns do tend to make impulse suicides easier and whatnot I'll concede that. However I highly doubt if you could make guns vanish overnight or have an Australian style solution that suicide rates would plummet (if they would even drop significantly at all). Most of the often cited ~33,000 gun deaths a year are suicides (a good 2/3 of them - or roughly 22,000). Guns are a tool not a symptom. The gun isn't to blame for anything (the suicides or murders). It is one less lethal option but again would that even dent suicides overall? You'd see more overdosing and jumping from bridges and things of that nature for sure. Even if the absence of a gun saves those 22,000 lives - it could easily be nullified by the lives taken due to the absence of guns. It would be much more impacting to reduce the factors known to cause suicidal thoughts and actions. Why do people need AR-15's in the first place? Most people think they are simply for school shootings and things like that.... most people who ask that question do nothing on their own to seek out the answer. Some reasons are.... *easier to use for home defense - the AR platform is known for making even novice shooters accurate and able to defend themselves (shooting isn't as easy as it looks and during duress the extra capacity of an AR (the standard 30 round magazine that is legal in many states) can make a life or death difference and even allows more feasibly the option of a "warning shot" *versatility - if one really wanted too they could use an AR to hunt and save money by owning one gun with many parts as opposed to multiple guns (although most will say AR's aren't great for hunting) * for those in more rural locations or where wildlife dangers are present ARs are great for defending against wildlife attacks (from things like bears, wolves, coyote etc) *fun to shoot - they're great for recreation and sport and what have you so to say that AR's are weapons of war (lol not really) and they are ONLY good for killing massive amounts of people is lazy and shows that (shockingly /sarc) anti gun people don't understand a damn thing about (most) gun owners. Most people who want to get rid of guns will only focus on the lives saved - and while that isn't insignificant there are also lives that would be lost and lives that are put in more danger ... and I personally don't think that outweighs the lives saved. Also .... gun control + power hungry oppressive government = mass genocide / murder on a massive scale (say like Hitler, Mao, Stalin .... shit like that is opened up) so I mean there is that (albeit a bit out there) to consider.

2 things.... 1. http://a.nime.me/0089/2472/ps_1344_silence_mean.jpg 2. http://a.nime.me/0089/2462/ps_1027w_worried_think.jpg Don't let fools derail the topic. Just ignore them.

The problem, in my opinion, is that we’re all taking “sides” regarding gun control based mainly around our own biased perspectives of the world. What should happen is that we should actually treat this like a public health issue and actually do research into gun violence. We should lift the Dickey’s amendment and allow organizations like CDC or NIH to be able to fund and publish on gun violence. It’s ridiculous that despite the USA having the highest rate of gun violence in developed nations to have gun violence be the least researched amongst all leading causes of death. We can only take findings from other countries that may not be applicable in the USA due to historical and cultural context. Until we have facts and data about gun violence in America, there just no ideas for effective policy steps to prevent these types of things from happening.

Well, just from looking into it a bit, it seems that it's plenty researched by plenty of people. Just none of the people that want to bring it up when something major happens.