Mass Shootings with Guns

There are still people fighting for their lives and the world is already fighting for answers but solutions will most likely elude legislators again.
There's some underlying focus points that again will be lost in the rush and is often the case, we need only look back at history to take some lessons.

1996 in Australia will forever be marked in the history books as the dark year when the most shocking massacre in recent times took place at Port Arthur. What happened afterwards as a legislative reaction was well intended but it missed some of the mark. Highly likely we will see a similar reaction reoccur that again doesn't prevent another tragedy in years to come.

It is the case that gun crime decreased after John Howard's measures were brought in. Its also the case they were a continuation of the same downward trend that had been occurring for the years prior to Port Arthur.

Here's the thing. Port Arthur was this. A gunman with no gun licence, no car licence went on a killing spree taking 35 lives and caused physical & mental injuries to others.

His mental health professional at the prison, a professor no less, says the gunman was a deranged psychopath with lower intelligence and has difficulty discerning reality from fantasy.
A deranged psychopath with illegal firearms kills 35 people and $500 Million went into a gun buyback and not one extra cent went into serious mental health.

Whether someone is a political fighter, a religious fighter or anything else, there's usually some mental health issues present. It is not normal to pick up a firearm and take someone's life. It takes a delusion or the influence of a delusional influence. Rarely is it as self defence to a severe threat to life. There are tens of thousands of legal firearm owners in each of the states, fit & proper persons, no mental health issues and they have largely no involvement with crime.

In the USA 80% of all gun crime is drug related.
Much of that is gang related.
Nearly all of it is in the most densely populated cities, of which the USA has many more than most countries.
Much of that is driven by poverty.
The massacres however are generally acts of terror by people with serious mental issues.

They have had political & religious/political based acts of terror in the USA...but lets face it radicalised people must have some forms of mental instability or been susceptible to influence by radical elements.

Targeting criminals with guns is a top priority but ensuring those who have mental health history cannot get firearms is an area for more focus.

Banning guns is not the answer. We ban Ice, Heroin, Meth and we still have problems.
We need to acknowledge that drugs is not just a health problem, its society's mental health issue.
We need to acknowledge there are many people who should never own guns, just as there are a few people who should probably never touch alcohol but we can't ban all people from guns nor ban all alcohol completely either.

There is no sure fire perfect system of answers to prevent gun crime. In Australia the percentage of gun crime using stolen or legal firearms doesn't even hit double digits. There are many home made firearms, some fairly sophisticated fully automatic firearms but the majority are smuggled in.

Tightening the rules around the tools criminals & psychopaths use is a good idea, but it's not addressing the root cause.

The root cause of the Las Vegas gunman and his motives are yet to fully unfold. We don't even know if he had legal or illegal firearms.

It'd be pretty foolish to rule out mental illness of some sort.

As society seems to continue along in our moral decay (whether its worsening or not) we need to address the core source of the problem, not just the tools used.

Poverty drives a lot of crime. Criminals don't always use lawfully approved firearms.
Culture is driving a lot of social cues and some of them are very wrong. Hollywood is awash with films where a normal person becomes a real hero by somehow miraculously arming themselves and killing every baddie in the film. Something went wrong, pick up weapons and "kill 'em all"

Action films do influence some people, especially the mentally susceptible & vulnerable.
If you don't think impressionism works then you have to think the entire world of advertising doesn't work one bit.

Our moral framework has lessened. Our society's moral compass is more like to stick or be adjusted to exactly where the individual wants it. There is some moral decay and descent. Somewhere in there is where the real problem has its origins and where we need to apply attention & solutions.

Just banning guns is just banning the legal tools that are rarely ever used illegally for evil.

Here's the thing, there are an estimated 300 Million guns in the US. That's a staggering amount of fire power.

With that in mind watch this video for some stats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IULSD8VwXEs