we will never get a ban on all guns, it's unfortunate but true :-/ We can get a ban on clips, magazines and drums and some semi-automatics and enact other laws for mental health, liability of ownership, enforce existing laws not being followed (severe punishments for lying on applications) and stop exemptions from background checks at gun shows. banning all guns is too late, the horse is out of the barn and in the next country by now, chicago is a great example of that. I do think that making the ammo for semi-automatics cost hundreds of $$ will end alot of drive-bys and mass shootings, if people want to waste to time to reload their own bullets there is nothing you can do to stop that thou. I do support legal, responsible gun ownership of non semi-automatics with some laws applied. in some states you may only have 3 bullets in your gun for hunting, I believe GA is one of them. why have rules like that for hunters (which are ok by me) but allow semi-automatics to be used to shooting people? that is crazy! we need to make gun owners legally liable for what happens w their own guns and force them to take proper precautions (safety locks and real gun safes) in order to keep their rights. they need reminding that severe laws restricting their gun rights are just a pen writing away thru executive order! the Conn shooters mother got what she deserved for having hundreds of rounds of ammo laying around, multiple guns including semi-automatics also left out when she had known for years her son had mental problems. I can't think of a more appropriate end for her, she is exactly what the NRA would love to sweep under the carpet. we have all sorts of rules & regulations for getting a driver's license & owning a car, we should have similiar tests of ability, liability insurance and renewal laws concerning guns. things will be changing in this country, if you don't believe it you must have missed what happened on Nov 6 when the largest ground game ever organized in US history changed things forever. my focaus had already turned to 2014 but for now I am using my time and $$ for this cause. Can you just imagine how we can change the culture of violence in this country if we all want to imagine a future w/o it! in the last year, who really has not had a twinge of concern (even if it's just a thought) going to a mall or movie theatre now...that is a culture of fear & violence. ~ liz

I've thought so much about these comments since last night, but only now have time to respond. I think it is appalling for anyone to use the term "white" as the cause of these shootings. These are not white teens going to schools with large minority populations and shooting them. They are usually their own schools, filled with students just like themselves. This is NOT a racial issue! Lord knows we have enough of them, but this is NOT one of them. Leave it out of the discussion! I am absolutely in favor of stronger gun control laws, but that will only stop more guns being out there IN THE FUTURE. At this point in time, I see no possible way to legally remove the guns already out there, or legally make owning them illegal. We tried Prohibition with liquor; it was a failure. We required that all citizens turn in their gold - no private ownership of gold; that was a failure. Those that own guns are not going to hand them over, and the lawsuits would go on until the next millennium. This does NOT mean we should not try to stop further guns being out there and being so easily accessible. We should all be writing our Congressmen and telling them to vote agains the NRA-backed "permit to carry" being universal in all states. It's a HORRIBLE idea! What concerns me the most, is why is this happening. Why is it happening predominantly in the US? Please don't tell me it's because we elected Trump - most of these shootings started before he was even on The Apprentice. Dislike him if you will, but he is not the cause of school shootings. Yes, the availability of guns is a problem and must be addressed, but guns HAVE always been available in many, many areas. As someone above mentioned, they were even brought to school My husband taught in HS in rural Maine from 1993-2003, and the school parking lot was filled with pick-up trucks with gun racks, with rifles in the racks. So what IS different. I am aware that various studies have not always shown a connection between violent video games and acting out violence. But surely it does de-sensitize one to violence and that cannot possibly be good. We do know that more and more young children are being diagnosed with Obsessive Defiant Disorder. There may be some linkage to ADHD as well. While the causes are unknown, there is some powerful clues. There are Genetic influences. ODD tends to occur in families with a history of ADHD, substance abuse and other mental health issues. There are also Prenatal factors - mother's use of substances during pregnancy and other problems. Then there are Nuerobiological factors. We don't know what causes these. There are Social-cognitive factors - children responsible in inappropriate ways to many things. And there are Environmental factors, i.e. negative parenting practices. Poor parent-child attachment, dysfunctional family, inconsistent discipline, poor parental monitoring and modeling, neglect. While these may be often be found in areas of low socioeconomic status, it can (and does!) occur anywhere. Children with ODD are at far higher risk of moving on to a Conduct Disorder. Some develop this in early childhood; others in the teen years. The prognosis for such children is poor; Twenty-five to forty percent of children with CD will eventually reach a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder in adulthood. Those in juvenile detention facilities have a rate of 23% - 87% diagnosis of CD, and the adult prison population is filled with those who have APD. These are the children who are committing these school shootings. We know that the Columbine killers clearly had poor parental monitoring. How many children could have an arsenal in the garage or their bedroom and their parents be unaware of it? Really? The boy is FL and his brother were adopted. Their mother regularly called the police to "give them a talking to" as she found them difficult to handle. Did their birth mother(s) use substances during their pregnancies? Most likely. And her parenting was clearly inconsistent. We have a major breakdown of the family unit in this country. Not just in poor families (and it is horrible there), but even in middle/upper middle class families. I hear parents talking all the time, and I'm astounded at how indifferent many are to the needs of their children. EDUCATED parents talking this way. It's either "helicopter" or "neglect/indifference". Parents tend to think that once the child is in school, little supervision is needed; by the teen years, they get little. As one neighbor told me, "Once they get their car, they pretty much go and come as they please!" Really? Mine didn't. My grandchildren don't. They are still CHILDREN and need supervision! We will not solve the problem of school shootings until we IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM, and the problem is not just guns. We need to do some serious soul searching as to why our children are being so abysmally failed by so many parents today.

Actuality I am very logical. Had to be in my line of work. Your water to gun comparison is not logical . Adding more water is not going to lessen or accelerate the devastation of flooding. Water is not the cause of the flooding. Flooding is cause by man trying to alter his environment. Just like more or less guns are not the cause of shooting deaths, but mans need to kill. Water and guns are objects that do not have brains and as such can not plan death or destruction. Most crimes are committed with illegal guns. Your not going to stop illegal guns no more than anyone is going to stop all illegal drugs. If someone has the money to buy an illegal gun it isn't hard to get one off the streets. And there is always going to be someone there to sell it to them. Stricter gun laws are not going to stop illegal firearms. Yes, I agree to back ground checks before you are able to purchase and resister a gun and it should be the same across all states. I should be able to carry anywhere in the US. Not state by state. But like everything else there are going to be people who fall though the cracks even if it is federally controlled . And if they are denied a registered gun they are just going to buy it off the street anyway. This current shooter did purchase his gun legally and I don't know Florida gun laws, but I didn't read anywhere that he had past crimes or was under psychological care or ever been in institutionalized due to mental illness. If there is no past history, nobody has ESP and predict how a person will use a gun. It is illogical to think if you make gun law stricter that there will be less guns, because legit people will still be able to legally buy guns and the people who can not get them legally will always be able to buy them from the black market.

Shooter was killed. Two students were injured, one quite badly. She was the former girlfriend of the shooter.