First of all, I do not own a gun and I do not approve of Gov. Snyder signing this legislation. But I do not think gun ownership should be restricted. The anti-gun people are too quick to point to gun ownership when mass shootings occur but fail to mention other root causes of violence like bloody video games, TV shows and Hollywood movies. Maybe the reason is that liberals from those industries are big donors to the Democratic Party and they don't want to kill the fatted money calf. They also point to freedom of speech as a reason for not restricting those entertainment areas while conveniently ignoring our basic constitutional right to gun ownership.. Anti-gunners should not be allowed to have it both ways without a challenge. But of course, we can not count on our liberal dominated mainstream media to call them on that point. The Fifth Estate no longer exists in America.

First it needs to be tied with a Mental Health bill. Not just back ground check. Trained psychologist certified in behavioral science do a in depth profile and extensive training. Not just one day. Plus all cost bore by the applicant. Then I might support such legislation. CCW training is not sufficient. Guns are not the problem. It's the scared little people that want them. You need a verifiable reason. Convince and no patients or rational thinking equals tragedy.

This shooting is yet another tragic example of the failed, grotesque insistence on helpless victim zones. Look at the history of these tragedies and connect the dots. They have occurred primarily in mandated "gun-free" zones and cities with gun bans. When are we going to wake the hell up and end this insanity (and we all know the definition of insanity)? Compare and contrast the violent crime and murder statistics in areas with strict gun laws and without. This is no coincidence. Lock down the schools like a prison if the status quo prevails.

Here are your statistics

Sixteen US Mass Shootings Happened in 2012, Leaving at Least 88 Dead

February 22, 2012— health spa in Norcross, Georgia,
February 26, 2012a nightclub crown in Jackson, Tennessee,
February 27, 2012— High School in rural Ohio
March 8, 2012 a psychiatric hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
March 31, 2012 North Miami, Florida, funeral home
April 2, 2012 University in Oakland, California,
April 6, 2012 Tulsa, Oklahoma, shooting black men at random on streets.
May 29, 2012—A man in Seattle, Washington, in a coffee shop.
July 9, 2012 At a soccer tournament in Wilmington, Delaware,
July 20, 2012 screening of The Dark Knight Rises, Colorado
August 5, 2012 temple in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin
August 14, 2012— Texas A&M University
September 27, 2012in Minneapolis, Minnesota,former workplace
October 21, 2012—at a spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin
December 11, 2012—mall near Portland, Oregon, .
December 14, 2012—elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut,

We need stricter gun control laws. I personally would like to see them banned all together because although mental illness and other things contribute to the violence, a gun makes it too easy to exact that rage on mass numbers of people at a split seconds notice. At least if you want to cause massive casualties and guns are not available, you would have to actually take a long time to plan how to make it happen.

Regulation is difficult because I am not sure how you would keep mental patients from having a gun because of the Hippa laws. How would anyone know if you had a mental illness unless you told them when you were buying the gun? It's not like there is a mental health data base and there could never be one because if there was, people would be less likely to seek help. Also there is no way that a "psychiatrist" evaluation would be accurate. Many people with Bi-polar disorder are good at hiding it and if they don't want them to know.... they wont.

there is also Absolutely NO reason for semi-automatic or automatic multi-fire weapons or ammo clips that hold a lot of rounds. People also use the reasoning that Guns somehow are the same as a car..... as in "Should we ban all cars because there people who use them to kill someone?" But the truth is that Guns are only made for ONE reason and that's to kill. Cars have another more noble purpose.

Jen
Thanks for sharing your knee jerk opinions about comparing other countries to the US regarding gun violence. Of course, you didn't bother to back up your assessment with facts or statistics. We agree that we have an inordinate amount of gun violence in this country, however, the solution is not so clear cut. There are 80,000,000 gun owners in this country who wake up everyday and do NOT kill anybody with their guns. Banning all firearms sounds like a panacea solution but is not practical. Most researched statistics show that violent crime is higher in areas with actual gun bans or stricter gun laws. If this maniac's Mom had locked up her guns he probably would have found another way to get a gun...who knows for sure. Surely you don't disagree that humans have a natural right to life and self defense. For what it is worth, start by reading "More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott. Then, view the documentary by Larry Elder entitled "Michael & Me". Also, look up the facts about the worst school disaster in history that did not involve guns...The Bath School Disaster which occurred in 1927 in Bath, Michigan. How can you ignore the fact that most of these horrific occurrences did occur in "gun free" zones? No LOL here...

Bruce: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fdatablog%2F2011%2Fjan%2F10%2Fgun-crime-us-state&h=ZAQHQeNtv&s=1

Bruce: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list

this one actually compares the UK vs. United States. Please take a moment to notice the difference between England and the US in number of firearm homicides per 100,000 population.

So Bruce, I have provided proof of the UK and even Canada having a lower gun homicide rate than the United States. They have gun bans in place. Please proceed to provide evidence for YOUR knee jerk Opinion.

Jen.....Violence can be promoted through bloody video games, TV shows and movies while guns are one of the means of carring out and acting out what is seen in those sources of "entertainment". I anyone has the twisted enough mind to carry out a mass killing and no guns are available, they can easily find another method to carry out their dirty deed. The (9-11 terrorists did not use guns, nor did the Oklahoma City bomber. Their unbalanced mental and emotional driving force will overcome all road blocks in their way. The violent root causes which influence their mental frame of mind is the most logical target for prevention.

Fact: your not going to disarm America.
Fact: People (Insane People) kill people Guns make it more efficient and quick.
Fact: 22 children slashed in China did not die.
Fact: Mental health care profiling and more hoops to jump through to possess a weapon will help limit future ownership but will not keep them inaccessible.
Fact: Gun free zones do NOT attract shooters and criminals. Body armor and vests worn prove that. They wear them to accomplish their mission.
Fact: mass murders in most cases plan on dying upon completion of their act.
Fact: Time for real discussion on this issue and quit just defending both sides of the real issues.

Why can't we have an apolitical and intelligent conversation about this issue? Let's face it, we should have gun rights in this country, but we should also have gun control. Then let's use common sense and reason to develop gun laws that not only protect our gun rights, but also give a measure of control over gun ownership and use so that we can then return to the real intent of our forefathers when they wrote the second amendment. Our culture of violence also needs more control as well as more and better mental health care availability, especially for our young people.

Fact: A culture of ever increasing blood and violence in what we mislabel as entertainment is totally ignored as a major root cause of mass killings by those who chose to bury their heads in the sand. Blind hatred of guns plus big profits and political donations block rational thought.
Fact: If guns are banned, it will generate a new highly profitable gun smuggling industry similar to current drug running. And the weak effort we make to protect our borders will allow it to happen..

Jen,
It is a source of researched facts and relevant statistics, not a novel of biased opinions. We agree to disagree. Thanks for the interesting discussions. I hope your holidays are peaceful.

Ok, I am going to post this for enlightenment purposes and it's not up for debate but you should hear this. Yes, the mental health industry needs an overhaul, especially since medications designed to work take up to 6 weeks to actually take effect and you are LUCKY if you can get your insurance company to pay for ONE week in the hospital. The medications that can work absolute miracles can also create absolute nightmares depending on your body chemistry. I took Prozac before my daughter was born because I have a chemical imbalance that causes depression. It worked FABULOUSLY! I have never since had a medication that worked so well. However, after I had my daughter and my body chemistry changed, the medication caused me to have homicidal urges. NOT homicidal thoughts.....URGES! My thoughts every night were "God don't let me hurt anyone". But there was this urge to go to McDonalds and shoot the place up. My mind even went so far as to start planning that if I did it, I know I wouldn't be able to live with what I had done, so I would have to kill myself. Do you know the reason why I didn't follow on those urges? Because I didn't have access to a gun! Eventually I was able to figure out the Medication was doing it. and Stop those urges. I am normally NOT a violent person and for this to happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I (and Plymouth) was lucky Guns were not easily accessible to me.

The other enlightening thing I have to post with this is that MY DAD IS AN AVID GUN OWNER. I was fortunate he no longer lived with me (or in the area) or I would have had access. Do you have any idea how close Plymouth was to having a mass shooting due to Medication issues and the ONLY thing stopping it was that I didn't have access to a gun. Scary huh?

I can post this because I know that I am not like that and it was the medication that caused it but there are others out there that might not be as lucky as me in identifying the medication causing a homicidal urge. I am well versed in medications and side effects and it took me a month struggling with the urges to figure it out. I can only imagine what its like for someone who doesn't know better. And again, I say... the only thing that stopped me was no access to a gun. Psychiatric Medication is not an exact science and I still need medication today to keep from being anxious and depressed. We can't stop using the medications because as I said, they DO WORK amazing when they work, but they are terrifying when they don't. Yes, we need advances and more understanding in the mental health community but Guns ARE an issue that need to be addressed. Medication has a purpose to help people who are suffering but a guns ONLY purpose is to kill.

While I oppose a complete ban of guns on constitutional grounds, I do not think the public should have access to automatic weapons. I see no valid reason for a person to own an automatic weapon.

I think someone's gonna get creeped out and drop a dime...

Right now under existing regulations, I can walk into a gun show and buy a semi-automatic weapon with no background check. Yet when I go into a drug store, I need to have one in order to buy cold medication.

Some also claim there is no good reason why voters should be required to show a picture ID before voting either. I saw in a newspaper here in Florida last week that this state has just passed the one-million mark in licenses issued to carry concealed weapons. I noticed while walking through a large flea market here that many men had their shirts untucked from their pants. I asked a native Floridian if it was because of the warm weather here. He said maybe, but more likely many are covering up the gun they carry in their belt. And they have the "stand your ground law" here too.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=BuLgO4wo4xI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBuLgO4wo4xI

This is why the MI legislature is passing this law...

Question Boldy: Give it up. Anti-gunners have a one track mind and will not accept any arguement which does not support their arguement that all guns should be banned. The constitutional rights be damned, Other logical alternatives also be damned.

Instead of looking for the root cause of violent behavior and dealing with it, the anti-gunners will attack the NRA (I'm not a member) and attempt the impossible job of getting rid of guns. Have any of you seen the increasingly violent vidio games the people play these days? They involve shooting people with bloody illistrations the impact of bullets. TV and movies are also filled with blood and guts. But anti-gun people bury their heads in the sand regarding these causes for mental cases to act out this stuff in real life. They say any attempts to sensor this violent material would be an attack on free speech and also impact the huge profits those industries earn and put into the economy, not to mention political donations media gives to the Democratic Party. And they get a double benefit by reducing the size of the NRA they would shrink donations made to the Republicans. You see, there is a big political aspect to this issue as well?

Jen....I think you are an exception because of the RX you were taking. With 100 Million guns in the country it will be futile, The only ones left with guns will be the criminals and kooks who should not have them. A gun ban would be a drop in the ocean. Florida has proposed a bill similar to Michigan legislation to allow some school administrators to carry guns. Their arguement is that the schools are unprotected now and are easy targets for the mass shooters who know they will have no opposition at schools. So being unprotected is an open door invitation for gunmen to invaded. Even with a gun ban, the bad guys will still have guns and pose a threat. I think it is possible that eventually schools will all have armed security guards or police to provide protection. A very expensive additional cost to taxpayers for running a public education system. Outlawing guns will merely make the gun haters feel good about themselves and give them a false sense of security and accomplishment. Our culture of violence is the real problem and a gun ban is only an indirect method to attempt to solve it.

Did you know? Harry Reid is an NRA member? And Obama's appointment of a study board to investigate a gun ban is just a delaying tactic in hopes the whole issue of gun control will die a natural death, It is political suicide to sponsor such a bill. But the only thing I agree with is a reinstatement of the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. I see no need to have them in the hands of the public.

Interesting testimony from a woman whose parents were killed in a mass shooting...
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?v=4125338260006&set=vb.1479883476&type=2&theater

Bryan....She made some valid points which probably went way over the heads of those investigators sitting behind the committee table. They have blinders on and are focused only on guns. A total gun ban will never be successful in reducing these types of mass shootings. It will just give government more power over the people and the people less personal freedom. Where do we stop government from taking over all aspects of our lives.