A little off topic, but I just want some honest opinions without creating World War 3, I get so annoyed at my American friends who constantly push the 2nd Ammendment.

We have these huge debates, which I love. A good intellectual debate stimulates me as equally as a sexual one does. Every time there is an incident in the USA or Africa we have these in depth conversations. I just wondered what your thoughts are?

A friend of mine that is living in Florida said after our discussion about gun laws and regulating the purchasing of ammunition in the USA. His response "You are in South Africa, you don't understand America, so rather just keep quiet and focus on your own country? And it's problems?"

Yes, our crime is different.

I couldn't help myself! I replied.

LOL! Yes, here in SA we get our cars stolen and as in the USA, sometimes they are never recovered. We have hijackings, buglaries and home invasions just like you do.

But the USA authorities could find John Bobbitts penis after his wife cut it off, and threw it onto the roadside, and he had it reattached. And had a hugely (lol) successful career after the incident! Kudos to the USA! We sometimes can't find a large object like a car, after its been stolen. Let alone a small penis like you can? So congrats on finding that penis! But you can't control someone buying weapons and ammunition and abusing it? Where do you focus your priorities? And if your police force is there to protect you, as you say? Then why do you have so many public shootings? Why didn't they protect you? Put in control measures! You do it with the rest of the world, and hold us to your standards. Yet we don't have the same problems as you do! Your 2nd ammendment is archaic and needs to be ammended!

www.youtube.com/watch

Arz

Penises dont rape peoplw. People rape people.

Guns dont kill people.
People kill people.

My personal belief is that the USA has a mental problem. Like the Parkland shooting, if it hadnt been a gun it would have been a bomb. Sick people always find a way.

The second amendment may seem archaic but there is a valid reasoning behind it. Like Ben Shapiro (who I love to listen to debate) said to Pierce Morgan. "If my great grandparents had been allowed to arm themselves... they wouldnt have died in a gas chamber'. The amendement refers to citizens being allowed to protect themselves from their own government.

If the gym teacher had been carrying his gun (which he had legally) he could have protected himself and others...

Anyway... my tiny 2c

If you look at the recent school shooting case, the Cruz pyscho oke had been posting photos on social media over a very long time, even asking for advice on how this or that type of a gun would do A or B, with or without a scope bla bla. Displaying frogs he killed during target practice etc. Showing off with newly acquired guns, knives ammo etc. Last parting shot as a YouTube video comment he said:
"One day I will be a professional school shooter"

The school authorities knew had had issues, hence his expulsion, his classmates knew, his boss at his temp work, you name it. The cops got over 20 calls of warnings - they acted on.

Sometimes as a society all the signs are there but we simply choose to do nothing about them!
As has been said guns don't kill people, people kill people.
We spot weirdos but dont keep them in check properly!

Leave the guns alone!!

This is indeed a complex issue. The US has by far (orders of magnitude) the most mass shootings. Is mental illness unique to the US, of course not. The US has over 200 million guns, with so many guns, so readily available, it is only a matter of time before a crazy gets one. The most popular gun in the US is the AR-15, which is an efficient killing machine. What other country in the world can you pop into a local gun store and pick up one of those on the same day?

To have a mass shooting you need BOTH a gun and a crazy person. So far we do not understand insanity, we cannot prevent it. Sometimes people lose it, but you can make it hard to get an AR-15, you can put rules in place to make sure that if you have one, you must be responsible with it.

I dont ascribe to the whole mental illness p.r campaign coined by the spin doctors of the NRA.

Morning guys

Sorry I know it is not regarding this subject...
this morning I heard over the radio something about an attack on SA....

What is going on?

I'm with Arizona on this one. You can't have a mass shooting unless you have assault weapons. There is no good reason for any citizen to have assault weapons. The second amendment was put in place for private citizens to protect themselves against an oppressive government, not so that every Tom Dick and Harry can get an assault rifle.

As for mental illness, as someone who knows a bit about mental illness I think we blame it on that far too easily. There is a lot more to it which I will rather not get into here. suffice to say I know plenty of people with serious mental health issues who are not violent.

As for the argument that if teachers could on themselves they could protect children, I vehemently disagree. Studies show that ordinary citizens hesitate to shoot because they are not out to kill people and turning a school into an armed Battlezone will likely kill more rather than fewer children.

By the same logic guns would not have protected Jews because the process of dehumanising and isolating them was a gradual one. Kind of like how minorities are being dehumanized and isolated in America now

All countries have mental problems and a way to deal with it... My meaning of the USA having a mental problem is the way they handled it. That kid clearly had mental problems. The UK or Germany for example would have sectioned him after the first threat.

America tends to only put people through the mental health system after the damage has been done.

Like the first amendment (free speech). Should no one be allowed to have the right to speak because some people use free speech to constitute hate speech?

Also... if guns are illegal... will that stop criminals using them? No. If someone wants to harm someone... they will find a gun. The school, FBI, cops failed in this regard to neutralise a threat... but the only one at fault is the shooter... saying he had easy access to a gun and making the gun law the issue seems to take away some accountability to his horrific deed.

In SA about six years ago, a teenager brought a sword to school and killed someone... an actual sword. Not even a knife.

Chris Rock said it best....

"You don't need no gun control, you know what you need? We need some bullet control. Men, we need to control the bullets, that's right. I think all bullets should cost five thousand dollars... five thousand dollars per bullet... You know why? Cause if a bullet cost five thousand dollars there would be no more innocent bystanders.
Yeah! Every time somebody get shot we'd say, 'Damn, he must have done something ... Shit, he's got fifty thousand dollars worth of bullets in his ass.'
And people would think before they killed somebody if a bullet cost five thousand dollars. 'Man I would blow your fucking head off...if I could afford it.' 'I'm gonna get me another job, I'm going to start saving some money, and you're a dead man. You'd better hope I can't get no bullets on layaway.'
So even if you get shot by a stray bullet, you wouldn't have to go to no doctor to get it taken out. Whoever shot you would take their bullet back, like "I believe you got my property."

I agree with you on the USA's traeatment of mental health - it's atrocious just like here.

No-one is saying guns should be illegal. But it shouldn't be so easy for people to get hold of firearms that can fire multiple rounds at short intervals because it's a lot easier to kill lots of people at random with an assault rifle than with say, a revolver or a sword.

Holding people accountable for individual acts in important, but in the end in order to prevent more of these kinds of attacks, society needs to step up and say it's not ok. Better response to threats, more access to mental health services, and stricter control over guns are all aspects of this.