On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:57:46 -0400, Peter Hendra wrote:

I know that this is off topic but it is very saddening to hear of yet
another mass killing in America.

snip

Approx. 30,000 people die from being shot with handguns in the US every
year. Evidently this is not any sort of pressing public health issue in
the former land of the free. They love their guns and are propagandized
from childhood into thinking they _need_ them to be safe. Handguns are
strictly regulated in Canada. Not surprisingly, the per capita rate of
handgun murders in Canada is infinitessimal compared with that of the US.
However we had a similar event here in Montreal where a disturbed
individual used a long rifle to kill a number of students. Long rifles
aren't so strictly controlled here. As a result, they're used more often
in murders. But overall, the murder rate in Canada does not correlate
at all on a per capita basis with the US. Gun advocates will say that it
was the disturbed person who did the killing and not the weapon. This of
course is intellectually bankrupt but despite that, has great currency in
the US. If the person can't get the weapon, how then do they commit the
murder? Of course Timothy McVeigh didn't need a gun did he? Goes around
in circles eh? Personally I want handguns banned but for police use.
This shooting is an obscene tragedy. We need to admit that
something in our society is producing disturbed individuals who will use
too easily available lethal weapons to kill the innocent.