Here is a disturbing story about a boy who didn't get his own way.

[Jonathan Bailey]

But it's not about motivation, it's about convenience. Guns are used to kill others apparently because guns are handy. Very young kids have killed other kids too, presumably not knowing of the true consequences, but the guns were available to them. It's just a lot easier to kill with a gun than by most other methods.

Very few non-Americans would probably see the availability of guns in the USA as being anything other than being stupid but many or even most Americans will not see it this way. It's understandable that this is how it is.

I'm much more interested what's inside the MIND of people who do these things, not the tools used. It's convenient to just say "it's all the gun's fault". The source of evil is in the human mind. Taking away the guns doesn't erase the evil inside the mind. It's a poor cop-out. You don't cure the headache buy cutting the head off.

 

[Twilight Hue]

In the UK you're not considered a boy at 17

With this particular generation at present that oughta be upped to 30.

 

[PureX]

[QUOTE="Jonathan Bailey, post: 6500713, member: 66323"Taking away the guns doesn't erase the evil inside the mind. It's a poor cop-out. You don't cure the headache buy cutting the head off.[/QUOTE]No, but the availability of the guns makes the EXPRESSION of that evil far more likely, and far more deadly than it would otherwise have been. What matters more to you, the evil in someone's mind, or the expression of that evil in the lives of those around him? Which do you think should matter more to us?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I'm much more interested what's inside the MIND of people who do these things, not the tools used. It's convenient to just say "it's all the gun's fault". The source of evil is in the human mind. Taking away the guns doesn't erase the evil inside the mind. It's a poor cop-out. You don't cure the headache buy cutting the head off.

Lizzie Borden didn't need guns. ;0)

 

[Jonathan Bailey]

With this particular generation at present that oughta be upped to 30.

I had a white "man" as a roommate who claimed to be 31 years old and I swear he looked, acted and sounded no older than a 15-year old boy. The owner of the house evicted him. He was a crazy type hanging around criminal elements. Up to no good.

 

[columbus]

I'm much more interested what's inside the MIND of people who do these things, not the tools used.

Finding out what's inside someone's mind is both difficult and not terribly useful. The tools used is a good bit more objective and useful.
In fact, you'll never really know what's inside someone's mind. And there's no way to compare it whatever is in someone else's mind, objectively.
The tools used can be investigated and judged more objectively.

It's convenient to just say "it's all the gun's fault".

It's also convenient to say, " Nothing to do with the tool. It's all about the motive."

But the obvious fact is that having a tool designed to kill, in a split second and from a distance, enables people to commit such murders with little effort and less thought. Guns are designed for that.

The kid might also have murdered with a knife or a car or a rope or a hammer. But those kinds of killing require a lot more thought and effort than just pulling a trigger. And those "tools" have other clear and reasonable purposes, they aren't designed to kill. Somebody got that gun specifically because it could kill quickly and easily.

And the rest is now history.
Tom

 

[Shad]

I agree. These kinds of incidents almost always have a confluence of factors fueling them. And even then, there is that inexplicable factor that makes one person react with violence when another person under the exact same strain would not. It's "fun" to pass judgement and imagine that we "know better" or "are better" people, but that's all just fiction serving the ego. And if we really did know better, we'd know better than to serve our own ego with slanderous fictions about other people's misfortunes.

Evil is one of those judgements that is easy to make but hard to defend, in my view, when it comes to cases like this. There is no pattern nor a history of morally questionable actions to establish a judgement of evil compared to what I posted previously. Besides I know a few people that have lost their minds. They are more or less not there as a normal person. They are running on autopilot so to speak.

 

[Aštra’el]

This reminds me of another story.

“‘To bed, to bed’, the mother said...

‘To bed’ She said. The angry boy, his face turned red...

His face turned red, and with a cry, he chopped her head....”

-Legion

 

[Mock Turtle]

I'm much more interested what's inside the MIND of people who do these things, not the tools used. It's convenient to just say "it's all the gun's fault". The source of evil is in the human mind. Taking away the guns doesn't erase the evil inside the mind. It's a poor cop-out. You don't cure the headache buy cutting the head off.

Well yes, I'm not suggesting that the lack of guns will someone eliminate any crimes but that it often makes it far too easy for people to act irresponsibly before they think properly and for silly accidents to happen - like individuals acting as jury and executioner and for toddlers shooting their mothers, for example.