US resigns itself to no change in gun laws

23 Jul 2012, 3:20 pm   -   Source: AFP
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(AAP)

(AAP)

The alleged Colorado gunman legally purchased four guns, including a military-style assault rifle and a special magazine that meant he could fire off 50 to 60 deadly bullets a minute.

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The alleged Colorado gunman legally purchased four guns, including a military-style assault rifle and a special magazine that meant he could fire off 50 to 60 deadly bullets a minute.

Over eight weeks he stocked up over the Internet on 6,300 rounds of ammunition: 3,000 for his .233 semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, another 3,000 for his two .22 Glocks, and 300 cartridges for his pump-action shotgun.

When the gun dealers performed the minimal background checks required under Colorado law, no alarm bells went off because all 24-year-old James Holmes had against his name was a speeding ticket, officials said.

On Friday, the gunman entered the midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, and sprayed bullets into the packed cinema, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a matter of minutes.

The Aurora massacre joins the litany of horrific US shooting incidents that include Columbine High School (13 killed in 1999), Virginia Tech (32 killed in 2007), and last year's shooting in Tucson, Arizona that killed six people and left congresswoman Gabby Giffords fighting for her life.

Gun control advocates believe America is more prone to mass shootings than other countries because it has lax gun laws in many states.

"Somebody's got to do something about this," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is calling for more stringent background checks on gun-buyers, told CBS's Face the Nation program.

Senator Frank Lautenberg, a Democrat from New Jersey who plans to reintroduce legislation that would curtail the ability of a shooter to fire repeatedly without reloading, agreed.

"We have to face the reality that these types of tragedies will continue to occur unless we do something about our nation's lax gun laws," he said.

Despite profound soul-searching over America's latest rampage, no one sees any willingness on either side of the political aisle to tackle the long stalemate over the toxic guns issue, especially in an election year.

Several key battlegrounds in November's election -- Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, for example -- have gun-friendly populations that remain wedded to the "right to bear arms" enshrined in the US constitution.

The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), is well-funded and a powerful player in Washington. It argues that crazy people do crazy things and says clamping down on fundamental American liberties will achieve nothing.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said Holmes was clearly a "very intelligent individual" who knew how to make bombs and would have found other ways to kill.

"He would have found explosives, he would have found something else, some sort of poisonous gas, he would have done something to create this horror," Hickenlooper, a Democrat, told ABC's This Week program.

As Republican Senator John McCain pointed out -- coincidentally on the first anniversary of the massacre of 77 people in Norway by a right-wing extremist -- horrific shootings can happen anywhere.

"The killer in Norway was in a country that had very strict gun control laws and yet he was still able to acquire the necessary means to initiate and carry out a mass slaughter," McCain told CNN's State of the Union program.

Gun control advocates recoil from such logic and say that regardless it would make sense to ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines, and to strengthen laws to make sure more red flags show up when certain people try to purchase weapons.

Gun Laws

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Your Comments

The Other Side

Pat - from Wollongong, 10 months ago

Like the automobile, the gun has become similarly entrenched in US society. One third of the population, that's over 90 million people lawfully posses and use guns, mostly on a daily basis. Be it carrying for personal defence in the home or carrying with a concealed carry permit, target shooting, hunting food or for destroying vermin. That is 90 million people who do no harm to anyone each and every day. Recent FBI statistics released have shown a huge rise in the number of concealed carry permits issued and in those areas where concealed carry is allowed, violent crime has dropped enormously. Murders in some of the larger cities such as Washington DC, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit Los Angeles is approaching epidemic proportions, although NY have had some success with Zero Tolerance. The thing is that all of these cities have very draconian firearms laws were it is difficult to own firearms for any reason, let alone personal defence. The US is not without its strict firearms laws but those laws only apply to the law abiding. The cinema in question had a “No Firearms” sign on the door. Who obeyed this sign? Not the criminal who did the shooting. If that sign was not there then the odds were that two or three of the law abiding gun owners who attended that theatre would have been legally carrying a concealed weapon and the perpetrator would have been stopped. Either by being shot or running away because he is a coward as he knew no one in the theatre except himself would be armed. In closing I wish to add my condolences to the families and friends of those so tragically killed.

Gun Control Observations

David PR Bailin - from Morristown, NJ, 10 months ago

You should be reminded that James Madison (cf. Federalist 46) designed the 2nd Amendment (Justice Scalia et. al. not withstanding) to allow an armed state militia to protect against potential incursions by a federal army. Guns should be reserved for police and military. And all citizen purchasable bullets should be sequestered. In 1996 a gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur,Tasmania. Twelve days later, Prime Minister John Howard announced a scheme for uniform gun laws throughout Australia

Don't jump the gun

Sam - from Kalgoorlie, 10 months ago

How come you are not putting our comments up? Do you want only anti gun comments? You should have said you were going to be biased, I wouldn't have bothered.

wow what a load of mis information I see

Trapper - from Brisbane, 10 months ago

First things first, An assult rifle is a rifle that can be fired automatic or burst fire. What he used was an ar-15 a semi automatic rifle. A special magazine that increases his fire rate hey? i have used all sorts of rifles including one of the ones he has used and I have never heard of a magazine that can do that. He had a beta c magazine. It is big and holds a large number of rounds but it doesn't magically make the rifle fire faster. I have limited space but i could go on and on.

Don't jump the gun

Sam - from Kalgoorlie, 10 months ago

The only thing standing between that gun man and his prey was the sign that stopped law abiding CCW firearms owners from bringing their guns into the cinema, that sign said - Gun Free Zone.

Yeah laws work great

Leigh - from Boondall, QLD, 10 months ago

You know, how the murder law, with the associated death penalty, prevented this shooting. Oh wait, it didn't. What laws did work then? Well there's the law that prevented lawful, concealed carry weapons permit holders to carry their self defence firearms in that cinema. Unfortunately that didnt help many did it? Its not inconcievable, that were they allowed to do so, they could have shot the offender, either killing or wounding - or at the very least, distracting him, allowing others to escape.

that's possible and more!

zac - from nerang qld, 10 months ago

ohhh! Yes it is possible,and it will be more things similar in the future,as in the us in some states any one over 17 years old can walk in to a firearms shop and buy what they want,some states not even check criminal history files,also making public on the news these sored of mass killings makes some people to be the next to do something,in my opinion is government laws 90% of the fault,

Something is simply just basically wrong

robb - from geelong, 10 months ago

Just cant get away from the notion that anyone who wants to amass a pile of weapons esp. automatics plus ammo, is not someone I want living in my neighbourhood. If the majority of Americans think its ok then all those anti-US / anti-imperial dark force films we have all seen, have something to justify their plot. Something is simply just basically wrong. I dont believe the average American wants their 'right to bear arms' protected to the degree that the NRA demands.

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