A lot of the gun control arguments will probably turn out to be just as silly. Its far, far too late to ba[n] guns in this country, even if we could. Besides, the weapon was probably purchased legally. The only gun control that would make sense would be some methodology for keeping people who are depressed/homicidal/etc from getting legal weapons and to require a psych exam on a regular basis to catch gun owners who have slipped into such a broken state. But I am not a psychiatrist, so I have no idea if that notion is practical. [emphasis added]I think there is another component of gun control. Training. Instead of making the gun into some mythical, or is that mystical, instrument of either death or freedom why not educate (and train) students in how to handle a weapon safely. We do that with cars after all. We try to instill the rules into them from an early age. We do that with knives and other 'kitchen' utensils. We do that with drills, saws and other 'shop' tools.
When my father was a child his father (at some magically male milepost) taught him how to use a rifle, how to maintain it AND how to handle it safely. When my brother reached an age that seemed appropriate in this same male milepost, my father gave my brother a BB gun and went through a similar training process [... and no he didn't do the same for me but my brother was obviously interested and I was not. It was certainly a household where I could have expressed an interest or tagged along if I were paying any attention, which I wasn't.]
If we are not willing to start off training the young in the mechanics and safety concerns of firearms, then at least require training for anyone who wants to own a gun. In Arizona I recommend that anyone who owns a gun take the class that is required for a concealed weapons permit, whether or not they intend to carry a concealed weapon. They reduced the requirements recently, but when I took it I thought it was a worthwhile class.
I know this doesn't solve, or directly prevent, the horror of what happened at NIU. But even the outright prohibition of individual citizens owning guns doesn't solve the problem of a disturbed person seeking a way to make such a horrendous impact on others.
