Posted on 03/12/2009 7:13:16 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Two shooting massacres in Germany and the US this week have reignited the debate on gun control, but while Europe has in the past been been ready to tighten already tough restrictions the US remains more resistant to change.
Germany was in shock yesterday after a teenage gunman shot 15 people near Stuttgart in one of the worst incidents of its kind in the country.
In the US on Tuesday a man went on a shooting spree in Alabama after setting his mother on fire in her house. The 28-year-old, Michael McLendon, killed 10 people including five family members.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the attack marked a "day of sorrow" for the whole country. In the US, where such massacres are all too common, Barack Obama, the president, made no statement.
During the presidential campaign Mr Obama trod a fine line between stressing the need to do more to prevent criminals from obtaining weapons while reassuring gun-loving voters he would respect the sacrosanct second amendment of the constitution, which protects the right to bear arms.
Mrs Merkel said in Berlin: "It is unimaginable that in just seconds, pupils and teachers were killed - it is an appalling crime."
A 17-year-old, clad in combat clothing, entered a school in Winnenden shortly after lessons began and fired indiscriminately, killing nine pupils and three teachers. After fleeing the scene, he killed a passer-by.
Later, two more bystanders, as well as the assailant, were killed after a shoot-out with police.
German media reported that the assailant's father was a member of a shooting club and kept a collection of at least 16 registered weapons in the family home. The attack re-awakened painful memories of a massacre in 2002 at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt, when 16 people were killed.
The Erfurt attack sparked an unprecedented bout of public soul-searching in Germany and prompted the government to tighten gun ownership laws, by raising the minimum age to buy major firearms from 18 to 21.
A public outcry in 2007 forced Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister, to drop plans to reverse this higher age limit, which had been proposed to bring German law into harmony with other European Union countries. "Safety comes first," Mr Schäuble said at the time.
The fact that tighter German rules failed to prevent yesterday's killings meant that politicians were unwilling to rule out further restrictions.
But Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy head of Ms Merkel's Christian Democratic Union parliamentary party, told the Financial Times it was "far too early" to talk about a political response.
Despite previous incidents, many Germans remain sceptical of introducing US-style security, including metal detectors and video surveillance into the country's traditionally liberal schooling system.
"The state cannot give a guarantee that nothing like this will happen again," Mr Bosbach said and warned against turning schools into "high-security wings".
Dietrich Oberwittler, a criminologist at a Max Planck law institute, agreed that politicians could do little more to prevent these kinds of attack, noting that state police had executed a specially designed rapid response plan but were not able to arrive soon enough.
"Guns laws are already very strict," he said. "It is extremely hard to recognise these people in advance."
While the Alabama shooting temporarily displaced the economic crisis on US television, gun-control advocates were not confident that it would help Mr Obama engineer any significant changes on gun ownership.
Ladd Everitt, communications director at the Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said the president had shown little interest in pushing Congress to make changes that would outrage the powerful National Rifle Association.
German killings
Feb 2002 Former student at a school in Freising, Bavaria, kills three before taking his own life
April 2002 In Erfurt, eastern Germany, a 19-year-old kills 12 teachers, a secretary, two pupils and a policeman, before killing himself
Nov 2006 An 18-year-old former pupil storms a school in the western town of Emsdetten. He wounds 11 before killing himself
Does anyone remember an Adam Sandler movie where there was this huge guy wearing a t-shirt that said, “GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE...I DO”? That was a Great movie and T-shirt.
“The only way you will ever eliminate this sort of thing is to make human beings forget how a gun is made.”
“Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.” (A sword is never a killer; it is a tool in the killer’s hands.)
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 45 AD
Speaking of, a very made sword would be an effective at close quarters as a gun. Jim Bowie, though in a sickbed, was found dead surroiunded by several Mexican soldiers killed by his famous knife —really a short sword.
I’m sure that people had guns, They just didn’t have time to react.
Every part of the country has anti-gun agitators who are probably reinvigorated by this administration.Learn specifically who your enemy is on a local level.
The Alinsky driven government follows the dictates of the late communist when it adheres to his dictum of personalizing and isolating the enemy.It’s something that can cut both ways,but those arrogant POS’s that shop at Whole Foods don’t realize that.
Gun confiscation will set off something they don’t want to think about in their worst nightmares.
The police can’t do it.I don’t believe the military will turn on the American people at the behest of Holder,Schumer,and the rest of the cabal.
What does that leave them with?Blue helmets from the UN?There is an enemy Americans can really go after.
Once the illegal aliens are amnestied,Obama can recruit from their ranks.Think about that.They are people who have no attachment to this country other than using it for their own benefit.
A lot of people are going to be sorry they were conned by the commies on 11/4/08.
Stop posting filthy pictures on FR.I just lost breakfast./LOL/
That’s a good one!!!
Post of the day!
The last time Germany instituted strict gun control, very few people were killed with guns, right? Oh, wait, the Germans murdered MILLIONS of UNARMED people.
You can't argue facts with Liberals.
Well said! On a side note, I loved walking into my local Whole Foods w/ my pistol (concealed, of course) and wondering how the moonies would “feel” if they ever were attacked in their grocery store and I were to stand up for them. This was, of course, before I lost my pistol in that tragic boating accident where all my ammo and guns fell in the water, lost forever to the abyss...
That image has been deleted by a moderator. Can someone tell me why as it was NOT a filthy picture.?
Massacre
the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty
Who made them helpless? The gun control activists.
Happy Gilmore.
You've swerved into something here. Most 'nuts' will look for a place to act-out where they are least exposed to the risk of being taken down quickly. That's why they target schools, malls, churches, etc. rather than walking into a police station, for example.
Armed citizens (as proposed in the 2A) would serve as a deterent the same as thousands of undercover police would. This effect wouldn't be limited to just the crazed psycho killer- it would deter criminals of all types.
The only way to eliminate "this sort of thing" is to change human nature (an impossibility). If there are no guns, man will use bows and arrows, swords, tanks of propane, gasoline, sticks, rocks, and anything else he can lay his hands on.
I thought it was kinda funny myself.:))
You may see another Hitler if you watch this country.
I'd really like to test my skill with a spear but I don't currently own one.
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