Gun control in Europe is almost total. It hasn't stopped mass shooting attacks like Las Vegas
Within hours of the horrible attack in Las Vegas, before we knew most of the relevant facts about the tragedy, gun control advocates were calling for more gun control. Here is something I would like those advocates to consider: Europe, which has all the gun controls that are being pushed in the aftermath of the Las Vegas carnage, has actually suffered more bloodshed from these types of attacks than the U.S.
In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Europe saw machine gun attacks in airports and nightclubs by groups such as Black September and the Red Army Faction. In fact, machine guns are commonly used in mass shootings in the rest of the world.
This has not been the case here in the U.S. In fact, Sunday’s attack on a country music festival in Las Vegas – that left at least 58 people dead and more than 500 wounded – may be the first mass public shooting in the U.S. involving a machine gun, if it turns out the killer did use such a weapon. According to a Wall Street Journal report , the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, is believed to have used at least one fully automatic weapon – weapons that are heavily restricted under U.S. federal law.
It is an attack that is likely to rank 14 th in the most deadly mass public shooting in the world since 1970. It is the worst ever in the United States, according to data collected by the Center for Crime Research where I am founder and president.
There were 29 such shootings (four or more fatalities in a public place, according to the FBI’s official definition) in the U.S. during the eight years of the Obama administration; 26 in Europe. The rate at which people are killed is virtually the same in the European Union as in the United States.
Again, many of the facts about what happened in Las Vegas remain unknown at the moment, including exactly what type of firearm the gunman used. But one sad fact that everyone calling for gun control needs to consider is that, as Europe has shown, you can have all the gun control laws you want and you still won’t be able to stop horrors like this from happening.
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Interesting. I believe we have some folks here who champion the EU's gun control laws.
Excellent seed. The spinning will begin shortly.
True as long as we have guns like this or guns that be altered to do this we will have mass murders using these weapons.
The fact is the world will never probably be free from weapons like this. Once they were developed and released there was no going back.
Regulating them will never stop unregulated people from getting their hands on one either because not all regulated people are fully responsible enough to not allow it to happen.
That's life. (and death) and my opinion.
Very percipient of you Steve....
We agree....
This post is a complete lie.
You do trust the Wiki don't you? You don't think it's 'fake news'?
No one should trust Wiki, and I'm a Wikipedia editor....
Debunked by liberals with an agenda, right....
Is that the same as the debunked Kellerman study, you know the one that says you are ten time more likely to die by gun if you have a gun in the house?
Guns is one of the areas where there are so many competing debunked studies where they really don't mean anything anymore....
You want to talk Hemenway and his myriad studies serving the liberal cause? I think he puts out at least two or three a year..... All of them with a specific bent.
There are studies that haven't been debunked, criticized yes but not debunked....
But then no one really wants to look at the problem from a practical focus do they...
Absolutists an all sides....
One problem in the US that is not prevalent in other countries is the sheer mass and number of available firearms per person.
So realistically, anyone who wants to obtain a weapon and doesn't care about the legality of it can get one. The availability of weapons makes that inevitable.
The only real counter to that is to buy or otherwise acquire existing firearms and destroy them to reduce the number available. Given US history and the culture of people just used to having firearms available, I can't imagine this every actually happening. I think destroying most of the firearms out there along with strict gun control would reduce crimes and tragedies related to firearms, but we'll never actually do it.