Quote Originally Posted by JellybeanJay View Post
Gun control may help the issue but then again it may not....

Look at the Oklahoma City bombing, the explosion killed 168 people, including 19 children in the day care center on the second floor, and injured 450 others and there was not one firearm used, everything that was used to make the bomb is very easily accessible.

So my I guess my point is that if someone is set on causing chaos, destruction and loss of life they are going to do it whether they use a firearm or not.
Yes. This is true. Guns just make it way, way, way easier. And more guns = more violence. Those are the stats. It's just how it is.

Take mass killings, for example: the Oklahoma bombing required collaboration, a certain amount of know-how, quite a bit of work, and was risky for the perpetrators. There's a reason it stands on its own in our history. On the other hand, it's pretty easy for a lone person to get his hands on some guns and ammo, make a plan that doesn't involve a single other person, carry it out, and take the chicken exit at the end. McVeigh was a terrorist who committed his acts for political reasons. Most homicides are committed by friends, family, and acquaintances in the heat of the moment, and mass shootings are usually the work of someone who is disturbed and committing the acts for purely emotional reasons.

Shootings are instant, deadly, and cannot generally be stopped by law enforcement, nor are they often stopped by bystanders. Coordinated bomb plantings have a much higher chance of being intercepted before anyone is hurt.

I'm not saying there isn't a valid argument for allowing people to own guns. I'm just saying that "anything can be a weapon" isn't it. There's a reason that the armed forces, law enforcement, and National Guard are issued guns rather than knives, ropes, or small bombs as primary weapons. It's the same reason people use guns to hunt and for self-defense: they are marvelously, death-dealingly effective. If they weren't, no one would care if guns were outlawed (not that that's a reasonable likelihood; I'm just saying). Because after all, anything can be a weapon.