Okay, to those who say "Don't be fooled! Murders are actually decreasing across the country! There's just more reporting of them!", that may be true but in comparing this country to others there is still a disproportionately large number of them.
And it's not because America is
so big. There are larger countries and higher population densities out there and they still don't have the amount of violent crime we do. Regardless of whether there is one solution to the issue or what that issue may actually be caused by, there is definitely something wrong here.
And to those comparing the amounts of violent crime now to those "before", are you saying the amount of mass killings is lower now than in the
last couple of years when we had the same amount of reporting, but seemingly fewer stories of this sort? I'm not saying there is a definite rise. It's possible it happened just as much in the last couple of years, I'm just wondering if it has.
Edit:
worldrevolution said:
I'm as anti-gun as it gets but this kind of stuff (as in this kind of situation like in Old Bridge) would be the same whether the perp used a gun, knife, axe, broken glass bottle, whatever. He went there in the morning with the intent of killing others and it looks like himself as well. While a gun is obviously a more convenient tool for that task, the truth is there's nothing you can do to prevent someone who is determined to harm others and is willing to die for it.
I don't really think this sort of logic cuts it. I doubt a lone murderer would get nearly as far as some of the notorious killers of the past couple years have if they weren't using guns. I don't know, do you think the Virginia Tech shooting or the Aurora incident would have gotten nearly as far as they did (20+ deaths) if they were using a broken bottle or knife instead? I can't see that.
Obviously one could make the case that even with the strictest of gun laws these people would still have gotten their hands on one, but that's not the point. Dismissing all violence as "equal" is disingenuous. There are few situations in which a man who is out to kill others is at more of an advantage than when he has a gun. Bombs are one of them, but they are far too inconvenient to make to serve for the average criminal, and in fact have often killed fewer in isolated incidents than simple firearms.
Edit again: I see you specifically stated incidents "like the Old Bridge", separating it from the mass shootings I listed above. I still don't think it would necessarily be the same, but it was a little off for me to list the other mass shootings with higher casualties. Still, once you're using a knife the amount of killing potential you have is dramatically reduced. I just can't see a guy getting away with stabbing 5+ adults at once. If he did it would take way more work and way more time than shooting 5+ at least. Even in situations like the Empire State incident, a knife could have reduced the violence because it would take more time for the guy to murder the first man, possibly trapping him in the area for a moment, or when he pulled the knife on the cops they would be able to react more appropriately, with more restraint, because the man was not waving a gun right at them.