Have Your Say: US Gun Control

A recent series of shooting incidents in the US has many people calling for stricter gun control laws and looking to Obama to make the change. This year, in under one month, there has been at least seven separate incidents in which people have been killed as a result of a shooting incident:

April 6, 2009: father shot to death his five children at home in Washington before killing himself, (USA Today).

April 4, 2009: in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 23 year-old Richard Poplawsk opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, (Yahoo News).

April 3, 2009: Binghamton, N.Y: Jiverly Voong aka Jiverly Wong kills13 people in a shooting rampage inside a New York State immigration services centre, (Countusout Wordpress).

March 29, 2009: Robert Stewart, 45, shot and killed eight people at Pinelake Health and Rehab in Carthage, North Carolina, before a police officers shot him, (Countusout Wordpress).

March 29, 2009: Indian techie Devan Kalathat, 42, shot and killed his two children and three other relatives, then killed himself in an upscale neighbourhood of Santa Clara, California, (Yahoo News).  

March 21, 2009: Lovelle Mixon, 26, shot and killed four Oakland, California, police officers after a traffic stop. Mixon was killed in a shootout with SWAT officers, (CNN.com).

March 10, 2009: Michael McLendon, 28, killed 10 people - including his mother, four other relatives, and the wife and child of a local sheriff’s deputy - across two rural Alabama counties. He then killed himself, (CNN.com).

(From the above incidents only) Total shooting incidents in under one month = 7, Total people killed including gunman = 40

Many of those in favor of tighter guns laws have claimed that the right to bear arms is over ruling people’s right to live in safety and without fear. Pro gun supporters have claimed that banning certain weapons such as fully automatics would make little real difference, referring to the late Charlton Heston’s comment ‘Guns don’t kill people, people kill people’, a much used quote by the National Rifle Association in America. Many also feel that by banning certain weapons your making it harder for people to depend themselves when an incident arises, and that its better to have a gun and not need it, then to need a gun and not have it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Should there be tighter guns laws in the US?

Leave us your comments.