CNN Report: 18 Dead in School Shooting in Germany

[jman01pa]

Police say 18 dead in school shooting in Erfurt, Germany, wire services report.

[DutchMaster]

The world is getting crazier by the day. I thoughed these things only happend in the USA.
How does a highschool guy gets hold off a gun?

[Warthog]

18 dead??? Wow

IMO, it's not that hard to get a gun, at least for me (heck, I own one...). Also, since I'm 18, I could buy one. Don't know what the laws in Germany are.

[Warthog]

POS news media

I scanned all the news channels - no mention.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe...ing/index.html

BTW, it's 17.......17 dead?!!?! Have we had that many dead in a school shooting in the USA? This is big news, but nooo the American news media has to focus on American subjects.

The dead police officer was shot earlier before the school was stormed in an operation involving special forces and snipers, police told CNN.

That's how its done. We should really learn from these guys. There is no end to the respect of the Germans.

Germany already has strict laws governing the right to a gun, but experts say the country is awash with illegal weapons smuggled into the country from eastern Europe and the Balkans.

People wanting to buy a hunting rifle must undergo checks that can last a year, while those wanting a gun for sport must be a member of a club and obtain a licence from the police.

Wow. I'm not sure how he got a handgun then...

Warthog

[Knothead]

Gee, gun control laws work really, really good, huh?

[KAknight]

My favorite bumper sticker.
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Real shame about this tragedy.

[DutchMaster]

Originally posted by Knothead
Gee, gun control laws work really, really good, huh?

Yeah well for the common people its hard to get guns, but yeah you can get them from former Yugoslavia and such.

[Geotpf]

Originally posted by KAknight
My favorite bumper sticker.
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Real shame about this tragedy.

Yeah, but it's hard to kill 18 people with a kitchen knife. And I've never heard of a drive-by stabbing. Guns are the only consumer product, when functioning correctly and used properly, has people end up dead due to its use.

[Geotpf]

Other comments:

I found out about this via a MSNBC news alert (little thingy in my task bar the flashes when big stories break). So I'm sure MSNBC covered it.

As for gun control laws, they have to be universal throughout the country, and the country has to have strong borders or natural barriers to entry. That is to say, they will work in an inland nation, or a country that has military checkpoints and walls surrounding all it's borders, but not in a nation that has borders that are clearly easy to cross without being stopped, such as the US or Germany, apparently.

Now there are some reasons to own allow gun ownership. Preventing a future bad governmental regime (who could be overthrown by an armed populous) is one. General crime prevention is another. You just have to balance those good qualities with the evil of insane people blowing away dozens of people every now and again. Personally, I prefer slightly higher property crime and a lower murder rate than the other way around.

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by Geotpf
Personally, I prefer slightly higher property crime and a lower murder rate than the other way around.

But where is your evidence that more gun control reduces the murder rate? I'll tell ya, it doesn't exist. In fact all hard facts point to the public being able to carry concealed weapons has a drastic reduction on crime.