2 dead, 4 hurt in Arizona graduation party shooting

As sad as this is, it's just another day in America.

Guns kill people.

is this news story some how related to japan? in any way?

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"Wessing says a party guest got into an argument at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday, then got a handgun from his car. The suspect returned and began shooting."

This is exactly the kind of case where you CAN argue that the gun situation in the US is out of control. Once again, an argument gets out of hand... if the guy had no gun to go and get, this would not have happened. Maybe a fist fight, and people the next day would realize how stupid they were, or perhaps have to spend a night in the clink, but there would be no dead. This guy wasn't a criminal, he was a guy that got upset and had easy access to a gun when angry.

Sad loss of life, but in this case I agree with neverknow: another day in the US. I look forward to reading comments from morons who think that if EVERYONE at the party was armed this 'wouldn't have happened'.

This is exactly the kind of case where you CAN argue that the gun situation in the US is out of control.

I totally agree. The second amendment speaks of a "well-regulated militia." What our (the US) society has created is a completely unregulated one, where any citizen can acquire a lethal weapon and then decide -- as this Arizonan did -- when to apply lethal force.

There can be little doubt that, in the days prior to the shooting, this mentally-deranged Arizona man would have made his case for the right to bear arms as vociferously as any hard-core right-winger. And the right-wingers would just as vigorously have backed him up.

The victims in this case have died in order to enable the morally and mentally deranged to carry guns. The list of such victims would make the Vietnam wall look like a cornerstone.

I keep mints in my car, no guns sorry.

It's a very disturbing fact that more Americans died due to gun-related violence in the U.S.A. during the Vietnam war than who died actually fighting in the WAR in Vietnam.

Teleprompter - "If shootings like this so disturb your fragile Lefty world view."

I think I'd much rather have a "fragile Lefty world view" than live in a country where anyone and their psycho neighbor has easy acess to guns, thanks.

The funny thing is - much to the anger of the gun-carressing Republicans - that when Candidate Obama said "So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations" - he was right on the money.

Grafton - "I think that is the best plan I have heard in a very long time. You will of course call back all the strays from around the world first wont you?"

I just had a picture come into my head - that if you put the entire population of Right Wing Gun-Loving Extremist Americans into a country the size of, say, Sweden, and walled it off, all you would hear for weeks would be this continuous crescendo of gunfire as everyone 'fought for "my freedoms!", "my land" and "the American Way."

There would be a ton of smoke rising from above the wall, and then finally, there would be two last bullets fired as the last 2 cowboy-hat-wearing guys finally shot each other.

To defend their freedoms.

Yeah.

The amazing thing is, this attitude is actually what is driving many, many Americans, especially NRA members.

SushiSake3 at 12:53 AM JST - 25th May

I like the idea but can we find someplace other than Sweden? I like Sweden in a do nothing sort of way. You have a contagious imagination though & I am still giggling at the idea. I should also apologise to the many, many Americans that are not gun crazies. I do actually find it sad that a whole country can be held up to ridicule by one section of it’s population, all be a too large section. What I find incredibly difficult to come to terms with is that America is a country that tries so hard to control the harmful things in society like smoking, car exhaust, & any number of other social “risks”, yet does nothing to stop nutters getting their hands on guns. I think a man in a bar with a gun in his pocket is a dam sight more dangerous than the same man smoking without the gun.

Grafton - "I like the idea but can we find someplace other than Sweden?"

OK, Texas. :-)

"Guns kill people" but only if there is someone there to pull the trigger.

It's a little bit more complicated then just to remove the gun from the picture.

There's more to the story.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/24/20090524gradshooting-CR.html

I agree that it needs to be regulated a lot more. But let's take the gun out of this picture. What's to say that this man doesn't grab a knife and start stabbing his ex wife?

I agree that it needs to be regulated a lot more. But let's take the gun out of this picture. What's to say that this man doesn't grab a knife and start stabbing his ex wife?

If society had to deal with deaths by stabbing as a trade-off to gun deaths, how many lives would be saved as a result? I believe the answer would number in the thousands.

I think it's more about regulating people than objects...

Semantics. It's making every conceivable effort to ensure that mentally deranged and irresponsible people don't get access to guns.

urufuls at 05:00 AM JST - 25th May

“I agree that it needs to be regulated a lot more. But let's take the gun out of this picture. What's to say that this man doesn't grab a knife and start stabbing his ex wife?”

I know that I am not talking to a gun nut when I am talking to you, but you are closing you mind to the obvious. This scenario of a man going back to his car, getting a gun & then going back into a party to shoot people. Anybody coming near him gets shot, so no one is going to come near him & he gets a lot more time to shoot people. Now run that same scenario with a knife. At worst he will kill one & hurt another before somebody does something about him. So take the gun out of the picture & yes he might get his wife (if she is his wife) but he is going to have to incredibly “good” with a knife to kill two people & injure two more. That is how the rest of the world is looking at this & though we may make a few snide remarks about the US along the way that is mostly because we are all a little tired of being told there is no problem in the US when there obviously is. If the Americans want to be patriotic then fine, but don’t be blinded by patriotism to the point that you can’t see when something is wrong. SushiSake3, Building a wall around Texas would make a lot of Americans happy too, so I think I will go with that.

I just had a picture come into my head - that if you put the entire population of Right Wing Gun-Loving Extremist Americans into a country the size of, say, Sweden, and walled it off, all you would hear for weeks would be this continuous crescendo of gunfire as everyone 'fought for "my freedoms!", "my land" and "the American Way."

Again - I know America fascinates you but you really ought to do a bit more research. Plenty of Democrats own guns.

grafton - You're right about one thing. I am not a gun nut. But you're wrong about me closing my mind. You're actually making my point. It's easy to say we need to regulate people more then guns, but that's really what it comes down to.

Agreed that people have the ability to hurt more with a gun then a knife. I didn't need to mention it because it is obvious as you state. Although I've heard plenty of cases where more were killed with a knife than in this case, and right in Japan too. The root of the problem isn't that Mr. A had access to a gun, it's that he decided to act on his anger and made some very bad choices. That, is the real obvious point.