Shots in U.S. mall after argument prove fatal

Well, geez, if every one of those thousands of shoppers had their own gun they could have EASILY ended this latest in yet an endless series of gun deaths!

Seriously, though... until the US starts taking gun laws seriously, you'll see more and more and more of this. Poor young buck... had plenty of years left to live. I hope they catch this guy and he faces the full force of the law. It's always too late, of course, where guns are concerned, but perhaps in prison he'll realize that, geez, killing someone over an argument just isn't worth the consequences it lands you in.

Guns should be banned in all countries. If America gopt rid of all its guns and its army and weapons it would be rich enough to look after its people.

Why allow guns? How can they benefit a civilised society.

That sucks. I used to live about 15 minutes from there. They've had a lot of problems with gangs around that area for about the last 10-15 years.

I used to live about 15 minutes from there

You were one of the smart ones. Why does everyone need a gun if it is such a free and happy nation??

"Everyone" doesn't need a gun. I don't own a gun. Most of the people I know don't own guns. (Those who do, by and large, have only rifles and shotguns for hunting or target shooting.) And I live in Tennessee, not known for being the most liberal state in the country.

As countries around the world go, the U.S. is pretty free. And the people here are relatively happy. It is not the Wild West, everyone walking around with a gun on his hip.

If this mall argument had happened in Japan, there probably wouldn't have been a shooting. The aggrieved party might have just gone home, gotten on his bike and slashed some random schoolgirl with a kitchen knife as he rode past her. In his (inevitable) confession, he would have said, "I was angry about an argument I had at the mall earlier that day" and we would have ridiculed him just as we would ridicule the shooter in the Seattle mall.

I won't say guns aren't a problem; they clearly are. But the violence we see around the world isn't caused by guns. It's facilitated by guns. Or knives. Or baseball bats.

JohnBecker makes a good point. Most Americans don't own guns and it is not the Wild West. And for non-Americans who can't understand the USA's gun laws, I'll take a crack and say I think it is a very important point. Most Americans have no direct personal experience with gun violence. And when you have no experience of the reality of something it is much easier, for some people at least, to believe in the fantasy. Myself, I have been there when some idiot decided that he needed to pull out a gun to settle a situation and have seen what it is like. Nobody killed but that was more luck than anything else. So the point is, when you hear somebody with an anti-gun control position, he probably doesn't know what he is talking about. Not saying his position is wrong - just that his position isn't backed up by any experience. He is just living in fantasy land.

This shooting is just another in a string of them. We Americans are too much in love with weapons. Too many people have been murdered by random acts . Hell most of the folks killed with a handgun or heavier weapon are not gang members. They are average folks......

Guns do not kill people, people with guns kill people!

smithinjapan

until the US starts taking gun laws seriously, you'll see more and more and more of this

From 1975 to 2007, Washington DC had the strictest gun laws in the nation. In fact, they completely banned handguns. Yet, during this time, it had one of the highest gun crime rates in the nation. Meanwhile, areas in the nation with the fewest gun control laws and highest gun ownership have some of the lowest crime levels. Fortunately, the DC gun ban was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and was lifted. My guess is the gun crime rate will likely go down.

Your argument about gun control laws has been proven fallacious again and again. Yet you continue to make it. What's your real agenda here?

About 21% of Americans own guns (2006). But yeah, after talking to foreigners I suspect they believe the number is around 80%, maybe higher.

Check out this website from the LA Times showing each and every homicide in LA County:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/homicidemap/

That page shows the last 25 murders. Twenty of them were from gunshots. All twenty were Black or Hispanic male victims. There's one white listed as "other" and one Asian listed as "stabbing."

Gun violence is largely an inner city problem that doesn't affect white America. You could say the same for the majority of Asians. Since white and Asians make up about 75% of the United States you could say that gun violence really doesn't affect 75% of America. They are the ones who live with guns but don't have the violence that's usually associated with them.

I'm very anti-gun, always have been, always will be. But anti-gun people need to understand the facts about guns in the US and then make their position from there. Misrepresentations play into the hands of the pro-gun people, especially when it's from non-Americans. More often than not you're going to be speaking to a gun supporter who is from a white, middle class area that isn't affected by the negative repercussions of guns. Saying things like, "until the US starts taking gun laws seriously" or "Why does everyone need a gun if it is such a free and happy nation?" or "If America got rid of all its guns and its army and weapons it would be rich enough to look after its people" just doesn't resonate with the majority of people who own them. You need a different approach if you want to be effective.

Everybody knows it was gang-related. But you can't talk about it.