After the chaos that was yesterday's mall shooting some of the details of the shooting are emerging. The gunman was identified as 19-year-old Robert Hawkins. People who knew him described him as "always being depressed." There were also felony charges pending against Hawkins at the time of the shooting.
According to USA Today:
"Hawkins was a troubled teenager who had recently been fired from his job at McDonald's and split from his girlfriend.
Warren said Hawkins stole the gun he used in the shooting from his stepfather and stored it at his father's home."
Is there anything we can do to prevent tragedies like this one from occurring? Since he, a mentally unstable person, was able to get the gun from someone else, is there really a way to prevent these types of people from having access to guns?
Link to updated story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-06-mall_N.htm
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5 comments:
This shows exactly why "the right to bear arms" is such a dilemma. In this case, all Robert Hawkins had to do was take the gun from his stepfather. Obviously too many people have access to guns - which goes against allowing people to bear arms.
However, in the recent murder of NFL player Sean Taylor, Taylor attempted to use a machete to defend himself from the intruders. It has been said that if he had a gun under his bed instead of a knife, he may have survived. In this case, it is understandable to say that people should be allowed to bear arms.
This problem is somewhat paradoxical and I don't think America will ever be able to come up with a solution that everyone feels comfortable with.
This incident will definitely bring a lot of attention to the issue of gun control. With the VT shooting, and now this, gun control should be brought towards the top of the national agenda. After these two incidents this year, it is clear that something needs to be done to prevent these kind of tragedies. I'm not an expert on gun control, but I would imagine that laws will be made to make it harder to purchase firearms. I agree with Ben, that there will always be people in disagreement with this problem/issue- no matter what.
This was a very sad story. I feel that gun control is an important topic but i feel it wont get stopped because there are many ways to get by it, such as getting guns at gun shows were there is no background check or buying them off the streets as how many people get them who commit murder. I just feel that if you have a gun in your home keep it locked up so others arent able to get it and use it. Also i do feel that some guns shouldnt be sold to the public though such as assault rifles, those should only be used for the armed forces. I have no problem with guns for hunting or a gun that you might use for protection as in the case with Sean Taylor who had to use a machete for protection because he was on probation for gun problems.
Hopefully this event will help open people's eyes in that something serious needs to happen to prevent these types of shootings from occuring. There needs to be more laws to make it near impossible to purchase firearms. Also, the most important thing is that people need to be more aware where they are hiding their guns to make sure their children can't get a hold of them. How many more shootings are going to occur before the government makes a drastic change?
People should be allowed to have guns if they get a permit first. However, that should mean that they take really good care of the gun and don't let anybody else get their hands on it. Unfortunately that doesn't happen since many people are rather careless, but if people were more careful then I feel that would go a long way to preventing people from dying like this.
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