Former marine kills two then self in N.J. - It's time prevent gun violence!

[SecularMotion]

Three people are dead after a shooter in a Pathmark grocery store employee shot and killed two coworkers before turning the gun on himself on Friday just before 4 a.m. inside the grocery store on Route 9 in Old Bridge, New Jersey. Old Bridge is a suburb about 25 miles from New York. Law enforcement officers believe that the suspect may have had an argument with a coworker before he allegedly left the store around 3:30 a.m., and retrieved an AK-47 and a handgun from his car.

Police said that the shooter was a former Marine who had been working at Pathmark for about two weeks. They also speculated that he may have had a history of depression and mental illness. The possible use of psychiatric drugs by the gunman has yet to be reported.

http://www.examiner.com/article/former-marine-kills-two-then-self-n-j-it-s-time-prevent-gun-violence

[rDigital]

1. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/117267012
Mikey beat you to it. It's time to read the forum before Google dumping.

[SecularMotion]

2. That's a link to the news report

I posted the story in LBN when it broke.

This OP is a reaction to the story. Please read the links before posting.

[Clames]

3. Dupe thread.

No reason this couldn't have been posted in the other thread. Recommend this one be locked and the OP use a little care when google dumping.

[apocalypsehow]

4. Kick & Rec. n/t.

[spin]

5. Exactly what measures do you propose to prevent gun violence?

Obviously firearms are misused and cause tragedies. I would support banning and confiscating all firearms if I believed that this goal was feasible and if such weapons were rarely used for legitimate self defense to stop attacks.

However no study on defensive gun uses (DGUs) has made that conclusion. The lowest estimate that I can find stated that DGUs happened 108,000 times per year. the highest estimate was 2.5 million. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

Perhaps you support measures to insure that the criminal element and those who suffer from severe mental illness find it extremely hard to obtain a firearm. This would involve strong enforcement of existing laws and perhaps much stronger penalties for the straw purchase and smuggling of such weapons. That is what I believe would be the most effective approach.

Both sides of the issue could also work together to improve the NICS background check system which is what Obama has suggested. This idea would require no new legislation as it already exists. It would possibly require Congress to approve funding for the states to allow them the financial ability to better report those who should not be allowed to own firearms. I also feel an NICS background check should be required for all sales of firearms including private sales. This idea would be very difficult to implement but has a far better chance of becoming law than the registration of all firearms and even another assault weapons ban.

Firearm violence has decreased dramatically in recent years but I see no reason to not try to reduce it further.