Revisiting Virginia Tech: An argument about arms

"I would like to start the debate by telling you that while reading your other debates I remain quite impressed, you are a very intelligent person." Well, it doesn't seem to get me anywhere around here. Heh... But I thank you for your candor all the same. I'm looking forward to the debate. "it should be noted that the anti-gun lobbyists' stance of a stronger policy on gun control would stop many deaths (As does the DMV's testing in stopping vehicular homicide)." The Washington D.C. gun ban controversy has recently reached the ears of the Supreme Court. D.C. has enforced a strict ban, one of the strictest in the nation, emasculating the people's right to bear arms. Did tough gun laws prevent handgun murders? Absolutely not! In fact, Washington D.C. has been the murder capital of America for several years in the past two decades. D.C. is the NRA's dream come true, and an anti-gun lobbyists nightmare, and rightfully so I should say. http://www.theonion.com... Lets just think about this logically for a moment. Laws are passed for two reasons: As punitive measures to either punish offenders or as a deterrence. What defines a criminal? A criminal is an individual who flouts the law and breaks the law. In essence, they have no respect for the law. So who then is affected by gun laws? Law ABIDING citizens, not criminals! Making these bans does NOT stop the flow of guns being purchased on black markets. All it does is disarm the common citizen who would use the gun to save their own life, or the life of an innocent victim. http://www.youtube.com... "An anti-gun lobbyist would push to make the acquiring of a gun have stronger psychological testing (Doing so would show Cho's many psychological problems)." Actually it seems that most haven't, but I'm glad you brought this up because I was going to. There was nothing that legally would have prevented Cho from purchasing a gun. However, the real people who should be indicted are the myriad of psychologists who had special firsthand knowledge of Cho's homicidal tendencies, who let him out on the street knowing full well that he was a powder keg waiting to explode. Since I am all for gun restrictions, I think a serious psychological background should be input in to a nationwide database that flags gun retailers that the individual may not purchase a weapon. And there needn't be embarrassing personal information attached. Just a simple flag that federally prohibits that individual from purchasing a firearm, political correctness be damned. It is not the fault of an inanimate object that murder-by-handgun occurs. And banning them will not stop murder. In fact, as we have seen in places like Washington D.C., it often makes it worse. The single common thread that runs through all murders are not guns, its human beings. http://www.nationalpost.com... People that often hold the view that guns should be banned are also the people in favor of robust freedom of expression, a beautiful thing, unless juxtaposed by massive hypocrisy. The fact of the matter is that the murder rate in America has nothing to do with guns and has everything to do with societal influences. Violence is glorified in movies, television, video games, music videos, etc. If people really want to mitigate violence, they had better first figure out what is captivating the attention of youth, and spurring this on. Because guns don't kill people... people kill people.