meanmisscharles:

phoenix-ace:

My family has always believed that we have a right to protect ourselves in our own home, we don’t like guns but we don’t oppose them all together.  I’ve been to the gun range many times in the past few years. But gun control is a major issue in this country, and mass shootings will continue to be a problem until we make it a priority to control the distribution of military grade weaponry. There is no reason why someone without any kind of law enforcement or military back ground should have been able to get their hands on an automatic weapon lie that.  The fact that he could stockpile over 10 of them defies all logic.  It is not “tasteless” to bring that up, because this happens over and over again.  Many families have lost loved ones because of one man’s ability to get and use these weapons.  And any person who truly understands gun safety understands that a gun owner has a responsibility to the people around them. Having to jump through a few more hoops is a small price to pay for the security of the people around you.  There is no reason why it should easier to get a gun that it is to buy a car or rent an apartment.  If a person is buying automatic rifles, odds are, people should be careful around them.  You don’t need that to hunt or protect your home.

However, this needs to be said as well:

Gun control is only a part of the debate.  If this murderer didn’t have guns he could have made a bomb, or used a knife, or acid, or a car.  He could have gotten a job that gives him the power to abuse defenseless people in other ways.  The fact that he isn’t the first (and wont be the last) white man who’s been radicalized to the point where he is willing to commit mass murder should be a part of the conversation.  The fact that the media will treat him better than they treat non-white victims of (any) violence needs to be addressed.  The fact that no one was concerned with his behavior prior to this attack sounds awfully similar to the hmming and hawwing Dylann Roof’s friends and family did.  His whiteness let him pull this off.  Gun violence isn’t the sole property of white men, but they’re usually the only ones who can get that kind of weaponry and spread ideology that justifies this kind of violence on a massive scale. 

That said, I have no patience for non-Americans who are trying to use this latest tragedy as a “take that “ to “violent Americans” as if they don’t have their own issues. 
It would be nice if we could discuss mass shootings without using the
victims as pawns for an agenda, or putting the 2nd Amendment above human
lives.  We need to have an honest conversation about gun control and
its role terrorism and how access to these weapons will only bring about
more acts of violence with higher body counts, and we can have that without exploiting the dead and injured like people tried to do with the Orlando shooting.  

Also, the discussion has to include how white fear of retribution plays a part in the stockpiling of weapons, and why this is part of the resistance to regulation.