Wrote this somewhere else, and I'll write it here too:
It's possible for him to have made a bomb with bought supplies. It's possible for him to have taken a car and ran over a whole group of people on the side walk. It's possible for him to start a bunch of fires.
A lot of things can kill people. It's not the weapon but the person. The majority of people with legal guns, never ever commit any crime. In fact, CHL holders are 5-10 times less likely to commit a violent crime. The problem is illegal weapons in the black market, not that great of background checks, and the sellers of weapons not getting in trouble when they don't do things properly before selling.
People have the rights to bear arms for a reason. Rights of self-defense , defense of property, and civil defense.
Which are all good reasons, and never should be taken away from anyone. Should there be regulations on where people can bring these guns? Yes. I personally thinking walking down the street with a loaded weapon is stupid. However having them in your house, or in your car locked up, or out hunting is fine. Since like I said the majority of people who commit violent crimes do it with illegal weapons, or weapons that aren't theirs. Also there has been studies done at the University of Chicago, where they interviewed prison inmates who were involved in a crime with a gun. Only 2 percent had bought their weapon at a gun store. National Data even goes to show that 40 percent of all gun violence is committed with a gun that they got illegally on the black market, from a drug dealer or by stealing it. 37 percent got it from asking or stealing from family members. 11 percent got them from Retail store, pawn shops, flea market, or a gun show. (Clearly they need to make better laws for these places. But only 16 percent of prisoners actually had a gun on them when they committed a crime. Guns are seriously not an issue. Especially since these crimes usually involve such few people, and if they didn't have a gun they would have used other weapons.
As for terrorism, I do get the point that you are stating. However terrorists can use bombs, poison, or a number of other weapons really (even besides knives).. that would kill the same or if not more people. They do it in other countries. If they didn't have guns, they would still find another way. Or buy the guns illegally like others do, and if they happened to slip through the cracks it would be harder to find them (rare). These aren't reasonable people. Also to blame and take from the innocent people over what a terrorist is doing, imo is letting them win, and unfair to the american people since the statistics show that people who have gun licenses actually do less violent crimes, and there are reasons for them having weapons. Actual reasons that I stated above.
I respect what you anti-gun people say and want, but it honestly doesn't make much sense if you look at the facts and sit down and properly think about it. I mean maybe you or someone else can give me reasons on why we should have our weapons taken away, but no one has ever really given me a good solid reason. If one was actually given to me, I'd sit down and reconsider.
Another thing I'd like to point out, is even if guns were illegal, how do you expect to get people to hand over their guns? A lot of states have it in their state constitutions. A lot of people, and I mean the majority of gun owners would fight to keep their guns. That's a lot of people. A lot of states wouldn't even enforce that law if it came out. It's not gay marriage (which I fully support), where the majority of states would just listen. And in the states that do enforce it, a lot of gun owners wouldn't care. That means extra pointless deaths if it came down to it, and a lot more people put in prisons for really no reason. It would be worse then when alcohol was illegal.
Sorry if this is such a long thing, or a rant.. but I'd actually like a discussion about this. To me it just seems ridiculous to point at the weapon and blame the weapon.
Also what about places like Venezuela or Indonesia (to name a few), where guns are illegal or hard to get.. yet still have tons of gun violence?