I was just reading about gun ownership in Norway...

[Archae]

Seems pretty strict there.

"To own a gun in Norway, one must document a use for the gun. By far the most common grounds for civilian ownership are hunting and sports shooting, in that order. Other needs can include special guard duties or self defence, but the first is rare unless the person shows identification confirming that he or she is a trained guard or member of a law-enforcement agency and the second is practically never accepted as a reason for gun ownership."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Norway

Looks like we'll never see a mass shooting like the one in Colorado there.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Over the past 30 years, there have been many, many mass shootings in the U.S.

Not so in Norway. Yes, that one in Norway was particularly horrific, but in the United States it has become a common, almost everyday, occurrence for some man to open fire on groups of people, whether in a McDonalds, a school, a workplace, a theater -- and on and on and on and on.

[Archae]

3. The point is psychos and criminals exist everywhere.

Even Buddhist monks get into brawls with other Buddhist monks.

I don't blame the gun.
It's just a lump of metal and plastic that sits there.

It's the man/woman holding the gun who should be looked at.
Not screw over the rest of us *RESPONSIBLE* gun owners.

Should cars be outlawed, since irresponsible people cause horrible crashes?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

18. It's a lump metal and plastic that sits there...

until it fires a projectile at a thousand feet per second.

A Playstation III is a lump of metal and plastic that just sits there. Damn shame the guy in Aurora didn't walk into the theater carrying one of those.

There are reasonable gun policies that won't "screw" responsible gun owners.

- Background checks on all firearm purchases, include gun shows
- Make "strawman" purchases a felony
- "One A Month" purchase limits
- Stricter Licensing of high-capacity magazines
- Guns confiscated by police are destroyed, not resold

As a lifelong gun owner and hunter, none of these would have the slightest impact on me.

[CTyankee]

12. As I recall, didn't the Norway shooter get his weapons from military storage?

I'll read more on the subject, but if he raided a military facility, that says to me that he couldn't find them easily anywhere else. In the U.S. of course, you just amass them on your own, a pretty low risk way of getting your arsenal together.

upon editing: he obtained his stash legally but evidently, according to a cursory read on wikipedia, he managed to accumulate them through various channels, altho it wasn't easy. There was also a failure of officials to pay attention to Norwegian intelligence agencies that he was suspect.

[upaloopa]

2. Again gun owner bull shit! We will not sit idly by because we can't make life perfectly safe.

Your post isn't deserving of being in a real discussion about solutions.

[Archae]

4. So I deserve to be screwed over since I own a .22?

A .22 pistol, no less?

[Edweird]

10. Hmm. 60 million people. 200 million PRIVATELY owned guns (not police or military).

You are way - WAYYY - outnumbered. We like guns. You don't. That's ok. You don't have to. Press the issue and there will be R's in charge of everything. You are in the minority HERE - on DU - not to mention the bipartisan real world. So, knock yourself out. The Brady campaign needs you to help Rmoney.

[JeepJK556]

5. Mental healthcare

The reason we have mass shootings and other extreme violence in the U.S. is our miserable mental healthcare system.

[CTyankee]

9. How would it have helped with James Holmes? He wasn't exhibiting any over symptoms of mental

illness.

[LAGC]

15. Surely somebody saw the signs...

People this deranged don't just appear from out of nowhere.

His own mother said she knew it was him right off the bat when first contacted by the police.

I'm sure, once his full history comes out, it will be shown that there were red-flags everywhere.

[CTyankee]

23. We need to hear more. What I heard this morning was that there was none.

So what, tho, if his mother knew? What could she have done? Had the police lock him up for psychological testing? Short of detaining him, what could have stopped him? A raid on his stash of weapons? on what grounds (we think he talks funny?)?

I'm not getting the drift here...

[Quantess]

17. And I would argue he displayed one, giant, glaring symptom of mental illness

that everyone in the world got to see.

I bet there were some obvious signs of mental illness, in retrospect. Too bad nobody paid atention.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. One year anniversary of the horrible Norway shooting massacre

you wonder if the CO shooter got his ideas from the Norwegian one?

[HooptieWagon]

7. Creating a bomb as a diversion

could be one possibility of copying Norway. Hes not talking at the moment, so discussion about motivation and plan remains speculation.

[Posteritatis]

8. Bombs show up rather often at these things; the Norway shootings didn't start that one.

There was an attempt at one at Columbine, for instance.

[HooptieWagon]

13. Yes. IIRC, there were several at Columbine.

[safeinOhio]

11. They average less than 20 gun murders a year.

I'd say as a whole, their laws work pretty well for them.

[HooptieWagon]

16. Yes. I think the conclusion to be drawn...

is that gun controls reduce ordinary gun-related crime, but wont eliminate the possibility of mass murder.

[CTyankee]

21. no one claims mass murder will ever be totally eliminated. The Norway shooter was determined

and devoted time, energy and money to his project. It wasn't easy to do. And needless to say we have lots more of it here than there.

The point is that is a helluva lot easier in the U.S. to amass these weapons than it was for Breivek. His timeline was longer and needed greater perseverance than Holmes did, according to what has come out so far. Breivek was a political zealot. We don't know what Holmes' motivation was, but so far there is no indication of such political fanaticism...

[LAGC]

19. That has nothing to do with gun laws, but their culture as a whole.

The violent crime rate over-all is much lower in Norway than here, and of course they have a much smaller population.

If we instituted the same gun laws as Norway, we'd still have an astronomical murder rate, even if guns weren't used as much in crimes.

[safeinOhio]

22. The gun laws of both countries relate

to the culture of both countries. Less violent countries usually have stricter laws. As, it is hard to tell the direction of casual correlations, it could be stricter laws equal less violence.

[Spider Jerusalem]

14. You won't see 20 a year there.

But of course one incident completely invalidates the argument for stricter gun control in the US, because there are obviously JUST AS MANY mass murders in Norway, aren't there?

[dsc]

20. Nice try but his guns were actually legal in Norway

next time try to do some research before posting claptrap on line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

Originally, Breivik intended to try to obtain weapons in Germany or Serbia if his mission in Prague failed. The Czech disappointment led him to procure his weapons through legal channels.[31] He decided to obtain a semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol legally in Norway, noting that he had a "clean criminal record, hunting license, and two guns (a Benelli Supernova 12 gauge Pump-action shotgun and a .308 Bolt-action rifle) already for seven years", and that obtaining the guns legally should therefore not be a problem.[28] The Benelli Supernova shotgun was later found in his getaway car at the ferry dock after the shootings.

Upon returning to Norway, Breivik obtained a legal permit for a .223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic carbine, ostensibly for the purpose of hunting deer. It was equipped with a reflector sight, bayonet, and a green laser pointer. He bought it in late 2010 for €1,400 ($2000). He wanted to purchase a 7.62x39mm Ruger Mini-30 semi-automatic carbine, since the 7.62mm caliber offers more damage at short and medium ranges, but gun laws in Norway may have prevented Breivik from obtaining it.

Getting a permit for the pistol proved more difficult, as he had to demonstrate regular attendance at a sport shooting club.[30] He also bought 10 30-round magazines from a United States supplier. From November 2010 to January 2011 he went through 15 training sessions at the Oslo Pistol Club, and by mid-January his application to purchase a Glock pistol was approved.[32][33] The pistol was equipped with a green laser point.

Breivik carved the name of his Glock 34 "Mjölnir": Thor's Hammer, and the name of his Mini-14 "Gungnir": Odin's Spear.

Breivik claimed in his manifesto that he bought 300 g of sodium nitrate[34] from a Polish shop for €10 in December 2010, in order to make a bomb fuse.[35] In March 2011,[36] he legally bought 100 kg of chemicals from a small Internet-based Wrocław company. The Polish ABW interviewed the company owner on 24 July 2011.[35] Breivik's Polish purchases initially led to him being put on the watch list of the Norwegian intelligence, which did not act because they did not believe it was relevant.[37]

He had also planned a last religious service (in Frogner Church) before the attack.[30]