Chris

There are many legitimate reasons for having a shotgun or a rifle. We already have some of the toughest firearms restrictions in the democratic world and tightening them further would be grossly disproportionate. The fact that we only get an incident like this on a decadal basis rather proves that by and large, the laws we have do work.

The vast majority of firearms deaths in this country are not caused by legally held guns in the hands of unfit people; they are overwhelmingly caused by illegally held guns used by criminals to kill other criminals (which is of course not a reason to let them get on with it).

There has been a very unfortunate confluence in this case of a licensed shotgun and some of the darker nonsense that interests angry, lonely young men on the internet. Our focus here should be on combating these online quasi-cults and in providing mental healthcare.