On April 14, 2016, a judge in Connecticut ruled that a lawsuit can go forward placed by families of the Sandy Hook victims against the maker of the gun that killed a number of children and adults in the shooting there. I am absolutely in shock that this is being allowed. I am, for one, personally over the lack of accountability that this country has come to. He stated in his answer to the request the following information: The maker knew or should have known that their weapon would be used in a way that may injure a person or persons.
Reality yes guns can be used to kill someone. So can knives, rope, toothpicks, forks, toothbrushes(see somewhere online about how to make a prison shank) etc. Really any item can be used to kill someone and this is common knowledge. It is a tragedy that 20 children and 6 teachers were killed that day. It is really heartbreaking that families had to endure that in 2012. Just like my family dealt with the loss of an amazing friend in the shootings at the Aurora theater. They are indeed tragedies, however, the finger is pointing in the wrong place.
From my research it appears that approximately 20% of all guns made in the US have AR15 patterns. Now, that being said. There are approximately 100 million rifles owned in the united states. 20-30 million of those would be considered Assault Rifles. 99% of those owners of the 'Assault Style Weapons' owned other weapons previous to the purchase of this gun. Almost half of the people who own these guns have previous Military or Police Experience.
If anyone is crying but these aren't for hunting you are right. Sometimes people just like to blow stuff up. We had a friend, when we lived in IL, who was a former marine. He served to help train the local PD at the time in their training etc. He also did crime scene work as well. He had a gun that would be considered in this family of weapons. He actually probably had more. He had land and he would buy these canisters of Tannerite and set up 'practice runs' for ideas for training police officers and such. He liked to have fun and would apply the Tannerite to targets for an easier way to tell when shot etc. He only shot his weapon there. When not in use the guns are always locked up. Most weapon owners are diligent if not obsessive with the safety of their family and the security of their weapons.
There is a large gap in the mental health system of this country. Let's just take Connecticut for example. Since Malloy took office in 2011. It is really not even questionable that his budget cuts have left an already struggling mental health system in Connecticut even more broken. As recent as 2016, Malloy has requested MORE cuts that will cut back availability of the services that people with mental health issues have available. What this means is when parents struggle (as did the mother of the shooter in Sandy Hook) to get help for their child, they will be told over and over again no. They will be put on waiting lists for help. They will be ignored.
Instead of suing gun makers, these families should be suing the state to provide proper mental health care. They should be requiring these different organizations to be making less hoops for parents in need of help for their children to find that help. We also need to start cracking down on the guns on the street that are owned by criminals. There are laws in place to help with this one, however, no resources are being used to start doing this crackdown. We can all agree that a sane person doesn't gun down children. But, there is also many documents that show this mom tried desperately to get her son help and was turned away. The change that needs to happen is not gun makers it is our medical system.
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