Non-Americans: What do you think about all these shootings in the USA?

I think that the US, with its desperate grasping at a constitutional law that was made in the days of fighting to survive the wilderness and the nations first inhabitants, has created a situation for itself that is incredibly sad.

As for Australia, we have LAWS. Those laws include some of the strictest gun laws in the world. We SUPPORT those laws, they were brought about 17 years ago after a gun massacre in a place called Port Arthur in Tasmania........the average Aussie was horrified that our gun laws allowed Martin Bryant to own weapons, when the government at the time, and this is the only thing I remember John Howard fondly for, moved IMMEDIATELY to tighten up the laws, we had a massive gun buyback, a moratorium on illegal weapons so that they could be handed in without penalty and we cleaned up our streets. Before an American pipes up and says that our crime rate increased in the months after Port Arthur, yes, it did.......then it all settled down and for 17 years now.....NO MAJOR shootings. Our laws dont stop primary producers from having rifles to protect livestock. They dont stop sporting shooters from practising their sport........they keep guns out of suburban homes.

My husband and daughter both shoot competitively. They have both won trophies for their shooting just in the last week......the biggest difference is that they go to a venue to shoot and then they come home.......but the guns dont. They stay locked up at a secure facility, because there is no logical reason for us to need them in our homes.

ETA @ Fat Bearded Guy: Youre right, illegal weapons will always be a problem.....but not on the scale that legal weapons are in the US. Our criminals DO have guns, and access to guns....like heroin, if you want a gun you can get it.........of course, like criminals in most places, theyre more concerned with their own infighting particularly with bikie gangs which are problematic here and other forms of organised crime. The police here regularly target those who are most likely to stockpile illegal weapons, you regularly hear of weapons being collected in raids and gathered up to be destroyed.........but these massacres dont happen because of illegal weapons in the hands of criminals.....and thats what shakes me so much about the mass shootings that happen in the US. These shootings are uniformly done by those who have ready, legal access to weapons. They go out and murder multiple people with guns that they own because of lax and faulty laws, not because they are criminal masterminds who have had to laboriously go out and source and purchase illegal assult rifles. Trust me, it is extremely difficult for the average Aussie to lay their hands on an assult rifle. The only "easy" way to do so would be to join the military...........................

Just one little thing, but maybe it is a biggie in cases like this one...

The news on the 'Daily Telegraph' site says that the Connecticut school gunman had been assigned a psychologist.

There is a lot of criticism about the National Health Service, from all directions in the UK, but the one thing the citizens of this country all agree on, is that there is something very wrong with a lot of us. None of us trust our neighbours not to be raving mad, and just now and again they are, - so the way the service is set up is: Every citizen has the right to be referred to a Consultant PSYCHIATRIST if there is any doubt about it. NOT a psychologist. We have lots of those, they live in office block HR departments and screw up the way the temp staff are recruited every tax year and Christmas and so on. They are pimply guys who did the no-fail course in college.

What we require our dodgy citizens to be examined by is a PSYCHIATRIC DOCTOR with a medical degree and a butterfly net and a strait-jacket and a big syringe full of elephant tranquiliser and a rubber room, and the authority to get together with a colleague and put any suitable cases for treatment away in one of our special hospitals where NOT EVEN the British Home Secretary has the authority to order their release if the doctors don't concur.

A psychologist, by contrast, doesn't seem to be what was needed for this kid. There is a difference.

I prefer to have little bit of a stir with them and boy some them chew back however all in all most are the same as us.. If Australians tore each and every different aside to make a political point i'd be worried for the way forward for my nation .Most americans will not be silly and may see whats happening and do not like that it goes towards each factor that made their country pleasant. I feel either side can see Palin just isn't going to carry the nation collectively however the division of their politics is so split they on no account agree on any thing. Also we get to remark on the united states considering that you could have our troops backing yours considering that Bush REQUESTED them ship them home and we wont remark. I would assume the same from you guys in case your troops were serving to us out.

From Canada, I think semi automatic rifles belong in the hands of army and police personnel only. Why does the average person need such a thing? I know killings would still happen but not on such a ridiculous scale. Also, too many Americans seem to idolize guns way too much, they almost drool over them, I think that leads to desensitization and messes with unstable people's heads. Some Americans think that they need guns to defend themselves against the state?? Other countries that don't have a proliferation of guns don't have issues with the state and they have WAY less gun violence per capita. Fact.

First, don't think that other countries don't have their own problems with guns, 'cause they do. While 98 people have been killed in US schools in the last twenty years, 7 have been killed in Canada, 14 in a Poly-technical school in Quebec. Ireland had a severe school shooting a few years ago also. Now, what I DO think, is the same theme that you have heard from everywhere: Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Troubled people are not at a premium in your country , mine or any other. They are all over the world, and only when guns are outlawed all over, will we have a reduction of the slaughter. All any of us can do, is refuse to own guns for civilian use. Lobby our governments to reduce gun ownership, and pray! Pray that those idiots in the NRA come to their senses.

Australia is a good example. They had a number of mass shootings, so they banned guns. The result was no more mass shootings. The same in Scotland.

Americans have yet to understand the relationship between guns and shooting.

France. I think people should not have permission to get guns...I never see and touch a real gun in my life.

Here if a crazy man want to kill people, he cans take a knife and kill 2 or 3 people, but in USA he takes a gun and kill 10 or 20 people. It's a big difference.

In my country, people think that in the USA people are like the cowboys (many guns, weapons,...)

I hope Obama will forbide the guns using

ps: sorry for my english, I have some difficulties to explain myself

Australia, I think, has gun restrictions after a shooting we had a couple of years ago. I find the shooting in Newtown so sad and I'm horrified that some guy could do that to innocent children and teachers.

I live in Wales in UK we have strict gun laws here in UK but sadly we have a had about three mass shootings in the last few years

Dunblane in Scotland 1996 where a 43 yr old madman entered a school and killed16 little children and one adult ----gunman committed suicide

Hungerford massacre a 27 yr old madman killed 17 people incl his mother and he committed suicide

Cumbria 2010 a disgruntled taxi driver shot his own brother ,his solicitor fellow taxi driver, then drove around a 30 mile radius killing at random, 12 people died before he committed suicide.

I have deliberately not named these evill killers because they should not get publicity and naming them leads to morons with weak minds copying these evil inhuman individuals.

all three were men with warped twisted minds.

all were armed to the teeth with various guns,which I have not described for the same reason.

there are many of these evil people with their weak twisted minds and ready to copy these despicable crimes against unarmed innocent people.

Until we stop showing violence such as the programmes that are on our TV screens and videoes and games these warped minded people will continue their vile acts.

my prayers are with the victims and their families who have been touched by these dreadful events incl the recent school tragedy in America, may God grant them peace and may they know comfort in the days to come as they face up to the funerals of their beloved little ones and grant wisdom to the American Government and the people of the USA to make a stand against gun crime and to pass laws to prevent more massacres of innocent people.I would not presume to say ban guns because I don't know enough about them to say it would stop gun crime, as far as I know the massacres I have named were carried out with legal guns in the UK but something needs to be done, It is not guns it is people who need to change.

I recently watched a programme on TV about guns in USA being used for killing bears and other mammals, I personally could not and would not want to kill one of Gods creatures and wonder if the lust for killings animals in the USA is part of a problem, which leads to some people with weak twisted minds making that step to killing their fellow human beings without a thought for the sanctity of life.

When each of the 3 men killed in the UK they also took their own lives ,surely this shows what sort of evil people they were,no respect for life even their own

ordinary people do not own guns here in England , only farmers or those with a licence

its not the first time its happened in America and sadly it wont be the last