That's so sad but unfortunately all too common. I'm an Australian and our gun laws are very strict. I've discussed gun culture, laws, "right" etc endlessly on a different forum and will never understand the gun culture in the US. 

Our gun laws were changed after a massacre - Google Port Arthur and gun laws. Our Prime Minister at the time, John Howard, was an amazing leader throughout the reform of our gun legislation and is still a strong advocate for gun reform today.

Couldn't agree with you more, @ShepherdontheRock.

I'm with @Blahblah, I will never understand the gun culture and the resistance to gun laws that would prevent this happening to more people in the US. It is so very sad that this happened to your former classmates parents.

Gun laws in the UK were changed after first Hungerford and then Dunblane, we now have some of the toughest gun control laws in the world. Both of these massacres left Britain with an entrenched anti-gun culture.

I just can't understand how some people want to blame everything else but the gun.

The whole thing is just so sad and upsetting.

It's one thing to be philosophically anti-gun, but for me it's reinforced even more when gun violence harms people you know and respect.

The *problem* is when guns are used against someone, the rally becomes "If they (victim) had a gun too, the bad guy would be dead, not the good guy".  Which is a dumb argument anyway; yes, let's throw more guns at the gun problem!  I think those are the same people who reply "Hit him back!" when their child complains they've been hit by a classmate.  I was told I probably wouldn't have been raped if I'd had a wepon, hideous enough to hear, but as I replied, I was backhanded across a room and far away from my purse, so what good what the gun have done me?

19 minutes ago, violynn said:

The *problem* is when guns are used against someone, the rally becomes "If they (victim) had a gun too, the bad guy would be dead, not the good guy".  Which is a dumb argument anyway; yes, let's throw more guns at the gun problem!

Here's a novel idea, tighten up gun laws then the bad guy wouldn't of had a gun in the first place! Oh wait that would be too sensible for the gun nuts.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/gun-control-on-insight-sbs-john-howard-port-arthur-survivor-gun-advocate-in-heated-debate/news-story/4fc4b8914541c385c2f4c0ccabb9da8b

Very timely. This is on tv here tonight.

Interesting stats @Blahblah. So, after the introduction of strict gun laws the number of gun deaths fell significantly? Well, who'd have thought.

@ShepherdontheRock My thoughts are with the family. That's horrible!

What I find interesting is the Swiss example. To the last of my knowledge every able-bodied man in Switzerland has to do military service at 18, and remains in the reserve until... I've forgotten until when. They take their guns home, including ammunition (which is counted and has to be accounted for regularly). So, basically a majority of Swiss households have access to a gun.

If memory serves, there was one spree-shooting within the last twenty years. A shooter entered the local canton parliament and opened fire. In the aftermath, Switzerland increased security for public buildings and created mediation centres, where people with a grudge could try to sort out their quarrels peacefully.

There was no "oh, if only people had been armed", because Switzerland is armed to the teeth already. It would have been easy to call upon any passing man to go home, fetch his gun and help take this guy down. And everyone would have promptly been prosecuted, and sent down.

So, there's an example for a society that is armed, while gun violence is quite unheard of. It's interesting to me that the USA seems to have quite a different attitude to guns.

I'm by NO means trying to claim that us Europeans are somehow superior, I just find it interesting how differently societies handle these issues.

I've thankfully seen nobody trying to argue that the parents would have lived if they had been armed. I would have flipped a shit.

I guess the difference between Switzerland and USA is well-regulated. Swiss men probably receive training on how to use the gun. Also apparently ammo is always accounted for?

Contrast to my state- since I am not a convicted felon I could walk right in to a gun shop, get ammo and a firearm, and walk down the street with it, and probably not get arrested. No laws or oversight into where I leave my gun either.