Muscatine

  Newsy, some of your words were exactly right!  "My  question  would be Why this "person" didn't just kill himself if he couldn't face up to what he did.   It apparently took three tries before he relieved the world of his presence. " 

 My question TO YOU is this, WHY take out his innocent babies?  HOW DARE HE?  It apparently took more than one time to murder his children, as well!   " But it should be noted that he apparently murdered his family with a baseball bat, not a gun.  Lets not get sidetracked on talking about "shooters" or guns here." 

  Ok, I'll bite.  Why should it be noted that a gun wasn't involved?  Frankly, I'd rather be killed with a gun than beaten & killed with a baseball bat!  I'd rather listen to my loved ones be shot & killed than listen to them being beaten to death & knowing that I or another person I loved was next.   4 innocent children watched their mother be killed by their own trusted father.  He tried to kill them w/ carbon dioxide in a car.  When that didn't work, he bludgeoned them to death, one by one.   

    Was there ANY WAY possible to see this coming?  Any way at all? 

I think that's carbon mon oxide.  My point was that baseball bats (and cars) are legal, although deadly in the hands of deranged nuts.  The discussion started off with the false assumption that these people were shot, and I hoped it wouldn't degenerate into more anti gun drivel.

Unfortunately from what I have read, I don't know how anyone could have seen this coming.  Other than locking the SB up when he was indicted for stealing >$500K, what can be done?  It's always easier to see things after they happen.  btw, the family seemed a lot more forgiving than I could ever be, but again, what can anyone do now/

  Of course, newsie, noone can do anything now for this family.  What can be done in the future?  How can this be recognized?  What can we do & how far do we take this? 

  I screwed up on the carbon DI vs MON oxide?  Was it really necessary to point that out?  It didn't bother me at all, but there are posters that would be intimidated by that.  It's not necessary to call others out on mistakes made to make your point, is there?  Don't we want people to feel safe posting?  Does that make sense to you? 

   "The discussion started off with the false assumption that these people were shot, and I hoped it wouldn't degenerate into more anti gun drivel".

   I don't understand the sensitivities some of you gun supporters feel.  I come from a family of hunters.  I've got SO MANY FAMILY MEMBERS that are hunters, military & true blue gun owners!  If someone takes a gun to threaten people, I have a problem.  It's too darn easy to own one!  There was an incident in Davenport a few years ago.  There was a party in a home; drugs & alcohol available.  2 men decided they wanted the same woman.  They fought.  One man had a hammer, one had a gun.  The one with the gun "won".  The hammer man is dead, the gunman is in prison.  WHO WON? 

   I don't think people are so much against guns, newsie.  I think that people are objecting to the ease of owning a gun.  We continue to see that there are a lot of crazy people in our world that should not have the privelge of owning a firearm. Instead of taking offense & getting angry, why don't you guys get in there & help to "regulate who can & should own a certain type of firearm"?  You guys are the experts.   A hunter needs this;  A predatator wants this!  We don't have the knowledge required to make rational decisions about gun ownership.  Gun owners are.  So step up & do it!  F.E.A.R.  The acronym is, "False Education Appearing Real."  We are afraid.  Help to educate us.  Don't blast us? 

   This idiot killed his family with a baseball bat & took himself out w/ his vehicle.  Could his remaining family members seen this coming?  Bless all of their hearts, they will have to live with this for the rest of their lives.   

As a life long gun owner, let me try to answer your question as best as I can. You will never be able to see every case like this coming. The best guess I can come up with as to how to prevent this was locking him up after he was indigted. Yet if he was able to post bond, he still would be out and able to do this. We as a society can never be able to prevent every kind of nutcase from preforming acts such as this one.

As for the restricting of gun ownership, there is a loud minority in this country that wants all civilian ownership of anytype of firearm banned. They feel that only law enforcement and the millitary need to posses guns.  They will take statements as your original one as gospel and run with it.

As to the education question, I'll try to answer that as well. It begins with children, if we teach them to respect life, liberty, and each other, and yet not confuse liberty with license, then we are on the right path. My ex for example was terrified of guns, why a person was terrified of an inanimate object I never could understand. That thinking would sound just as crazy as a person being terrified of a car. Cars in the wrong hands kill many times more people each year than guns do. Yet anyone can go out and buy a car, get liquored up and drive around, possibly killing someone in the process. Yet you don't hear an outcry for restricting car ownership. Anyway, we need to teach our children  to respect themselves first off, if we can accomplish that everything else will be easy. Children without self respect fall easily into drugs and alcohol abuse, This guy was into drugs, and embezzled over 500k to support his habit. Sounds like someone who lacks self respect to me. When a person lacks self respect how can we expect them to respect the lives of others? To simply say that a hunter needs this kind of gun or that kind is too simplistic, different types of guns are the appropriate tools for different types of hunting. A person going squirel  hunting would use a different gun than a person going after moose. Same as a pigeon hunter would use one type of shotgun yet a goose hunter would use a different one. I hope I answered some of your questions.