I think both sides can have some pretty unrealistic expectations. For the people who want to completely ban guns in the US is highly unreasonable since that would punish those who own guns responsibly and only the outlaws will have guns. I mean, guns have been a prominent prescene in American culture since the beginning. Guns are too wide spread for it to be ban and having much affect. Banning guns in a country where guns were barely introduce in the first place is more effective.
At the same time, please don't compare guns to other weapons. No one is saying that banning guns means no crime or that people would not find other ways to murder people. Guns are just much more effective in killing or harming people fast and easy. Very few weapons today would kill or harm the total amount of people in just a few minutes like what occured in Colorado. The same as in Viriginia Tech and Columbine. That is why people are fed up with guns. It is a weapon that, at times, is pretty easy to get and can cause so much death and so little time. That is why the issue of guns IS unique compared to other weapons used for murder.
I would not be comfortable with guns being allowed in all places, even places like the movie theater or school. While you have people who will own them responsibly, you will also have the many Zimmerman's who owning a gun makes them much more confident and trigger happy. I also don't think everyone owning a gun is what made the crime rate down in certain places. There are always other factors since you have countries with little crime rate with guns ban.
If someone had a gun in that movie theater, maybe the tragedy wouldn't have hurt so many people. Who knows. Though seeing as the guy threw tear gas which would affect the visibilty of many of the people, it might have made it worse since some people might have started shooting indiscrimately. The gunmen also had a bullet proof vest while the people in the theater didn't so the odds would still have been set against them. I think what might have made a difference is law inforcement being there at the scene. There was none. At the movie theater I go to, there is at least two policemen at the scene.
Gun control might be the answer, but like in so many cases, how in the world are you going to weed out the psychopaths who do this? How many of the people who cause these shooting sprees have a criminal record? In most cases, they have none so they would still be able to attain these weapons. There really is no win-win sitaution.
