Virginia governor closes gun loophole...

[Lucky13]

By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago



RICHMOND, Va. - The governor on Monday closed the loophole in state law that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to pass a federal background check and buy the weapons used in the massacre.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine issued an executive order requiring that a database of people banned from buying guns include anyone who is found to be dangerous and ordered to undergo involuntary mental health treatment.

Seung-Hui Cho had been ordered to undergo psychiatric counseling after a judge ruled that he was a danger to himself.

But because Cho was treated as an outpatient and never committed to a mental health hospital, the court's decision was not entered into the database that gun dealers must check before selling a weapon.

The database "should include any determination that someone is mentally ill and so dangerous to himself or others as to warrant involuntary treatment," Kaine said in a statement.

Cho, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior described as a troubled loner, bought his guns legally through gun shops. He gunned down 32 people in a residence hall and a classroom building before killing himself.

No motive has been established for his rampage.

 

[Maharg]

Good. A bit late though.

 

[timshatz]

Normally not a great fan of gun control laws but in this case, it has to be done. More than just good reason.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think it is funny. The rest of the world talks **** about the US gun control laws and say that they dont have problems as the US does. That is bullshit. Just in Germany here alone in a weeks time period there have been 4 high profile slaying by gunmen.

About an hour from here, 2 police were shot in the head by and unknown shooter who has now disappeared. Then 3 days later a man killed his wife and then shot himself on an open street in front of there kids. Yeah gun control works. People are not allowed to have guns like this here, but people are still getting shot!

What does that tell you? That the people get the guns illegally and that is what happens in the US as well. So give it up people!

 

[Matt308]

What does that tell you? That the people get the guns illegally and that is what happens in the US as well. So give it up people!

C'mon Adler. Your logic is flawed. The world knows that if the US banned guns, then the evil baddies worldwide would not be able to import illegal guns into their own countries. It's Bush's fault.

What I find so ironic about claiming that the VA Governor has accomplished such good, is that there already was a law on on the VA books that stated during the background check that mental illness was an immediate disqualifier for obtaining a gun. The law was already on the books, they state was not complying with its own damn law. Sounds like a lawsuit to me.

 

[mkloby]

C'mon Adler. Your logic is flawed. The world knows that if the US banned guns, then the evil baddies worldwide would not be able to import illegal guns into their own countries. It's Bush's fault.

What I find so ironic about claiming that the VA Governor has accomplished such good, is that there already was a law on on the VA books that stated during the background check that mental illness was an immediate disqualifier for obtaining a gun. The law was already on the books, they state was not complying with its own damn law. Sounds like a lawsuit to me.

Matt, are suggesting possible breakdowns in the bureaucracies that are the federal, state, and local governments???

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

It's Bush's fault.

Oh yeah, ofcourse I forgot! He is the cause of global warming and all of the worlds problems too.

 

[Negative Creep]

Guns are all but impossible to own legally here, yet gun crime still occurs. Criminalise guns and the only ones with the guns will be the criminals. If someone really wants a firearm, then laws or restrictions will not stop them, they will just buy one illegally

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Bingo! And that is what we have been saying all the time, but the people outside of the US seem to know better how to mannage the laws of the US.

 

[Negative Creep]

Isn't Switzerland pretty much the only European country where guns are readily available?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Thats because everyone is technically in the military. My soon to be brother in law is no longer on active duty but he is required by law to be in the reserves and his equipment and rifle is at his house.

 

[Matt308]

...and its full auto.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I dont know what gun he has...

Its Bush's fault though!

 

[Negative Creep]

I dont know what gun he has...

Its Bush's fault though!

And climate change

 

[Matt308]

That reminds me of whiney liberals... is Civvetone coming back or is he gone for good. I couldn't figure out whether he was just incommunicado for a week and was calling it quits.

 

[trackend]

Gun Deaths and Injury • In 2004, 29,569 people in the United States died from firearm-related deaths –
11,624 (39%) of those were murder
16,750 (57%) were suicides;
649 (2.2%) were accidents;
and in 235 (.8%) the intent was unknown. [5]
In comparison,
• In 2004, firearms were used to murder 56 people in Australia, 184 people in Canada, 73 people in England and Wales, 5 people in New Zealand, and 37 people in Sweden.[8]

I'm not sure how accurate these figures are and it did'nt cover europe as a whole but I believe it is around 14 deaths per 100,000 in the US and 3-4 per 100,000 in europe

 

[Matt308]

Here is a more telling statistic on Murders Per Capita from UN 1998-2000:

4 per 100,000 in US
1.0 - 1.5 per 100,000 in Western Europe and Canada
______________________________________________

#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people
#11 Ukraine: 0.094006 per 1,000 people
#12 Papua New Guinea: 0.0838593 per 1,000 people
#13 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0802565 per 1,000 people
#14 Thailand: 0.0800798 per 1,000 people
#15 Moldova: 0.0781145 per 1,000 people
#16 Zimbabwe: 0.0749938 per 1,000 people
#17 Seychelles: 0.0739025 per 1,000 people
#18 Zambia: 0.070769 per 1,000 people
#19 Costa Rica: 0.061006 per 1,000 people
#20 Poland: 0.0562789 per 1,000 people
#21 Georgia: 0.0511011 per 1,000 people
#22 Uruguay: 0.045082 per 1,000 people
#23 Bulgaria: 0.0445638 per 1,000 people
#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people
#25 Armenia: 0.0425746 per 1,000 people
#26 India: 0.0344083 per 1,000 people
#27 Yemen: 0.0336276 per 1,000 people
#28 Dominica: 0.0289733 per 1,000 people
#29 Azerbaijan: 0.0285642 per 1,000 people
#30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people
#31 Slovakia: 0.0263303 per 1,000 people
#32 Romania: 0.0250784 per 1,000 people
#33 Portugal: 0.0233769 per 1,000 people
#34 Malaysia: 0.0230034 per 1,000 people
#35 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 0.0229829 per 1,000 people
#36 Mauritius: 0.021121 per 1,000 people
#37 Hungary: 0.0204857 per 1,000 people
#38 Korea, South: 0.0196336 per 1,000 people
#39 Slovenia: 0.0179015 per 1,000 people
#40 France: 0.0173272 per 1,000 people
#41 Czech Republic: 0.0169905 per 1,000 people
#42 Iceland: 0.0168499 per 1,000 people
#43 Australia: 0.0150324 per 1,000 people
#44 Canada: 0.0149063 per 1,000 people
#45 Chile: 0.014705 per 1,000 people
#46 United Kingdom: 0.0140633 per 1,000 people
#47 Italy: 0.0128393 per 1,000 people
#48 Spain: 0.0122456 per 1,000 people
#49 Germany: 0.0116461 per 1,000 people
#50 Tunisia: 0.0112159 per 1,000 people
#51 Netherlands: 0.0111538 per 1,000 people
#52 New Zealand: 0.0111524 per 1,000 people
#53 Denmark: 0.0106775 per 1,000 people
#54 Norway: 0.0106684 per 1,000 people
#55 Ireland: 0.00946215 per 1,000 people
#56 Switzerland: 0.00921351 per 1,000 people
#57 Indonesia: 0.00910842 per 1,000 people
#58 Greece: 0.0075928 per 1,000 people
#59 Hong Kong: 0.00550804 per 1,000 people
#60 Japan: 0.00499933 per 1,000 people
#61 Saudi Arabia: 0.00397456 per 1,000 people
#62 Qatar: 0.00115868 per 1,000 people

 

[Matt308]

And here is manslaughter per capita:

[The unlawful killing of another without intent to kill; either voluntary (upon a sudden impulse); or involuntary (during the commission of an unlawful act not ordinarily expected to result in great bodily harm).]

Note that while numerous Western European countries and Austrailia, New Zealand and Japan are included in the top 43, the US is not even listed.
__________________________________________________
#1 South Africa: 0.247181 per 1,000 people
#2 Mexico: 0.17057 per 1,000 people
#3 Costa Rica: 0.144422 per 1,000 people
#4 Zimbabwe: 0.0796809 per 1,000 people
#5 Korea, South: 0.0768282 per 1,000 people
#6 Romania: 0.0571429 per 1,000 people
#7 Italy: 0.0322014 per 1,000 people
#8 Turkey: 0.0312226 per 1,000 people
#9 Estonia: 0.0202551 per 1,000 people
#10 Bulgaria: 0.0150336 per 1,000 people
#11 Australia: 0.0147337 per 1,000 people
#12 Russia: 0.011672 per 1,000 people
#13 Lithuania: 0.0105644 per 1,000 people
#14 Latvia: 0.0100437 per 1,000 people
#15 Portugal: 0.00936968 per 1,000 people
#16 Norway: 0.00892663 per 1,000 people
#17 Georgia: 0.00855249 per 1,000 people
#18 Belarus: 0.00805825 per 1,000 people
#19 Czech Republic: 0.00781174 per 1,000 people
#20 Ukraine: 0.00712811 per 1,000 people
#21 Qatar: 0.00695208 per 1,000 people
#22 Yemen: 0.00622377 per 1,000 people
#23 Tunisia: 0.00575682 per 1,000 people
#24 Finland: 0.0053609 per 1,000 people
#25 Poland: 0.00492764 per 1,000 people
#26 Moldova: 0.0047138 per 1,000 people
#27 Japan: 0.00401045 per 1,000 people
#28 Denmark: 0.00386598 per 1,000 people
#29 India: 0.00362134 per 1,000 people
#30 Thailand: 0.00358334 per 1,000 people
#31 Zambia: 0.00275262 per 1,000 people
#32 New Zealand: 0.00247831 per 1,000 people
#33 Spain: 0.00235492 per 1,000 people
#34 Ireland: 0.00224104 per 1,000 people
#35 Hungary: 0.00209853 per 1,000 people
#36 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 0.00195599 per 1,000 people
#37 Greece: 0.00178103 per 1,000 people
#38 Indonesia: 0.00173572 per 1,000 people
#39 Mauritius: 0.0016247 per 1,000 people
#40 Canada: 0.00158512 per 1,000 people
#41 Uruguay: 0.0014637 per 1,000 people
#42 Saudi Arabia: 0.00075706 per 1,000 people
#43 Hong Kong: 0.000724743 per 1,000 people

 

[Matt308]

And here are the assaults per capita;

[Note that the legal definition of assault varies between jurisdictions. Thus "assault" in the US and many western countries can be verbal alone.]
____________________________________________
#1 South Africa: 12.0752 per 1,000 people
#2 Montserrat: 10.2773 per 1,000 people
#3 Mauritius: 8.76036 per 1,000 people
#4 Seychelles: 8.62196 per 1,000 people
#5 Zimbabwe: 7.6525 per 1,000 people
#6 United States: 7.56923 per 1,000 people
#7 New Zealand: 7.47881 per 1,000 people
#8 United Kingdom: 7.45959 per 1,000 people
#9 Canada: 7.11834 per 1,000 people
#10 Australia: 7.02459 per 1,000 people
#11 Finland: 5.32644 per 1,000 people
#12 Iceland: 4.66406 per 1,000 people
#13 Tunisia: 4.02561 per 1,000 people
#14 Jamaica: 3.95943 per 1,000 people
#15 Portugal: 3.59445 per 1,000 people
#16 Chile: 3.32476 per 1,000 people
#17 Norway: 3.2064 per 1,000 people
#18 Netherlands: 2.68964 per 1,000 people
#19 Ireland: 2.47037 per 1,000 people
#20 Mexico: 2.40275 per 1,000 people
#21 Spain: 2.24221 per 1,000 people
#22 Czech Republic: 2.14803 per 1,000 people
#23 Zambia: 1.96475 per 1,000 people
#24 Denmark: 1.80339 per 1,000 people
#25 France: 1.75554 per 1,000 people
#26 Germany: 1.4183 per 1,000 people
#27 Uruguay: 1.34192 per 1,000 people
#28 Hungary: 1.11532 per 1,000 people
#29 Slovenia: 1.09796 per 1,000 people
#30 Hong Kong: 1.07987 per 1,000 people
#31 Dominica: 1.01407 per 1,000 people
#32 Poland: 0.850459 per 1,000 people
#33 Turkey: 0.76779 per 1,000 people
#34 Slovakia: 0.686982 per 1,000 people
#35 Colombia: 0.587116 per 1,000 people
#36 Belarus: 0.543689 per 1,000 people
#37 Italy: 0.500284 per 1,000 people
#38 Romania: 0.419615 per 1,000 people
#39 Bulgaria: 0.41396 per 1,000 people
#40 Qatar: 0.378888 per 1,000 people
#41 Latvia: 0.360262 per 1,000 people
#42 Estonia: 0.345086 per 1,000 people
#43 Japan: 0.339272 per 1,000 people
#44 Thailand: 0.313542 per 1,000 people
#45 Greece: 0.311399 per 1,000 people
#46 Korea, South: 0.30684 per 1,000 people
#47 Moldova: 0.272952 per 1,000 people
#48 Papua New Guinea: 0.243643 per 1,000 people
#49 India: 0.218755 per 1,000 people
#50 Costa Rica: 0.178287 per 1,000 people
#51 Saudi Arabia: 0.178098 per 1,000 people
#52 Ukraine: 0.112007 per 1,000 people
#53 Georgia: 0.10434 per 1,000 people
#54 Indonesia: 0.0767107 per 1,000 people
#55 Yemen: 0.0489699 per 1,000 people
#56 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0404197 per 1,000 people
#57 Azerbaijan: 0.0252781 per 1,000 people

 

[Matt308]

And rapes per capita:
__________________________________________
#1 South Africa: 1.19538 per 1,000 people
#2 Seychelles: 0.788294 per 1,000 people
#3 Australia: 0.777999 per 1,000 people
#4 Montserrat: 0.749384 per 1,000 people
#5 Canada: 0.733089 per 1,000 people
#6 Jamaica: 0.476608 per 1,000 people
#7 Zimbabwe: 0.457775 per 1,000 people
#8 Dominica: 0.34768 per 1,000 people
#9 United States: 0.301318 per 1,000 people
#10 Iceland: 0.246009 per 1,000 people
#11 Papua New Guinea: 0.233544 per 1,000 people
#12 New Zealand: 0.213383 per 1,000 people
#13 United Kingdom: 0.142172 per 1,000 people
#14 Spain: 0.140403 per 1,000 people
#15 France: 0.139442 per 1,000 people
#16 Korea, South: 0.12621 per 1,000 people
#17 Mexico: 0.122981 per 1,000 people
#18 Norway: 0.120836 per 1,000 people
#19 Costa Rica: 0.118277 per 1,000 people
#20 Venezuela: 0.115507 per 1,000 people
#21 Finland: 0.110856 per 1,000 people
#22 Netherlands: 0.100445 per 1,000 people
#23 Denmark: 0.0914948 per 1,000 people
#24 Germany: 0.0909731 per 1,000 people
#25 Bulgaria: 0.0795973 per 1,000 people
#26 Chile: 0.0782179 per 1,000 people
#27 Thailand: 0.0626305 per 1,000 people
#28 Kyrgyzstan: 0.0623785 per 1,000 people
#29 Poland: 0.062218 per 1,000 people
#30 Sri Lanka: 0.0599053 per 1,000 people
#31 Hungary: 0.0588588 per 1,000 people
#32 Estonia: 0.0547637 per 1,000 people
#33 Ireland: 0.0542829 per 1,000 people
#34 Switzerland: 0.0539458 per 1,000 people
#35 Belarus: 0.0514563 per 1,000 people
#36 Uruguay: 0.0512295 per 1,000 people
#37 Lithuania: 0.0508757 per 1,000 people
#38 Malaysia: 0.0505156 per 1,000 people
#39 Romania: 0.0497089 per 1,000 people
#40 Czech Republic: 0.0488234 per 1,000 people
#41 Russia: 0.0486543 per 1,000 people
#42 Latvia: 0.0454148 per 1,000 people
#43 Moldova: 0.0448934 per 1,000 people
#44 Colombia: 0.0433254 per 1,000 people
#45 Slovenia: 0.0427648 per 1,000 people
#46 Italy: 0.0402045 per 1,000 people
#47 Portugal: 0.0364376 per 1,000 people
#48 Tunisia: 0.0331514 per 1,000 people
#49 Zambia: 0.0266383 per 1,000 people
#50 Ukraine: 0.0244909 per 1,000 people
#51 Slovakia: 0.0237525 per 1,000 people
#52 Mauritius: 0.0219334 per 1,000 people
#53 Turkey: 0.0180876 per 1,000 people
#54 Japan: 0.017737 per 1,000 people
#55 Hong Kong: 0.0150746 per 1,000 people
#56 India: 0.0143187 per 1,000 people
#57 Qatar: 0.0139042 per 1,000 people
#58 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 0.0132029 per 1,000 people
#59 Greece: 0.0106862 per 1,000 people
#60 Georgia: 0.0100492 per 1,000 people
#61 Armenia: 0.00938652 per 1,000 people
#62 Indonesia: 0.00567003 per 1,000 people
#63 Yemen: 0.0038597 per 1,000 people
#64 Azerbaijan: 0.00379171 per 1,000 people
#65 Saudi Arabia: 0.00329321 per 1,000 people