It's absurd to suggest that gun control would keep guns out of the hands of murderous maniacs like this. They would simply be harder to get.
However, anyone who suggests that making it illegal to carry a handgun wouldn't reduce the homicide rate in America is stretching it, to say the least.
Proponents of the right to bear arms are always saying that they need guns so that they can protect themselves from the criminals. Fair enough. But how many homicides are crimes of passion and things like bar shootings? When a guy who is roaring drunk goes out to the truck, grabs his 9mm and comes back into the bar and shoots the guy who he thinks he saw flirting with his girl? That's just a matter of opportunity. If he goes to his truck and remembers his gun is 100 miles away at his buddies place, and then he grabbed girlfriend and went home and sobered up, he would shake his head at the idea that he might risk his freedom over some asshole in a bar. He would kill the guy because he had access to a handgun, not because he's a rotten criminal who would have acquired the gun and killed the guy no matter how much time or effort it took.
How many times does a gun homicide come about because a law abiding citizen uses a gun to protect himself during a robbery or assault or whatever? Not many, I'm betting.
Lately, I have been regretting that I can't carry a handgun here in Toronto. Things are getting a little more aggro up here.
The question I always have for gun lovers is this - why in the heck is it that countries with gun control have 1/100th the rate of gun related homicide than the US, on a per capita basis?
(That's your cue, Pabst).