Well said.

Now that we agree, how to we do this?

How do you propose we do this? People drive (drunk sometimes) without drivers licenses, and cause accidents. 

Guns are much, much harder to get in Oslo.

Bejing: December 14, 2012 A man wielding a knife attacked students Friday at a school in central China, leaving 22 children and one adult injured, according to state-run media reports. I am not saying better gun regulation isn't a good idea, it just isn't the solution. I am not sure there is one. If people want to do harm, they will find a method. Why do the unthinkable? Sick, hopeless, rage? Better mental health programs might make more of an effect.

Great column! Mr Norquist got a lot of traction with his pledge. Perhaps it's time for a similar pledge on assault weapons, permitting, armor-piercing ammo, and large-cap magazines.

How do we do it? Ban the sale of all semi-automatics, require gun safety classes, psychological evaluations, instructors who can deny a license or permit if they feel an individual may be of harm to others, regular permit renewals, and surrender of weapons for OUIs, domestic violence charges, restraining orders, and all sorts of felonies and misdemeanors. Just for starters. And let's mount an effort to get the film and TV industries to stop glorifying violence. That's as likley to blame as much as the guns.

Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, it is not working for drugs, and it won't work for guns.

There are some things that you cannot simply make a law to fix.

I am fatigued by the "private rights" discourse on the Second Amendment. If the laws and social norms of 1788 are universally applicable to our lives today, when are we going to roll back voting rights for women and non-property holders and bring back slavery. Slavery was not exactly celebrated in the Constitution, but it certainly was not prohibited, yet we all agree that over time it was not only appropriate, but morally imperative to abolish that tremendous stain on American identity. Why would the tools of mass murder not fall into a similar category?

Let us not forget the issues of Mental Illness and how little amount of money is spend in the budgets for it.

Bravo!  How many more innocents have to die before we find the courage to correct the insane "rules" of gun ownership of the paranoid "right to bear arms" philosophy?  (This was actually instituted prior to the United States having a standing army, and the states were responsible for "national" defense of their sovereign territories.  Look it up!)  Our country today doesn't remotely resemble the frontier of the founding fathers and their "right to bear arms" rule.  Excellent and relevant analogy, the drivers' license, where public safety overrules the individual "right" to operate a dangerous machine on public roads without proper training and passing the test of responsible ownership!  A movement needs to start, similar to M.A.D., to hold everyone responsible for the safety of our fellow citizens.  If only criminals will have guns, hopefully they will not be insane criminals who are intent on murdering masses of innocent children. Even organized crime has a code of ethics about families.  Do we have the will is the question, or will we continue to respond as though we live in the third world?

I agree with banning assault weapons (properly classified, not a 'bad looking gun') .  I won't be for keeping all guns out of the hands of citizens until the government no longer has a 'Kill' list,  re-enstates habeus corpus (see National Defense Authorization Act),  stops blue-shirt TSAs from assaulting citizens, stops killing innocents via drone attacks,  or until the U.S. stops electing leaders that are all too willing to spy on us and strip us of our rights.

I agree that more controls on guns are a good idea.  Longer lead times on purchases, background checks, required safety classes in order to be given a permit in the first place, etc.  I also support limiting the capacity of ammo clips, the lethal power of the ammo, and the rate of fire of the weapons.  I would be on board for all of that and more.  I also know that it won't make any difference in preventing atrocities such as these.  We could never be as restrictive as Norway in our, or our children's, lifetimes.  There are 300 million guns in our nation out there now.  A determined, cold, calculating insane individual intent on mass murder will be able to get a hold of weapons of choice and ammo for them  (criminals certainly will).  Or maybe he settles for killing 8 or 10 instead of 15 or 20.  It might be harder, and maybe less horrific, but it won't be much in the way of a deterrent.

Adrian said, "Yes, I said preventable. Every single one of these might have been prevented if getting hold of a gun in this country was as difficult as, say, getting a driver’s ­license."

I'm all for stricter regulations regarding gun ownership, but I disagree with Adrian's statement.  If you want to prevent atrocities like Newtown, you have to understand what motivates the shooters.  I believe what motivates the depraved, deranged losers who kill people indiscriminately is simply this: publicity, fame, notoriety.  

Witness the coverage of this horror.  It's non-stop in all media.  The next deranged loser is feeding off it, thinking to himself that, if he could only kill more than Adam, more than the Virginia Tech killer, he'll be world famous.  Death (his own) would be a reasonable price to pay.

Yes, better gun control is a (small) part of the solution.  But what we really need is a moratorium on the excessive, non-stop reporting of mass murder.  After the initial report, which should be statistical, there should be a black-out.  No name.  No pictures.  Nothing.  If we could do this, atrocities like Newtown would disappear.

In addition to banning assault weapons, we need to start a serious discussion about our treatment of the mentally ill.  We mainstreamed them to save money.  The effects have been devestating. 

Thank you for these words. I can't agree more. I teach. Each year as I set up my classroom I prepare for a lock-down. Can a curtain shield a shooter's line of sight from the hall? Will all my kids fit in the safe places? Will I have time to lock the door? As a staff we watch the district video on recognizing concealed weapons; there's a security officer in the building. These efforts won't be enough if tragedy strikes. We need a culture change, we need gun control.

All you need to do in MA to change yourdrivers license address is to write on the back in a Sharpie.

This is about a whole lot more than guns. I don't believe anyone needs to have a handgun or any kind of semi-automatic or fully automatic assault weapon, these instruments of destruction are made to kill human beings.  But let's be honest and open our eyes to it all, 50 years ago there were plenty of guns in this country and they were easy to obtain, 50 years ago there were plenty of mentally ill people, our society has moved forward on some fronts and has and is going in the wrong direction on others. 

This is as much about the negative,shallow,narcissitic and toxic influences and trends in our culture, that poison hearts and minds and they are many.

I am so very sad for all those innocent souls who were slaughtered yesterday and their families.

Excellent column!  I agree with the comment that taking a large view of the problem includes taking a look at the effect of violence on TV dramas and video games.  I'd like also to take a look at the psychology of hunting.  To go into the habitat of innocent animals and shoot them, and to view that as recreation or sport, then take  pride in it, is demented when you really think about it.

As to comparing the killing of animals to the killing of humans, as Albert Schweitzer wrote, "I am life that wills to live, in the midst of life that wills to live." Valuing the lives of others includes ALL others.  I know there will be commenters who don't see this, but that is just homocentric conceit.

We have to do whatever we can to keep tragedies like this from happening but I'm not so sure that just gun control will stop these horrible events from happening. I saw something a while ago where they said that Canadians, per capita, have more guns than Americans, yet you don't hear about these things happening there. There seems to be commonality in the profiles of these killers in that they're all reclusive individuals who don't see themselves as fitting in. Along with gun control there needs to be a dialogue about how we deal with those with mental health issues in this country. Maybe we can learn something from our neighbors to the north who take better care of those who suffer from mental health issues and don't just put them on the streets. 

Excellent article. 

We grieve the horrific Connecticut school tragedy. May our tears motivate us to do much more to prevent such tragedies. See how that has largely been done in another Connecticut school that had been plagued with violence. Incredible, must-see video for those who truly care; it goes beyond necessary gun control: http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/schools.html#video=Yni1REJYK6E