If you owned a gun shop, and sold the weapon used in a massacre, would you sell the place and find other work?

Question

If you are morally opposed to private gun ownership, there's no way you'd own a shop, so I'm not really asking you!

I'm asking people who have no problem with people selling guns: how you would guess having that role in such a tragedy would change your life make you reconsider the way you make a living?

Good answers--I'll pick the best one soon. I'd probably sell the location and open up in another town though--I don't think I'd want to deal with the people who'd surely be coming by to give me grief about it.

Ignore the thumbs-down I'm about to pass out. Even the worst answers here weren't that bad--I'm just having trouble sorting through to pick the best one, so it helps to eliminate a few. (It doesn't hurt your points, it just helps me organize--please don't get mad about it.)

Answer 1

im sure that guy feels awful, but honestly, he really did nothing wrong. here in va unfortunately our system doesnt require the waiting period most states do for handgun purchases, not that it would have made a difference anyway since he bought it a few months ago. he had no power over what that psycho did. my husband and i are the owners of several guns all of which we waited a few hours at the most for the background check to come back on hunting is very big in va and the majority of us buy our guns for that and home protection. if his shrink had bothered to report his stay in a mental facility, he wouldnt have been able to purchase them in the first place.
if i were in the business i cant say i would even consider changing occupations there will always be somewhere else someone like that could go but i would probably petition the state for more strict standards of background checking than what is currently available
i am a strong believer in our second amendment rights, but i dont think that a more stringent screening process would be a violation of those rights in fact it would be doing us all a favor

Answer 2

Do you realize that from the studies done, guns help 80% more people than they hurt? If I owned the gun shop, would I hang it up and sell the shop if I was the one that sold the weapon used in the murder? Absolutely not. Ya want to know why? First, because I am not responsible for anyone else's actions. Secondly, because 80% of those guns I am selling are being used to save lives. When will you people realize that guns are not any more evil than a screwdriver? If you had a hardware store which sold someone a screwdriver that they then used to stab someone to death, would you feel responsible for that killing? Would you then hang it up and sell the hardware store? Gimme a break! These murders are not the fault of the gun makers, the gun shop owners or anyone else involved in the making and selling of guns!
It is the fault of this crazy nut, period, end of story. If you want to try to place blame, how about holding the people who make the rules for the college campus responsible? Why, you ask? For taking away people's right to defend themselves. They said the reason this policy was in place was to make people feel more safe. As you can see the absence of lawful citizens carrying firearms only makes you FEEL safe. It doesn't actually make you any more safe! I own a handgun. I have had the proper safety training and I also obtained a permit to carry it on my person as long as it is concealed. The only places I do not carry it, are at the places prohibited by state and federal law. I promise you one thing. Had I been at that college when this all went down, I would have had it on me regardless of the campus policies, and just ma be fewer people would have died because of it!!!

Answer 3

There is no way this person should have been eligible to have bought a gun, IF the at least three women he had stalked had pressed charges, IF the school had pressed charges in those incidents or when he set fire to the dormitory, BUT they don't violate confidentiality, and people were afraid of being labeled "racist". He had two recent speeding tickets for doing nearly twice the speed limit. But that wouldn't effect guns he already purchased (but they should search the vehicle and confiscate them until after the court appearance). A person's mental health is CONFIDENTIAL, they are not required, and adamantly refuse, to share this information with law enforcement. If no one has the guts or brains to prosecute a law breaker, how is someone, whether they sell him a golf club, axe, chainsaw, hammer, rat poison or steak knife, supposed to know that person is a criminal with criminal intent? I would feel bad if I had sold guns to people who died, who weren't carrying them on campus despite having concealed carry permits, because the college mandated last year that no one could, and won a court challenge proclaiming the campus was safer that way.
People willing to kill, are willing to break every law and rule on the book, Carbine Williams secretly built a repeating rifle in prison, you think a tech student couldn't make a repeating gun if he/she had to? The only way to protect ourselves from bungling by law enforcement officials or the simple inability to be where needed when needed, is to be able to protect ourselves from such monsters. There is no choice, and that's the way it has been since man came into existance. An armed citizen dropped teh Salt Lake City mall jihadist when he went on his killing spree, too bad even the faculty and staff at VT didn't have the ability to shoot back, they do in Isreal, and they don't have school shootings there.

Answer 4

No problem selling guns as long as the people who are buying them have had their background checks and have a permit to carry one. It's not the gun shops fault the kid was a basket case. However, I do think he was able to get the guns way too easy. They need to redo their firearm laws in Virginia. Like the other person said.....If you sell cars, you don't sell your dealership when a guy drives a car through a sidewalk full of people and I don't see many bars closing their businesses after a drunk driver kills innocent people on the road.

Answer 5

I would not change what I did for a living because I can't control what people do with guns after they purchase them. If I didn't sell them they would still be able to get their hands on guns, so why should I change my life?

Answer 6

What about the Doctor that treated the trigger finger of a mass killer? Is he just as guilty too? Stop spreading the blame. And you people want to know why California is so over-regulated? Bone-heads loke this get into office and make stupid laws.

Answer 7

i'm opposed to guns myself but let's put it this way:
if i sold rat poison and the rat poison was used to kill people, i wouldn't sell my pest control business. i acknowledge that any object in the wrong hands can do great evil. but people need to take responsibility, not blame inanimate objects or technology.

Answer 8

no , i fell once a gun leaves my shop i am nolonger involved with it. a shop owner is not the one who is at falt.the one who used the gun is to blame.

Answer 9

Sell burgers rather than guns. Burgers will not kill you directly, but slowly if you eat too much.

Answer 10

I guess same as asking any person who goes to church what they do for a living? An expecting them to say (no fault of mine) because I do what I do...........I really don't get your point.People look for ways to put blame,not take it...........................................
Will the guilty party please stand up......