http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/16/opinion/australia-gun-laws/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
With the MANY recent shootings happening across the country (2 IN THE PAST 5 DAYS), people are starting to wonder whether strict gun control could help eliminate this senseless violence. Well, the answer to that is yes, and history can prove it. 

In April 1996, in the popular tourist spot of Port Arthur, Tasmania, a gunman killed 20 innocent people with his 29 bullets, all in about 90 seconds. This "pathetic social misfit," to quote the judge in the case, used a similar military-style rifle to the one used by the Connecticut killer. 

Australia had just elected a new conservative prime minister at the time, John Howard. He wept and mourned the deaths, but then did something to prevent a similar situation from happening again: he announced nationwide gun reform. He banned rapid-fire rifles and shotguns, tightened gun owner licensing, and registered remaining firearms to uniform national standards. Attitudes to firearms and the regulations governing them changed almost overnight. After a decade of gun massacres, Australians had had enough of it all. In fact, polling at the time measured public approval of his government's new gun laws at 90-95%.

In two nationwide federally funded gun buybacks, plus large-scale voluntary surrenders and state gun amnesties, Australia collected and destroyed more than a million firearms, almost one-third of the national stock. No other nation had ever attempted anything on this scale. But, it seems to have worked. In the years after the Port Arthur massacre, the risk of dying by gunshot in Australia fell by more than 50% -- and stayed there. In the 16 years since the announcement of legislation specifically designed to reduce gun massacres, Australia has seen no mass shootings. The national rate of gun homicide remains 30 times lower than that of the United States, an appalling figure. 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/us/oregon-mall-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
It was just a regular day at Clackamas Town Center, a mall in the Portland, Oregon area. People were just enjoying the day and doing a little Christmas shopping when they notice a man in a hockey mask walking out of Macy’s wielding an assault rifle. Cries of terror and “get down” echo through the mall as the gunman begins to open fire. People sprint to the nearest store to find a safety point behind a store counter or rack of clothing, but the maniac walks casually from store to store; firing some of the 16 shots he fired. Nicole Sutton, a worker in the mall, said she heard gunshots echoing and saw people rush into the store she works in. "It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced," she told KOIN. People in distant parts of the mall like Sears, however, were lucky, and got live feed via a TV in the store and sought help from police. But the police did not get there in time to save the 3 killed by the end of the incident, including, oddly, the shooter (police are further investigating). Shootings are becoming more and more widespread and common in the US lately; take for example, the shooting at The Dark Knight Rises Midnight Premiere in Aurora, Colorado, or the shooting at the Empire State Building this summer. Maybe it is time to really take a look at gun laws, because the violence and lack of gun control are starting to get out of hand.

Malala Yousufzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban, has thanked people from around the world who have supported her as she recovers from the traumatic attack. The Taliban attacked her on October 9, 2012 when she was in a van coming home from her school in Swat Valley. Gunmen stopped the van, found Malal, and shot her in the head and neck. This attempted assassination would have surely worked and deteriorated the schoolgirl activism in Pakistan, as the Taliban expected, but, by some miracle, Malala survived. She is now at a hospital in Britain, where she was transferred after the assassination attempt. Examinations revealed that she had suffered no major neurological damage, but she is still a long way from recovery. Her father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, says that she is reading books and walking in the hospital in the city of Birmingham, trying to recover. The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to go after her again, but Malala seems to not be scared. "People have actually supported a cause, not an individual," she said in her thanking message. "Let's work together to educate girls around the world."