So I’m sure by now you’ve heard about today’s shooting in Chicago. In case you haven’t, here’s the details :

A fired worker hunted down and shot to death six employees of an auto parts supply warehouse on Wednesday, then refused to surrender and was killed by police, authorities said.

“From the scene, it appears he went throughout the supply warehouse shooting them,” acting Chicago Police Superintendent Philip Cline said. “They all suffered fatal gunshot wounds.”

The gunman, identified by authorities as 36-year-old Salvador Tapia, had been fired six months ago for poor performance at Windy City Core Supply Inc., and recently made threatening telephone calls to one of the owners.

In case there’s any doubt about what contributed to this tragedy, the Police Superintendent made it clear :

Tapia had been arrested a dozen times in the past 14 years on various charges, including illegal possession of a weapon, domestic battery and assault. He was convicted in 1989 of illegal possession of a gun and received a year’s probation.

“The problem here is easy access to a firearm,” Cline said. “I mean here’s someone who never should have had a gun, that had a gun, and it’s tragic results from it.”

Yeah, yeah, I know “Guns don’t kill people, blah, blah”, but when was the last time you heard about a disgruntled worker going on a stabbing spree? Guns may just be a tools, but they’re a tool specifically for making it really easy to kill human beings. Considering how many violent and untrustworthy people we have in our society, why is it such a controversial idea that guns should be really hard to obtain?