Another day, another school shooting.

[Tastycles]

Details are pretty sketchy at the moment, so try not to speculate too much, but there has been another school shooting in the USA, as a gunman has opened fire in an elementary school in Connecticut. At present it looks like there have been 12 victims and that there are two gunmen, one of whom is dead, the other still at large.

These events are obviously tragic, and we need to respect the dead, but there is certainly some questions that arise from this:

Why are these events much more prevalent in the US than other western countries?

How can we prevent things like this happening again?

Is it time to re-asses America's relationship with firearms?

 

[Rayne]

1) A rate of firearms-per-person that dwarfs that of other western countries. It's the big elephant in the room that people refuse to look at every time there's a mass shooting.

2) Start restricting firearms sales with an eye towards prohibition in thirty years. Find a way to stop the law-abiding citizen before he decides to become a criminal and shoot up a mall/temple/school/theater, and I might change my mind on weapons criminalization.

The whole "but if I only had my gun there" thing is redneck fantasy. How many shooting incidents do you find where a gun-toting citizen pulled out his handgun and stopped a shooter? Do some research, you can probably find a couple. Just about everyone has the same reaction to this kind of event- they shit their pants and run. The last thing I think people want is someone who took three hours on range practice so that they think they're 'trained' firing bullets in a second direction while scared shitless.

3) Yes. The vast majority of gun-owners are responsible people versed in gun safety. However, a few idiots run it for everyone else. Make it harder to get a weapon, you make it harder to perform a mass-shooting. You can't prevent every incident, so save me the "but it could still happen!" argument. You CAN make it a hell of a lot harder.

 

[i'm a cm punk girl]

Update: The Hartford Courant reports multiple people, including children, have been killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The number of victims is at 28 with 15 being kids.

I don't want to say anything that will get me banned. But I will say that if there's such a place as hell there is a special place there for him. Really takes a lot of guts to shoot a bunch of kids who can't defend themselves.

 

[Beastmode 24]

The piece of low life shit that would take the lives of innocent kids deserves to burn in hell. I feel no sympathy for him. I'm not a father, but I have nieces and nephews around the same age of some of the kids that were killed today. If something like this were to happen to any one of them, I would completely lose my shit.

I don't care how messed up you are or you think you are, you don't do stuff like this to innocent children. You just don't. My thoughts and prayers goes out to all family members of the kids involved. As far as the shooter, he can rot in hell.

Now to answer the questions:


Why are these events much more prevalent in the US than other western countries?
Because there are more guns here than any other country, and we actually have the freedom to have these guns

How can we prevent things like this happening again?
Easy. I hate to say this, but we really do as a country need to look and re examine our gun laws.

Is it time to re-asses America's relationship with firearms?

Yes.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

This is so sad. Just an unimaginable tragedy. More details are emerging and it appears the sicko killed his brother first, in New Jersey, then drove to the school where his mother was a teacher and killed her too before killing everyone else. It's believed that his mother was the main target of the rampage.
Where do these sickos come from? Seriously?



EDIT: It now appears that the shooter's younger brother is being held for questioning as a possible second shooter and his girlfriend and another friend are missing in New Jersey.

 

[supernatural1981]

I live in the UK and the only thing we have had happen like this was Dunblane. Every time i hear anything like this i feel so sorry for the families involved. The bastard who did this deserves to rot in hell for killing all these INNOCENT kids.

Why are these events much more prevalent in the US than other western countries?

because as far as i know the right to bear arms is part of the constitution which means EVERYONE thinks they should have a gun if they are a nutter or not.

How can we prevent things like this happening again?
Bring in better gun legislation if possible??

Is it time to re-asses America's relationship with firearms?
YES without a doubt.


my daughter is 3 in march and a lot of these kids are not much older than her. i feel physically sick watching this.

as for the older brother if he is involved i hope they torture this cunt and forget the court of human rights he deserves all he gets. give him to the kids parents.

 

[UnBEARaBULLfan]

Really takes a chicken shit low life coward to shoot a bunch of kids who can't defend themselves.

Fixed it for you. No matter what problems this bitch had there is no excuse for him to do what he has done! My prayers go out to the families and anyone else affected by this tradgedy.

And yes our gun rights/laws seriously need to be looked at. Fuck the NRA and what they think they're entitled to!

 

[idif]

Fixed it for you. No matter what problems this bitch had there is no excuse for him to do what he has done! My prayers go out to the families and anyone else affected by this tradgedy.

And yes our gun rights/laws seriously need to be looked at. Fuck the NRA and what they think they're entitled to!

I think she was being sarcastic.

Nonetheless, this is terrible. Who the fuck goes to a elementary school and shoots people? Sickest thing I've ever read.

Gun control will help, but you can't fully prevent these things, but the harder it is to do something like this, the better.

 

[Rayne]

I think she was being sarcastic.

Nonetheless, this is terrible. Who the fuck goes to a elementary school and shoots people? Sickest thing I've ever read.

Gun control will help, but you can't fully prevent these things, but the harder it is to do something like this, the better.

Yup.

People say, as if it's a defense, "well, if someone really wants to get a gun, they will". Yes. Guns exist, and we can't make them unexist. We can make them harder to acquire- and yes, this is a "few people ruining it for everyone else" situation. Norway has strict gun control laws, and they had the mother of all mass shootings last year. They don't have five in six months.

Of course, nothing will change, and in two weeks, we'll have all forgotten about this and moved on. #americanvalues

 

[Loveless]

Of course, nothing will change, and in two weeks, we'll have all forgotten about this and moved on. #americanvalues

That might be the most tragic thing in all of this. In 2 weeks time this will be forgotten, nothing will be done and this will happen again. As a country you are doomed to repeat until things are changed.

I'm hearing the news behind me and they're mentioning the gunman being mentally unstable. I can head the NRA polishing off their defence already and it amazes me that no-one destroys that excuse.
I've said it a hundred times that you can not legislate for mental illness or someone losing their temper, it can happen to anyone at any time, and when that happens you better fucking hope that the person doesn't have a gun easily available to them.

 

[Piss Bucket]

IMO the US Government seriously needs to rethink the gun laws in your Country, allowing every member of teh public access to high powered weaponry isn accident, or worse, waiting to happen IMO.

I for one hope the UK Government never allows guns to be owned willy nilly without proper background checks etc, but fortunately even "Call me Dave" Cameron's not THAT much of a moron.

And that's high praise from someone who already thinks our Prime Minister is a joke, even Gordon Brown was better and he too was an idiot.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

Why are these events much more prevalent in the US than other western countries?

In a single sentence. "Events in the U.S. are worse than anywhere else in the World, because our media drives off of horrific events."

The fact is, I read an article in which Morgan Freeman wrote the following..

MORGAN FREEMAN ON THE SHOOTINGS YESTERDAY:

"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.

It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single victim of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.

CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations*, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.

You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem."

It's true. You can argue it, dispute it, try and claim otherwise, but the above statements are true.

People will remember the 'monsters' over the victims. People will recall the horrific number of deaths, but not one of their names.

Thanks to the coverage this story has gotten, and the publicity this pathetic, nobody, has gotten - I'm almost positive you now have at least no less than 5 more nobodies looking into what they can do to top it, and make a name for themselves.

Instead of covering the story of the murderer, how about we relegate them to a number - if anything at all - and instead, focus on the victims and their backstory. Oh, that's right, that doesn't sell newspapers. It won't skyrocket media ratings.

How can we prevent things like this happening again?

You can't. Sick people are out there all over. It's a way of life. I hear people screaming about putting guns and guards in schools. Why? So our children can grow up in a like-styled prison system?

I hear others jumping at trying to improve anyone to carry guns, in an attempt to help protect innocents. .. .. Or further add to the destruction with crossfire?

I don't agree with banning weapons, because criminals aren't following rules and laws to begin with. However, I don't agree with giving our teachers weapons either. All that does is give a disgruntled teacher the ability to repeat Saturday's events in a different setting.

The closest I feel we can come to preventing this, is to lessen the coverage the killer gets.

This guy (whose name I won't even bother with, nor do I honestly know) was a nobody looking to likely kill himself, and instead decided because he was so miserable in life - because nobody cared for him - he'd just make a name for himself in any way, since he couldn't previously. As of right now, he's gotten his way. People will remember him for this and one recent news report said "if this stands, it will be the second worst in US history". That small statement opened the flood gates for numerous others to try and top it.

Is it time to re-asses America's relationship with firearms?

It honestly has nothing to do with banning or otherwise. You ban weapons, and the ones you need to fear the most with them will still have them - because they don't follow laws and restrictions. They don't obey rules.

You allow anyone to carry them for protection, and you get more of a situation like what happened in Florida; with innocent people dying, because someone with a gun "thought" they were in danger.. from someone with skittles and tea.

My Stance:

I have two children, one is in 1st Grade and the other is going into Preschool next year. This brings tears to my eyes, and I'm not even remotely connected to the Conn. victims. I'm just an honestly scared Parent who fears for my childrens safety, and can't understand what or where is safe anymore, when people can just blast into a school and unload onto countless children for no apparent reason.

I could easily pull them out and home school them, but then I allow criminals to win. I give into fear.

You want to take anything from this.. take the following..

Victoria Soto, a 27-year-old teacher: Who sacrificed herself, while hiding her students from harm's way.

Dawn Hochsprung, 47-year old Principal & School Psychologist, Mary Sherlach, 56: Both of whom tried rushing and taking out the shooter, ultimately both being gunned down - giving their lives, to try and save countless students, children, whom they only have a connection to through school.

I've even heard stories of a brave 6-7 year old, who grabbed his close friends, and rushed with them out of harm's way to safety.

Those are the heroes that DESERVE talked about, and remembered. These are the individuals who should be in the spotlight. Not some idiot who people want to claim had "a mental disorder".

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In the grand scheme of things, I'm not sure there's really anything that can be done about this. That's partially because there's simply no way to predict where & when something like this is going to come about and partially because, as Americans, we can't come together to come up with any realistic solutions because we're so at odds.

For instance, whenever someone mentions the word "gun control", a lot of gun owners, especially right wing gun owners, practically shit themselves. There are literally still people in this day and age that believe that government agents are going to break their doors down one night and demand that they hand over their guns. They equate that paranoid fantasy with the words "gun control" or "stricter gun laws". Gun makers fight it tooth and nail because it means they can't line their pockets as easily as they do. There are already nearly innumerable loop holes in the law in which gun makers are able to circumvent the law and those companies, and groups such as the National Rifle Association, will hire as many $1,000 an hour lawyers as they can and try their best to tie up any sort of gun control measures in court for years.

Which gun control is only part of the answer. There are always going to be people who are simply fucked up. It's not politically correct, but that doesn't mean it's incorrect. This Adam Lanza kid is another example of someone that kinda sorta fell through the cracks. However, there weren't any indicators that this would take place. You can't predict when things like this will go down. We'll never ultimately know what set Lanza off but, over the past week, I've heard everything from people blaming violent movies or video games and violent television shows. Then, in the very next sentence, those same people will turn around and say how much they themselves enjoy those shows.

When it comes to something like this, the United States has painted itself into a corner. It seems that there isn't any sort of way to put any sort of potentially preventive measures in place because it always looks as though some freedoms are going to have to be sacrificed. Some want to lay the blame on the movies or tv shows or video games, yet law makers can't just tell someone what they can and can't watch. Even if they tried, you're going to have every civil rights organization, representatives from the television & film industries, etc. fighting tooth & nail to keep it from happening. And such a fight will take years. Same with the gun control laws. I think America is more than a little spoiled because a lot of people simply want everything without having to give up something. They want to be safer at airports, but bitch & moan about the extra security they have to deal with. They want to be able to watch quality television & movie programming but, at the same time, they want to keep their kids from it. They want tougher laws to protect us, yet they don't want to run the risk of the tougher laws actually making some things tougher to deal with or handle.