Connecticut School Shooting ?

A moment of silence that was never given here.

Did you turn on the news last night? THAT was obscene, they turned it into a circus. Descending
on that town like vultures, interviewing kids hours after the shooting, teachers that
were visually traumatized and should be talking to a councilor not a reporter asking
detailed questions so she could relive every moment. I turned the channel to watch some
thing
else and every time I turned back they were interviewing some other poor kid. They called
the mother of the mother who got shot (she's like 87) and asked her what she thought!
Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell does anyone in their right mind think she's thinking?
Her daughter just got shot in the face, point blank by her grandson who then went and
massacred a bunch of kids and their teachers.

If people enjoy shooting guns that's fine, so go to a gun range, sign out a gun and shoot it at a target. What's the purpose of having a gun in your dresser for your mentally ill son to have easy access to? I'll tell you what that reason is, fear. Americans are all bat shit scared of each other because their neighbor has a gun. My uncle moved to Malibu last year and had a dinner with some friends that live in the area. He was asked if he had a 'home defender'. Everyone was stunned when he said no.

She probably had it there because she was afraid of her kid stabbing her with a knife.
From my understanding, that neighborhood has a low crime rate: http://www.homefacts.com/crime/Connecticut/Fairfield-County/Sandy-Hook.html
So she was either a overbearing, controlling person (like her neighbor said) or she had
some other reason, like her psycho child who could get along with others (again her neighbor)
was a threat to her.

Either way, an assault rifle (which was in his car from the reports not used in the shooting)
are not going to be very good home defense so should have been locked up. Shotgun is your best
home defense, because unless it's daylight, you're going to have a hard time aiming a
handgun in the middle of the night in the dark and hitting anything. Also, there's really no reason not to have a trigger lock on your handguns either. My dad had several guns
when I was growing up (yes illegally). He had everything from a Derringer to a .44mag
and everything thing in between, tons of ammo and all locked up. His shotgun had a trigger
lock (I think it was a combo). The few times he needed to use it for home defense he was able
to gain access to it damn quick.

Aren't handguns illegal in Britain? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacre

I agree that if we got rid of all the guns it would be a safer world for the physically
gifted people of the world. But guns are the great equalizer. They can stop big people from
taking advantage of weaker people. But that aside, we will never get rid of guns, so
arguing that as an option is a red hearing. So, we need to look at the reality of daily
life on this planet.
1-We have guns, there are millions (if not billions) of guns on this planet.
2-As long as people have mental illness this will go on.
3-As long as people feel disenfranchised they will lash out violently.
4-As long as all drugs are illegal, the gangs will continue to be empowered with money and motive to kill.
5-As long as there are poor, there will be some who feel theft and some of those in armed theft.
6-However played this statement is, it still holds true: If all guns are illegal, only the
criminals will have guns.
7-Gun control only works for a small % of gun crimes in the USA. Waiting periods only work
for the person who wants to kill NOW, in a moment of passion. Background checks only work
for the stupid criminals that think their record won't be found, but most of them just
buy one off the street. Mental health checks don't work for someone who's never been
diagnosed.

The way I see it, gun "control" will only work to prevent a small portion of killings
that occur in the USA. Maybe they (and us) should spend less money on the military and
more on enfranchising our poor and destitute. Maybe spend more on making living conditions
better for the 47% who live in the shadows of wealth. Legalize all drugs and spend money
on mental health, education and prevention.

HIBuLlitT, was thinking of something else in regards to this incident and mental health. I wonder if our North American lifestyle has an effect that increases the occurrences of stuff like this. Having spent 3 years working with a European part of me thinks our lifestyle is having a serious negative effect on our mental health. All this rush, over working, stress, and such maybe has a greater entail effect then we acknowledge.

Not sure about over working or stress (maybe on suicide like Japan). I think it's a cultural
thing. The USA as a whole identifies with the cowboys of the wild west…maybe not the reality
that was those days, but the representation from media we grew up with. Americans want to
think of themselves as lone riders into the sunset, battling evil and standing up for their
rights. You did this with your trusty side arm and horse. With those two you could tackle
the wilderness and not worry about bears, or "Injins" and all that shit. While we may not
consciously think of it that way, it is part of the American persona. So, any threat to
our guns or horse (car) is seen as a threat to our liberties (ability to travel anywhere
anytime) and our ability to protect us and ours.

I can only guess at why mental health is such a big issue there more than other places.
I think that culture is huge. My mother was born and grew up in Spain, I spent a lot of
time there as a kid. From little things like helping an old person to larger picture items
like social programs, there are vast differences. I think that holds true for most of Europe.
The mentality seems to be fend for your self/Darwin will take care of you without the
vulgarity of actually getting rid of the weak/ill. So what you have left is a process
where the mentally ill is marginalized, shunned, expected to do something with their lives
but with no help or education to accomplish that task.

For those people, the stress put upon them might add to any violent tendencies they may
have??? Of course, these kinds of people don't really have any place they can go for help
and if they do go to someone saying they want to shoot their mom in the face, they'll get
arrested before they ever get any help (if ever). Only to be let out after a period of
time without any mechanism for coping in their world…which became worse because now they
have a record.

I'm not saying that had this guy lived after doing this we should take him by the hand
and sing kumbaya, he should fucking hang or be locked up till he dies, full stop.

The "war like nature" of "todays" USA is a bullshit statement. Our war mongering is less
than at any time in history. Our wars don't rage for 400 yrs like they have in ancient
times.

This just got posted on my fb page from a (Canadian) friend:

this is the closest ive come to reading that news. i will not learn the shooters name, i will not give this any of my thought. spread love around with the people you care about this season lets remember what makes us great

I just hope the shooter isnt glorrified and given fame in a sense that they dig in and publish what he was like. He was a shooter, now dead no more! The focus must be on the loss of life and what a great tradgedy it is.

Too late

Read this Morgan Freeman quote on FB.

Personally I just don't let news like this bother me. I remind myself that the day this happened there was no significant impact on world wide murder rates. The sensational coverage just seems more like a Hollywood production and rarely offers any meaningful insight on what happened. I really don't need an update on fox news ever 2 minutes to find out what order / how many kids were shot.

TURN OFF THE NEWS…….

Morgan Freeman's brilliant take on what happened 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. You can help by turning off the news."

As for gun control. People will always crack under the high pressure society we live in. The more guns you have and the easier it is to acquire them, the more weapons will find their way into the hands of these sad individuals who aren't thinking straight. Guns don't kill people, people kill people, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier.

I thought this was interesting:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/

Well, I know which school I would send my kid to…

Perhaps it would best serve everyone if the media gave the facts, then said "Out of concern [HTML_REMOVED] respect for the victims [HTML_REMOVED] their families, we'll make no more reports about the shooting". I guess they wouldn't sell as many adverts then.

NEITHER

Kn.

Read this Morgan Freeman quote on FB.

Don't listen to the media, but follow me on Facebook.

He has a point about sensationalism, but he's missing the bigger problem, which is a public too ignorant to know that it is occurring.

I agree with Morgan Freeman's comment, up until the last bit…

Like most things in life, there is not a THIS or THAT answer. If someone has weight problem, the solution is not exercise OR diet OR cutting back on alcohol… it's exercise AND diet AND cutting back on booze.

Mental healthcare, prescription drugs, the breakdown of community, media's glorification of violence are all certainly part of the problem. It blows my mind that people can argue that the easy availability of handguns is not part of the problem.

Read this Morgan Freeman quote on FB.

Personally I just don't let news like this bother me. I remind myself that the day this happened there was no significant impact on world wide murder rates. The sensational coverage just seems more like a Hollywood production and rarely offers any meaningful insight on what happened. I really don't need an update on fox news ever 2 minutes to find out what order / how many kids were shot.

As for gun control. People will always crack under the high pressure society we live in. The more guns you have and the easier it is to acquire them, the more weapons will find their way into the hands of these sad individuals who aren't thinking straight. Guns don't kill people, people kill people, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier.

FYI despite it's current viral explosion, there seems to be no proof anywhere that this quote actually came from Morgan Freeman. You'd be smart to assume it did not until proof is discovered.

FYI despite it's current viral explosion, there seems to be no proof anywhere that this quote actually came from Morgan Freeman. You'd be smart to assume it did not until proof is discovered.

Whether or not Morgan Freeman wrote it doesn't matter to me in the least. It was just something I read that I thought was good. Don't know why anyone would even care or check.