The BBC reports that spree killer Adam Lanza’s mother was the kindergarten teach at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. They also say that Lanza shot his father before proceeding to the school and carrying out his heinous acts. Click here for BBC live coverage. President Obama is due to make a statement at 3:15pm EST.
I have fond memories of my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Cameraman.
With the second mass shooting style attack in a week, the gun control crowd is already seizing what they see as an opportunity to spread their message. Sadly, there was a similar incident in China today where 23 people were stabbed by a madman in an elementary school. It is time to stop the myth of the gun control crowd that a gun is anything more than a tool in the hands of any person – just like the knife used today in China.
Read more and please share: http://easybakegunclub.com/blog/1937/Guns%2C-Knives%2C-Mass-Killings%2C-and-Mental-Health.html
No one was killed by the knife-wielding attacker in China. Now imagine if he had an automatic weapon.
For some reason, knife wielding attackers in China are not all that uncommon, and these guys (they have all been men) usually attack elementary schools. Everyone I’ve read in the past has involved multiple fatalities.
Agreed. All of the other ones have numerous deaths (last one was 8 dead I believe). Basically, the children and staff got lucky today.
Pretending that the number injured vs. number killed is the issue is just another way to avoid the discussion about how to prevent these attacks… if at all possible.
I would rather imagine the school staff being able to shot back, Francine. We can outlaw every semi auto weapon in America today and 60 years from now people will be still getting killed by those already in circulation.
And if the cartels make a profit smuggling in a ton of coke why would they hesitate to smuggle in a ton of real automatic weapons bought in 3rd world markets?
Many people are getting killed in the UK where semis and handguns are banned. They are getting knifed and beaten to death. Gun crime has actually increased since the bans in the UK. It is important not just to focus on actual shootings but what will occur if guns are banned or severally restricted in America: violent crime will increase since criminals will not have to fear a gun as a deterrent to attack.
No one was killed, but that doesn’t mean the children were not critically injured or disabled for life. Downplaying the knife attack doesn’t work for me. I’m sure their parents are crying too.
EXACTLY!!! it may not be something that happened in america, but it’s still just as sad. i hate when ppl forget others and what they’re going through >:(
Guns are not the real issue, the issue is alienated and twisted young men. He killed both his parents and small children? That is a degree of evil that I can’t even comprehend. If we could figure out how to identify these alienated and twisted young men, I’d have more sympathy for the antis, but history and experience proves we can’t.
We say that we can’t but we also know that our system is terrible. Perhaps a little more time spent improving our failed mental health system and a little less time golfing would be good for President O.
Couldn’t agree more. Something must have come to a head this morning in this young man’s family. There were probably signs way beforehand, something building up to this day.
So this was to hurt his mother. What a sick, deranged, awful person. To target innocent children makes you the most deplorable human in existence.
PLEASE TAKE THIS IMAGE DOWN
Taking this image down will only make it easier for people to ignore what has happened. I’m 15 and I know that when people see hurt with with their eyes they will later see it with their hearts. And if it hurts enough they will try to help.
Count on seeing that image a lot in the MSM.
Not only his parents were killed, but a brother as well. I assume, since the father and brother were in Hoboken, that there is a divorce in there somewhere, though the relevance of that is unknown. And given the amount of time it takes to drive from NJ to Conn., this was a planned attack. SEriously angry young man. Hopefully he left something that will let us know what triggered this massacre.
I agree, we need to improve mental health. But where is the money going to come from? Reagan, when governor, closed the mental hospitals in California to save money. Most counties here cannot afford to keep the doors open. I suspect the dame is true all across the nation. Mental health treatment is hideously expensive, and insurance coverage is limited or nonexistent. Seriously psychotic and schizophrenic individuals may need lifetime care. Who is going to provide it and how? Is it any wonder that our prisons have massive mental health issues that they are not designed to handle?
The problem does back to not only Reagan but all of the states closing institutional care. Some people simply need that level of care.
It is expensive, yet we waste money on far less effective ideas each and every day.
+1 Not to mention that many families, for various reasons, don’t seek out the help/care their family members need.
Meds and deinstitutionalizing were carried out across the country. So many homeless people are the result. This kid probably had access to mental health. His family either didn’t identify the problem, didn’t take advantage of that access, or the treatment was ineffective.
It is not easy to get mental health care in this country unless you are private pay. Insurance keeps a tight leash and facilities are already taxed.
I’ve dealt with it for years for various family members and it’s terrible. Unfortunately most of the mental health hospitals are defacto detox and rehab clinics rather than treating the mentally ill
So, yet another shooting incident has come and gone in The United States of America. Due to how common happenings like this are, in that ‘developed country’, we all know now what will ensue. A hugely emotional, but irrational, pseudo-debate on gun laws. The anti-gun lobby will espouse the need for guns to be completely banned, and for stricter regulations to be imposed on them until such a team that the constitution can be amended. The pro-gun lobby will say (somewhat bafflingly) that people need to be given more guns, in order to defend themselves from gun-toting lunatics who are perfectly free and able to legally obtain guns and then carry out such vicious attacks, due to the backward gun laws, which are actually based completely on false pretence, which I will come to later. Here’s the funny thing; both sides are very, seriously wrong. Total banning of guns would lead to the same events that occurred during the alcohol prohibition in the US, widespread chaos, and gangs running the joint. Also, freely giving out guns to people in the hope that they, themselves will defend one another from a potential attacker is even more laughable than the first proposition, for obvious reasons (but I still would not even choose the former over it). I mean these people are actually using the ‘fight fire, with fire’ argument, which should be excluded immediately from any serious argument, but somehow manages to filter through. Now on to the point on the constitution.
Here is the actual language used in the second amendment, as passed by congress; ‘A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.’ Now, this very clearly does not allow anyone to simply go into a ‘store’ and buy a gun. It does, however, clearly state that a ‘well-regulated militia’ has the right to ‘bear arms’. Now the importance of the language here cannot be overstated. This clearly means that, only those who are part of such a militia should be entitled to have a firearm. Not just any average Joe from the street, who doesn’t have an understanding of how to handle a gun, who has been given a somewhat half-assed background check, and to whom a proper, psychological evaluation, has not been carried out. This is not what the founding father’s wished.
The founding fathers were against all forms of tyrannical government, hence why they fought against the ‘British’. They would certainly have not appreciated the, so-called, ‘patriot act’ which I will describe as the most democratic way that fascism has crept into a democratic state, since the most obvious example. But, I digress. And this is why they gave the right to the people, to form militias and fight back against governments that were encroaching too far on their personal liberties. Not, however, for everyone and their dog to have an AK-47 hanging on the wall. And I would urge the pro-gun lobby to recognise this undeniable fact, and legislate on guns, accordingly.
The last major gun attack we had here, in the ‘UK’ (specifically in Scotland), was the Dunblane massacre carried out by an individual in 1996, and immediately after, we signed in laws and campaigned for tighter gun control, to ensure that a travesty to humanity such as this, would never happen again. That is the last of its kind we have been forced to bear witness to, since then. Unfortunately, in the United States, it’s happening to a point where it’s becoming worryingly common. In the calendar year of 2012, we have been shown truly horrific scenes, from the shooting at the new batman film premiere, to those who were killed in a shopping mall, and now, an elementary school, in which a ‘man’ opened fire, with multiple firearms, and stole the lives of at least 29 people, including members of his own family.
It pains me to say that, when I first heard of this, I was obviously experiencing a wide range of emotions, but the one that was missing was shock. It’s just all too common. It happens too much. And we really need for the people of the United States to have an, adult, civilised, and more importantly fact-based, discussion on what needs to be done in order to effectively prevent travesties like this from happening again. And the annoying thing is, the solution is all too simple; attitudes towards guns are what have to change. Not the laws, not the prices, not the availability, the attitudes. That is how we managed to legislate against them after the massacre at Dunblane. Not because the law was easier to change (which it is), but because of our attitudes towards guns, we managed to do the right thing. The attitude towards guns across the pond, however, is disturbingly different, and is proving to be lethal. Mass killings such as the most recent in Connecticut, and the more famous like the Columbine massacre, and the 61 that have happened since 1982, should be enough to rationalise against the idea that guns are a good thing that keep the citizens safe. But this is just simply not the reality. After gun laws were tightened here, gun crime went down. It works.
And if the people of the United States won’t do it themselves, it is our role, as human beings, to pressure them into actually reading their constitution that they shove in your face when you question their right to ‘bear arms’, and also to drag the pro-gun lobby, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century, and out of the wild west. I don’t mean this condescendingly, this is the world’s perception of the US as a nation, and it is unfortunate, as you had so much potential, on paper. It’s time to grow up, and live up to the potential and the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that were freely offered to you, but wholly rejected.
I mean this in all sincerity: what’s it to you, Doug?
Whats it to me are you serious ? the lives of innocent civilians everywhere who experience a direct consequence of your beliefs, whilst you stand on a podium and force your antiquated beliefs on those too stupid and fearful to question them , so because it is in america i am not allowed to care , i was heartbroken and sickened today at what happened , i have kids at school here in scotland im a parent , to ask me what it is to do with me is quite unbelievable
No Doug, I’m not going to allow you your elision. It says “the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” If the Founders had meant “the right of the Militia to keep and bear arms”, they would have written that. And it’s been well established that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, “well-regulated” meant “well equipped, well stocked, etc.” Finally, “the People” means individual citizens in all other Amendments in the Bill of Rights, why should it be different in the Second?
Also, the Second Amendment will never be repealed or amended. To think otherwise is a fantasy. Two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of state legislatures would have to pass it and that’s just not happening.
over 1 million people that have used a gun to defend themselves last year would definitely outweigh any number killed in mass shootings.
just because its not heavily publicized doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
the media has an agenda and schoolkids getting killed gets publicity and ties in with their political leanings.
http://gunssavelives.net/
Thank you for your perceptive and accurate statement of the deep problem this incident highlights. I’ve read numerous “discussions” and it pains me to see that Americans’ responses and so-called arguments about gun control amount to a bunch of kids slinging mud at each other, with no intent of arriving at a real understanding of what needs to change and why. It really saddens me.
When I read your post, I was delighted and relieved that, at last, someone had offered a solution based on the facts, on real experience and a mature understanding of what needs to change. After reading the responses to your post, I feel saddened again. We have sunk to new lows. Opinion clearly reigns over reason: “Who cares who dies next? MY RIGHTS are being threatened!!” “Who cares what the rest of the world thinks? They don’t live here, and what to they know anyway?” Geeze. How small-minded can you get? Yet we see our politicians doing the same. They vote to please “their constituents” because that’s what gets then re-elected. And we continue to elect them without any expectation that they behave like real statesmen who vote according to their conscience and what is best for the future of our country.
The black and white thinking so evident in this discussion (and many others) makes me hope that the “grey” voices out there know that taking action is what really counts. Shouting matches produce more fear, anger and not much more…. except the self-satisfaction of shouting the loudest.
It’s pretty clear that solutions can’t be heard in an uproar. So my prayer is that this incident will be the fuel that finally brings reason to reign over fear, and allows our country to take measures that protect the innocence and freedom of those who live here. Clearly that’s not what we represent to the world at the moment, so who are we fooling? Is everyone else wrong and ONLY we have it right? That may have been the case 200+ years ago, but without proper care, all machines get out of tune… including our government. Laws and policies are for the common good, so why do we refuse to see the effect they have on the people they are meant to protect? I guess we’d rather cut off our nose despite our face….
Fight fire with fire works. Don’t believe me? 1945: The U.S. unleashes the most terrifying, destructive weapon ever invented. Did the other major power in the world, who did not have such a weapon, ask for this weapon to be banned? No, the Soviet Union got to work on building their own nuclear weapons. Thus, mutually assured destruction guaranteed these new weapons were not used. If criminals, and the mentally ill know that the innocent citizens they are attacking have the same weapons, and that they face serious risk of injury and or death, they will either choose not to use violence against the law abiding citizen, or be stopped shortly after they do. Everyone makes this issue much more complicated than it needs to be, when the precedent on what to do about these kinds of events, was set a mere 65 years ago. A
Mentally ill people don’t care whether or not the people they set out to hurt can hurt them back. They set their mind on hurting people and they follow through.
Brad V. I am truly sorry this is the way you so the nuclear happenings. Mentally ill people cannot be equated to whole countries including majority sane mentally stable people. The conclusion you were looking for is right before your eyes. The insane are willing to die and sacrifice their life, they know it is a strong possibility going into the act. The countries valued their citizens lives, that’s why no more bombings took place. I am willing to here your pro-gun argument. However, I think a different argument is necessary as this one “holds no water.”
Doug, you will never change those who have responded to you, they are the reason these massacres happen. They care more for the lunacy of gun ownership, than the lives of the children. I havnt got the any more recent figures, but in USA in 2009 there were over 9000 gun homicides, in UK 39. That tells you all you need to know. Confucus says ‘a journey starts but with the first step’, so start the process, outlaw gun ownership and see how many children you save
But what is the size of the population in the US vs UK?
that has to be looked at too.
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