I deleted my previous post, after learning about the tragedy in Connecticut. I was out with my wife when the details of the story crossed my wires and I’ve been physically affected by it ever since. I do a lot of joking here, but this sort of event really gets me depressed.
Being a father of 3, knowing how precious the lives of children are, I am profoundly sincere when I say to anyone affected by the monster who hurt our most innocent, I am sorry.
I really don’t know what to think when I read news like this. How could anyone commit such a horrendous act, especially to those who cannot defend themselves and just want to believe in magic. Not only did this bastard kill and injure scores of teachers and children, he ruined the lives of hundreds, if not thousands.
I realize my stupid pistol investment went lower after the news hit–but I couldn’t care less. My problems are trivial when compared to the ones who have to deal with real loss.
Not to be long winded about it, but my family was disrupted as a child when my Father was killed by the bullet from a handgun. As much as people want to believe guns are the problem, that making them illegal will make everything better, they’re wrong. This country is diseased through an acute lack of morality and integrity. Everything about America has become rotten to the core. I am disgusted by this news, but also saddened for what it says about us.
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amen fly,amen
Seem that terrorist attacks like this are popping up in shorter intervals over the years.
Seems that the people on stock twits are disregarding the news like a bunch of heartless greedy faggots, Continuously promoting their positions. Fucking faggots.
Precisely correct. Society is to blame. Since that problem is so tough to correct, a lot of folks want to take the easy way out and blame the weapon. It simply is not so.
Sick at heart at seeing this nightmare.
if its not a gun is a bomb….
You are right, Montrose. This is a much bigger problem than guns and laws. Our society continually creates these monsters and we need to figure out how and why or a lot more innocent people are gonna die.
The weapons are the means with which this horror is perpetrated. Addressing the question of why this happens is not an easy one. Until we figure that out, make it harder to get these weapons and limit the access to these weapons of mass destruction. Automatic weapons with multiple rounds serve absolutely no purpose other than what we have just seen.
Amen Boulder. It may not cure the disease, but it certainly would slow the spread. The common response is that “criminals don’t follow the law”, which is true. But how many criminals have we seen in these shootings? None. We’re seen maniacs and emotional meltdowns. If automatic weapons were not available, these maniacs wouldn’t have the opportunity to destroy so many lives in so few minutes.
No automatic weapons were used in any of the recent mass murders.
Bull shit. Anything that fires faster than a musket should be prohibited.
Its not bullshit. Just the truth. I can pull off 5 shots with a 5 shot revolver at the same speed as you could with a semi-automatic pistol just like the one used in this tragedy.
You clearly have no idea what an automatic weapon is. Educate yourself before commenting again lest you once again appear to be an idiot.
Thanks for writing this. You honestly are a good man, Fly
tru dat.
This. Coin can always be re-earned, lives can’t.
We’re all subject to exogenous event risk – even if it’s the risk that a joke that was funny 24 hours ago falls flat on the next browser refresh.
As a father of 3 grown girls I direct my anger not at the shooters. But, at the immoral society that generated them.
So you don’t hold the shooters responsible? I wonder if the parents of those children who lost their loves feel the same as you.
I really doubt it.
I can’t fathom the pain those parents who lost their children are experiencing.
So sad.
Mmm, no, I direct my anger at the shooter. Enough of this “it’s all society’s fault” crap. That’s just a cop-out. Take a sample of 10 million Americans, and 1 winds up committing mass murder like this. Lots of people get teased in gym class, or have meager blue-collar existences. Just by deduction, the one who can’t handle it has inferior genes. Hopefully he didn’t reproduce.
A game in reasoning too please.
If you believe I. Survival of the fittest, you could say the victims had inferior genes for being at that place at that time.nof course that’s bullshit, but so is trying to isolate anything as simple as one sole cause.
There are influences that lead to events that commingle with other events that produce an effect. Change a single variable out of hundreds and the effects are different.
I work in an urban high school and keep my fingers crossed every day that we can avoid the kind of tragedy that happened in Connecticut. We have routine weapon searches. Kids carry knives to protect themselves from harm. I never even thought about someone hurting me when I went to high school back in the 1970s. It’s sad.
I did too…my old school was completely open..anyone could walk on campus back in the day..today, it looks like a prison surrounded by walls and gates and fences
what the fuck happened to our society in 30 years…on a side not..I thank god i never grew up with the internet and had to go out and play with strange kids at the park and learn to socialize and get along and make new friends
Google how Israel protects its schools. Their teachers are armed.
I’m not sure our teachers have the mindset necessary to be armed and fight back.
Those Israeli teachers and children know and accept terror attacks as a part of everyday life. I also assume any teacher in Israel has gone through military training and knows how to handle a weapon.
I wasn’t aware of the news until you mentioned it. Its tragic! As many as 27 people including 18 elementary school children killed. That’s just brutal! Its gutwrenching! You can’t help but wonder what Christmas will be like this year for all those families affected.
Hug ’em tight. Those poor kids that survived are all going to have PTSD now.
my niece was in that school. Thankfully she is ok. But what she saw.
So sorry. Counseling, and lots of it, for many years. My thoughts go out to your family.
Oh my, prayers for your family and those in Newton
I have been fluctuating from a catatonic state to abject rage since hearing of this news. As a parent of 2 very young kids, it’s tough to think that it can get much worse than this.
I’m just having a really tough time processing and stomaching these events.
elizamae, It is truly impossible for me to imagine anything worse..
To me the issue is: Why not choose a problem that you can solve quickly?
E.g. there used to be people speeding through residential neighborhoods, running over kids. Now, in certain neighborhoods, this isn’t happening any more. This is not because all drivers have gotten more responsible or moral. It’s because speed bumps have been put up which slow drivers down– or ruin their tires.
How are you going to change people’s morals? Tough problem. Maybe you won’t be able to do it. But it is easy to make it hard fro a crazy person to get a gun.
Maybe the crazy person is not even immoral in the sense of understanding what they are doing. If the guy was psychotic, psychosis is generally caused by genetic factors & so the issue then would be not one of morality but of brain chemistry– and of a pschootic person finding it incredibly easy to get a gun.
Right. Make it impossible for crazy people to get guns. How are you going to do that? They don’t come with signs on them saying, “I’m a lunatic, don’t sell me that gun.”
It’s easier said than done, clearly.
There are signs. People are just not picking up on them.
“But it is easy to make it hard fro a crazy person to get a gun.””
Lol, don’t be retarded…
You can 3d print one without a serial number… Making it much more difficult to prove anyone of guilt, and making them illegal could produce an arms race and several independent weapons manufacturers.
So then you make 3d printers illegal…
Oh but then they’ll use rockets and bombs instead.
You can’t regulate human behavior or control what they want to do… It doesn’t work.
I want to fly… Let’s pass a law against gravity. Oh wait, there are conditions that lead to actions…
We don’t like child labor laws so we forced 3rd world countries to eliminate them and not having 25% of family income caused families to starve. Things have consequences.
Real criminals love gun control because black market prices go way up allowing them to make money and making armed robbery much lower risk. Gun control laws lead to more crime. The crazy people will just resort to more elaborate tactics.
guns of course shouldn’t be illegal but they also shouldn’t be easier to get than say, healthcare
good post, sir
Also the father of three children.
I can’t imagine the thought of losing one of them.
Million dollars he was given Ritalin as a child. Fuggin doctors give it out like candy.
And don’t forget single parent households.
There’s a special place in hell for people who hurt small children ..
WE have to change our attitude towards Mental Health Care
Interesting comment. I am curious. Please say more about your proposed solution.
There has to be a gap between having a family member ‘committed” or do nothing at all.
Don’t give me a speech about Reagan’s cuts, it’s been over 20 years time to try another way
You can’t commit people anymore. There is no room for them. They are held for 72 hours and then released on a cocktail of meds. The same meds that many suspect cause these kids to do this stuff. Aka Columbine.
Of course everyone’s angry, especially if you have kids. But being mad or blaming the person who did this as a monster who is going to hell, won’t solve the problem, even if it’s true.
Saying these things isn’t going to make our kids, on average, as safe at school or at the mall or at church, as the average Canadian kid is. If you think gun regulation won’t do that, then what do you think will? What’s your solution to the problem?
Get rid of HIPPA. Designed for gay men so that if they had HIV it would not be revealed in a routine employment background check.
In the case of both Colorado shootings and VTech the shooters had a known history of severe psychological problems that could not be forwarded to the police. So this crucial information does not show up in the FBI firearm purchase background check, which means the loonies can buy at will.
Gun regulation did not stop the use of Guns in Criminal acts of violence, first and foremost proof of this is the fact CRIMINALS DO NOT FOLLOW THE LAW
Canadian kids get shot weekly while playing outside, check a Canadian City
Wasn’t Winnipeg MB just voted the most violent City?
Look at Montreal these days, nobody getting shot up there…right?
Sitting Canards, just hoping that next home invasion will be stopped out by….crossed fingers and Master Lock Dead bolt?
Stop and Frisk had a huge impact in NYC;
May not fall into the category of gun control; but there is a role for law enforcement;
There is no where with an absence of violence, not a reasonable goal.
How about a rifle used in duck shooting? Why the fuck do you need a machine gun to stop an intruder?
Shotguns are used for duck hunting. Rifles for deer, etc.
Machine guns are illegal. The so called assault rifle is not much different from a hunting rifle.
This is a horrible tragedy in Connecticut. It’s possible that with gun control this guy would not have had a weapon to carry out such a mass killing. Still I think the right to own a gun is an important freedom. I do not own any guns, but know I could go buy one today if I wanted.
Some 40,000 people per year are killed in auto accidents. But not many wish to outlaw cars. I’m not sure that’s a great analogy, especially on a day like today.
Do your research idiot. Even if it’s of the 1-min-google-search kind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
The majority of our firearm deaths are due to suicide. Over half of the total firearm deaths are suicide. Compare our homicide rates to other countries and ignore the total firearm deaths as they are inflated by suicide by firearm. Not that that is meaningless.
What you’ll notice is that in countries with more strict gun control laws, the number of firearm deaths per 100K is typically equal to the number of homicides.
Its fascinating that the UK which is our closest country “brother” (descendent if you will) has almost no firearm crime. They banned them after one of their massacres. I assume they have mentally ill people running around as do all these countries in Europe and Canada. But their mentally ill or deranged don’t go ballistic (you have an exception once a decade such as Norway or Finland) but we’ve had 3-4 just in the past 12 months off top of head. So the question is, why are we different. Aside from access to guns. Is it the drugs we feed into our kids like candy? Every hyper boy is now a Ritalin candidate? Or is it bad mental health support? Or it is a culture that celebrates everything to do with violence? Or more kids out of wedlock and to single moms (who are trying to survive) and less time to supervise kids? No one is asking these questions.
Good questions. I almost hate to say it but the questions you ask, if asked to the media, would result in you being labeled a racist. I’m not saying this to be snarky. The exception to this is your question about mental health.
In all the parsing of data and quibbling at the edges of the matter (and by the way the homicide rate in Canada is .76 vs 2.98 in the USA, hardly insignificant) one obvious fact gets too little attention. If Adam Lanza did not have a gun he couldn’t have shot people. Yeah, of course he still could have killed and maimed but it’s a lot more effective with a gun isn’t it Mr Adam Lanza and Mr James Holmes? Of course we’ll always have guns but gun reduction means a safer place for everyone. It’s really fucking simple.
All should be horrified at this. Fly thank you for posting your thoughts.
Sad shit. Words fail this muppet who has 2 muppets 3 and under. My heart goes out to the families.
Good message Fly.
Nice post Fly, couldn’t be further from being long-winded
There is nothing that can be done to stop lunatics from killing kids. America is a free fucking country. Fucked up shit happens.
Seriously? Are you saying murdered children are the ocasional price to be paid for “Freedom”, since “nothing can be done to stop them”?
The tragedy today is horrifying. Any reasonable human being feels sick in the gut at what fucked up shit a handful of crazies are capable of.
How about “school control” after all the worst tragedies happen there, many self flicked by student on student crimes. And most criminals have history of being bullied.
A lot is done to stop them. Unfortunately it’s not 100%.
Solution… Ban school and make kids do it online. Buy every kid an ipad and internet access. Have required assignments that they can use an app to send and receive. It costs 100B. education 800B/year.
That way a nut can’t go and find every kid at once and commit a genocide. Or at least the cops find him well before he can inflict near the amount of damage as one can at a crowded school.
I want the body of the assailant to be chained by the ankles and dragged through the streets of town until the remains of his body could be buried in a shoe box. Then, I want a public urinal built with his name attached to it so that people can piss on him for the next 20 years.
This is gonna solve what? If he were alive, what would you want done to him? Would you imagine that maybe something far worse already happened to him? I’m not saying that’s an excuse but these kinds of events are social failures not individual.
EXACTLY
How is this not an individual failure? Look, I totally agree that we have a culture of violence that desensitizes people. The symptom of that is an overall increase in narcissistic or sociopathic behavior (and by the way, this case is true narcissism…can’t just kill yourself, have to project your hate out to the whole world). But when you see something ridiculous like this, the difference is in the individual (since not everyone with the same experiences reacts like this).
I would not think for a moment as “ridicolous” , referring to what happen .. implications are both social and individual, nevertheless any person grow up in this society , which forges a very big lot of doomed boys, or adults, persons who eventually will explode the confusion they’ve benn grown up in , against another part of the society .. that’s it .
As for the tragedy of the too young deaths of today , I have no words but feel close to anyone who has been involved as a familiar os close to the innocent victims . May God make all of them rest in peace and take care of their family .
You know what? Still absolutely no reason to turn a gun on innocent kids. If you are in that much pain then turn it on yourself first because each bullet doesn’t destroy one life. It destroys 10.
You are a true class act Fly and appreciate your sincerity on your blog.. You are a class act.. It can never be comprehended why these psychopaths hurt people.. It will affect on many lives for years to come.. Have a great weekend Fly and your familia as well!
Great post Fly, you are a man with a genuine heart. It is a very sad day for our country. Increasingly, providing for future generations, must also include providing for their safety.
It’s not guns. Let’s see the sick bastards surrounding these sicker bastards. Parents, teachers, peers and physicians (drugs, prozac ? etc) that were in their life. Piers Morgan Michael Moore fuck off.
Word:
Black rifles and high cap mags will be banned by executive order by the end of next week.
“Never let a good crisis……….”
“”Black rifles and high cap mags will be banned by executive order by the end of next week.””
Yep, by the end of next week there will be a ‘severe’ effort by Obama, or someone with authority, to come down hard on gun ownership — as if guns were the cause of this terrible tragedy, and as if this mentally sick killer wouldn’t have found another way to kill people. Sad, very, very, sad.
I agree it is not guns but I can’t help but wonder how much we are desensitizing our young with video games like “Call of Duty” and TV programs like “The Walking Dead”. There is definitly a problem with today’s society. A lack of parental involvement is usually where it starts.
The state has replaced the role of the parent, without teaching the morality of a parent.
Cancel school!
It will save us 700B a year after we spend 100B a year making the technology available so kids can learn on their own and be safe.
“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” —Communist dictator, Joseph Stalin (1934)
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” —Adolf Hitler
Profound to consider that.
Yep,
…where are the parents!!
My father was a police officer for 4 years but quit the force a year after I was born. My mother said he was worried about getting hurt, but later on, he said it was b/c he was starting to hate human beings.
But he carried a pistol with him every day of his life and growing up, I assumed every man in America carried a piece with him.
As I grew older, I realized that was obviously not the case and that very few private citizens regularly carried a firearm.
So I asked him “why, is it to fight off criminals like muggers and such?” and this was his answer (as word for word as I can remember):
“Well, there are criminals out there that might hurt you. But if you’re careful and don’t put yourself in bad situations, you don’t usually need to worry about them, unless you’re a criminal yourself… the rest is luck. If you ever get mugged, you just give them your money and jewelry so nobody gets hurt. But son, there are people in this world that are not like us. They aren’t normal people. They don’t have normal brains. They don’t get scared cuz they don’t care about things like we do and there ain’t no fixing ’em or talkin’ to ’em cuz they just aren’t wired right. And when those kinda people get it in their heads that they’re gonna hurt people, there’s nothing to do but put ’em down. So, I carry this pistol to make sure that they aren’t gonna hurt me or you or your mom. Do you understand?”
Yessir.
Excellent writing. This man knows.
Yes.
That is right on the money.
This is true. It’s unbelievable when you come in contact with such a person. I had the experience this last summer. First time in my life to be around such a guy. Dude said he could rip a person’s larynx out, and that other people are just garbage. He said he killed 3 men at Georgia State pen. We forget what a job the police do for us in keeping America liveable. Sure they screw up at times but we could not get by without them.
I hear you Fly. My cousin was murdered last Spring and every time I hear news like this it just bring back terrible memories.
No clue how this kind of stuff usually happens in America but it is something to think about. We had a shooter at one of our malls this summer and that person killed two, they weren’t children though. This is beyond low and I’m disgusted by it.
Sure, its more gun laws needed. Say like Scotland. They have tuff ones there. It sure slowed down that guy that killed 17 people at the Dunblane School. Oh yes, 16 of them were five year olds. How about Norway? Their laws sure prevented that guy from killing 69 kids and wounding 110. More gun laws – Sure – thats the ticket.
Congrats, you named two instances over God knows how many years of strict gun control laws. In the US we get this shit every week.
No, there have been several school shootings in just the last two years in Canada alone which has a tiny population. A guy just stabbed 23 kids in China the other day. The point is that guns aren’t the issue. These kinds of attacks are increasing all over the world. Pick up a paper or click on one and get informed.
The populations of Israel and Switzerland are armed to the teeth yet this never happens. Get the point now. It is part a mental health issue and cultural issue.
Your figure of every two weeks is both inane and asinine. The broader issue of mentally unstable people committing acts of violence is a world wide problem.
This was an act of evil. There will be much to be learned in this case, unfortunately. But necessarily so if we are to prevent it recurring.
We need to follow the Isreali model. School’s are armed to the teeth inside. Criminals terrified to try anything. It’s the opposite in this insane country. Nothing like this happens over there.
I think that for now, that is the only practical solution, and people need to start getting behind it. “Gun Free” school zones and such are nothing but death traps these days.
A friend who is a cop put it very well. “These jerks don’t go to a school because they are looking for a fight.”
How many would still be alive if someone, or several on the staff were armed and knew how to respond………….
More guns to fight gun violence. Sounds a lot like those people whining about using more debt to cure a debt problem. Funny enough, they are often the same people.
Again a silly statement by you. Liberals advocate more gun laws and more debt. Conservatives less gun laws and and less debt.
LOL. Instead of a reasoned debate PG prefers insults.
Indeed. Agreed
(sorry for the redundant post below.)
Fly — some posts would be better if there were “no comments allowed”. This was one, I think.
You can’t cure crazy.
The children herd everything it was during morning announcements..
heard
I wondered about the previous post and what your decision would be. You acted just as I thought you would, with sensibility and class. Honored to be here Fly.
What My3Sons said
Peace and love to your family Fly and to all the families of iBC bloggers, fans, and contributors.
Evil may have seized this day,but kindness, love & support of fellow man is there to take the night!
I think we can conclude that the “gun free zone” law is stupid and should be repealed.
“Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” —Communist dictator, Joseph Stalin (1934)
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” —Adolf Hitler
The current system produces maniacs and crazy fools and then puts kids all in a spot vulnerable to past crazies.
Horrible news, thanks for this post Fly.
A random thought on how to take mental health seriously without fucking with the First, Second, Fourth, or Fifth amendments.
Once upon a time, during the DTV transition, the Department of Commerce was able, via NTIA, to provide two $40 vouchers good for the purchase of a set-top ATSC decoder box to any household that cared to fill out a form.
So how ’bout this? You renew your driver’s license or passport? (~5 years) you get a voucher good for $50 with any shrink you like. Or maybe a $20 voucher just for filing your taxes, or any other sort of governmental thing you do annually. The vouchers are uniquely serialized (to limit counterfeiting), but no record of which voucher was issued to which filer is kept. Since we all know we can’t trust the gummint(tm) on that front, make them fungible, like gift cards. Guy on the street coner’s acting loopy? Got a co-worker who’s having a bad day? Discreetly take ’em aside and say “Hey, bud, I’m not using mine, and I know you need about $100 worth of these to get an appointment, but you look like you could use this. If I’m fulla shit and you’re fine, that’s cool too – feel free to pass the card to someone you think needs it.”
This isn’t gonna solve the problem. But something like it would mean that even a shut-in would get a “free” sanity check every few years, and every at-risk person with more than one friend on the planet would likely find themselves with enough vouchers to get a mental health checkup every 6-12 months. Same way you go to the dentist every 6-12 months, “even if nothing’s wrong”.
Disclosure: Exercising my rights under the 21st Amendment, so I’m sure there’s lots of things wrong with the idea.
But let’s start with de-stigmatizing mental illness.
There is loads of research that early exposure to neglect, abuse, and violence actually changes the brain (often irreversible changes) and leads to many problems in adulthood. A common result of these experiences is PTSD, which is often misdiagnosed as another type of personality or mental disorder.
All too true – we just don’t call it PTSD because we don’t recognize it.
Thanks for spending your day doing serious research on the problem. It’s a healthier alternative than the one I went for tonight.
But for what it’s worth, when it comes to not having words to express it, The Fly is in good company. A thousand journalists tried to tell us the news today, but only the satirists at The Onion could speak the truth of what we all felt.
With all due respect and sadness for your personal history, your position about nothing would be different if there was stricter gun control is bullshit. Perhaps a mentally deranged individual could
find an equally lethal alternative but why make it so easy for the fucker. Last time I checked Newtown, CT isn’t Detroit. Why the fuck is the mom packing such weaponry? Were the guns in a gun safe? My guess is no. Where do criminals get their guns? From fuckin irresponsible “legal” gun owners who have no rspect for their weapons. Yes our society is filled with miscreants but that’s no excuse for letting them have access to tools that kill our children. Jeez.
Equally unstable individual, but much different outcome.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/14/china-knife-attack-school.html
As Kdog said, the snuff video games and our own drone strikes and high tech wars and hero worship of Seals and……. anyway, you reap what you sow.
Such an act, and similar ones like the recent mall shooting and the slaughter in the theater, are not the work of a rational. logical mind. They are the work of a mind possessed and deluded.
Ephesians 6:12 if you care to look it up and find out the root cause.
My prayer for the families torn apart and plunged into this senseless tragedy is the they may find comfort and hope for the future from others around them and from God Himself.
There is no way to deal with this on a human, physical level.
My attempt at making some sense of all this:
Who Do We Blame for the Connecticut Tragedy?
I’m watching the news and I can’t believe what has taken place! I just wish that it was some horrible nightmare and that I will wake up at any moment and none of this will be true!
You keep asking yourself, who could do such a thing? You envision some kind of monster, a degenerate! The shooter was no monster, he was a 20 year old kid himself! What was so fucked up in his life that he would start of his day by shooting his own mother in the face and then go on a rampage and kill 26 other people and then finally turn the gun on himself? It’s something I can’t understand.
It just hurts so bad!
I feel you JTU.
I once managed the IT for a hospital. We had someone in behavior health unit. Doctors released patient on a Monday with a cocktail of drugs which he had probably been taking forever. Problem solved. That week he went to the local gun range, rented a gun and blew his brains out. It was all over the news. Myself, the physicians, behavior health personnel, etc were all on the hook. The fucking doctor tried to pin it on our group since we managed the process for the FOID database in Illinois. His info was never reported not that it would have mattered. These kids start their cocktails at 5 and that needs to stop. Keep your kids off of that shit.
(((((Fly)))))
Fly, don’t hide behind the “corrupt Society” argument.
Given that all mass murderers are white males, does that mean all white males should be locked up?
There are many things we can do.
“…acute lack of morality and integrity” in this country… please!
Every country is “deceased”, don’t feel so exceptional. There are two simple reasons to account for huge discrepancy in gun murders in the U.S. and the rest of the world: easy ACCESS to almost any and all weapons and the perceived right to PROFIT off anything.
Wrong
Well said, Herr Fly. I call it American Mendacity.
As for you whack-jobs defending this gun proliferation nonsense by cherry-picking ignorance of much, much safer polities, I say, “thank God you live far, far away from me …”
Value every day. Do good. Use your talents. Appreciate what you have. Never waste. You’re a good man Fly.
Tragic and this many never should have died. Why? Because of our f”d up laws.
So, what is a solution? Is there a solution? There is and it’s already being done elsewhere of course.
In the US law abiding, gun-toting citizens are not permitted to carry guns in certain places – such as: schools, churches, etc. The effect is that lunatics of all sorts know if they can get in there and shoot at will without having to worry about being shot until the swat team arrives.
Contrast this with jewelry stores for instance. Criminals with at least half a brain know that jewelers, in general are armed to the teeth. Some jewelers have been know to keep loaded guns every few feet behind the counter. Does this spot idiots from trying to rob them? No but many a robber has left the store under a sheet.
Here’s the solution: (it’s already done in Israel. If the teachers were allowed to carry concealed weapons, I guarantee you 20 kids would not be dead. As soon as they heard shots they would have prepared to blow that nut-case coward kid away.
It is irresponsible to ignore the effect that the availability of guns has on the number of lives lost in such tragic events.
The same day as the attack in Connecticut, there was an attack at a school in China by a knife-wielding man. 22 students were injured, but none were killed. If guns were available in China to people like him (or the numerous other Chinese people who have attacked school children with knives in recent years,) the casualties would have been much greater.
Fly: Isn’t the vulgarity occassioned on this site a symtom/evidence of the decline in morality of our culture? I know you don’t use this language in front of your kids nor would you have them use it, but I suppose that it’s use here is just the schtick. But doesn’t it serve to bring us all down a rung?