sad day in America

[splante]

like I said such a sad,senseless act by a cowardly unhuman monster...it has made me more conflicted in the debate on gun control..do you outlaw all guns ...then just the crimanals have them? or do we as a people stand up get get trained,licensed and protect everyone around you at all times and be ready at any given moment to take out sick bastards like this.....

 

[bostaurus]

It seems to be the first reaction one has to say we must do something about guns but I think it does not go to the root of the problem.
Gun ownership is up but gun crime is down. I remember when most little boys owned a BB gun and usually had their first 22 by the time they were 10-12 years old. My husband remembers being able to earn a BB gun during school fund raisers and it would be presented to you at school. We have had guns in our hands since the beginning of our country but these types of shootings have mostly occurred in the last 20 years. It seems, in my opinion, that something else is going on here and it really is not gun ownership.
- young men that feel disconnected from society, have had psych/social issues in the past that were not dealt with
- very young kids (elementary age) playing first shooter games.
- news programs that keep this on the air 24/7. Trying to fill the air time these folks are ending up putting on some poorly vetted commentators saying some wacky stuff. Reporters intruding on family grief. They tell us everything about this killer, he is now infamous. We can recognize the names of past mass killers...do we remember the names of any of the victims?
-a value-less society, there are no absolute values anymore or at least no one wants to say there are...
-a whole generation that communicates primarily by text, email, etc. The definition of "friend" has changed with Facebook.
-violent music, films, and video games. We have rating systems for a reason and they are ignored by many parents.
I wish I knew the answer...

 

[februarystarskc]

Morgan Freeman's take on it. I thought this sounded about right.

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."

 

[epackage]

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[carobran]

ORIGINAL: splante
or do we as a people stand up get get trained,licensed and protect everyone around you at all times and be ready at any given moment to take out sick bastards like this.....

You do this Splante.^^^^ I don't want to start an argument here,but I'd like to tell everybody about a school shooting you probably haven't heard about,at least no this part. In 1997 a student at Pearl High School in Pearl,Miss. killed his mother,then went to school with a 30. 30. rifle and killed 2 students,wounding several others. As he was attempting to flee,with his rifle and 30 rounds of ammuniton in his car,the assistant principal ran across a parking lot,retrieved a handgun from is truck,returned and held the shooter at gunpoint until police arrived. Think about that,this person killed his mother,2 other students,and was fleeing with 30 more rounds and his rifle. Who knows where he was headed. You can't tell me that armed citizens don't save lives.

You can read more about it here http://rkba.org/users/myrick.txt

 

[nydigger]

One thing that has surfaced is the fact he was mentally ill. So many times this is ignored and not mentioned. This is a more serious issue. These people that suffer with it are offten times misdiagnosed or swept under the rug and do not recieve the help they so desperatly need. Read this article my dad posted on facebook. It gives incite into what parents or care givers of aflicted children and adults go through.....all of these shooters have had some form of it...thats the under lying problem that needs to be addressed and fixed

http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html

 

[coldwater diver]

My heart weeps for anyone who has lost someone due to senseless violence and evil. I try to listen to all the arguments currently going on to prevent these all to common events.

This may seem unrelated but I dont think one talking head has focused on shows such as Criminal minds "positively entertaining"(there catch phrase) where you can view rape,murder,cannabalism,torture in as many ways as you can dream up. I dont mean to just point them out but you get the idea, its one of many out there. I am not mentally ill but for those that are, might these shows plant the seeds in someones head who is? Do these shows have any responsibility to what is happening to our culture because the guns have been here for a while. Back in the day (before tv and radio)the pen was mightier than the sword, well how does modern media, video games and the like fit in ?
When I was growing up it was Wild Kingdom and McGuyver ,Pac Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids.

May God keep these little ones close until they are reunited with there loved ones once again in heaven.

 

[druggistnut]

Kids used to solve problems with one another with a punch to the nose, too. That is not allowed any more.
Send kids out to play. Get them involved with other kids. That weeds out the ones with problems, right away. Teachers send kids out on the playground with school aids/parent volunteers, anymore.
If they are allowed to watch TV and play on the computer, there is no interaction to judge them by.

 

[druggistnut]

I'll guarantee you that it is not the kids involved in sports, band, student council, etc... that have the issues. The ones that hang out with "weird" kids, like the Goths, or by themselves, are the ones that need to be identified and interviewed by a professional, not a school counselor.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

ORIGINAL: nydigger

One thing that has surfaced is the fact he was mentally ill. So many times this is ignored and not mentioned. This is a more serious issue. These people that suffer with it are offten times misdiagnosed or swept under the rug and do not recieve the help they so desperatly need. Read this article my dad posted on facebook. It gives incite into what parents or care givers of aflicted children and adults go through.....all of these shooters have had some form of it...thats the under lying problem that needs to be addressed and fixed

http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/2012/12/thinking-unthinkable.html

I am sitting here watching the Tuesday morning news and they just said the gun man had "no lingering mental heath issues" come onnnn!