It's just so very sad

[Fishy]

The shooter used three legally purchased guns.

So, there's that.

If a turban and a bomb walked in the front door of that school, s*** would get done. But three legal guns walked in there instead, so let's shrug and wait for the next time.

 

[Danzz]

This shooter, Ryan Lanza killed his father, this morning, in Hoboken NJ. He then drove up to Newtown killed his mother, a kindergarten teacher, and most of the kids in his mothers class.

Horrible....

THe report I heard is that he killed his brother in Hoboken and not his father.He also killed his mother , a kindergarten teacher at the school.Such a sweet kid.

 

[noeynox]

Were they his? Did he legally purchase them or did they belong to the person he killed in NJ? In this state or NJ or somewhere else? Does it matter? Not at the moment. Going forward all those things have to be looked at.

Come up with a federal process on obtaining firearms. Don't leave it up to individual states to set the bar.

You can't discount that these incidents are not carried out by rational, law abiding citizens. These are ticking time bombs walking amongst us.

 

[nomar]

It starts with 'Community'. Our society needs to a better job at finding the "outliers" in society and helping them to discover self worth and purpose. Most of the time teachers turn their back on those who are having trouble fitting in with society and we all know it. "Community" is fading in the world we live in today. More government control will create more backlash and rebellion.

How about an actual idea? Have you got any of those?

 

[zls44]

You can't discount that these incidents are not carried out by rational, law abiding citizens. These are ticking time bombs walking amongst us.

You're right. You're absolutely right.

So let's make it harder for them to explode.

 

[ucp990411]

I worked at Hartford Distributors when the murders there occurred, some of the best men and biggest UConn fans were among the victims. Doug Scruton, Craig Pepin, Bill Ackerman were all huge Husky fans and the best guys you would ever meet. Omar Thornton the murderer legally had an arsenal, how do you figure.His claims of racism were the biggest bunch of crap. I have shot one bullet in my life. Make the guns illegal and eventually the idiots would not have them.

 

[SeattleHoop]

Gun control, police and metal detectors is a band aid on top of much larger issue and pattern going on in society. 22 school children were stabbed by a lunatic in China today also. They also want to “beef up” security. But how much will that really solve? Would it save lives to take away freedoms and be constantly watched or would it make more people angry at society that they are constantly being controlled? Tough questions to answer, but in my opinion there needs to be awareness and effort from the public education system to identify and help those who are bullied and mistreated by society. When young kids are born different and shunned by the very society they so desperately trying to please and fit themselves into, the pain and suffering must be unimaginable. In their twisted minds it must be reasonable to cause harm to the same society that caused them torment. Otherwise it wouldn’t happen. It is impossible to place yourself into the shoes of a person who commits such evil and monstrous actions but what we can do is try and identify the “outliers” at a very young age. We have to come up with a way to involve those who are having trouble fitting in with the community. We need to find a place for them. Educators need to identify, report and speak up for those who are having trouble instead of turning their back. When I was a child I lived in the same area as the tragedy that took place today, and I can tell you I saw kids who had a lot of trouble fitting in and suffered because of it (me being one of them at one point but I lucky enough that I was helped by my wonderful family and I adapted). Teachers were of no help and many times made things much worse. It also doesn’t help that with television, internet, video games etc the word “community” does not hold as much meaning anymore and those who are separated from it are becoming further separated than ever before in history. Instead of putting up more controls and more band aids that will in the long run only make things worse and create more backlash in my opinion we have to put forth a greater attempt at tackling the source of the problem. Gun control is not going to help the agony and suffering in these peoples “minds”. That will still be there and they will find another way to either end the pain or inflict it onto others. A more controlled society will in turn create more rebellion. Though it is much easier said than done the true answer is to try and do all we can to create a sense of worth and purpose to those who feel no worth and teach them the significance of the world we live in and let them know they are loved. It won’t solve everything but I honestly believe it is a better solution than more government control. My heart goes out to the families who are suffering from this terrible tragedy today, God Bless their souls….We can all do better in the eyes of God.

 

[noeynox]

You're right. You're absolutely right.

So let's make it harder for them to explode.

I'm for anything that makes sense in regards to this. Much of what I read just doesn't make sense.

One thing I think might help is coming up with a federal process making it a uniform policy across the country on how you can obtain firearms. Have it include a psychological exam. That's all I got. I wish I had more.

 

[Danzz]

The strictest gun control laws are in Chicago and yet is the murder capitol of the US. Splain that one to me Lucy.

I had a neighbor in Atlanta who thought all guns should be abolished and I told him "great you can be the first in the neighborhood to put a sign out that says this home is a gun free home" He shut up immediately.

By the way all you gun control freaks; in Nazi Germany they took all the guns away from the civilians, so only the military and the police had weapons.
That worked out real well.

So what what do you suggest? Maybe we should arm everybody.

 

[noeynox]

Gun control, police and metal detectors is a band aid on top of much larger issue and pattern going on in society. 22 school children were stabbed by a lunatic in China today also. They also want to “beef up” security. But how much will that really solve? Would it save lives to take away freedoms and be constantly watched or would it make more people angry at society that they are constantly being controlled? Tough questions to answer, but in my opinion there needs to be awareness and effort from the public education system to identify and help those who are bullied and mistreated by society. When young kids are born different and shunned by the very society they so desperately trying to please and fit themselves into, the pain and suffering must be unimaginable. In their twisted minds it must be reasonable to cause harm to the same society that caused them torment. Otherwise it wouldn’t happen. It is impossible to place yourself into the shoes of a person who commits such evil and monstrous actions but what we can do is try and identify the “outliers” at a very young age. We have to come up with a way to involve those who are having trouble fitting in with the community. We need to find a place for them. Educators need to identify, report and speak up for those who are having trouble instead of turning their back. When I was a child I lived in the same area as the tragedy that took place today, and I can tell you I saw kids who had a lot of trouble fitting in and suffered because of it (me being one of them at one point but I lucky enough that I was helped by my wonderful family and I adapted). Teachers were of no help and many times made things much worse. It also doesn’t help that with television, internet, video games etc the word “community” does not hold as much meaning anymore and those who are separated from it are becoming further separated than ever before in history. Instead of putting up more controls and more band aids that will in the long run only make things worse and create more backlash in my opinion we have to put forth a greater attempt at tackling the source of the problem. Gun control is not going to help the agony and suffering in these peoples “minds”. That will still be there and they will find another way to either end the pain or inflict it onto others. A more controlled society will in turn create more rebellion. Though it is much easier said than done the true answer is to try and do all we can to create a sense of worth and purpose to those who feel no worth and teach them the significance of the world we live in and let them know they are loved. It won’t solve everything but I honestly believe it is a better solution than more government control. My heart goes out to the families who are suffering from this terrible tragedy today, God Bless their souls….We can all do better in the eyes of God.

There is certainly a place in all this, for this viewpoint. Don't expect it to be received well hours after the tragedy happened.

 

[uconnric]

"How many people who scream for gun control even understand why the right to bear arms was put into the bill of rights? How many understand whether the need for that right is more or less than it was 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 200 years ago?"

Wrong. The right to bear arms for malitia purposes no longer applies. It never was an absolute right to bear arms, and there certainly needs to be some serious limitations on it now.

 

[SeattleHoop]

How about an actual idea? Have you got any of those?

Sure more effort and focus needs to be put forth from the educators on 1)helping the "isolated" 2)more awareness needs to go out to those who are not "troubled" to help those who are 3) We need to better identify them and try and create a place for them. Gun control is one solution but I am willing to bet it will not help that much and actually create more problems. It is the "minds" that are troubled and guns don't have minds. What happens when they get their hands on chemical weapons? Will metal detectors help? Again the issue is much much deeper than guns. And I truly think controlling guns will create more angry people.

 

[NOTaDIME]

The strictest gun control laws are in Chicago and yet is the murder capitol of the US. Splain that one to me Lucy.

I had a neighbor in Atlanta who thought all guns should be abolished and I told him "great you can be the first in the neighborhood to put a sign out that says this home is a gun free home" He shut up immediately.

By the way all you gun control freaks; in Nazi Germany they took all the guns away from the civilians, so only the military and the police had weapons.
That worked out real well.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

 

[SeattleHoop]

I am not expecting it to be well received but it needs to be said because I think people are focused on the wrong solutions. I also would like to point out that I am not being insensitive I am just trying to analyze and comprehend what happened instead of speak from raw emotion

 

[WestHartHusk]

Drugs don't kill people either, people kill people. See how I did that? It's really fun and it doesn't take any thought at all.

 

[zls44]

I worked at Hartford Distributors when the murders there occurred, some of the best men and biggest UConn fans were among the victims. Doug Scruton, Craig Pepin, Bill Ackerman were all huge Husky fans and the best guys you would ever meet.

God bless you.

 

[tykurez]

Harvard Study: More Guns, More Homicide

I still believe that these things will happen regardless of a significant change in gun control. Perhaps to a lesser severity or degree? One would hope.

 

[huskyharry]

It's a false argument. Chicago bans handguns and is the murder capital of the country. The UK bans everything and has seen gun violence skyrocket ever since they did. Switzerland has almost no gun control and has almost no gun crime.

If you are really looking for honest answers, look at a society that changed with Roe v Wade in its casual indifference to killing. Look at the devaluation of the family unit. There are many societal ills at work here. The ability to own an inert mechanical tool is the least of them. Gun ownership hasn't changed, yet we didn't see this in the 50s or before. So what has changed?

Absolutely right...the root cause is the moral degradation of society.
I see absolutely no reason for private citizens to be allowed to own assault rifles and clearly the screening process in selling weapons to this individual was woefully inadequqte, but as another poster pointed out, a similar incident recently occurred in China with the perpetrator using a knife.
My twisted fellow USUHS medical school graduate killed all those soldiers at Fort Hood using a pistol, as did the Virginia Tech killer. The evil is the problem!

 

[Edward Sargent]

I don't disagree with Tyk's thoughts. But...

We're very good at mourning and holding candlelight vigils. We're very good about pretending that we're going to 'get to the bottom of things'. But that's putting a Band-Aid on a shark bite - we're very bad actually doing something about it.

One guy tries to sneak a bomb on an airplane and now millions of us have to take our shoes off to get through the TSA. But this isn't the first time someone has shot their way through a classroom full of kids and still we do nothing but slap on our sad faces for a few days.

I'm a conservative person. I don't like the thought of the government intruding in certain areas of our lives and gun ownership was one of those areas.

But I'm a realist and I'm also someone who doesn't want get shot at the movies or the convenient store or anywhere else. And I don't want anyone else to get shot.

We can't keep guns away from the people who should not have them and the price that we pay as a result far outweighs whatever benefit that gun ownership might yield.

No more charades.

We need to figure out a better way of the handling mentally ill too.

 

[tzznandrew]

Sure more effort and focus needs to be put forth from the educators on 1)helping the "isolated" 2)more awareness needs to go out to those who are not "troubled" to help those who are 3) We need to better identify them and try and create a place for them. Gun control is one solution but I am willing to bet it will not help that much and actually create more problems. It is the "minds" that are troubled and guns don't have minds. What happens when they get their hands on chemical weapons? Will metal detectors help? Again the issue is much much deeper than guns. And I truly think controlling guns will create more angry people.

You realize that we over-burden and under pay teachers as it is, right (although I'm sure you'll disagree with both of those). As someone who has spent time in the classroom, its nearly impossible to meet all the needs of teaching, let alone being some sort of psychologist for students. You need paid professionals for that. If you want to get those people more involved in school--and they once were more involved than they are now--we need states to stop cutting money to education and stop emphasizing tests so much--tests that necessitate a ton of money and administrators to run.

Schools bear a lot of burdens. We expect them to teach, to baby-sit, to be psychologists, and to remedy and fix a lot of what is wrong with America. And then when they can't fix everything, we cut funding to them, exasperating the problem.

I'm sympathetic to your idea, insomuch as we don't expect the teachers to do more than teach, and we bring in other people who are professional to figure these other things out.

 

[SeattleHoop]

You realize that we over-burden and under pay teachers as it is, right (although I'm sure you'll disagree with both of those). As someone who has spent time in the classroom, its nearly impossible to meet all the needs of teaching, let alone being some sort of psychologist for students. You need paid professionals for that. If you want to get those people more involved in school--and they once were more involved than they are now--we need states to stop cutting money to education and stop emphasizing tests so much--tests that necessitate a ton of money and administrators to run.

Schools bear a lot of burdens. We expect them to teach, to baby-sit, to be psychologists, and to remedy and fix a lot of what is wrong with America. And then when they can't fix everything, we cut funding to them, exasperating the problem.

I'm sympathetic to your idea, insomuch as we don't expect the teachers to do more than teach, and we bring in other people who are professional to figure these other things out.

You make great points. I actually agree. And it shouldn't all be in the teachers you are absolutely right. I really think states should spend money on implementing programs and ways to get these kids more invloved and we need to establish some kind of program that identifies these kids and helps them to fit in. I don't have all the answers but I do know gun control isn't the best one and definitely not the only one.

 

[RS9999X]

I worked at Hartford Distributors when the murders there occurred, some of the best men and biggest UConn fans were among the victims. Doug Scruton, Craig Pepin, Bill Ackerman were all huge Husky fans and the best guys you would ever meet. Omar Thornton the murderer legally had an arsenal, how do you figure.His claims of racism were the biggest bunch of crap. I have shot one bullet in my life. Make the guns illegal and eventually the idiots would not have them.

I disagree with Your conclusion but am ecstatic with that timely reference. People forget too easily

Sent from my Lumia 920 via Windows 8. Now bite me Apple Droids.

 

[Danzz]

Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Actually Guns don't kill people people kill people with guns.

 

[tzznandrew]

You make great points. I actually agree. And it shouldn't all be in the teachers you are absolutely right. I really think states should spend money on implementing programs and ways to get these kids more invloved and we need to establish some kind of program that identifies these kids and helps them to fit in. I don't have all the answers but I do know gun control isn't the best one and definitely not the only one.

We can disagree with how effective gun control laws will be while also acknowledging that it's only one small aspect of deeper problems. We're not going to fix all our problems with one law.

My greatest fear is that we get some poorly designed law named in honor of this event that is over-broad and restricts rights too greatly.

We need to talk about how we deal with guns in this country.
We need to talk about how we deal with the mentally ill in this country--both once ill, and in identifying them.

And there are a host of other things to deal with, none of which is the magic bullet.

(But none of it has to do with Roe v. Wade...)

 

[temery]

School shootings are a small fraction of gun deaths in the US, but I cannot think of a single school shooting that wasn't done with a legally obtained gun.

Making gun ownership even a little more difficult may prevent a few of these school shootings. I am ok with that.

The inconvenience a gun owner may have to go through is a fair price to pay.

I don't disagree with Tyk's thoughts. But...

We're very good at mourning and holding candlelight vigils. We're very good about pretending that we're going to 'get to the bottom of things'. But that's putting a Band-Aid on a shark bite - we're very bad actually doing something about it.

One guy tries to sneak a bomb on an airplane and now millions of us have to take our shoes off to get through the TSA. But this isn't the first time someone has shot their way through a classroom full of kids and still we do nothing but slap on our sad faces for a few days.

I'm a conservative person. I don't like the thought of the government intruding in certain areas of our lives and gun ownership was one of those areas.

But I'm a realist and I'm also someone who doesn't want get shot at the movies or the convenient store or anywhere else. And I don't want anyone else to get shot.

We can't keep guns away from the people who should not have them and the price that we pay as a result far outweighs whatever benefit that gun ownership might yield.

No more charades.

 

[temery]

Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

And guns made it easier to kill 18 children, and eight adults.

 

[Deepster]

I don't know that anyone is calling for "Gun Elimination". Just "Gun Control".

You're all right. You'll never stop all of the truly deranged from doing something if they've completely set their mind to it. But the way we're set up right now? We're almost inviting it. It TOO easy for a 20 yr old kid to pull off. ANYONE can just go and do what he did on a duck*ing whim. That's not acceptable.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We can disagree with how effective gun control laws will be while also acknowledging that it's only one small aspect of deeper problems. We're not going to fix all our problems with one law.

My greatest fear is that we get some poorly designed law named in honor of this event that is over-broad and restricts rights too greatly.

We need to talk about how we deal with guns in this country.
We need to talk about how we deal with the mentally ill in this country--both once ill, and in identifying them.

And there are a host of other things to deal with, none of which is the magic bullet.

(But none of it has to do with Roe v. Wade...)

Which is exactly what happened before. The Clinton Assault Weapons Ban (still in effect in some states) banned weapons based on cosmetic factors relating solely to appearance. An AR 15 that looks much like a military M16 is no more powerful or deadly than a wooden framed deer rifle. In most cases it is less so.

This whole event is beyond horrific and I cannot imagine the shock and agony felt by the victims' families.

 

[amory]

I'm so blank. I grew up in Monroe, just 15 minutes from where this happened. My little sister just started teaching first grade in Easton.

Little kids...I'm not the best with little kids. Their innocence almost frightens me, I don't know how to interact with them. But they're amazing. Like little blank slates that any of us would give a lot to go back to at certain times in our lives. I'm so angry, and yet more confused how someone could look into their little faces and pull a trigger, even if they're mentally deranged.

What a day. What a nightmare.

 

[zls44]

Has UConn released a statement?