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Two Gunmen at Newtown, Conn., Elementary School Shooting, One Dead [W:449/490/584]

You may be shocked to learn that would take more officers than some counties have total on duty at any given time.

We got money for bailouts and preemptive war. But not for common sense layers of security when it comes to the fruit of our society.
 
I wonder if the shooter was a pot smoker. Certainly that connection would be more important to focus on than guns.

Something in his mind made him do it, not the inert piece of metal in his hand.

Sometimes I wonder . . . I truly do.
 
ABC and Reuters have the same reports. One of the suspects was 24, other as young as 20...allegedly.

The shooter was the 20 year old apparently.....hard to imagine a 20 year old with a kid at the school really unless they were a parent at like 15.
 
Gun murders in the US are 9 per 100K. In the UK it's 0.22 per 100K. That's about 400 gun deaths in the US for every 1 in the UK....How many people in the UK have access to guns? Coincidence?

BTW - This is the PERFECT time to reflect on gun violence while we're all sore, hurting, shocked, crying, in pain and angry before people forget again and nothing gets done, again.

UK also has the highest crime rate in Europe. In fact the colonial cousins have more violent crimes then the US. 8% of the UK citizens will be a victim, while in the US only 2%.
 
I wonder if the shooter was a pot smoker. Certainly that connection would be more important to focus on than guns.

Something in his mind made him do it, not the inert piece of metal in his hand.

Yes, if anything will help us understand this tragedy better, it's reckless speculation.
 
It does not happen anywhere else, only the USA:roll:

Norway killer Anders Breivik ruled sane, given 21-year prison term - CNN.com

Anders Behring Breivik (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈɑndəʂ ˈbeːrɪŋ ˈbræjviːk];[6] born 13 February 1979) is the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks. In a sequential bombing and mass shooting on 22 July 2011, he bombed government buildings in Oslo, resulting in eight deaths, then carried out a mass shooting at a camp of the Workers' Youth League (AUF) of the Labour Party on the island of Utøya, where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.

Anders Behring Breivik - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You failed to highlight the words that ended the sentence that you did highlight...you left out "it's almost always in the USA." note the word ALMOST?
 
Well, it's pretty much impossible to stop this kind of thing.

First, red flags only become so after the fact. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Sure, there are "yellow" flags beforehand, but there's absolutely no way of telling if someone is going to actually do something like this or if they're just shooting their mouth off. Warning signs are ambiguous enough that it's never possible to tell until after the fact.

Second, even if someone picked up on these signals, what are they going to do? Go to the police? The police would say they couldn't do anything about it because no crime was committed. Have this person committed to a mental institution based on a few things they've said? Does anyone even know how to go about doing something like that? And if so, do you really think that you can get someone involuntarily committed based on a few things that they have said?
I don't agree that it's "pretty much impossible." I think that people tend to confuse "we don't know how to stop it" with "that's impossible." People have been doing that since human beings existed and impossible has been disproved with a great deal of frequency.

The problem (and why you are going to see more of these types of actions) is lack of access to proper healthcare, including mental healthcare. This is combined with the broader stresses people are put through (due to the economy, for example). We need a concerted effort to increase access to mental healthcare, and a change in culture that not only broadly promotes mental healthcare but a proactive approach to mental healthcare as well.

This is a problem with the stigma surrounding mental healthcare, the lack of recognition of mental healthcare as an integral part of one's broader healthcare, lack of access to mental healthcare, lack of insurance coverage for mental healthcare, and so on. Blaming this on guns or a lack of vigilance, or a lack of security are all inadequate band-aid solutions to the broader problem, which is much more complex, deep-rooted and nuanced.
I agree with this. Guns are merely the tool people who are already messed up use to take out whatever is inside of them. Perhaps some people wouldn't have hurt others had they not had access to weapons, but even those people don't erase the reality that a gun is, again, merely what people use to express what is in them. Gun control for these situations would be like putting a band aid on a gaping wound.

I also agree with you about mental health. It's not just about obvious mental illness, but general state of everybody's mental health. When it comes to making sure that people are healthy, our society tends to focus primarily on physical health. The stigma of seeking help for any mental/emotional issues and the fact that society tends to disregard human emotion in almost everything is taking a toll. There's a lot of quiet desperation and suffering going on and, for some people, it's starting to explode in ways that it doesn't have to.
 
No matter which side of the gun ownership debate you favor keep in mind this person like all others before him and all after will get a lenghty trial someday with psychologists an scociologisrts saying he is "disturbed. I cannot help but wonder what impact if any if our pathetic "justice" system would make room for obvious cases like this and execute within 48 hours it would have on murderers. Obviously this is a case of a monster but who cares, kill him soon. Twenty-six coffins for Christmas.

"God help us and don't send your son, this is no place for children".
 
I wonder if the shooter was a pot smoker. Certainly that connection would be more important to focus on than guns.

Something in his mind made him do it, not the inert piece of metal in his hand.

Since when does pot make people crazy enough to shoot up a school?
 
The shooter was the 20 year old apparently.....hard to imagine a 20 year old with a kid at the school really unless they were a parent at like 15.

This is why I'm patient in waiting for accurate information...instead of listening to rumors.
 
I don't agree that it's "pretty much impossible." I think that people tend to confuse "we don't know how to stop it" with "that's impossible." People have been doing that since human beings existed and impossible has been disproved with a great deal of frequency.


I agree with this. Guns are merely the tool people who are already messed up use to take out whatever is inside of them. Perhaps some people wouldn't have hurt others had they not had access to weapons, but even those people don't erase the reality that a gun is, again, merely what people use to express what is in them. Gun control for these situations would be like putting a band aid on a gaping wound.

I also agree with you about mental health. It's not just about obvious mental illness, but general state of everybody's mental health. When it comes to making sure that people are healthy, our society tends to focus primarily on physical health. The stigma of seeking help for any mental/emotional issues and the fact that society tends to disregard human emotion in almost everything is taking a toll. There's a lot of quiet desperation and suffering going on and, for some people, it's starting to explode in ways that it doesn't have to.
Its not just over-focus on physical health. But getting help for mental issues is taboo. Say the wrong thing and you are flagged for life. This permeates.
 
There's a thread for this, dude. This isn't it.

Here: go post to your heart's content. This thread should be about mourning this poor babies, not pushing a goddamned agenda.

http://www.debatepolitics.com/gun-control/145923-conneticut-shooting-bad-one.html
So are you the gun police in this thread? My point is that thiese horrific, nightmare, senseless murders are part of a cause and effect. My heart is broken thinking about how so many lives are and will be effected by this gruesome story. The cause of these murders were a crazed gunman or two using GUNS to get the desired effect - dead children and lives that will be forever altered in a bad, bad, way.
 
We got money for bailouts and preemptive war. But not for common sense layers of security when it comes to the fruit of our society.

Mt city has has an armed cop at every school since sometime around Columbine anytime the school is unlocked (night events, after-school, etc). Adding probably between 60-80 on duty new cops just to hit your magic number might be a little pricey. It would be cheaper just to arm teachers/staff.
 
The dead body was found at the shooter's mother's house per CBS and shooter was from NJ.
 
When you say nothing gets done again, you only mean your agenda and restrictions on the gun. You
wouldn't even remotely consider that some teachers should be armed, or that we should begin to include
more citizens in the defense of our communities like the beginning of law enforcements history the constable
or the neighbor who kept the peace. You only want to go after the innanimate object to which we are
constitutionally granted the right to keep and bear because today - of all horrible days - it is an easy
target and the failure of the collective to protect its children requires only "your" solution.
I think the reality is that there isn't any real solution that can prevent insanity like this. What type of person can not only consider this to be a choice but actually freaks out and actually does this?

I'm curious how you explain the differences in gun deaths in England vs. America?
 
Its not just over-focus on physical health. But getting help for mental issues is taboo. Say the wrong thing and you are flagged for life. This permeates.
I was just talking about this with some people in another thread. Nobody wants to be called "crazy" or "insane" or be labeled with that stigma. This not only prevents people from seeking them for themselves; it also prevents people from confronting friends and family for a variety of reasons. I think it would be good if the standard health class kids have to take in school was able to incorporate mental health as a normal concern that everyone should have instead of the alienating way it's treated in many of those classes today. People need to get educated on this stuff.
 
Nobody wants to be called "crazy" or "insane" or be labeled with that stigma.

Dave Chappelle said this best: The worst thing you can do to someone is call them crazy, because you are dismissing them.

EDIT: I also think it's important to point out that these shooters are all men, who have to live with the stigma of "manning up". This idea permeates our culture so deeply that it isn't even questioned; there are no advocates for men on this issue. Men are taught to "man up" and stuff their feelings down and hide them as much as possible, and not share them with others because they'll be perceived as being weak.

I don't remember what show it was, but I was listening to NPR recently and they were talking about some kind of study that was done about how women, even if they say they want their significant others to open up about their feelings, they really don't because it makes them uncomfortable. Women for the most part can't or don't know how to handle men when they express their feelings, particularly their negative ones and stuff they are struggling through. I think this significantly plays into these types of incidents because these men are forced to bottle up their feelings until they just snap.
 
AR15 firing 223 rounds involved per CBS citing the AP
 
So? Does it matter how you die and by what method? Norway could be and has been invaded and occupied through its entire history, the US, never, and never could be. We have guns!
Tim-

Really? Really? I studied geography and history in school and in college and I was taught that countries invading each other in Europe is not at all similar or comparable to the US being invaded.

The BS argument that because we have more than 1 gun for every American keeps us safe is just that, pure, stinky BS.
 
Wonder if this will see armed and trained teachers in schools now
 
Mt city has has an armed cop at every school since sometime around Columbine anytime the school is unlocked (night events, after-school, etc). Adding probably between 60-80 on duty new cops just to hit your magic number might be a little pricey. It would be cheaper just to arm teachers/staff.

I agree. But you have some pretty ruthless kids that would try anything to get their hands on the guns. I think arming teachers is the best solution also in the end but too many people would focus on tragedies when they come around. (like a teacher going bonkers and killing the class clown, or gun theft) I really think that if teachers had the option to be armed (at this place and abound) then people like this would be stopped much earlier in their rampages.
 
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