<p>I want to scream. Just came from the car where one of the yakking yaks was droning about “not taking the guns from the law abiding citizens”. Well at 9 am this morning, this mom, and her late great son were also “law abiding citizens”. No amount of carnage will ever be enough for these people. How disconnected from reality can you get?</p>
<p>Agree - today is the day. Yesterday was the day. Tomorrow is the day.</p>
<p>My yds was a freshman at Va Tech the day of the “incident”. We talked and talked about it…in the end, a crazy person is going to do what they’re going to do as long as there are guns that will shoot 30 rounds at once and that person can buy one. If we are in their way, we are victims.
At yds’s graduation, I visited the campus memorial to those victims and cried my eyes out. Such a waste of promising young lives. Today, I have cried for those babies. Five year olds. It’s just unfathomable.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>ALL of these are the issues. And we need to attack every one of these as aggressively as we know how. Today IS the day. There will never be a better day.</p>
<p>Until we, as an entire nation, are as ashamed as we should be that this continues to happen, nothing will change. We should be humiliated, guilt-ridden and full of shame that these things continue to happen with no effort to stop it. We should fess up to being the miserable failure that we are with regard to gun proliferation. We should have felt that way after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, etc. etc. Instead, we settle for mourning and praying, mourning and praying, rinse and repeat.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And this is why I am so unspeakably angry.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes indeed, lots of other countries are doing better. Many of them have laws out and out banning gun ownership, but you don’t hear of “their criminals” roaming the streets, terrorizing their unarmed populous with their illegally obtained guns. Their gun violence rates, and indeed, their murder rates in general pale by comparison to our own. This is why I insist that there is a cultural sickness infecting this country.</p>
<p>How do we stop this madness? Incrementally… but I just started by sending a message to every single politician I gave money and time to in the last election cycle to let them know that I will not give another dime or minute to any candidate who does not actively put forward/cosponsor/push gun control AND mental health services legislation. For goodness sake, a woman can’t even get a birth control pill Rx in this country without an annual doctor’s appointment. How about if we make all gun owners have annual relicensing and a mental health check as well? >>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>hear, hear!!!</p>
<p>They just reported that someone had to announce earlier this: </p>
<p>“If you have not been reunited with your children, you will not be.” (I might have a word or two off). </p>
<p>I don’t think any line has hit me quite in the gut as much as that one.</p>
<p>Gun ownership can still be legal while making it illegal to own automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That is the change that is most needed. >>>>>></p>
<p>Exactly. I’ve never seen a logical explanation as to why the average citizen would need a gun that shoots 30 rounds automatically.</p>
<p>The school nurse was on TV a couple of hours ago. She expressed how horrifying it was to tell parents of 20 children they are not coming out. Oy.</p>
<p>I can’t think of an explanation why someone would need a gun that shoots more than 2 or 3 rounds automatically. If you assume the only legitimate reason for a citizen to own a gun is to hunt animals/birds (of course, there are those who don’t agree, but I think that is the only legitimate reason), then that is all that is needed. All that should be sold, owned, manufactured, imported, etc.</p>
<p>How unspeakably sad this is.</p>
<p>Imagine the trauma experienced by everyone involved - parents and others, school workers, rescue workers… Maybe it is time to tally the costs to society of these crimes. Add the cost of posting an armed guard at every school in the country for quick reaction capability. Add the costs of specialized training for these massacres for every police officer in the nation. Add in the psychiatric care costs, including unlimited free access to care for those deemed a danger, medical care costs, burial costs and legal costs for all involved. Add in whatever else I’ve missed.</p>
<p>Then make the semiautomatic weapon owners pay for it. 1) tax the lobbyists - they are ruining our free society, and this would include taxing the NRA, and 2) for the purpose of covering the societal costs of these massacres, assess an annual licensing fee for owning any semi-automatic weapon, and for each bullet. The licensing fee would be structured to fully cover these costs and would be distributed to those incurring the costs.</p>
<p>We don’t tally the costs, and that makes it easier for the gun lobby to demand unfettered access at no cost to themselves. And if you don’t want to pick solely on semiautomatic weapons, go ahead and assess the fee on rifles, knives, etc. in proportion.</p>
<p>In response to the inevitable claim that illegal guns won’t be charged, fund the FBI (or whomever) adequately to find and eliminate illegal gun production and distribution.</p>
<p>from ttparent:
</p>
<p>from greenbutton:
</p>
<p>I had an employee who lived in Newtown. He told me he bought a gun after the home invasion in Cheshire (the mom and two daughters were killed). The two towns are about 1/2 hour away from each other. I think that horrible event destroyed people’s feeling of safety. Not that guns are the answer, but maybe for some people in CT, having guns made them feel safer.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d hazard a guess that other countries are doing a better job of treating their dangerously mentally ill, and making it difficult to obtain guns that will ultimately be used to kill.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly. The gun lobby has thus far wielded all the power and influence in Washington and within our State governments. But, I think those of us who wish to see a movement to bring common sense to our gun laws need to utilize the burgeoning power of social media. Too often, we think we are in the minority when it comes to our stance on issues, when in fact, we are in the majority, the silent majority. But, we’ve no one to blame but ourselves when our silence results in the types of horrors stories like this bring.</p>
<p>Sad. Angry. Defeated. Because it’ll happen again. And again. And again. More children dying. More adults dying. More broken hearts.*</p>
<p>*Unless we stop feeling sad, and angry and defeated, and implement reasonable gun control.</p>
<p>A friend of mine has been posting on facebook that his brother can’t get in touch with his daughter (my friend’s niece) who is a teacher there. They’re not identifying bodies yet, so they’re assuming the worst but hoping it’s wrong.</p>
<p>I can’t stop thinking about all the presents that will lay wrapped under the tree with no one there to wake up excited and open their gifts.</p>
<p>reasonable gun control will never stop acts of evil…and won’t stop criminals from getting guns.</p>
<p>This may have been discussed earlier in the thread and, if so, I apologize. I’ve not yet read through all of it.</p>
<p>I am wondering if someone can explain to me WHY the state police are refusing not only to release the victims’ bodies, but even to remove them from the school? According to a recent report, the victims bodies are still lying “where they fell.” The explanation given by the state police chief is that they are still “investigating,” and the victims’ identities, although “tentatively” established, are not yet “confirmed.”</p>
<p>There is no perpetrator at large. There is no pending prosecution. So what investigation could possibly be undertaken at this point that would take precedence over, at the very least, removing the victims’ bodies? Clearly, they do know the victims’ identities. As noted a few posts back . . . the children, teachers, and administrators who did not make it home today are not ever going to come home (with the exception of those few who were wounded and hospitalized), and their parents and the police certainly know who they are.</p>
<p>It seems to me that this extended on-site “investigation” can have little tangible result other than to exacerbate the families’ grief beyond anything imaginable.</p>
<p>Someone please explain to me what possible justification there could be for leaving those innocent victims “where they fell” for what is expected to be at least 24 hours . . . :(</p>
<p>The reason they aren’t allowing the bodies to leave is that they haven’t finished with the crime scene. There could be significant clues on the bodies, their’ clothes, etc.</p>
<p>edit: They want to be very sure that there isn’t someone else at large. There could be a piece of hair that fell off of the shooter onto a child’s shirt that could lead to someone else who helped him but didn’t act.</p>
<p>Where does your right to own a gun end?</p>
<p>At the kindergarten door.</p>