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to the families of the children killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook school in Newton, Connecticut earlier today. I can't begin to understand the pain and heart ache they must be feeling and so close to Christmas.
I just feel so sad.
Angharad
Comments
As do we all.
I think that you have expressed the feelings of us all.
and just maybe
Herr President will take the required steps to reduce the number of guns on the streets of downtown US of A.
Its pretty much impossible to stop this kind of thing entirely but the misinterpretation of 'the right to bare arms' (sic) has another 20 plus innocents added to the pile of preventable death heaped at the gun lobby's feet.
Sad day indeed.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
With All Due Respect
To you, Maddy, I'm kinda wondering if this is the time or the place to initiate that conversation.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Not the place
Well, it's not the place. But whenever this happens, people say "it's not the time". I wonder when, exactly, will it be time?
not as think as i smart i am
The time
To me would be after the victims are buried. That's what, about 4-7 days? In the meantime lets give the families a little respect and support.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
There are no words
you can offer which will make the suffering of all the families involved in this terrible tragedy any less... All we can do is hope that the people that can change the laws and make this less likely to happen do just that.
Kirri
Yes, it's absolutely heartbreaking
Yes, it's absolutely heartbreaking.
All my little problems pale into insignificance compared to the loss and pain in CT today.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Sad news, especially
at this time of the year
May Your Light Forever Shine
This is a sick society
Guns don't kill people; crazy people with guns kill people. Knives don't kill people; crazy people with knives kill people; however, not nearly as many as the crazy people with guns do. Until there is a fool proof way to discover these people who want to go out in an explosion of notoriety, this is going to continue to happen. Unfortunately, that is not possible. It's going to come down to metal detectors at every mall, church, courtroom, and school entrance before this sort of thing slows down.
What is going wrong in society that encourages these sociopaths to do these things?
If any of you who read this are thinking about going out in a blaze of non-glory before killing yourself, just kill yourself now and save a lot of innocent people a lot of misery.
Portia
Tackling the problem
Is going to be very difficult - some will be advocating greater gun controls, but there'll be plenty of opposition (particularly from the NRA) and given the vast number of weapons already in circulation, would probably be largely ineffective. Conversely, some are (inevitably) arguing the exact opposite: make weapons and ammunition even easier to obtain, allowing people to carry them everywhere (including cinemas and school classrooms) - presumably the logic behind that is the assailant would be stopped before he'd had chance to fire a second bullet.
According to the BBC's live blog, in 2009 (the latest year for which data is available) 31,347 people were killed by firearms in US - which is almost as many as road accidents. That sounds scarily high, but when you bear in mind the US population (2012 estimate) is 314,936,000; that works out at a rate of about 0.001% (or 1 in 10,000). That adds another element to the debate - although such incidents are tragic, compared to the population as a whole they are relatively infrequent.
Several people in comment threads on Google+ have pointed out the state of mental health services in the US. Even if they had a decent mental health service, people with mental health issues would have to recognise them and seek advice / signposting / help - the nature of mental health issues is that they're usually 'hidden' and not outwardly visible unless someone snaps.
I suppose one useful start would be to compare the rates of gun ownership and gun crime, then see if anything can be learned from countries with a similar (or higher) rate of ownership coupled with a significantly lower rate of gun crime. However, what may work for a country of about 60 million people may not work for a country with nearly 315 million people.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Comparisons
Here in the U.S. we have localities with stict gun control in effect in their locations and other areas with conciderably less restrictions on gun ownership. In areas with strict controls the rate of crime is conciderably higher than in areas with less strict controls to no controls on gun ownership. I have yet seen how placing restrictions on the legal ownership of firearms impacts on the illegal ownership of weapons. Criminals by definition do not obay the laws which is why they are criminals.
I am a firearms owner and will continue to fight for my keeping and bearing arms. I am a combat veteran and believe in the responsible ownership and use of firearms by the citizens of the U.S.A as granted to us by our Founding Fathers. We Colonials already had our government attempt to disarm our citizens and after a couple of years we managed to kick the hated "Redcoats" out of our homes :).
Now, as I stated above, I said responsible ownership and use of firearms. I have absolutely no problem with my Government setting up laws to punish the unlawful use of firearms. There is however, no reason to just say to the rest of us that just owning a firearm is unresponsible. I have killed or injured less people even in combat than my former Senior Senator killed with his automobile and his count is one young lady.
Sorry, reality is that human nature makes mass gun ownership
... a chancy proposition. It will become like the wild west all over again with peoples passion making them pull out their piece instead of fighting with their fists out of anger. I do not trust people's self restraint. I also do not trust the majority of people's tactical awareness in the use of firearms. Most people do not have time to be properly trained like in the military. In a situation like Aurora, if there were more guns in the theater there would have been even more senseless deaths due to people shooting out of panic and way too much 'friendly fire' as people do not know who friend or foe is. More guns will only make a bad situation, worst.
BTW no right is ever absolute, not the first amendment or any other for that matter. People have the right to be able to obtain a weapon but they should be required to show they can responsibly use one before they can be sold one.
Kim
Madman
I can't imagine what those parent are going thru 20 young children that ahve not even lived yet. What a sick person and a chicken killed himself so he wouldn't have to face justice.
BROKEN HEARTED :-( RICHIE2
my 2 cents
Please let's not make this something political, not yet at least.
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
there's a pain that goes on and on
Empty chairs and empty tables
20 children dead and gone.
(Borrowed from les miserables.)
I didn't know any of those children, yet my heart breaks at the loss of innocence. I shed a tear for each of them and I shed a million more for the each of us who will not experience the joy that they would have brought into this world.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Each time I see the photos of
Each time I see the photos of the children that were fleeing I start to cry. Along with the tragedy of 20 children and 6 adults being killed is the tragedy that the survivors face. Children should not have to experience something like that. It will take a long time before they gain peace of mind again, if they ever do.
Tragic
Twenty children - pretty much the entire kindergarten class; their teacher (the assailant's mother), six other adults as well as the assailant's father (back home) and himself. Newtown is a fairly small town, with just under 30,000 residents; it was considered a 'safe' place to live and the school was regarded as academically excellent. It's the proverbial sleepy backwater, without much of a "gun culture". Those factors will probably make this tragedy reverberate very strongly beyond those who've lost children / grandchildren / mothers / fathers, beyond the town itself, probably throughout the entire region. My thoughts are with those families this evening.
As for "doing something" about such incidents, that's far easier said than done. Nobody can predict the future, nobody can predict in advance the precise set of circumstances that will cause someone to feel so strongly they commit mass murder (and optionally suicide). Trying to minimise the risk of a repeat is liekly to be a gargantuan task, it will be far easier to rule out strategies that won't help than shortlist strategies that could.
All that's to come in the future - for now, just think of the community wrecked by one man's actions, the victims and their families.
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Amen
Amen...
OH MY GOD!
That is just so horrible!
It is horrible to think of this in any way.
(many tears shed)