Today's massacre of little school children brings the topic front-and-center. Again.
Please add your explanations and ideas.
Yes
No
Maybe
Other?
Can we change a culture of violence?
Today's massacre of little school children brings the topic front-and-center. Again.
Please add your explanations and ideas.
Mental illness, developmental illness and/or emotional trauma.
Are there more mentally ill and/or psychotic people today?
Are the ones who resort to violence more violent today?
Are they not being identified or screened properly?
Is our culture of violence causing more mental health problems and crises?
Is easy access to guns contributing to this violence?
I can only hope. I have rarely if ever felt as compelling an urge to completely wash my hands of society and disappear into the wilderness as I have today.
I know what you mean.
This "incident" is truly heart wrenching. The magnitude only grows after the initial shock wears off. I don't even know where "Hope" lives anymore.
What happened was horrifically awful but... don't let the senseless violence or the media sensationalism scar you. Many more kids die everyday.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=98055567
830,000 kids die just from auto accidents every year. That comes out to over TWO THOUSAND a day around the globe. Or in other words, the daily car fatalities for children is 100 times worse then this event. Again what happened was absolutely awful. If it made you cry, may I ask do you cry every day for the kids dying in car accidents?
Yes you can, by saying 'to hell with the constitution, we just plain cannot be trusted with guns' and make it considerably harder to get the fucking things.
America has had half a dozen Dunblanes to figure this out. Its not marine biology. At least make automatic weapons restricted. I get the argument that criminals break the law, and so would own guns anyway, but its not the crips and the bloods walking into schools and blowing away toddlers is it? Its regular, law abiding citizens on paper, they just happen to be completely fucking mental. America doesn't have a monopoly on crazy people, over here in the UK, a guy could flip and maybe stab two or three kids before being overpowered, it could happen and there's nothing you can do to prevent it.
The difference is Joe "mad as a sack of frogs" blogs can't walk into a 7-11 and purchase a motherfucking M16 and a hundred rounds of ammunition.
It's a shame that even if you did want to vote on the issue, you won't get the opportunity to, as the republican controlled congress will block any anti-gun motions before it gets to you. The votes and cheques from the NRA lobby are more important than the corpses of 6 year old children unfortunately.
After the third massacre in the past 6 months Americans should be willing to give absolutely anything a try. People should be desperate.
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
There is no "but" when twenty (20) children are shot to death in their Kindergarten classroom, in a matter of minutes.Originally Posted by Lewkowski
I don't even know how to respond to your "media sensationalism" comment. But since you took the time to find a source for "other" childhood deaths before you posted, I'd say you're desensitized and numb to our violent culture, particularly our gun culture.
Unfortunately, as you say, the desperation comes from the wrong place.
OK miss the point completely. Does the 2,000 kids that die each day mean less than the 20 killed today?
You're the one who's missed "the point".
Globally thousands of children die from accidents -- road crashes, drownings, burns, falls, poisoning. Preventable incidents that everyone would want to prevent. Not mentioned (in your link) are medical conditions related to diseases or poverty: contaminated water, dehydration, malnutrition, starvation, bacterial infections, viruses. Children also die from pediatric cancers, every damn day. Not to mention accidental deaths in combat zones, war zones, military strike zones. Still, they're all conditions we'd want to prevent.
But when it comes to US gun-related crime, where's our will for prevention?
What exactly do you want to do?
What's the point of this question? Are you trying to tell us you don't really care about either group? Man, we already know you don't care about the tens of thousands of people who die every day in unfair and horrible ways. Given a chance to post you're more likely to bitch about imaginary liberals or gloat about murdered hobos than you are to care about either 20 or 2000 dead children. Give it a rest.
Re. the question in the OP, no, I don't think you guys have any hope in the short and intermediate term. You might head off a few of these by mandating that people only keep the least dangerous sorts of guns at home and only in special code-locked cabinets.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I will say that the "WE DEMAND GUN CONTROL" stuff that happens after these incidents is tiresome. Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. This guy probably wouldn't have been able to get a gun. He stole them from his parents (unclear why they had them). But several reasonable barriers were put in front of this guy ever getting a gun in his home state.
In that case, the parents should be prosecuted for not effectively locking guns away so that only the licensed holders could get to and use them.
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?
- Omar Little
Handing out guns like candy and then wondering why people get shot in a killing spree on a regular basis?
Only in the US, people.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
I was raised in newtown from aged 8 until my graduation from N.H.S. I walked the hallways of Sandy Hook Elementary school and have nothing but positive memories of the place. I remember Mrs. Chard in the library, always smiling and never having a bad thing to say about us. I remember when, in 4th grade, the teachers decided to let us have a bit of fun during lunch and they brought in a karaoke machine for anyone to use. I remember seeing the same sign you've seen on tv every morning before I entered a school full of love, happiness and innocence. Like you, I always considered my hometown a bit special, a bit above the violence and carelessness of the world; a safe haven for my development into the young man I am today.
I was torn apart, as was the rest of the world, when I awoke Friday morning to the news. My best friends mother was freaking out, I knew I had to be with them, and I stayed with them all day.Bit by bit our neighbors and friends chimed in, letting us know their children were safe. Some stayed quiet, and we knew why.
We all gathered, at Saint Rose to mourn the death of children so young, and the teachers who saved them. If you can imagine what it's like mourning the death of the little neighbor you used to babysit, or the kids you watched hop up on the bus every morning, you can understand that it's a solitary moment. As a community we gathered, forgoing the feuds (and trust me, we're human, we aren't perfect to one another at all times in this town, just like in yours) all the bitterness and anger, and we came together in love.
You can comprehend my anger at hearing cameras go off as I watched my best friends father break down. You can relate you wanting some alone time to be able to talk about how to get over this as a community without the intrusion of public opinion, reporters, and all the like. To the reporters hoping to get a Pulitzer prize for their efforts yesterday I ask: Is your soul worth it?
Are you happy, 24 hours news media? You've got what you wanted, right? You've got something to talk about for days, and every December 14th you can remind us of a day that will haunt Newtown until the earth shatters into the emptiness of space (although for us that happened yesterday). Now you can have 25 pieces of fodder to discuss mental illness, gun control, safety regulations, and what ever else you need. You have a list of 20 children and 5 heroes and you can call up every one of their names, hardcore atheists and Christians, when trying to convert people. Wonderful!
Come on, let's keep talking about Adam, a kid who I went to school with. Let's give more psychopaths a folk hero to rally to when this happens again in another state. Good job media, people who can't shut down their opinions for 5 fucking seconds, and camera man looking for prizes. Don't patronize us, you don't care about the deaths, you just want ratings. And everyone will keep watching. As if you deserve to toss out your opinions.
I'm glad we can become another Columbine, (to you residents there, I never understood until now, and we are in a morbid club, inexplicably intertwined by violence) another cold useless fact. You can do all of this and be happy, because you wanted it.
For the record, no one in Newtown was talking about gun control laws, mental health issues, or anything. We were just holding each other, trying to make sense of the senseless. We are ok with you grieving with us, but put down the camera and help us try to piece back together our lives. We need that more than media coverage of this sad day in our history.
One eventually has to question the role of media in modern tradegies.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
That is undoubtedly one of the stupidest things I've ever read.
Hope is the denial of reality
Don't read much, eh?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
What's "tiresome" are these tragic, gun-related, violent, deadly incidents keep occurring....but not leading to comprehensive measures to prevent (or predict) them. Whether it's improving mental health screening or treatment, changing how guns are purchased, or keeping guns out of the wrong hands, all those things need to be connected somehow.
What's "tiresome" is the NRA sensationalizing incidents and stoking GUN CONTROL fears, by suggesting lib'ruls or teh gummit wants to "take away our guns" or repeal the 2nd amendment.They should get on-board with GUN SAFETY measures and laws, and encourage their responsible members to do the same.
The guns were his mother's. He killed her first.
This.
I don't have a problem with stricter gun control in principle, but this incident had nothing to do with it, as far as I can tell.
The "incident" involved semi-automatic (rapid fire, multiple bullet clip) hand guns and an assault rifle. All legally purchased (as far as we know), but not necessarily stored wisely in the home.
Does the US have a more violent gun culture than Sweden because of the types of guns available, or how we sell / store them?
Or is it because our healthcare system is sub-par when it comes to mental/emotional/psychiatric healthcare?
Aren't you going to blame the bankers, the corporations, and Romney as well?
Hope is the denial of reality
I don't know. But what we've been 'doing' hasn't been very effective. We've turned our K-12 schools into little fortresses, with CCTV and locked doors (or metal bars on windows, metal detectors, police/security forces), practicing Lock Downs like routine fire drills, forbidding nail clippers and butter knives as 'weapons'.....
In the post 9-11 Domestic Terrorism world, everything is different. Instead of profiling particular behaviors, to keep certain individuals from acting out or unleashing their violence onto society....we've turned our public buildings, schools and airports, into reverse-prisons keeping people out. It's still a relatively new way of public safety, and how this impacts little kids and their developing minds isn't known yet.
But I have a suspicion it's teaching our youngest generations to feel afraid of the world at large, and specifically the people in their own community, who may do them harm, instead of feeling protected and safe.
Are you going to say Free Markets and Free Enterprise have all the answers for the violence that ails our society?
See this is a problem. If you don't know what to do - you're going to be satisfied if the government does *something* regardless of the possible impact or unintentional consequences. The stark reality is that its safer to be a child in America today then in any other generation.
The reason I (and others, including "the government") don't know what to DO, is because we don't know what's cause, correlation, or contributing factor.
Some people turn their violence inward and become self-destructive. Some lash out at spouses or children in domestic violence, or become rapists or sexual predators. Some take it to another degree, and spray bullets at Kindergarteners or college students....or become plane hijackers or suicide bombers.
The "stark reality" is that a small number of people can now do maximum harm. The US is a nation of 350-400 million people, with 300 million+ guns. Per capita gun ownership is lower today than previous generations, meaning a concentration of guns in certain hands. But we don't have a way of dividing responsible collectors from crazies with private arsenals, or those who think they're a militia with a political cause.
So in one hand you say 'I don't know' yet you want to blame the NRA for sensationalizing? Really the NRA is the one sensationalizing?
Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita
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