Massive Shooting At Connecticut School: 27 dead

[Ser Gregor]

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/27-dead-in-u-s-school-shooting-reports-1.1079337

I am becoming more and more distraught over how used to these headlines I'm getting.

If the numbers are right this will be the single worst school shooting in US History.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

If 20+ dead 9 year olds doesn't lead to a national awakening on our gun culture and health crisis, then we as a country have to admit that, when these tragedies happen, we just don't care.

 

[TweedPawn]

Not only that, but there are reports of a second gunman still at large. The hospital is on lockdown and schools are closed in the area.

 

[Ser Gregor]

Not only that, but there are reports of a second gunman still at large. The hospital is on lockdown and schools are closed in the area.

Reports are sketchy on how many gunmen were involved, I'm hearing. Two firearms were found and at least one gunman was killed is all I've read.

 

[BLADE]

I've been on the phone most of the day. My wife has some colleagues/friends who work in Danbury Hospital, and we have friends and friends of friends from our college days who grew up in Newtown. I remember some of the kids there. Wassailing is big around that part of Connecticut and they'd always have cider...

This. This is just awful. Sickening. My thoughts and prayers go with the families of the slain innocents.

 

[Rev]

If 20+ dead 9 year olds doesn't lead to a national awakening on our gun culture and health crisis, then we as a country have to admit that, when these tragedies happen, we just don't care.

Sadly I see them letting a teacher get the proper training to wield them in school than to see gun regulations fall into place. Only 'makes sense' to arm our people so when something like this happens 'we' can outgun them.

Good ol 'murica.

:( thoughts go out to the families. Awful situation that only makes you ask why.

 

[Matt]

Speechless. I'm a fairly cold person about people in general but kids? Little kids.....

 

[BLADE]

Gun-free zones aren't necessarily the right policy, empirically speaking (sort of a wash there), but the notion that teachers, etc. need to take on yet another role (and one antithetical to the nurturing, etc. side of their profession) is pretty goddamn silly. Which is precisely why the NRA would make it.

Better security at schools? Sure. Maybe a gun free zone? Probably.

But that's not enough. We do need to seriously have a talk about some form of gun control in this country. I suggested a license and concurrent mental/training checks and mandates. I think that's where we as a country need to go.

Or we won't. But then let's stop pretending that we care when this happens. Because tragic and senseless gun deaths happen every day in this country and most don't get the same sort of attention this tragedy got.

Matt: I'm aloof, but let's be honest. Even as much as we may not care for people (I can pretend in a pinch), we're not about to go shoot anyone. Except maybe Hitler. If we had time-traveling machines.

But agreed. You wonder just what exactly is wrong with such a person. Kids, man. Kids.

 

[Unreliable Genius]

Colorado, the Sikh temple, then Clackamas Town Center, now this? And this close to Christmas? The hell is going to be next?

 

[BLADE]

Bryan Fischer (Whose Total Wretchedness as a Human Being is Only Exceeded By Those Sick Souls Who Would Harm Other Living Beings) on the shooting:

"Shooters attack an elementary school in CT - Another "gun free zone" makes children sitting ducks."

 

[Unreliable Genius]

Just hearing on the news:

Guy's mother is a teacher at the school. Many of the kids who were killed were students of hers.

:/

 

[Shiuzu]

Bryan Fischer (Whose Total Wretchedness as a Human Being is Only Exceeded By Those Sick Souls Who Would Harm Other Living Beings) on the shooting:

"Shooters attack an elementary school in CT - Another "gun free zone" makes children sitting ducks."

I really hope the things that guy says catches up with him some day.

Between this and China its been a horrifying day.

I can barely imagine willing harming another person, much less mass murder. This needs to be a wake-up call.

 

[Saul]

Sadly I see them letting a teacher get the proper training to wield them in school than to see gun regulations fall into place. Only 'makes sense' to arm our people so when something like this happens 'we' can outgun them.

Good ol 'murica.

:( thoughts go out to the families. Awful situation that only makes you ask why.

Connecticut gun law actually already provides for that, I looked it up real quick.
“Every citizen has a right to bear arms in defense of himself and the state”
That said, Connecticut has some of the broadest abilities to control guns. At issue here is mostly the fact that there's an enormous gun trade alone the entire East Coast (relating to guns)
As for the shooting, we blame guns too easily. Guns are capable of making spree killings possible (because otherwise it'd be difficult to kill 27 people in one incident), but whoever had the psychological issues to go kill 27 children in one go could have been equally capable of killing 27 children in 27 separate events. What you have here is a severely disturbed individual(s). Spree killings happen, and are related to serial killings. The real issue here is why does the U.S. have more of these kinds of people than other countries? I think its a societal problem.

Gun-free zones aren't necessarily the right policy, empirically speaking (sort of a wash there), but the notion that teachers, etc. need to take on yet another role (and one antithetical to the nurturing, etc. side of their profession) is pretty goddamn silly. Which is precisely why the NRA would make it.

Better security at schools? Sure. Maybe a gun free zone? Probably.

But that's not enough. We do need to seriously have a talk about some form of gun control in this country. I suggested a license and concurrent mental/training checks and mandates. I think that's where we as a country need to go.

Or we won't. But then let's stop pretending that we care when this happens. Because tragic and senseless gun deaths happen every day in this country and most don't get the same sort of attention this tragedy got.

Matt: I'm aloof, but let's be honest. Even as much as we may not care for people (I can pretend in a pinch), we're not about to go shoot anyone. Except maybe Hitler. If we had time-traveling machines.

But agreed. You wonder just what exactly is wrong with such a person. Kids, man. Kids.

I think the real key to gun control is gun education. We harp on the world to prevent AIDS by starting with sex education, I think that to prevent gun violence one should be taught about guns. Ignorance about guns is not going to solve the issue here. We are providing licenses to people without any guarantee that these individuals have received an education about guns. Frankly, I think children should be informed about guns in the same way they are taught about sex, and at the same age too. There's no evidence teen pregnancy was boosted by educating teens about sex, I wouldn't expect gun violence too either.

We also have to recognize that this wasn't a student shooting other students, but a deranged adult. I'd say that this is a positive sign at least, but again, I agree with you on gun control. I've felt people need to undergo a psychological battery exam to figure out if they have any psychological issues before using a firearm. The army won't consciously let a crazy hold a firearm, why should civilian America?

 

[Rev]

Most schools in my area have a Police liaison on campus, my school was kind of centrally located so the elementarys, junior high, and high school were in walking distance of one another. Not sure if this school was like that but if they had a officer on site never know how many lives could have been saved. (If one wasn't in place already.)

 

[TAC]

Current count is 28.

18 elementary students.
8 adults.

 

[Saul]

Current count is 28.

18 elementary students.
8 adults.

I didn't get an A in math, but something seems off about this.

 

[Skyway]

Dam humans, another dumass human do it again. Wish I was an elf or something.

@Gun training/school: I think that be useless like sex ed. All I learn in sex ed was be safe so that be same with guns.
Know the no weapon rule in schools need to change a little, I think that all teachers should have a gun tazer "like cops". This would atless give a better % at stoping the bad guys and/or a crazy kid.

 

[BLADE]

I didn't get an A in math, but something seems off about this.

Eighteen plus eight is twenty-six. A sigma of two to get us to twenty-eight, which says that there could be any number of combinations of potential victims for those remaining two. Morbid but the way these estimates are often done, particularly due to legal and medical liabilities and responsibilities (from what my wife tells me, and from what my own time in law school informs me as to.)

Plight: Dumb idea is dumb. Tazers are often as lethal as guns, and represent a militarization of the school environment that no citizen of good conscience should tolerate. Police liaisons, on the other hand, are quite effective at both providing intra-school security and some deterrence against incidents like this.

 

[Saul]

Dam humans, another dumass human do it again. Wish I was an elf or something.

@Gun training/school: I think that be useless like sex ed. All I learn in sex ed was be safe so that be same with guns.
Know the no weapon rule in schools need to change a little, I think that all teachers should have a gun tazer "like cops". This would atless give a better % at stoping the bad guys and/or a crazy kid.

The only thing this would guarantee is that a kid gets tazered.

 

[Ser Gregor]

Most schools in my area have a Police liaison on campus, my school was kind of centrally located so the elementarys, junior high, and high school were in walking distance of one another. Not sure if this school was like that but if they had a officer on site never know how many lives could have been saved. (If one wasn't in place already.)

I can't speak for the rest of the states but Connecticut Elementary Schools don't have Police liaison officers.