Newtown shooting and gun control

[AllThingsKC]

There's some shocking news today from Connecticut. I'm NOT talking about way to prevent something like this. I'm asking when you hear news like today, how do you deal with it? What are your initial thoughts? How do you digest it? Do you lose faith in humanity?

[kcmetro]

I'm sick to my stomach right now. Pissed off at our gun-obsessed culture as well. I've never really had faith in humanity, so this doesn't change anything.

[KCMax]

Ugh.

Maybe this is terrible to say, the other shootings are disturbing no doubt, but for whatever reason don't hit me as much as this one because this one is kids and I have kids and the thought of one of my kids even SURVIVING something like shakes me to the core.

I don't lose faith in humanity - overall I think violent crime is way down, and we are much more humane as a society than we were centuries ago, or even 50 years ago. But it does make me stop and appreciate what I do have - my family, my friends, my own health. I'm definitely spending more quality time with my kids this weekend than I would have otherwise.

[earthling]

Awful when mass killing like this occurs (as well as individual episodes) and it stands out when it involves children. But no need to lose faith in humanity. Throughout all time there have always been a segment of selfish people who don't value all human life and have the capacity to do things like this. We have more people so more dysfunctional people but probably higher % who value humanity overall when you compare each century to last.

Functioning in society is maybe more complex/difficult than it used to be and some have mental issues, struggle with functioning and do not value human life (equally), which will result into more of this - it has and always will occur. It would be stranger if it didn't. I've been studying tribal cultures since a kid and the most common thread across all cultures that drive to something like this - insanity/drugs, lack of self-control/anger management and believing your life has greater value than others (or not valuing your own and therefore not others). It's nothing new. The overall % of people going postal is probably less, the fact we have more people and instant media access just makes it look like more.

Is terrible when mass incidents happen like this but remember it happens about every other day in our own backyard on the E Side. I find it curious that mass incidents seem to bother people more than 100 individual episodes that we don't hear much about. It's all equally bad. Putting a gun in everyone's hand is not the solution, promoting management of temper and promoting value of human life as equal goes much further.

[knucklehead]

There have always been and always will be people with serious mental illnesses.

That is why you have to keep them away from guns. They are nuts.

The reproduction process is not perfect. Some human minds are just plain defective.

[loftguy]

I had work obligations, through which bits of the situation filtered in.

There were brief moments as meetings were beginning, where I had time to gather some thoughts. I thought of family. Mine and others. I thought and wondered at the mind that does such as this. I thought of that person dying at the hands of parents. I purged such thoughts. I sighed and wondered how we as a people could be so fucked up. In part, this to me is result of a decimated mental health system.

Perhaps we are more civil on the whole, than in past centuries. However, we in the U.S. are far less peaceful, loving, tolerant and safe, than people in many parts of the world. It is fact.

I wonder, how we are to correct ourselves in order to share a better and proper existance.

[loftguy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... ed-states/


Statistics and brief commentary on guns and mass shootings in the U.S..

[aknowledgeableperson]

Sad or tragic news does depress me to a point but I then try to remember the good things people do. Probably what seems to impact news like this now are the number of 24 hr news outlets that feed on these occurrences which affects the other news outlets.

To a certain extent so many of these mass shootings have occurred and they have been over-reported that I have developed a sort of immunity to what has happened. I am still affected (see above) but have come to accept what happens happens because of many different reasons and each occurrence happens for different reasons.

Are guns at fault? Only to an extent that guns might affect the number that is killed or wounded but the individual(s) would resort to other weapons that can be at hand to strike out at intended target(s).

[mean]

The biggest thing I don't understand is how anyone can walk into an elementary school in 2012, and enter a classroom without being stopped by anyone. That really just blows my mind.

[shinatoo]

I thank God that my children weren't born into a third world country where they are forced into the military at that age, or a sex trade, or starvation. Or that we live under a dictator like the Syrians or North Koreans.

It's heartbreaking. But no mater what laws you put in place, no matter what how good you law enforcement is, you can not stop crazy.

It's nothing that anyone would say to the victims family's, but we are lucky how safe we are compared to most of the world.

How much can you do to protect your children? Should I pull my daughter out of school? Stop going to public places?

Risk is a part of life, you behavior is always ruled by how much risk you are willing to stomach.

[AllThingsKC]

The biggest thing I don't understand is how anyone can walk into an elementary school in 2012, and enter a classroom without being stopped by anyone. That really just blows my mind.

In this particular case, I believe the man was recognized as being the son of a teacher, which is why he was allowed past the school's video security system. Or, that's what I'm hearing, anyway.

[mean]

The biggest thing I don't understand is how anyone can walk into an elementary school in 2012, and enter a classroom without being stopped by anyone. That really just blows my mind.

In this particular case, I believe the man was recognized as being the son of a teacher, which is why he was allowed past the school's video security system. Or, that's what I'm hearing, anyway.

I read that too, but still, I don't think anyone who isn't faculty or a student should be allowed to roam around the halls of an elementary school without being stopped. For crying out loud, there's better security at Chuck E. Cheese.

[chaglang]

I usually say crazy things on Facebook and then bash the heck out of people who disagree with me.

[Highlander]

I read that too, but still, I don't think anyone who isn't faculty or a student should be allowed to roam around the halls of an elementary school without being stopped. For crying out loud, there's better security at Chuck E. Cheese.

I am not sure if makes any difference. Had he been stopped, he would have just killed the security guard first. That might have sounded a warning but a guy with an arsenal is going to be pretty much going to achieve what he came for in an elementary school.

[knucklehead]

There are hundreds of thousands of elementry schools in this country.

Hiring security guards for every one of them to stop one massacre every five to ten years would be a terrible waste of resources, especially since it would probably only stop about half (if that many) of the incidents.

[Highlander]

Risk is a part of life, you behavior is always ruled by how much risk you are willing to stomach.

It is a question of risk. But we Americans are incredibly inconsistent when we deal with risk in both practical and legal arenas. It's crazy that I can get bombarded with legal TV adds about the very slim risk of a particular pharmeceutical (and how I can be compensated large sums of money if I was adversely affected) and then go out and get into my automobile and take a, by comparison, enormous risk by driving around any urban area in the US without thinking anything about it. 2 million people per year are injured in automobile accidents - that is just a startling number - 40,000 killed - and we accept that risk as an unfortunate side effect of a car centric lifestyle that very few even want to attempt to change.

Sad as these shooting events are, how many mass killings this year in the US (how more could have been killed had it not been for weapons malfunctions? Portland?), why should we expect anything less? The dye has been cast, there is a tiny percent of people and gun owners that would ever do such things but in a nation of 300 million plus, that percentage is a significant number of people, and an even more significant number of victims. The potential shooters nearly all have legal access to whatever armament necassary to pull off such tragedies. And even if they do not have legal access (and why would they not - not too many repeat mass shooting perps to deny access to out there), there are so many arms in circulation that they would no problem accessing them through other channels.

[brewcrew1000]

Another one in China, are these guys being programmed or something. The Violent rampages in China is on the rise
http://news.ca.msn.com/world/china-stab ... olchildren

[earthling]

^Is possible the instant media age makes some of these copycat crimes in a way. A crazy mind will get ideas from recent incidents especially those that get attention and in this age of instant media, doing comparable things will give them the attention they want. The more horrifying, the more satisfying to a messed up head.

As far as increase in America relative to elsewhere, it could be because we are a 'me' society. I understand (and appreciate) individuality in the US the more I travel elsewhere - most of the rest of the world is relatively more conformist, some more than others. I value our individuality over conformity in the end but it has its consequences. The Chinese increase could be from the other end, a reaction to conformity but also media access. They are also getting exposure to outside media that they are not used to, finding out how less conformist the rest of the world is and this will cause major change, this is maybe one of the reactions to change.

[loftguy]

The Chinese tragedy happened about 12 hours before Newtown.

We don't have the totally secured rights to crazy.

[earthling]

^I meant the case of the one in China as somewhat a copycat to others that have happened in China, not necessarily the last few in US. China is changing in so many ways on so many levels and some finding out things about things outside their world for the first time, some are finding it really hard to cope with. Insane people who crave attention have a new tool in their hands, instant mass media - and mass killing will get global attention, a single killing probably won't.