Is this horrible tragedy a possible turning point in how we as americans view guns? I am in Canada and I have been watching the coverage of that terrible event in Newton Conneticut on both Canadian and U.S. news.

Tonight the Canadian reporters on the scene were really questioning the U.S percieved love of guns and asking will this tragedy change the U.S. minds on guns.

Why people like this Ahole killed so many children and others is a complex social issue without easy answers. It comes on the heals of other mass shootings; even today three were killed in a hospital in the S.E.

The low hanging fruit on this complex issue is to ban assault/high capacity weapons. It seems the apparent first and easy step, but is it the right one? Will it make a difference?

Conneticut has farily strict gun laws, but yet almost any gun can be purchased. The shooters mother bought the guns legally after a long process, but yet the guns were available to her son who couldn't buy a gun. Once a gun is in private ownership, no matter the background checks etc, it can end up in anyone's hands.

So what do you all think? Will this tragedy be a turning point in our culture when it comes to guns?

May God take all of those killed into his loving arms and may God's peace rest on the families who have lost their loved ones and for all who mourn for them.

Knee jerk reaction almost guarantees the gun banners will get some
satisfactin. It won't stop man from killing his fellow man and it may
just make it easier for the psychopaths to victimize the general
populace.
Next it will be ala Scotland, ban knives.
Cain used a rock.
When do the laws address the misfits, sociopaths and pschotically dangerous members of our society?
Once upon a time we incarcerated the criminally insane.
Now it seems, they are on the streets and in private homes.
Perhaps every Freshman, to be admitted to secondary
schools, needs to be psychologically profiled.
Trouble is, who does the profiling and who pays for it?

Our government has failed the metally ill as far as treatment goes. They are given more freedoms under the guise of a kinder and gentler world order, and as a result the body count rises.

While the diagnosis of mental illness would not have stopped every one of these mass murderers, it would have likely stopped this person, and Isaac Zamora, and a number of others like the asshole in Colorado who dressed up like the Joker. Many more people would be alive today.

The focus needs to be upon the people who have commited these crimes, and what was the issue that lead them there. They can truly pick any tool, like David Koresh did in picking the bible and fire, as the method in which they bring many people to their deaths, or Jim Jones and Kool-aid. However, people would rather focus on the tool, and not the person.

Similarly to how TSA and the Border Patrol are not allowed allowed to profile on specific individuals who may be in violation of immigration laws or present an inherrant threat to the public at large, the degradation of our mental healthcare system allows the same dumbing down of protection to the public at large. Again, the system does not allow us to focus on the individual, so they focus on the tool. (Shoes, laptop, belt, gun, etc.)

My heart has been heavy since I first saw the news on Friday. Gave my boys a big hug when I got home, and we had a very uncomfortable talk about personal security, but it had to happen. I'm choosing to focus on my boys this weekend.

take for example those crazy arabs and thier rock throwings. why dont thier goverments make it more difficult to get rocks? they should just outlaw rock gathering all together!

i don't own a gun, i don't condem others who do. making it tougher for gun purchases will in no way stem these sorts. or make these hidious acts go away. . .

China has had quite a few attacks on schools and school children in a society that doesn't allow its citizens guns. The attackers have used knives, axes, hammers, etc to carry out these attacks.

Dogfish has hit this on the head, it isn't a gun issue, it is a mental health issue and how we choose to deal with mental illnesses in this country. We cannot cure most mental health issues just as we cannot cure sexual predators.

I am starting to wonder if our 24-7 coverage of these attacks and the media airing these perpetrators names for the world to know doesn't perpetuate the continued escalation of these types of attacks. I tend to think that these people crave a one big last stand with lots of media coverage to show the world who they are and we give it to them. The networks quit showing knuckleheads running onto sporting fields so not to glorify that type of behavior and it has worked. There has to be a way to report the event without giving the perp his day in the limelight.

I get the argument against guns, though.
While there are as many ways to kill people as one's imagination can dream up......home made bombs could do a lot a damage quickly, for instance. The issue is how "quickly" the death/injury total can mount with semi-autos with large magazines.

As a side note, I noticed in one article (maybe more) that the teachers had their students huddle in a corner........

Sounds like some proper training on how to minimize damage is necessary......gathering in tight groups is NOT how to keep kids safe.

As I understand it, they huddled in a corner of a locked room. We have training on "Rogue Shooter" annually. We are trained to remove our staff/patients from the facility if possible, if not move them to a room (with no windows if possible) and lock the door.
What did you expect the teachers to do when they were already in their class rooms? Maybe you would have them just open the door and tell the kids to run like crazy?

It's simple....it's not the guns, the knives, the rocks or the airplanes that kill people, it's the whackos behind them!!!

A news black out on the killings. With the frickin' talking heads trying to out do each other in depth descriptions on how the latest killing spree stacks up the top 10 list is just sick. You know some 20 something kid is in their mother's basement wacking off and planning how to make it to the top as they watch the tube's latest story about the tragedy.

Arm the teachers (or at least the security on grounds) so they could shoot back.

So you think the best option would have been to have the teacher just open the doors and tell the kids 'Run, you are on your own"? I hope you are joking.
Most of the training for an "Active Shooter" talks about sheltering in place vice just running into the unknown.

We are a nation that attempts to remedy the symptom and ignore the problem. Most people all emotional about this don't even know that an equal number of people die every week in DUI wrecks. 68% of our population admits to driving after too many drinks when surveyed. They happen in smaller numbers so we seemed resigned to accept it.

We have the best health care system in the world . We also have a constitution that conflicts with our desire to some how use that system to stop the crazies. If you want that be prepared to cede x amount of your individual liberty to the govt.
involuntary commitment laws give the crazies the same rights as the sane.

Are social outcasts made or are they born, if made what is your role in that process?

This will pass people will forget and then it will happen again nothing will change because at the end of the day it is a price we pay when the pendulum of freedom swings the other way.

hard to add or take away from that. very accurate!

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

20 per day.

Without reading all the responses in this thread...which I will later, probably tomorrow...you'll get two responses from the most vocal in the country:

First, ban a lot more guns/types of gun than is probably necessary...or, if only every single person in that elementary school was armed, too, then they could have shot the asshole, and that the problem is too many regulations, not too many guns.

Fish on...

Todd

CT and NJ have some of the most restrictive laws re: guns.

still cant believe what went down.
Can we wait a few days before we make it political.
just askin?

Never let a crisis go to waste

I totally agree. I also made a point of not interjecting politics into my post.

Perhaps you could be more specific in who you respond too. Thanks.

I believe you meant to respond to Todd in you last plea/post.

Well, since you found it necessary to say twice, maybe you should be asking yourself, "How difficult was it for the gunman to kill all those people?" If the answer is, "It was very easy." then perhaps the present day protection methods are inadequate......er.......possibly deadly in themselves.

And, yes, running to a predetermined safe place would make the darling little targets harder to hit. Of course the way to keep the damage to the absolute minimum when the firing takes place is to rush the gunman as a unit.....put him/her down and kill him/her if necessary.....swallow your fukn fear and do it.....for the kids.