School shooting in Connecticut

[I Am A Swede]

It's really rather tiresome how these vermin crawl out from under their rock just to spew their venom and hatred for everything.

I wouldn't normally wish bad things upon anyone, but in the case of these idiots I'm tempted to make an exception.....

[SFK]

In all my 33 years, the lyric "sleep in heavenly peace" never brought tears to my eyes like it did when I watched this last night. Beautiful, compassionate and full of class.

[Cat]

Haven't come here until now but wanted to pay my respects to the children in Newtown and their teachers. I have been following this over the w/e, in tears obviously.

I don't have anything much to add on the gun debate here except that I am scared of them and don't understand how they can be used in civilian life outside of the police or military. But I grew up part of my life outside the US where ordinary policemen (excluding anti-terrorism units and whatnot) do not carry guns on the street.

Saw the deputy medical examiner on TV yesterday, I thought he came across as full of himself, but that paled in comparison to the kind of questions the press were asking him, ranging from "Did you cry when you examined the kids?" to the most lurid kind of questioning on how exactly the bullets ripped apart "tissue." I turned off my TV sick to my stomach.

For what it's worth, I have seen a far healthier, smarter and fulsome debate about guns and the tragedy itself right here on this thread than any official news article. But I would expect nothing less from the people on SON.

[JaneAusten]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/17/connecticut-school-district-in-lockdown-following-report-suspicious-person-in/

Ugh just no. I hope this is not leading to copycats.

[Khan]

That's the price we pay, I guess, for living in a world with 450 variations of "C.S.I." and "Law & Order."

[DRW50]

I put that blame more on the big supertrial era of the early 90s, culminating with OJ. In some way I think shows like CSI are as much of a blessing as curse (although I stopped watching a long time ago), because they take some of this out of the hands of the few and make the average viewer more curious and wanting to question.

[DRW50]

This is the first I've seen of any shift, even a minor one, in the gun control debate. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, says he thinks changes need to be made.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/gun-control-nra-joe-manchin-time-to-act-85162.html?hp=l2

[Vee]

They had the Barden family on Katie Couric's show today, struggling to keep composure because they wanted to speak about their young son, Daniel, who was among the children who were killed on Friday. Their oldest son, James, was beside himself; it was very difficult to watch, and IMO far too soon, but apparently they wanted to do it. Video here.

I was also pleased with Joe Scarborough today, who gave an impassioned speech about his changed views on gun control this morning on MSNBC.

[DRW50]

Virginia's governor, a hard right conservative (in spite of media gushing otherwise), seems to blame the principal, for not being armed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/bob-mcdonnell-consider-guns-for-school-officials-85243.html?hp=f1

Meanwhile, we're back in the absolute worst hell of the 90s, as video games are once again a scapegoat.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/hill-eyes-video-game-use-by-shooter-85255.html

[Roman]

The NRA president needs to be locked up for what he said today.

[DRW50]

As someone pointed out, his mentioning Natural Born Killers and Mortal Kombat shows just how out of touch he is. And this organization controls much of America. Already Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, among other states, are moving toward passing laws that will push guns in schools. Michigan didn't, mostly because the governor was likely running scared after signing union-busting legislation. As David Weigel mentions, their press conference is already paying off.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/12/nra_s_wayne_lapierre_s_press_conference_how_the_national_rifle_association.html

We also have the usual "blame the women for being weak" trope.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/12/21/charlotte_allen_won_t_stop_continues_to_insist_that_men_become_kindergarten.html

Did you know Columbine had armed guards?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/12/21/columbine_armed_guard_colorado_shooting_shows_that_nra_s_shield_program.html

[quartermainefan]

If republicans would just put a number on how many people need to die before they are willing to ban guns, it would make things easier. We could just wait for 100, 1000, a million or two, however many they want to be slaughtered, and then that can be the agreed upon cap and we can start getting rid of the guns. They just need to put a number on how many lives their guns are worth and then Obama can enter into fiscal cliff style negotiations and arrive at a compromise death tally.

[alphanguy74]

I told you all that glorification of violence and the desensitization of children to death and violence through video games and gangsta rap was a big problem, and well......

http://hollywoodlife.com/2012/12/20/adam-lanza-addicted-video-games-call-of-duty-sandy-hook-shooting/#ref=/2012/12/20/adam-lanza-addicted-video-games-call-of-duty-sandy-hook-shooting/pos=

[DRW50]

I just don't agree. Millions of people are addicted to video games. Millions of people don't go on killing sprees.

[alphanguy74]

That's not my point, Carl... Desensetization to violence and death has a mass effect on the population, and for the mentally balanced, it doesn't manifest itself in anything that extreme, it only causes eye strain, Carpal tunnel syndrome, lack of motivation to live in a world of reality, and it contributes to obesity. But for people who are on the brink, or have mental issues, it can trigger a horrific chain of events. They (the video games of today) are simply not socially responsible. That's why soaps almost never show suicide, or anyone smoking. It's a bad influence on the weak willed, and destructive to society as a whole to portray something destructive as "cool". Keep in mind, it's a certain TYPE of video game that is the problem.. after all, have you ever heard of any mass murderers being addicted to Ms. Pac Man or Donkey Kong?