Shooting at Connecticut elementary school

[crazyperfectdevil]

now watch over the next few days while they make a celebrity out of this ...person....ensuring once again that some other unbalanced individual will seek this path to "glory"  ....maybe for once we could just focus on the victims ...i really don't want to know anything about the shooter...

maybe if i believed that as a society we would learn from it there'd be a value ...but i think it'll all be rubber necking

anyway..this is awful...

Speaking to this point, I think this makes the case fairly eloquently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4

he ends off by saying "one or two more within a week"  ..may just be a coincidence but wasn't there just a shooting at a mall in Portland a few days ago?

 

[Peter D.]

Sickening. 

The thought of my kids ever being involved in a situation like this scares me.

 

[Corn Flake]

now watch over the next few days while they make a celebrity out of this ...person....ensuring once again that some other unbalanced individual will seek this path to "glory"  ....maybe for once we could just focus on the victims ...i really don't want to know anything about the shooter...

maybe if i believed that as a society we would learn from it there'd be a value ...but i think it'll all be rubber necking

anyway..this is awful...

Speaking to this point, I think this makes the case fairly eloquently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4

But the media will tell us they don't influence anything, and that they merely report what has happened. *shrug*

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

now watch over the next few days while they make a celebrity out of this ...person....ensuring once again that some other unbalanced individual will seek this path to "glory"  ....maybe for once we could just focus on the victims ...i really don't want to know anything about the shooter...

maybe if i believed that as a society we would learn from it there'd be a value ...but i think it'll all be rubber necking

anyway..this is awful...

Speaking to this point, I think this makes the case fairly eloquently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PezlFNTGWv4

But the media will tell us they don't influence anything, and that they merely report what has happened. *shrug*

well the thing is the media does generally have a policy on how it reports on suicide.  i can't say the guidelines are always followed...but generally they do try and report it in a way as not to sensationalize it ..because suicide is a very clear example where we've seen copy cats ..an obvious recent exception might be that nurse in the UK ..but i'm not sure the media in the UK has any standards

 

[Corn Flake]

well the thing is the media does generally have a policy on how it reports on suicide.  i can't say the guidelines are always followed...but generally they do try and report it in a way as not to sensationalize it ..because suicide is a very clear example where we've seen copy cats ..an obvious recent exception might be that nurse in the UK ..but i'm not sure the media in the UK has any standards

True. So why can't they have similar policies to this type of an event?

 

[crazyperfectdevil]

well the thing is the media does generally have a policy on how it reports on suicide.  i can't say the guidelines are always followed...but generally they do try and report it in a way as not to sensationalize it ..because suicide is a very clear example where we've seen copy cats ..an obvious recent exception might be that nurse in the UK ..but i'm not sure the media in the UK has any standards

True. So why can't they have similar policies to this type of an event?

that's an excellent question ....the cynic in me is that it's because this sells so much better..the stories right themselves for days ..even more important in a 24/7 news landscape ...i think pressure would have to come from the outside

 

[bustaheims]

I still, for the life of me, don't understand why it's legal for private citizens to own automatic weapons and similar military grade hardware. This whole "right to bear arms" thing should very much have stricter limitations to it.

 

[maplesyrup]

Some folks believe they should be well enough armed should their own government fall out of line/turn on them, etc so they can assemble and overturn it. I get it but I'm not sure if I agree. 

 

[Justin]

I don't know if the problem is guns themselves as much as it's America's "gun culture" in general. You have to look at the bigger picture. America seems to have a gun culture that doesn't appear to be anywhere close to reality in any other developed Western nation.

 

[Rick C.]

that's an excellent question ....the cynic in me is that it's because this sells so much better..the stories right themselves for days ..even more important in a 24/7 news landscape ...i think pressure would have to come from the outside

This sounds stupid, but I played right into the media's hands today.  I was glued to CNN for hours. 
I noticed that CNN had very few if any ads on during that time.  The answer could be cynical that they wanted to squeeze everything in and not lose viewers, or on the other hand they didn't care about making money during a crisis.  Just an observation....

 

[brothert]

I think that we are all drawn to these events because we have become numb in our general communities.  on average we have so many self gratifying outlets on tv and internet that the only time we feel massive group empathy is during events of great tragedy such as today.  And it draws us in because we feel the horror.  I have three kids in school all under 10 and it chills me to the core, imaging the last moments of those children's lives.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

they've identified him as 20 year old Ryan  Adam Lanza. (Ryan is the older brother) So, likely not a parent of a child at the school. But yikes, regardless.

I'm horrified. And otherwise, at a loss for words really.

Prayers to those mourning loved ones.


egads, apparently according to one report in the US, Lanza's mother taught at the school and is one of the victims.

Not that anyone here is going to harass this guy or anything, but you should probably edit this as the shooter's name is Adam Lanza, and this Ryan Lanza had to take down his Facebook page because news media was erroneously reporting it was him and he was being harassed.

I updated my post. But the shooter does have an older brother named Ryan, and he was questioned at length by the authorities too.

 

[Rick C.]

Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.
But if there wasn't these high powered guns, there would be so much senseless death.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.

Imagine if they used that logic for everything.  Marijuana doesn't kill people....

 

[bustaheims]

Gun control is only part of the equation, sure, but it's a very important part of the equation. Combine it with improved access to mental health treatment (and mandatory mental health assessments for people looking to become gun owners), and you'd eliminate a significant portion of gun deaths in the US.

 

[TheMightyOdin]

Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.

Imagine if they used that logic for everything.  Marijuana doesn't kill people....

Are you saying that Marijuana does kill people? If you are I would argue that you are incorrect.

 

[Bender]

Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.
But if there wasn't these high powered guns, there would be so much senseless death.

I would defy anybody to tell me if there have ever been any mass stabbings carried out by a single person. Or if someone went on a rampage with their fists and killed 23 people at one time before punching themselves to death. People kill people but guns give people a quick and efficient means to kill people.

Its no surprise on average higher levels of gun ownership in America generally means higher murder rate.

 

[bustaheims]

I would defy anybody to tell me if there have ever been any mass stabbings carried out by a single person. Or if someone went on a rampage with their fists and killed 23 people at one time before punching themselves to death. People kill people but guns give people a quick and efficient means to kill people.

On top of that, weapons like knives can be used for other, more constructive purposes than killing/hurting or creating the fear of being killed/hurt. Gun cannot. Their only uses revolve around death and injury, whether human or otherwise. That being said, I do recognize there are legitimate reasons for civilians owning guns. Shotguns in rural areas, for instance, can be important tools in terms of protecting your family and livestock from bears/wolves/etc. Hunting rifles, regardless of your position on the morality of hunting for sport, when used for their created purpose are used to help feed families. I can even get behind civilians being allowed to have single action handguns in their homes (as long as they're stored properly and kept in the house and/or the shooting range, away from children, etc.), as their presence can increase feelings of security for some. However, automatic and semi-automatic weaponary, sniper rifles, etc . . . that kind of stuff belongs in the hands of the military and law enforcement officials only.

 

[LittleHockeyFan]

Amen, busta, Amen.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

Guns don't kill people.
People kill people.
But if there wasn't these high powered guns, there would be so much senseless death.

I would defy anybody to tell me if there have ever been any mass stabbings carried out by a single person. Or if someone went on a rampage with their fists and killed 23 people at one time before punching themselves to death. People kill people but guns give people a quick and efficient means to kill people.

Its no surprise on average higher levels of gun ownership in America generally means higher murder rate.

Just saying...Pretty crazy that it happened on the same day...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/14/china-knife-attack-school.html

A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and one adult outside a primary school in central China as students were arriving for classes Friday, police said, the latest in a series of periodic rampage attacks at Chinese schools and kindergartens.