I just learned to accept the fact that these tragedies will happen, despite how unfair and fucked up they are.

I know people will be pushing for no guns and more guns, but the reality is neither will do us any good.

There will always be tragedies like this. Unfortunately, all we can do is prepare ourselves the best way we can, and remember to never give in to fear.

Deeply saddened by this. It truly breaks my heart hearing about it on the news all day. I want to forget about it and change the channel or station but then I realize I can't forget about it and still tune in to the shocking news. Those poor children and adults did not deserve what they had gotten. How can anyone have the will to plan this out and go with it? I really just don't get it. He should've shot himself at first but he had to be a pussy and go all out on innocent little children. Burn in hell cocksucker (Adam Lanza).

Hating the person will make you no better than him.

I'm not saying you have to forgive him, or even feel sorry for him, but there is no point in hating the guy. It's done, he's dead, and those victims are never coming back.

It is best that you take the energy you're using to hate him and use it to pour empathy and compassion on those who need it most right now.

I feel like when the media make a sensational story out of a tragedy like this, it inspires other people to go out and do the same thing for attention.

Why? They were just little kids. I don't understand? It was an elementary school.when i read about it i just wanted to cry. I still want to. It feels like there is no safe place, not even for your kids. What is it with this world. Its crule. And the problem is that its always been crue it never seems to get better. Poor kids and teachers. My heart goes out to all there familys and to all that witness it. Now there saying that guy, 20 years of age, had a personality disorder? What? Can you really use that as an excuse really??? He knew exactly what he was doing from the moment be for he shot his mom till the moment he killed himself.

You can't explain "insane." These people have more than personality disorders, they're more sick than they thought or family thought. It's not always used as an excuse, sometimes it is, but there's really more to it than just saying the shooter had a personality disorder. If there really were two shooters, then he knew EVERYTHING that was going on and told the other person what is going down. Both of them are obviously sick in the head, much sicker than what everyone thought. You can't really explain it, and then you can.

Many people yesterday continued to talk about how they think that we should ban guns. Unfortunately, it's not going to make a difference. There was a man in China the other day that stabbed over 22 people at a school (I believe). Sure, we could have stricter gun laws and control, but honestly, it's never going to happen. I would LOVE to see something be happen, since there were over 19 school shootings within the last two years, you'd think something would have been done.

What I would like to see happen is parents take more control of their children and if they know something is wrong, they can take action immediately. Sure, it probably won't happen, but if it did, think about how many lives could be saved one day... I mean, take a look at the mother who knew something was definitely wrong with her son when the last Twilight movie was coming out. She knew something was wrong and managed to prevent him from tearing up a theater, since he was inspired by the Dark Knight massacre.

I just feel angry. Where does it stop? It seems like shooters keep upping the ante. They think of the most heinous thing a human can do, and then do it.

I live in a country where firearms policy is very strict and still there are other ways to obtain gun, legally and illegally, although a better law would reduce the frequency of such tragedies.
However rather than a change of law, I'd suggest a change of mind and mentality. We really need it.
We cannot think, even remotely, that shooting at random people (children especially) is the solution to our problems.
The tragedy that took place in Connecticut is the outcome of several factors: easy guns, private medical system, private medical insurances, no free counseling, no free help-lines and so on.

The guy who did this was barely 20, call me crazy but I feel sorry for him Too. Ok, he's a mass murderer, but he was just 20, I cannot help but wonder what his life could have been if he had the help he needed and deserved.

Of course my priority goes to the children and their teachers and their families... this will be a horrible Christmas for them.

I wouldn't feel too sorry. Recent developments show that the shooter and his mother lived in a prosperous, well-to-do, exclusive community. I'd bet a month's salary this POS had more accessibility to mental health services than anybody here. Besides, you can't forcibly commit a person until they've shown that they're a danger to themselves or others (something which wasn't shown until approximately 9:41am EST yesterday when this asshole went supernova).

You know what the root of the problem is here? It's the collective response. We grieve. We have candlelight vigils. We wring our hands, asking "what could have been done to prevent this atrocity?" We demand of our politicians that Something Must Be Done. And then what? We wait for the next abnormal psychology to go nuclear.

We need to redirect our collective focus. The question isn't "What can be done to prevent this?" rather, the question is "How can we stop an armed attack after it has begun?"

How can you stop an armed attack after it has begun?
Unfortunately in real life there are no super-powers nor superhores to stop such tragedies, and prevention is the only logical solution.
Another possible solution would be having two or more police officers in the school as watchmen, but that would be ridiculous due to the high costs for the district.
I feel sory for the murderer because he was 20 years old. He killed his parents before going "supernova". He had no family or the one he used to have was not the best in the world, cosidering that psychiatric illness has a genetic heritage and is more likely to develop n "poor" enviroment, and with the word "poor" I don't mean only financially.

Truth be told, I think the answer to that would be to have someone shoot 'em, but that's just me. The reason most of the worst killings happen at schools is because there are no armed personnel on site. By the time anyone with firearms (police), are aware of something going wrong, blood's already been spilt onto the floor, and by the time they get to the scene, lives are lost.
I can't help but feel almost desensitized to the whole thing. Am I the only one? I mean, it's the 7th school shooting this year in the US, and I'm not even counting the Oregon Mall and Aurora Theatre attacks. Isn't that just scary? That's almost 1 mas shooting per month, and I'm not phased anymore. How come this happens so regularly in a single country, and no politicians or large groups of civilians are doing anything to change that?
This tragedy is bigger than most realize.

The guns were legally bought by the man's mother.
Why would a kindergarden teacher need so much fucking firepower?!?! Why isnt this better regulated!?!?!

I'm angry because I'm a parent myself and could not imagine the horror these parents are going through. I know what you mean and trust me I am pouring empathy and compassion but can't deny that I'm still very angry about it.

The worst part is now I have to fear for my child's life for whenever I send him to school when he's old enough and pray that he comes home alive that some maniac loser emo teenager didn't go all suicidal berserk.

Think about it, in the last few years, there have been shootings in the places you'd least expect, (high school, college, mall, movie theater, elementary school) and it just keeps getting worse with each incident. Nowhere is safe, and sadly fate will give us whatever is meant to happen.

Those church protesters accosting them are just asenine. 9/11 happened because of a decades old, half-secret war. So many everyday people died that day, not just stereotypical "stupid American infidels".
The firefighters & first responders for instance. Since 9/11, how many people have died because the emergency workers weren't alive to help? Things ripple out like a drop in water. "Landmines" doesn't just refer to physical, buried bombs.

I'm not sure if gun control is the answer, in the Bible, the 1st murder was done with a simple rock.

Do you know that, statistically, the countries with Death Penalty are the ones with higher crime rates?

I don't like the game "my penis is longer than yours", but I can guarantee you that in Europe (I am anti-europeist, btw) the criminality rates are way lower than North America and still we do not have death penalty.

Why Am i talking with you about death penalty?

because you post can be read as "shoot em first, before they shoot you" a slightly different way of naming "death penalty" and this is not a solution IMO. EDIT: right now all flash news are reporting that the mother of the killer, Adam Lanza, was obsessed with the "incoming Apocalypse". So, again, the murderer has been a victim too, somehow.

I don't know why, but this has affected me more than all the other times something like this has happened. It seems like always the victims are completely innocent and there are no satisfying answers when we ask the question 'why?'

I watched Bowling for Columbine again this morning and thought 'how has society not learned from this?'

I think the most senseless part of this is that the victims were mostly children and even if we get answers we won't be able to fully understand.

I've just learned to accept the world is a terrible place.

I don't understand when people say "don't make this political."

Especially after the last two years, we've had over nineteen school shootings, you'd think that this country would do something. But in the end, we all know that NOTHING will come from this.

Unfortunately, there are going to be those people who will sit on their asses thinking that we need the right to bear arms. They're making money, and we can't just shut them down all because people are getting murdered for no reason.

Here's the reason this is so bullshit... There's talk going around saying that they might enforce this at schools to train teachers to use a gun in case something like this happens again. This is the dumbest, the absolute DUMBEST thing I've heard out of this horrible situation. We're really hearing this on the news? This is really something to try and make happen? Let's put more guns in people's possessions, yeah, that makes total fucking sense right now.

I'm against gun control. More than half the people that actually owns a gun for protection are more likely to shoot themselves rather than someone against them. I've seen so many reports on the news talking about how innocent children were shot and or killed by a shooting that was near their home, and the people that these gunmen were trying to get aren't even dead.

Even if we do get stricter rules or ban guns, that's not going to make the violence go away. People know how to use other things to kill people. I mean, fuck, a man literally ate a guy's face off, almost killing him. (Sure, drugs were involved, but still). We're not humans anymore... I don't even know what we are.

I don't want to sound like an asshole here, but it really had to take someone to break into an elementary school and shoot innocent children for people to wake up about this gun control issue, despite how many schools had shootings within the last two years? Come on.

You know, I just don't understand reasonable people's aversions to allowing properly trained school faculty to carry arms to deter an individual from committing mass murder. How is it that we as a society accept the idea that "Gun-Free Zones", where people are completely defenseless and reduced to hiding in closets and soiling themselves in a corner is somehow morally superior to taking action to neutralize a threat? Did you know that people who pass the tests and are granted permits can carry firearms on college campuses in the state of Utah? And I've been digging through some news archives and interestingly enough, I've been unable to locate a single instance of a school shooting on any college campus in Utah.

The fact is, silly preventative measures are nothing more than safety theater. They're smoke and mirrors. They do nothing to stop an armed attack. Not waiting periods, background checks, mental health reviews or metal detectors. What *does* stop an armed attack, then?

1)The introduction of equal or superior firepower
2) The shooter runs runs out of ammunition
3) The shooter runs out of victims

And let's look at the utter failure of the current legislative "safeguards", shall we? The Connecticut shooter lived in a state with some of the toughest gun control in the nation. He failed a background check and couldn't buy a rifle, so he killed his mother (felony) and stole her guns (felony), then went to the school and broke in (felony) and murdered more than a score of people (felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony felony).

Yeah, I'm sure just another law or two should do the trick.

^ Yes, agreed.

However I think the real evil in everything is the media. I'm sickened by the way the media has covered this incident. The way it's been sensationalized is completely insulting in my eyes. It's really screwed up just like it is with every tragedy that happens nowadays.

You're not going to get everyone to agree that having teachers be responsible for gunning down a gunmen is such a great idea. My boyfriend is a teacher and even he disagrees on having a gun in his class.

You know what a better solution, at least in my books would be? Hire officers to patrol the school. My high school had them, and we turned out just fine, had no threats or anything... well, a drug search but that was about it.

Also, some 11-year old in Utah brought a gun to school, sure it was to protect his classmates... but still.

That's all I'm really going to say for now. But for the whole media issue, everything is basically something that needs to be brought out and dragged out... They'll never stop publicizing this tragedy until they've gotten every last bit of juice out. And it's a shame that they can't just let people go on right now without having a camera in their faces.

Here's where the pro-gun logic fails me: Say each teacher has a gun and they keep it in a locked box in their desk so that no kid accidentally stumbles across it or goes looking for it and blows their head off, right?

So now, a mentally disturbed person barges in to the classroom with a semi-automatic weapon. What happens? Does he stand there and watch while the teacher goes to his or her desk, panic-stricken, they look for the key or the combination and then, finally get the gun out and then shoot the bad guy?

Does anyone honestly see that scenario playing out in the teacher's favor... ever?

Now sure, a teacher in some other class with a pair of brass balls or boobs or whatever might get their gun out and go after the person with the semi-automatic weapon, or they might cower in fear.

But let's assume option A: They go after the bad guy. Now, there's a fire fight and instead of one gun being shot, there's now two or three or five if other teachers join in. All of a sudden, you went from a horrible tragedy in one classroom to bullets flying all over the place.

Why in the blue hell does this seem like a good option to anyone? I would never in a million years send my kid to a school that had armed teachers. Way too many guns in the hands of way too many people around my kids.

Plus, teachers are, by and large, surrounded by kids / teenagers day in and day out, many of whom don't want to be there, some of whom enjoy antagonizing these teachers. Plus, they've all got their own life crap to deal with in addition to being largely overworked and grossly underpaid (and grossly underappreciated) for their contribution to society.

Sure, let's put a loaded gun in the hands of every one of these people, what could possibly go wrong?

It's not like one of them could snap, right? It's not like one of them could have emotional / mental issues that the fantastic background checking for firearms wouldn't catch, right?

Or hey, it's not like one of the kids or students, either by accident or on purpose, could somehow get a hold of that gun, I mean that's impossible... It's in a locked box where it'd be useless if some gun-toting mentally disturbed individual barged in and started shooting. Right? Well...

I agree with Icebaby. Having a police presence at schools, while a tad bit unnerving for kids, also tends to make them feel safer, especially after something like this happens. A few trained cops versus 30 or 40 somewhat trained teachers? I'll take the cops, thanks.

But to me, the issue is also about guns themselves. They're designed to kill things. Whether it's animals or human beings. You want to hunt? Buy a bow. You want to protect yourself? Buy a tazer, pepper spray, a knife, a bat.... You'd have to try a lot harder to accidentally kill yourself or someone else with one of these things.

So yeah, get rid of guns. All of them. Even on cops (again, have them use tazers, pepper spray, clubs etc). Make them illegal and punishable by a one year prison sentence and a $100,000 fine. It may take 10 years, it may take 100 years, but stopping the commercial proliferation, stopping the gun shows and closing the stores, getting rid of as many as we can find for years and years will ultimately bring down the number crimes committed with guns as well as gunshot victims and gun fatalities. I firmly believe that.

There exists no argument that anyone has ever presented to me in favor of guns that makes me believe that our public , non-military citizens should be allowed to own guns while not in the context of being in an organized militia, whose sole purpose for existing is to defend us from our former colony-owners or invading tribes of natives on the outskirts of town.

That was the spirit of the 2nd amendment. The fact that people basically break off half of the sentence and pretend that it doesn't exist (and that this is allowed to happen) baffles me.

Oh, and the reason why nothing gets done on capital hill? Because the NRA is one of the most powerful lobbies in this country and they've become very adept at making sure that guns aren't going away any time soon.

You want to get rid of the gun-related crime, the gun related violence, the gun related deaths and the tragedies like this once? You can't, unfortunately, but going after the root of the problem and digging out as much of it as possible seems like a much better solution to me then planting more seeds. Just my opinion though. To each, his own.