Multiple deaths, including children, at Connecticut school shooting

Assuming the guns were bought by the mom -- which, I know, every assumption is tricky right now -- but if they were, this is the perfect case for gun control by restricting the manufacture and distribution. Between this and the Portland shooting (stolen weapon), the idea that these can end up in the wrong hands is a not-inconsiderable part of the equation.

If the guns weren't available for purchase, or if there were a limit above which a person needs to prove a true need, Adam Lanza would not have had what he needed to do what he did.

Sure, if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. But what if these guns don't exist in the first place? Then nobody can have them.

 

If only we had something like a 24 hour news station to report such things.

 

In his brief adulthood, Mr. Lanza had left few footprints, electronic or otherwise. He apparently had no Facebook page, unlike his older brother, Ryan, a Hoboken, N.J., resident who for several hours on Friday was misidentified in news reports as the perpetrator of the massacre.

Adam Lanza did not even appear in his high school yearbook, that of the class of 2010. His spot on the page said, “Camera shy.” Others who graduated that year said they did not believe he had finished school.

Matt Baier, now a junior at the University of Connecticut, and other high school classmates recalled how deeply uncomfortable Mr. Lanza was in social situations.

Several said in separate interviews that it was their understanding that he had a developmental disorder. They said they had been told that the disorder was Asperger’s syndrome, which is considered a high functioning form of autism.

“It’s not like people picked on him for it,” Mr. Baier said. “From what I saw, people just let him be, and that was that.”

Law enforcement officials said Friday that they were closely examining whether Mr. Lanza had such a disorder.

One former classmate who said he was familiar with the disorder described Mr. Lanza as having a “very flat affect,” adding, “If you looked at him, you couldn’t see any emotions going through his head.”

Others said Mr. Lanza’s evident discomfort prompted giggles from those who did not understand him.

“You could tell that he felt so uncomfortable about being put on the spot,” said Olivia DeVivo, also now at the University of Connecticut. “I think that maybe he wasn’t given the right kind of attention or help. I think he went so unnoticed that people didn’t even stop to realize that maybe there’s actually something else going on here — that maybe he needs to be talking or getting some kind of mental help. In high school, no one really takes the time to look and think, ‘Why is he acting this way?’ ”

Ms. DeVivo remembered Mr. Lanza from sixth grade and earlier, talking about aliens and “blowing things up,” but she chalked this up to the typical talk of prepubescent boys.

Still, after hearing of the news on Friday, Ms. DeVivo reconnected with friends from Newtown, and the consensus was stark. “They weren’t surprised,” she said. “They said he always seemed like he was someone who was capable of that because he just didn’t really connect with our high school, and didn’t really connect with our town.”

She added: “I never saw him with anyone. I can’t even think of one person that was associated with him.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/nyregion/adam-lanza-an-enigma-who-is-now-identified-as-a-mass-killer.html?hp&pagewanted=all

 

Yeah, that's the part I've been struggling with as well. On some level I can understand being upset enough with a parent/parents to kill them. Most of us have that internal 'stop' function like someone mentioned earlier to prevent us from doing so. Being mad enough to kill a parent? OK, I guess I can see that. Being mad enough to kill kids bullying you in high school? OK, I guess I can see that. Being mad or crazy enough to go into a theater and going on a rampage? Makes a little less sense. Going into your mom's classroom and murdering innocent, defenseless kindergarten students who never did anything to you? Sorry, I'm not getting that at all.

 

Good lord. "I'll take false equivalence for a gazillion, bazillion dollars, Alex". Hondo, would you like to compare the per capita murder rate in Norway versus the United States in recent decades? I DARE YOU. Look it up.

Well, let's see. We have had many many many countlessly many more per capita examples. But, ummm, well they did have ONE case that made our national headlines. Therefore that proves it's basically the same. Rock solid logic your're using there, Hondo, I commend you on your intelligence.

Dumbass.

 

By the same token, this is where the politics board is: http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/92841/

There have been plenty of posts on this thread about gun control/gun laws/any number of such topics, not about the 20 kindergartners killed. So if talking about how journalists handled the story is not to be discussed in this thread, doesn't it follow that talking about gun control should not be discussed in this thread?

 

I can't go anywhere without someone saying, 'Keep the victims and their families in your prayers,' which is starting to bother me. I have to believe these parents prayed nightly for the safety of their children, which obviously fell on deaf ears. I've long questioned "God's plan" when it comes to episodes like this. 'God's plan' is just something Catholics say when prayers aren't answered.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but I had to get that off my chest. The victims and their families certainly will be in my thoughts, but not in my non-existent prayers.

 

We can focus on both. We can talk about mental health issues and gun control. If you want to focus on the guy, great, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about the guns, too. That doesn't warrant a political dig like yours. Maybe, just maybe, you could focus on the issues at hand just once without going there.

I keep seeing posts from people trying to turn the conversation away from blaming guns saying that tighter restrictions or even bans on guns won't guarantee that this kind of thing stops. Nobody can guarantee that. What we should be doing is trying to make it as hard as possible.

 

Demanding - and enforcing - stricter gun laws is easy.

Correctly diagnosing and treating mental illness, that's a bit tougher.

 

Seems to me that Adam Lanza didn't really show a lot of regard for the laws regarding murder. Why does anyone believe he would have had regard for gun laws?

 

To be clear, when people say "today isn't the day to talk about...." I'm sure most people are saying it out of respect to the victims. Today is the time to mourn them and think of their families and we should focus on them....

But tomorrow, the day after....I think we owe the victims at least a discussion.

 

He wouldn't have been able to get the guns. So his attitude toward the laws wouldn't have mattered.

There is no reason in the world that a normal citizen needs to be able to fire 100 rounds.