Multiple deaths, including children, at Connecticut school shooting

You'd think so, and I'm sure that sentiment is heartfelt in a lot of people. That's what YGBFKM was expressing earlier.

But then you have the NRA's previous activities, as well as various politicians through the years and people such as the post above yours, who believe that the blackout of the gun-control debate is a time to shift the conversation to another cause. It's standard PR and I wouldn't be surprised to find out this is a maneuver engineered by the gun lobby and its image consultants. "Now is not the time" has become such a mantra.

 

AP reporters did a heck of a job on this one:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/14/v-fullstory/3142946/routine-morning-then-shots-and.html

Impossible to keep a dry eye.

 

Yep. I just filled an inside page with that account (plus a couple photos). A gripping read that adds a lot of detail about what it was like inside the building.

I believe the reporters writing this story were the ones who learned the shooter's mom wasn't a full-time teacher at the school; apparently she was a sub. Which could explain why she was at home.

 

He may have even been able to get them. If guns were outlawed tomorrow, guns damn sure won't vanish. Anyone so dedicated will still be able to get a gun, guaranteed. But, it'll get a hell of a lot more expensive, it will take a lot more time and it will be a hell of a lot more complicated then waltzing down to the sporting goods store or Wal Mart.

There seems to be this idea that proponents of gun laws think any law will eliminate these massacres forever. They won't. But making it more difficult to easily get guns, making it very difficult to get freaking assault rifles, will cut down on them. And we're having them enough at this point that "cutting down on them" is a sick but worthy bit of progress.

 

I saw the first name and photo of one of the kids. She was 5. It crushed me. Then I realized I had 19 more of those photos to go.

 

I think the reason people focus on the guns is that we know what a gun can do - they are sometimes sadly quite efficient and dependable in doing what they are supposed to do. People, also sadly, are not.

 

Agreed. But, you know, there's no reason the former concern need give deference to the latter.

Our Constitution requires a presumption of innocence for criminal trials, but there's no such requirement for firearm possession, nor should there be. When it comes to the question of who should be allowed to walk around with the means to kill at will, I've no problem with a presumption of lunacy with those seeking a gun having the burden of proving their sanity.

One thing that strikes me, if you you look over the case history of of these massacre shootings over the last few decades, is how psychologically predictable they are: nearly all are by some sort of psychologically damaged shooters that should have had FLAMING RED FLAGS next to their name indicating that this is probably a person who should not be allowed a rapid firing firearm in their hands.

I mean, honestly, how many of these cases can we actually claim shocked us when we discovered who did it? They're nearly all some version of either the disgruntled fired postal worker, the disaffected cast out rejected teen, the psychologically damaged PTS war vet, the schizo mentally ill guy, etc. In other words, those who squarely meet the psych profile of those might likely snap. So if our psych science is able to accurately predict the psychlogical types most likely to snap, then why do our gun laws make it so goddamn EASY for them to do it?

 

Jesus Christ, lets talk percentages

 

So then you must believe cocaine should be readily available at wal mart as well. I mean why not, if you want it you are going to get it anyways.

 

That last line. Oh my goodness.

 

I've gone through the five pages since I was here last and the tire tread are well worn into the dirt about gun control.....shockers.
I maintain that until we begin to understand evil in the presence of a soul, a conscience, if you will -- that intuitive stop sign that keeps most of us, no matter how angry we become, from gunning down coworkers on one hand or children on the other, we'll never really get it. Evil will find a way to market guns just like abortion performers would find a way to continue practice if it was ever banned, like drug dealers find a way to sell their illegal poison.

 

I could do without the NRA ad on this site.