I have no words right now for how I feel. I'm in shock and horrified at the actions of a cowardly, evil man. How do you decide to kill children? No I don't think that the teachers should have been armed. I think that we need to make a world where people don't need guns because we all love one another, and where children can be safe from people like the coward who did the shooting.
Its things like this that make me hate guns more than I already do. I don't have any answers right now, and I dearly wish that I did.
We need more strict rules on who can get a gun, and what kind of gun. We need stronger mental health care, we need safety nets for people who fall through the cracks of the mental health system. We need SOMETHING, dammit, but what we've got ISNT WORKING.
I want to drive to my 17 year old's school and hug her and I am sitting at work in tears because this could happen ANYWHERE. It could have been her school, it could have been my nephew's school, it could have been any school in the damn country. This KEEPS HAPPENING.
And... it will keep happening. I am not saying we should have stronger safety nets, better mental health care, better gun safety training and background checks. We definitely need them. They will reduce incidents like this, and thankfully incidents like this are already quite rare.
The problem is stuffing Teh Crazy back in the box, which is difficult to do with one political movement using the politics of emotional rage to maintain their grip on power. I'd have said dying grip, but sadly it looks like they have some years left.
*sigh* Policy arguments mean little to a mother or father who has lost their precious child My thoughts are with the victims' families and friends, and with the town. Sober and rational reflection on preventing future atrocities can happen a little later, given the chance.
If people don't keep whipping up the rage quotient, I mean.
It strikes me, on the question of gun control and the general unwillingness to discuss it, that this sort of thing will keep happening until the very thing the anti-control people want to prevent becomes the only accepted answer; No guns available to citizens at all.
It's high time for an adult discussion. A reasonable discussion. Before it becomes far too late for anything of the sort.
gun controlext_308670December 14 2012, 20:10:59 UTC
We can't discuss gun control. The only thing we can discuss is if we should amend the Constitution to repeal the Second Amendment or not. As long as the 2nd is in effect, you can't have infringements on the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Until the 2nd is repealed, you won't have the support of the public to control gun ownership. (honestly if we get 2/3rds of the states to pass a repeal, you have the support.)
Until a politician stands up and says "I support repealing the 2nd amendment" things will not change. Obama is continuing to not push any effort to end the 2nd Amendment, or do more than 'have a discussion'. What is to discuss? We can't ban ownership, restrict ownership, limit ownership as long as the 2nd is part of the Constitution. So all that can be discussed is do we keep it or repeal it.
six is a bit youngext_308670December 14 2012, 20:03:34 UTC
My eight year old daughter is doing very well with her 20 gauge with trap shooting. (much like her Olympic hero Kim Rhode) She has safety down and is a great shot. I trust her better than I trusted some of my platoon members.
Re: six is a bit youngviolinsontvDecember 16 2012, 12:49:28 UTC
And I am assuming that she is doing this at home, and not bringing it to school.
And I am assuming that if you do school pickup, you are leaving your gun in the car.
Notice I did not say you shouldn't own one, or even that you shouldn't teach her to shoot. What goes on at your home *is* your business.
But I cannot help but think one thing we can agree on whether or not we own guns is that people don't need to bring them into school or daycare. This seems straightforward to me.
There are plenty of cases where someone with issues has never gotten into the mental health system before they do something this big. While I had a lot of screening when I was a kid (that's what they do with learning disabled kids), most of my peers never saw a shrink.
But, and this is a very big but, when I was a kid, the standards made ME the reason I was being bullied, even when I was fighting BACK. Plenty of people out there can talk their way out of an institution even when they DESPERATELY need help because they are a danger to others if not themselves. This is not about what happened when we were kids. This is about protecting kids NOW. This is about doing something NOW. This has to stop. SOMETHING has to give.
Re: So was IdragonmakrDecember 14 2012, 21:10:38 UTC
I'm in total agreement. Who makes the rules? Administers the tests? Who pays for it all? Do we just lock up all the kids who wear black (and there was that kind of talk after Columbine)?
Times change, the details are different, and horrible things keep happening.
Comments 101
Its things like this that make me hate guns more than I already do. I don't have any answers right now, and I dearly wish that I did.
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We need more strict rules on who can get a gun, and what kind of gun. We need stronger mental health care, we need safety nets for people who fall through the cracks of the mental health system. We need SOMETHING, dammit, but what we've got ISNT WORKING.
I want to drive to my 17 year old's school and hug her and I am sitting at work in tears because this could happen ANYWHERE. It could have been her school, it could have been my nephew's school, it could have been any school in the damn country. This KEEPS HAPPENING.
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I am not saying we should have stronger safety nets, better mental health care, better gun safety training and background checks. We definitely need them. They will reduce incidents like this, and thankfully incidents like this are already quite rare.
The problem is stuffing Teh Crazy back in the box, which is difficult to do with one political movement using the politics of emotional rage to maintain their grip on power. I'd have said dying grip, but sadly it looks like they have some years left.
*sigh* Policy arguments mean little to a mother or father who has lost their precious child My thoughts are with the victims' families and friends, and with the town. Sober and rational reflection on preventing future atrocities can happen a little later, given the chance.
If people don't keep whipping up the rage quotient, I mean.
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It's high time for an adult discussion. A reasonable discussion. Before it becomes far too late for anything of the sort.
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Until a politician stands up and says "I support repealing the 2nd amendment" things will not change. Obama is continuing to not push any effort to end the 2nd Amendment, or do more than 'have a discussion'. What is to discuss? We can't ban ownership, restrict ownership, limit ownership as long as the 2nd is part of the Constitution. So all that can be discussed is do we keep it or repeal it.
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But just to make one obvious point: 2/3 of the states does not equal 2/3 of the people.
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And I am assuming that if you do school pickup, you are leaving your gun in the car.
Notice I did not say you shouldn't own one, or even that you shouldn't teach her to shoot. What goes on at your home *is* your business.
But I cannot help but think one thing we can agree on whether or not we own guns is that people don't need to bring them into school or daycare. This seems straightforward to me.
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Times change, the details are different, and horrible things keep happening.
I have no answers, just lots of questions...
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