Shooting At A Connecticut Elementary
#1
Posted 14 December 2012 - 10:53 AM
My deepest sympathy to any of the MWO community who may have been affected my this tragedy.
#2
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:17 AM
For those that haven't seen... Elementary School Shooting
Words can't begin to describe what has taken place. Shootings seem so common place these days, but at an elementary school? I'm not one to pray much these days, but thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those children lost today... them and anyone lost...
#3
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:55 AM
Sympathies to those involved.
#4
Posted 14 December 2012 - 11:59 AM
#5
Posted 14 December 2012 - 12:05 PM
Why the sick coward then turned on children oblivious to any of his family issues is beyond me.
#6
Posted 14 December 2012 - 12:30 PM
#7
Posted 14 December 2012 - 12:46 PM
#8
Posted 14 December 2012 - 01:09 PM
Moments.
My condolences to the families that have to suffer through this atrocity.
Edited by Barg12, 14 December 2012 - 01:10 PM.
#9
Posted 14 December 2012 - 02:27 PM
We had a similar shooting in the UK some years back in a primary school where 16 children died so I know how it can effect the entire country.
My Condolences are with our American cousins.
Edited by Mack1, 14 December 2012 - 02:27 PM.
#10
Posted 14 December 2012 - 02:34 PM
#11
Posted 14 December 2012 - 02:50 PM
#12
Posted 14 December 2012 - 03:10 PM
1) Good God! What goes through the mind of someone who shoots up an elementary school? It's something I don't know if I could completely understand or comprehend. The fact that such darkness could exist and cloud the mind of anyone is almost something to mourn in and of itself.
2) My sincerest condolences to the families who have lost loved once in this tragedy. A moment of violence has snuffed out the lives of 14 people, along with any sort of potential or future achievements that may have been, what relationships could've been had, and what happiness there could've been. At times like this knowing the magnitude of the loss would be as futile as accounting for every grain of sand that flows upon the beaches. It also brings to mind the fragility of life, how quickly it can be lost, and how tragic the aftermath can be.
3) Not to start flame-wars, but this sort of thing could happen (and has happened) before guns existed. Taking any sort of weapon away from anyone for any reason will do nothing to prevent this sort of tragedy (or lessen the odds of it repeating) in the future.
#13
Posted 14 December 2012 - 03:23 PM
Quote
I don't usually feel moved to make a political statement in the wake of a terrible event like this. It seems like a cheap tactic. However, the real tragedy is deeper than even this sad day. The real tragedy to me is why this keeps happening! When will people learn from the past and guard their futures with common sense?
These horrible things happen because deranged individuals targets places where victims dwell in large numbers.
And by victims, I mean people who can't shoot back. People like children, and people like teachers who can't carry legally at work (because it's a school campus).
There is a reason that you don't hear about mass rampage shootings at police departments or biker rallies. Certain types of individuals are known to carry weapons, and to shoot back when provoked. Terrorists do not target their victims randomly... they are bullies who prey on the weak.
A disarmed population is a vulnerable one. No one seems to get this. Everyone seems afraid of the common sense solution.
My deepest sympathies to anyone involved in this terrible event. Even for those not personally touched by this act of violence, it casts a dark cloud over what should be a happy time of year.
#14
Posted 14 December 2012 - 03:55 PM
#15
Posted 14 December 2012 - 04:01 PM
Ryft, on 14 December 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:
Small correction. What I read on the net is that teachers in Connecticut are allowed to carry concealed if the school management is ok with it.
Although I have to say your "solution" sounds very much like a knee-jerk reaction.
#16
Posted 14 December 2012 - 04:20 PM
I teared up more then i have ever done in my life, its one thing to kill innocents, its another to harm children.
Words cannot express my sadness for this.
#17
Posted 14 December 2012 - 04:33 PM
Prayers indeed for those involved in this evil happening... none of us really have any idea of the suffering that is going on in the minds and emotions of those who were directly touched by this.
May God send people alongside those affected to suffer with them for a time, and help them to rebuild their lives in the aftermath.
chaz706, on 14 December 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:
1) Good God! What goes through the mind of someone who shoots up an elementary school? It's something I don't know if I could completely understand or comprehend. The fact that such darkness could exist and cloud the mind of anyone is almost something to mourn in and of itself.
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart (mind, will, emotions of humanity) is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
Quote
Clear heads are really needed in the wake of these things. We have a bad habit of not thinking after these things and being ruled by our emotions.
Ryft, on 14 December 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:
As long as it's done soberly, it's not a cheap tactic to discuss how the politics around an issue work themselves out into real life consequences. What's shameful is to not discuss the necessary consequences of people's political views, especially when tragic conseqences like this are involved.
I would actually say it's an evil thing to not clearly discuss the ideas that bear these kinds of consequences in life. If we dont' do so, we are standing by and allowing it to happen again, and again.
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We won't. That's the problem with human nature, and why we continuously repeat the well-known mistakes of the past... and this will not change. Ever. The best we can do is recognize that this will not change and attempt to validly address it in our governments and in our societies.
The thing, however, that has changed, is that our society has abandoned internal moral constraints. We have told ourselves there are no conseqences for our actions in this world, and in so doing have opened up pandora's box.
Quote
And by victims, I mean people who can't shoot back. People like children, and people like teachers who can't carry legally at work (because it's a school campus).
There is a reason that you don't hear about mass rampage shootings at police departments or biker rallies. Certain types of individuals are known to carry weapons, and to shoot back when provoked. Terrorists do not target their victims randomly... they are bullies who prey on the weak.
A disarmed population is a vulnerable one. No one seems to get this. Everyone seems afraid of the common sense solution.
Absolutely true. These rampages have been happening in victim zones, where people are not allowed to defend themselves on an equal par, and where proper security is not provided to make up for the deficit caused by forced inequality of ability to defend oneself and others.
I would make the argument for why we should give people an equal chance of defending themselves myself, but someone else has done it much better than I:
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In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single *** guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job.
That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
LINK
Edited by Pht, 14 December 2012 - 05:24 PM.
#18
Posted 14 December 2012 - 07:06 PM
#19
Posted 14 December 2012 - 09:05 PM
#20
Posted 14 December 2012 - 09:56 PM
Redoxin, on 14 December 2012 - 04:01 PM, said:
Although I have to say your "solution" sounds very much like a knee-jerk reaction.
That surprises me, in a blue state like that. Good on the schools that do allow it, though I doubt that there are many over there.
If my solution sounds knee-jerk, then I phrased it poorly. My stance on gun ownership is an opinion I've had for years. When I read something like this in the news, mostly all I can do is shake my head at how needless it feels to me.
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