If someone feels suicide is their best option, then I'd prefer they get help. But if they're going to do it then quietly go off and do it where they'll impact the least amount of other people. The reports are this 20 year old went into a grade school and killed 18 children and 8 adults before turning the gun on himself, in Newtown Connecticut. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of these children and teachers/staff who were murdered.



John

 

Incomprehensible

Nothing else seems relevant today

 

There is no excuse for harming inacent children


My heart and prayers go out to the family of all involved including the community in this time of need .

 

I just got home and hugged my kids. May God help us.

 

As a parent I can't imangine the horror of waiting to find out if your child was hurt or killed.

Larry

 

Such a stupid senseless tragedy. My heart goes out to those families who will not get to see their kids grow up. I can't imagine the horror and the anguish! I don't know what this world is coming to....

 

Terrible, and worldwide. My thoughts also go out to the children also attacked in China.

 

Hug and love your children....I have a 5 and 7 year olds, the kids who were murdered were kindergarteners. Probably 5 and 6 year olds. 20 kids 6 adults....my prayers go out to all involved.

 

... Or just plum flat-out insanity. We don't know yet, but the voices may have told him to do it.

Either way, it even got me a bit upset - I wanted to hug my 15 year old when I picked him up from school, but I refrained because I knew he'd give me the "you're crazy" look .
Instead, I made him practice starting uphill with the clutch.

Absolutely horrifying, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those poor parents, and to the kids who are going to have all kinds of complexes now.

I hate to say it, but something is definitely wrong with our culture (and China's, too, because they had the same thing happen today) for these things to happen.

- Eric

 

God please help us all!

 

I don't have the words to describe what I'm feeling.

 

X 2

I am watching to see what our 'leaders" do/say. IMHO it will be a good time to "test the metal" of our city/county/state/national elected officials.

Which will use this tragic event for another "photo op" or "talking head" with yet another "knee jerk" reaction.

I'm still searching for "Profiles in Courage" kind of leadership. Let's wait and see if someone comes forward

 

I believe these people think their acts will gain them fame and they will be remembered. These people need be hung, gassed, or what ever, there ashes dumped in the sewer there names struck from all records so it will seem that they never lived. May they burn in Hell

Prayers and thoughts to all involved in this senseless act

 

mettle

To do what? I'm as much for strong gun control laws as anyone, but recall the shootings in Norway in 2011. Norway has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the world, and yet the tragedy still occurred.

It's as the title of this thread says....evil does exist. It can't be made to go away, it can't be wished away, it can't be legislated away. The best we can do is what we do now. We try to anticipate problems and head them off. It doesn't always work.

Apparently this school in Connecticut had a secure entry system requiring that the principal's office "buzz in" any visitors who are first viewed through a surveillance camera. Why did they let this guy in? Was he hiding his rifle so they couldn't see it? I'm not saying the school staff did anything wrong, but I really would like to know the sequence of events that allowed this guy to gain access to the school.

 

X3 , as soon as I started hearing about this , I got in my car and made a drive around my kids school . then when I got home I realized this wasn't a terrorist attack .

 

He did not have a rifle (article i read said he had one in his car) he had 2 pistols.

And apparently He was the kindergarden teachers kid. and thats basically the class of kids & adults that he shot up.

Thinking about that makes me physically ill. With pistols it means he had to stop and reload a couple times to keep shooting.

At least he (and the guy in oregon) put one in his own brain to save us the years of having to watch the POS go through the legal system like the Ft Hood shooter and the colorado guy.

 

I also agree with Jaunty . I don't think gun control will help much .

 

Thanks. I'm seeing that in the reporting now, too. But they're saying he was "clad in black military gear." Even that, it seems to me, should have set off a few alarm bells in the principal's office. Why is a guy dressed like that coming to the school? It might have been his mother's class he was after, but his mother wasn't in the school that day (he killed her at home). If he said "I want to see my mother," they would/should have said "she's not here today." So, again, what plausible reason would he have had for wanting to enter the school?

 

Its so unbelievable that someone is capable of doing such a thing, my heart sank when I first heard about this, My hope and prayers go out to those affected by the shooting!

 

If he was known to the folks in the office to be her son, then i can think of a number of plausible reasons he might have been able to give someone over an intercom to be buzzed in.

Those kind of security systems are designed to stop a unknown threat. A stranger showing up. But someone that is known would never have a problem getting past that kind of system- even if they were strangely dressed(within reason... have no idea what that description given really meant)

 

God protect the innocents ( worldwide). Omg every parents and sane persons worse nightmare , it is horrendous enough this POS killed his mom, but kids? I am so unbelievably angry and heartbroken at the same time I want to somehow seek revenge in the worse possible way and also to try to offer solace, this world is on a roller coaster ride to hell

 

All that caring, nurturing, sheltering, and protecting of that kid given to him by his Ma, and that's her payment. I do understand that nobody gets asked to be born.....BUT I can't even fathom the amount of entitlement this kid's personality condoned.

 

I too hugged my kids a little tighter today. It is a shame that our culture of video games and youtube shenanigans has desensitized the younger crowd. It is a shame that the once loving father that threw ball with their kids in the back yard has been replaced by a TV and a game console or a computer with unlimited access to malicious content. It is a shame that in such an advanced society we have failed to identify and mentor those individuals on the "fringe", opting instead to let them fall through the cracks.

It used to be that a man went to war before he got desensitized. Yet in even the most horrible situations he endured, Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage were never fleeting. And even the most evil of men never dared massacre a school of preschool children. As each generation gets more and more spoiled with technology and irresponsibility they lose the ability to solve problems and cope with difficult situations.

I won't condemn video games as I do play them, but kids today are exposed to mindless killing sprees on video games and glamorized massacre episodes (Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, airport killing spree) that make them feel invincible...almost Godlike. The lack of firm moral grounding and a parent that takes the time to explain (or better, censor) the violence has made the gamer generation react to the slightest adversity with the most extreme resolution.

What I experience when playing online with strangers is that with the security of the vast internet, their ego can be inflated to astronomical levels while they demean and berate other players online without fear of physical, or any, retribution. I see it more and more. Without a firm moral grounding, or an adult nearby, I have been cursed by 6 year old kids worse than I have ever been cursed in the military.

The worst part about this tragedy is that some wicked individual elsewhere will take this most recent event and twist it into his own fantasy "battle royal". I pray that this is the last of these massacres, but my faith is waning. In any case, I will continue to pray that our leaders can pull their heads out of their asses and get our country, and it's future population, back on track.

 

Something to think about;


The largest mass killing in this country was 9-11, ~ 3000 dead. Weapons were box cutters and airplanes.


Next was Oklahoma City, 168 dead. Weapon was a truck load of fertilizer.


Then 87 dead from arson at the Happy Land social club, The Bronx, New York, 1990. Weapon was a can of gasoline.


The largest school massacre was in Bath, Michigan, in 1927. 44 dead. Weapon was explosives.


Gun laws don't fix evil.

 

My prayers are with the families of the victims of this.

What has to be going through someone's mind to do this to a bunch of children?

 

Could not have put in better words if I tried.

 

(Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, airport killing spree) What is this? You go on a killing spree? Come on, really? Here's an opinion I readily agree with. It's Karl Denninger's website.



http://market-ticker.org/

 

I agree with the 5 year old!!!

 

+1, sadly.

I wish I knew why this stuff didn't happen 50 years ago, but I don't believe any of the "easy answers."

- Eric

 

I'm so pissed off about this. I see the cops walking around in SWAT gear. They can't be everywhere! I know that. It's just that all this hardware and training to clean up AFTER! ARGH! Either hire armed security at EVERY school or let SOMEBODY have a gun who is there. Can it be that simple? No. But I think it's the only solution. At least there's a gun battle before the slaughter. That chickensh*tted MFer. He told his friends before he left he was going someplace warm. Yeah, hell IS warm.

 

This catastrophic incident is yet another example of the pervasive "social" problems that have continued to pollute our country in recent decades. The guns are not the problem, nor can they be evil. How can one ascribe a human characteristic (i.e. evil) to an inanimate object? It is an "operator error". One of the first steps in correcting society's perverted perception is to start where many people may not think...in the home. Parents are setting lifelong examples; which include what types of friends their children associate with. Refrain from immediate gratification and passing final decisions based on emotion, instead of logic. Do not think two hours ahead of your decision, but 20 years ahead. Mature and disciplined reasoning skills, intertwined with a God-fearing foundation, will help to begin to mend the current tearing of our social fabric.

May God soothe the ailing hearts on this mournful day.

 

Yes, really. There is an entire level in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 in which you are armed with a Light Machine Gun in a crowded civilian airport and the sole mission is to kill all of the unarmed civilians. The level is filled with men, women, and children all running away from the black trench coat wearing madman (your character).

It is sick, and when I came across it I found out that I really am getting old...it bothered me that someone could even think of putting that in a video game. Still don't believe it?

 

Wow! That isn't something I would want my kids playing, needless to say. I am more disturbed now than I was. This is a very popular game. Does this numb the player to real carnage? I don't know but I'm guessing it does. I heard the Army was using games such as this type to train soldiers. True or false? And if true why are our children being exposed to content like this? A complete ban on this type of thing would be a good start. Do you guys let your kids play this crap? I have girls so they aren't really gamers so to speak. You aren't getting old my friend, you just have scruples like most of us. We can all see this is plain wrong, right?

 

Pretty sick stuff to be calling entertainment. I've heard the game advertized on TV but had no idea it went this far.

 

No, the military doesn't use games like this to train soldiers. The military doesn't use any "game" to train soldiers. We do use simulators that give them an idea of what actions to take when they make contact with enemy units or insurgents, but even the simulators don't have blood and gore in them. They are used to train procedures for setting up a perimeter and identifying enemy locations.

My 9 year old does play the newer Call of Duty games, but he is restricted from any graphic content such as the above. I also limit his playing times, and his system is locked so he can only play when I allow it. He is also firmly grounded with a strong moral compass. Our rule in the house: When it's daylight, you're outside playing. Games and TV are only allowed after dark or when it's raining. Even then, video games are restricted to two hours per day only on the weekends and are played in the living room where they can be monitored. The kids get one hour of TV per day, but again, only after dark.

Like I said, I won't say the games made any kid "bad"...it's the parent's job to teach that child the difference between the "game" and real life. And if at any time the game begins to dominate the child's attention, it should be prohibited.

I am blessed to have two wonderful boys. They get great grades in school, they don't argue, and they have the biggest hearts I have ever seen. If at any time I felt like a "game" was warping their personality it would be destroyed and they would NEVER be allowed to play it. Then again, my wife and I are pro-active parents...we are constantly communicating with our boys and our daily routine includes family time where we discuss our day and asses whatever issues we may have.

What I think is happening is that parents use the games as a babysitter and let the kids play them non-stop, without supervision. In the end, it is the parent's job to identify whether or not their child is affected by whatever game they play and take necessary action to eliminate any activity that may influence the child's behavior.

With regard to the CT shooting, I allowed my boys to watch the local news short report tonight. They were both in awe that anyone could do what that guy did. When the short report was over, we talked about what happened and why. My wife and I answered all of their questions and afterward we said a prayer for the families involved.

Some might disagree with it, but I would rather my kids learn of what happened from me, under my terms, so that I can help them understand it. I didn't want them hearing about it, or seeing it on tv without me present to answer their questions. My belief is that if kids are taught the difference between right and wrong while they are still impressionable they will be better equipped to make appropriate decisions when they are older.

 

Okay, I don't want to drive this off into the speculative weeds, but from the little bit of concrete information I have read, it really looks like this guy was stark raving mad, and it had nothing to do with video games, or even how kids are brought up.

For those who are not familiar with it (I had a friend in high school with it, and so got to watch it happen in slow motion, over a number of years), schizophrenia is a really rotten disease of the brain that has some genetic component, but is not related in any way to upbringing.
It tends to come on between about 18 and 24 years old, but, in hindsight, people usually will say that the person always seemed "off" as a kid.
It is treatable nowadays, to some degree or another, but only if it is diagnosed, and if the person takes his medicine every day.
It makes a person see and hear things that aren't there, and believe things that don't make sense, and also takes away their emotions, making them seem "flat" all the time - they never laugh, cry, or raise their eyebrows or crack a smile while talking to you.
They tend to get ideas like "the CIA is putting thoughts into my head" or "the President talks to me in my sleep" or "I talk to space aliens."

Usually, they are only dangerous to themselves. They often lose any interest in basic hygiene and cannot get it together well enough to hold a job or to eat regularly or stay warm. Most are completely harmless (though their appearance can be disturbing), but a very few can be driven, usually by voices or ideas, to do terrible things, usually in the belief that they are fighting Satan or some similar force.

In this guy's case, the NYT interviewed a number of his high school classmates, all of whom agreed that he had NO friends, never really talked to anyone, and always seemed very weird, with no sign of emotion, either good or bad. Kids who are destined to become schizophrenic are often described this way.
(The one I knew was always a bit "off," would laugh at things that weren't funny and stare off into space. As he went through high school he got stranger and stranger, and finally would only be spotted wandering the streets, with long, unkempt, hair and beard. Last I heard of him was many, many years ago).
This guy apparently lived with his mom, and had an older brother who was completely normal.
Accounts I've read said that his mom was a very nice lady, very organized, and neat, and very careful about how her children were raised. If this is the case, she might have overlooked recent behavior changes in her youngest that would have raised red flags to mental health professionals, and just not realized how sick he was. If he had been going from "weird kid" to very badly schizophrenic over the past year or two, and stayed mostly at home, under mom's protection, then nobody else would really have noticed.

I don't know the story (though my wife is from that area, and knows at least one person whose child was murdered yesterday), and I'm not trying to "defend" the killer, but my bet at this point is that this is entirely the result of untreated mental illness, and not of poor parenting, "society," or video games.

My heart goes out to everyone in that town.

- Eric

 

Sad day here in Ct, still in shock! Just dont understand it all. They were just kids...

 

It would seem that we dont need new gun control laws but better control of our mentaly ill.
God Bless the dead and keep the families in our prayers

 

Unfortunately it did happen 50 years ago (46 anyway). Sad then, sad now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman

 

It goes back even further than that, and it was worse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster


As horrific as this event was, it's important to keep some perspective. People tend to think that the most significant events in history happen in their lifetimes. Usually that's not the case. As has been pointed out earlier, evil has always been a part of humanity, and it will part of humanity long after everyone alive today is nothing but dust in the ground.

While hindsight is always 20/20, we can learn some things from this and try to do better in the future. In looking back at this guy's history, we see clues that might have told those close to him that something was wrong. To me, the first question to be answered is why a guy with as much apparent mental illness as this guy had was allowed to own guns at all.