27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies. :(

[Aksannyi]

I'm not going to post a link, I trust you are all adept at googling, and by now I'm sure you're all well aware of what happened.

For me, I just wanted to make a place that's troll-free and politics-free to post, because heaven knows I can't find that anywhere else on the internet. (Please respect this, we can argue about gun laws or whatever else somewhere else, even if we have to start another thread.)


Today is one of those days I really just want to hug my kids. I can't even ... so close to Christmas. So fucking terrible that someone can do some shit like this. I know we've had these before and there are never any words, this one is a fucking elementary school for god's sake ... these kids are the age of my kids. Jesus.

I went out to get my mail and this little boy on a bike, about four or five years old, came up to me and said hi. I asked him if he was ready for Christmas and he told me about sitting on Santa's lap before his mom caught up with him. What a sweetheart. And it just hammered home that all these kids were waiting for Christmas and their parents probably have all these things to give them, they all have that one toy they really wanted. They all put up their stockings and their Christmas trees and met with Santa and ... fuck. How do you even go on after something like this.

Anyway, I just wanted to ramble and commiserate, everyone with kids, hug your babies. Do it for me, since I can't today. I will call them, though, as soon as I find my damn phone card. Never know when you're going to lose someone you love.

I has a sad.

[Ketaru]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

For me, I just wanted to make a place that's troll-free and politics-free to post, because heaven knows I can't find that anywhere else on the internet. (Please respect this, we can argue about gun laws or whatever else somewhere else, even if we have to start another thread.)

You know, I have no problem with saying I tend to be more liberal. And even I cringe when left leaners jump at the opportunity to turn this into a debate about guns. Which is just what happened on Facebook. Let's just say the moment of silence victims get from these kind of tragedies doesn't even seem to last for 30 seconds.

[Melody]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I don't know what I could possibly say. I live in this state. Yeah a moment of silence is nice. It's just that's human's for us. We never learn...

[Malacite]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I'm just waiting for some asshole to come on TV on one of the talk shows tonight and start ranting about how more guns will fix the problem.

Once again, the obvious things that could have prevented this are ignored, such as better gun regulations and people knowing about a troubled individual and saying or doing nothing. In this case, his brother knew full well he was mentally ill but said nothing to anyone. This guy was clearly seriously fucked up, as he did this as a way to get to his mother, whom he shot and killed in her own home (I believe he was living with her?) He resented her for loving the children at that school (she was a kindergarten teacher) and thus by killing the kids, he killed a part of her. Really depraved, psychotic behavior and utterly sickening.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

political bullshit

Read what Aks posted, please.

[Aeni]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I thought of my girls when I was at work and started to well up as I heard Obama's words at the press conference. Needless to say, this one will hit home pretty hard for many parents across the world...

[Melody]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

Just going to take this off my friends FB page and put it here. I did some calling today and I am going to volunteer as security at our local mall for Christmas. Even if I don't have myself armed to the teeth, I'd rather swap myself out for someone else's life who deserves a chance at a good Christmas. I hope nothing else like this will happen...but that is honestly wishful thinking in the type of sick world we live in at this point. It makes me wonder if we're even considered human and not monster, we're the only race who kills their own kind for the fun of it. Not out of defense, not out of instinct, but for god damn fun.

[Aksannyi]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

Oh, that is sweet and heartbreaking.

[Melody]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I called up my niece and nephew, they're spending the night here tonight and are staying with me until Christmas. I don't like living in Conneticut and I want to move away one of these days. What hurts the most is living here and knowing shit like that happens, but you have no power to stop it. That's what really hurts.

[Malacite]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

Read what Aks posted, please.

No, and I'm sick of this shit too.

Bloomberg said it best after the Aurora shootings, how every time something like this happens it's not the right time to discuss the problem (and Jon stewart did one as well after the mall shooting in Oregon). Well, when is it the right time? How many more times does this have to happen, how much more horrible does it have to get before any real, meaningful debate and reforms occur? Need I remind you, this kind of horror happens literally every single day in Chicago. EVERY DAY!!!

Kids are dying left & right in gang-related violence. I feel for these families, I really do and I wish them all the best in trying to cope with their loss, but it's my feeling that Obama needs to really rally people in an effort against the NRA's influence and actually do something meaningful. I'm all for owning a gun, I have no problems with that. Some people want them for defense, or hunting etc. that's totally legit. I myself am a firearms enthusiast. However, I stand firmly with Pears Morgan & others when it comes to ownership of things like Assault Weapons & or a Barret M82 - a semi-automatic anti-material sniper rifle that can sail right through light armor & airplanes. You tell me WTF anyone outside of the Military or Police needs those kinds of weapons for, or high capacity magazines.

Or what about how 40% of all gun sales in the U.S. are conducted at these gun shows where background checks aren't mandatory. That means even a terrorist can go to one of these and buy weapons & ammo with no strings.

The guy who did this was wearing body armor, had 4 different weapons (he only used 2 in the attack) and had hundreds of rounds of ammunition, all of which he purchased legally. Just a short while ago, there was a shooting in the Empire State Building where 9 civilians were shot & killed BY POLICE as they were caught in the cross-fire.


Something needs to be done. It's seeing shit like this happen time & again that keeps me reluctant to leave Canada for the U.S., and quite frankly it's getting old - What's worse, is this kind of horror is starting to become the norm. People are gradually getting desensitized to these atrocities. This can not and must not ever be acceptable. And yet that's what seems to be the case. Every time an incident like this happens, there's outrage & a and outcry of support for the victims, the media has a ratings field day (which again, infuriates me) for a short while and then we forget about it. Nothing changes and the debate goes away until the next horror occurs.

Obama's got nothing to lose, he really should take a hard stand on this. I'd like to reiterate once more that I am not for banning guns in their entirety - there are legit reasons for owning them and many responsible gun owners out there in the U.S. & abroad. But there is clearly something very broken with regards to certain kinds of guns & accessories and the ease of which they are obtained, as well as the gun culture itself in the U.S.

[Aksannyi]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

Then start a different thread. So those of us who don't want to talk politics in a thread about grieving for the loss of life can do that without having to deal with a bullshit political argument.

I do realize that the discussion has to take place by those who are in a position to do anything about it, but if you want fucking political debate, there are thousands of other forums you can post them at. I asked respectfully for people to keep their politics out of this thread, so please comply.

- - - Updated - - -

To add, I have read more than my fair share of politics relating to this on BG. I came here to post this thread because it is a place I can post without having to read all that shit. I don't like politics. I don't want to talk politics. I want to talk about the fact that I am feeling sad for the families involved. When I want a political argument, I know where to find them. Keep this the one damn place on the internet that there isn't a political debate over what happened. Please.

[Icemage]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I posted a bit about my feelings on this tragic event on my facebook feed today, but in a nutshell:

The politics don't matter, the suffering does, and frankly there aren't any good solutions anyway.


Icemage

[Firewind]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I was going to post but Icemage beat me to what I was going to say.

But there seems to be an ugly trend this weekend with violent crime:

School shootings in Connecticut
Shooting in Oregon
Someone shooting his girlfriend for not taking The Walking Dead ending seriously.
Knife attack in a School in China

Seems like everyone has gone mad this weekend.

[Malacite]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

I'll stay out of it then.

I'm just personally disgusted that this keeps happening again and again, and it's the same old story every time, & nothing ever seems to change & we end up with this happening yet again. You can't completely stop/prevent these kinds of things from ever happening again, but there's certainly not nearly enough being done in too many places. That's the best way, IMO, to honor the families of the victims & the fallen - to actually do something meaningful instead of yet another round of BS with politicians paying lip service until the media moves on to the next big sensation. It's just about the biggest insult you can throw at these poor people.

How the F do you even begin to recover from something like this... not just as a family, but a community? I can't even begin to imagine how all those people in that town must feel & my heart goes out to them.

[Feba]

Re: 27 dead in Connectict after school shooting. Those babies.

It's depressing how non-shocking the death of 27 innocent people, most of them small children, has become.

two things I'm going to try to make as un-political as possible:

1- These stories don't stay domestic. With or without legal guns, or support for such, nobody not from the US seems to imagine how we can allow this to happen over and over again. In fact, it seems to me personally that there would be much more support for gun rights, if only there was a tiny bit more regulation

2- I'm not at all in support of locking down campuses and metal detectors and bomb dogs and all that stuff working its way into schools, even CCTV pushes my buttons, but something almost all schools have here: gates. Most American schools I've seen are just sitting in the middle of lots; on the other hand, schools here are typically fenced in, and only accessible through a handful of gates. Gates can be closed, gates can be controlled and monitored by a single security guard, gates can be armed (whether you support guns or not, the idea of putting a gun in an elementary school classroom is ABSOLUTELY INSANE. a security guard, well outside the building, with the gun in a locked box, inside a room that students would never be in? I think we could live with that) if the community wants them to be able to respond to a threat. Sure, it won't stop the whole "classmate comes in with a revolver" tragedy, but it would do a lot to prevent adults coming in with ANY illicit intent if there was a guard sitting right the fuck there; not just shootings, but kidnappings (both of the "stranger danger" and far more common situations of kidnapping family members), molestation, down to simple pranks; all of these could be greatly reduced by the simple step of a good fence and a manned guard booth.

I don't think that's something that would be hugely controversial, a huge time waster, dangerous, an invasion of privacy, or anything else. It's not even expensive-- hell, on the low end, a lot of schools already have one or two sides with chain link/wooden fences from nearby developments; simply completing the other two or three sides with a cheap method would do a lot to deter people. If nothing else, you see some guy climbing over the fence, you know he's up to no good. Plus, if you put a little bit of effort into it, they can be architecturally interesting to boot. Nothing will stop these things, but it seems to me that almost ANY school could afford to build a fence, and move a staff member (or even a volunteer) to work guard duty, without offending a single member of the community. It's a much faster solution than topping the gun issue, anyway.