What a sad day for our nation!

EVIL

Militaries use video simulation to teach/train troops for killing because it works so well. I know lots of parents who hate guns but buy these nasty games for the kids. And look at all the most popular TV shows and movies. Our culture seems to have a fascination with criminality, cruelty, and killing.

Theory: How many of the wackos involved in these events had a long history of being a wacko? How many are from a very messed up childhood / product of our super independent divorce culture and generally crappy parents? How many have a mental diagnosis lending itself to violent behavior? The MO seems to be fairly similar in these events.

In the next few days several people will come forward and talk about how they are not surprised and wish they had acted. Some will say this because they like to be on TV. Some will mean it however, and wish they would have done something.

There are lots of people with significant problems leading normal, harmless, lawful lives. I think the extra element involved in these cases is evil. Somehow somewhere along the path of their more difficult life they turned to Evil. Wacko + Evil = Danger.

Anti-gun: I think this will be turned into an anti-gun thing. The worst one of these ever was by a school board member with explosives. If there is a will there is a way. So I hope they focus on an early detection method which does not involve scapegoating and politics.

You say,
“There is no answer.”

Sorry but there IS one: stop sucking up to the NRA and ban public sales of military-type assault weapons and repeating guns.

If those are inaccessible, ordinary people will have a much easier time defending themselves with the guns they already have.

I agree that proper school security in these times has to be paid for.

EDITOR NOTE–Gotta disagree on this one. Guns last forever with little or no maintenance. Guns from the Pilgrims are still around today and they can fire. You can stop the sale of ALL new guns of any type and the world will still have enough guns to kill everyone on the continent several times over. Check out CALL OF DUTY on the internet. We will be writing more on that later.

I’d just add that some of the recent serial murderers did not own guns of their own–they got them either from dealers, or as in the CT instance, from the killer’s mother who apparently did not lock up her weapons.
At least assault weapons and repeating guns should have tighter registration and checks on buyers. In some states they don’t have either.

I personally do not believe gun control is the answer.

However, gun owners, need to accept resonsibility for that ownership. If one of their guns is stolen and used in a crime, they need to be held to certain amount of liability for not securing those firearms.

The pistols used yesterday were properly owned by the shooters mother. From what I read, he had a history of mental problems. She should not have had them or they should have been secured so he could not access them, ever.

In Portland, the shooter stole the assault rifle from a friend. The rifle should have been secured, in a safe, with a trigger lock or in some other fashion.

Gun control will not solve the issue and will tear this country apart and cost billions and billions of dollars, ultimately accomplishing nothing.

Video games as the culprit? Seriously? Every time I see this,I see it from a person that doesn’t understand them.

Every time I see people come out for gun control, I see it from a person that doesn’t understand them.

Video games are not evil. Guns are a tool, and far, FAR less deadly than cars… or tobacco, over all.

But, because we don’t understand them, lets attack games and guns. Always a winning combo. Try playing games. Try going out and shooting. In either case, you may end up with a fun hobby. IF you do play Call of Duty, play with friends and turn off the chat. There ARE a lot of stupid people out there… but if games + absolute stupidity = shootings… then we would have multiples a day.

Another thing we used to have, was institutions that housed those that were not mentally able to function properly in society. Society was protected from these monsters, before they could snap. Lets watch those that are mentally unstable. (Which, I would suspect are a very, very minute number).

To rifter, it is not so much video games, but the acceptance and expectation of violence to entertain, the more violent and gruesome the better. We have become desensitized.

Thank you to the first responders and school administrators who risked their lives to protect others in this terrible tragedy.

KTA-violent crime survivor at age 9

Dave:
You are right on with your comments this morning.Every time a mass killing of this type takes place the political cockroaches come out of the woodwork calling for gun control. Please let me know why there is not an outcry for violent media control. Could it be that the same people that put out this violent media are the ones contributing to the campaigns of those politicians. Four decades ago the Surgeon General issued warnings after looking at hundreds of studies that have shown a link between violent media exposure and aggression. The correlation between interactive violent video games and aggression have been proven in studies to be even more substantial. We have become so disengaged from what used to be the “Family Unit”. This used to be our strength here in America. We as parents and grandparents have lost sight of the fact that this is where the real problems are solved. Spending time with your children at the dinner table or helping them with homework and understanding what their problems are is the only way we can return to some normalcy. If we don’t spend time with our children how if heavens name are we going to know if they have problems and help to fix them. We are all way to busy these days worried about how to make a living or what I Pod we are going to buy next. We need to get back to basics. Our problem is not a gun problem it is a people problem.

I see the scapegoating of lawful gun owners has begun.

Gun control is not the answer. Plain and simple. Restricting firearms would no more have prevented this horror then it would have at Fort Hood. Think about it… When was the last time you saw something like this happen on a hardened target. These wackjobs will always prey on the week and defenseless. We as people cannot fix crazy and we’re unwilling to exile Evil.