Hearts breaking in Newtown, Connecticut

[Intheswamp]

I've got a little 2 year old granddaughter and a soon-to-be 6 year old granddaughter.  I can not imagine the horror that these famlies are going through tonight.  It is a living nightmare on so many levels...the surviving children and adults, the grieving families, the first responders, the entire community.  Please put all of these in your prayers.

It's times like this when our differences should be forgotten...they just seem really petty when compared to the evil that happened today and the heartaches that will last a lifetime.

Ed

[BlueBee]

It's times like this when our differences should be forgotten...they just seem really petty when compared to the evil that happened today and the heartaches that will last a lifetime.

I certainly agree with that. 

Later on we need to do some soul searching and figure out why this kind of thing only happens in the USA though.

[BjornBee]

Later on we need to do some soul searching and figure out why this kind of thing only happens in the USA though.

We can start by being educated enough to know that it happens elsewhere also. You can not solve problems starting with ignorance of the details.

The country with one of the most strict gun control laws in the world had a mass killing of kids just awhile back that makes this small in scale. Norways killing I think top 100. On a population scale, it would need to happen here 20 times or more to equal it happening there once, just based on scale of society.

This is pure evil. Perhaps with mental issues at play. And we do not own, or have a hold, on evil or mental illness in the world. But it would figure for Americans to assume so.

[Robo]

Later on we need to do some soul searching and figure out why this kind of thing only happens in the USA though. :'( :'( :'(

And to add to what Mike said and before we start blaming guns.....

without guns people are going to use other means like china

On March 23, 2010, Zheng Minsheng (郑民生)[2] 41, murdered eight children with a knife in an elementary school in Nanping,[3] Fujian province;[4] The attack was widely reported in Chinese media (called 南平实验小学重大凶杀案),[2] sparking fears of copycat crimes.[4] Following a quick trial, Zheng Minsheng was executed about one month later on April 28.[3]


An attacker named Wu Huanming (吴环明), 48, killed seven children and two adults and injured 11 other persons with a cleaver at a kindergarten in Hanzhong, Shaanxi on May 12, 2010;[3] early reports were removed from the internet in China, for fear that mass coverage of such violence can provoke copycat attacks.[3][11] The attacker later committed suicide at his house; he was the landlord of the school,[12] Shengshui Temple private kindergarten, and had been involved in an ongoing dispute with the school administrator about when the school would move out of the building.[12]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China_%282010%E2%80%932011%29



And this happen yesterday in china.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/14/china-school-attack-children/1768855/

[BlueBee]

And to add to what Mike said and before we start blaming guns.....

Hmmmmm.... did I even mention guns?  

People sure get defensive of them in a hurry which also tells us something about ourselves....

[kathyp]

Hmmmmm.... did I even mention guns? 

no, but a lot of people sure are either directly or obliquely.  i don't think it's to hard to figure out, but probably impossible to fix now.  we have managed to do two things.
  1. we have degraded society by not teaching absolutes.  since the 60's, we have slowly buy surely taught our society the right and wrong exist only in your own mind.  along those lines, we have taught that not all life is precious.  the life of a "fetus", or the lives of some defective people, are not worth as much to our society.  we no longer take care of our own elderly and we warehouse many of our defective.  after all, we can't chase the dream of the stuff if we have granny hangin' out in the living room.

2. we stopped locking up the  mentally ill.  in almost all of these cases, the metal state of the persons was known to be off.  because we have decided that people have the right to wander about off their rockers with no interference regardless of the nuisance, we leave these people to be manged in the community.  you can't get someone off the street unless they say they are going to kill themselves or others, or unless they actually do something.  even then, the chances of holding them EVEN IF you know they are nuts, is slim.

these kind of things break our hearts, but we have done it to ourselves.  it's not the guns, but the "rights" of everyone else that have led us to this moment.

[Intheswamp]

I'm sorry I started this thread....the bickering has already entered in. 

[BjornBee]

And to add to what Mike said and before we start blaming guns.....

Hmmmmm.... did I even mention guns?  

People sure get defensive of them in a hurry which also tells us something about ourselves....

No you didn't. What you did say that it only happens here. For that to be so wrong, your intentions are probably messed up also. Under such circumstances of nonsense, I went with the only real issue that will come about from the left. That being guns. It already is all across the mass media.

Instead of leaving it open for interpreation, then playing some game suggesting others are wrong after you are so vague, how about being a bit more clear next time. Then nobody has to come back and accuse another of reading into something.

I think I am being VERY clear. 

[BlueBee]

I’ll grant you that BjornBee, you were not ambiguous.  I agree with Ed’s sentiment tough, that I’m sadder than anything else at this point.  If you want to talk guns though; no I am not opposed to guns that are designed for hunting wildlife.   

[Intheswamp]

Sorry folks, I'm locking up this thread...it definitely is headed in a direction I never intended it to head.  Go start an argument thread elsewhere.  The sad thing here is that I thought some of you might respect my original post since it was pertaining to such a tender and sad subject, but it appears it is finger-pointing and hard feelings as usual.  In times to come there may even be a parent or a brother or sister of one of those tiny victims that is searching the web and stumbles upon this thread.  I'm sure they would be thankful for all the prayers and well wishes that I've seen spoken of here.  All I see here is a bunch of darn republicans and democrats fussing over what the ramifications of this tragedy will be for their agendas.

I wonder what the agendas are of those grieving parents right now?

Ed